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  • Future Skills for Competitive Business Education - Call for Papers - 19th November 2012

    The 20th EDiNEB conference, hosted by the Open University Business School, is asking business educators and professionals to address the future skills required in an increasingly competitive business education environment. Academic articles, practice-based papers, workshops and posters which discuss innovative solutions to future skills development and competition facing business and economics education are welcomed.

    The conference hosts five chaired tracks, which touch on innovations in professional business education, technology-driven and other innovative developments in business and economics education and practice, disruptive practices in the business school environment that are...

  • Symposium: The Effect of Law, Rules and Regulation on Financial Behaviour - 15th November 2012

    This symposium, on Friday 7th December 2012, will bring together a number of invited speakers to consider the effect of law, rules and forms of regulation in terms of their impact on the financial behaviour of individuals, business or non-profit organisations. How and why do people and organisations react to, anticipate, comply with, ignore, avoid or welcome law, rules and regulations that affect financial transactions or decisions and what are the primary drivers of their responses and behaviour?

    The symposium will present research from a variety of different academic subjects, such as law, taxation, accounting, psychology, economics, finance, history, international business, etc., to demonstrate a multidisciplinary perspective.

    Speakers:
    • Professor...

  • Business leaders are prioritising profit margins and targets over innovation, according to a new study - 9th November 2012

    The study, conducted by The Open University Business School found that businesses are retaining an executive style management of due diligence to targets and resource management, rather than more radical leadership approaches. This is despite the fact that just 6% of those surveyed believe this management style inspires innovation in a recession.

    The majority described executive leadership -where setting measurable goals, managing resources, and planning are the main characteristics - as the primary leadership style in their company.

    In addition, despite 81% of respondents agreeing that a recession creates the right climate for organisational innovation, only 40% thought their company was actually leveraging...

  • Education system needs to adapt to support the UK's smallest firms - 5th November 2012

    Less than half of the UK’s smallest firms (45% of those with 1-4 employees) believe that the education system responds satisfactorily to their needs, according to a new survey.

    In addition, smaller firms continue to report a worse performance than larger firms, with companies in the £100,000-£250,000 turnover bracket reporting a negative net sales balance of -11%, compared with +19% for firms in the £1m-£5m bracket.

    The survey also highlighted a continuing trend that small to medium sized enterprises' (SMEs) are being hit harder by the on-going economic crisis compared to their larger counterparts, with firms pessimistic about their prospects for growth in Q4. “Economic environment or demand” remains by far the...

  • Professor Mark Fenton-O'Creevy in The Telegraph's new feature - 29th October 2012

    Professor Mark Fenton-O'Creevy from the Business School is featuring in The Telegraph's new series 'A Better's Way to Invest', a spread betting demonstration that compares the better's experience to share trading.

    For the next six weeks, Professor Fenton-O'Creevy will be observing the behaviour of the five spread betters, who have volunteered to take part in the demonstration. From a cautious teacher to a risk-taking property manager, the volunteers represent a wide spectrum. Professor Fenton-O'Creevy, an expert in the psychology of business, will be watching the investors' behaviour to gauge how much sentiment alters outcomes.

    As...

  • 'Prost' to the Oktoberfest success! - 22nd October 2012

    On Saturday the 6 October 2012, The Open University Business School Munich Community met to enjoy the Oktoberfest. The group of thirty alumni and guests enjoyed the prime location of the three reserved tables on the mezzanine floor of the Winzerer Fähndl/Paulaner tent. 

    Oktoberfest is a sixteen day beer festival held annually in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. It runs from late September to the first weekend in October. Oktoberfest is one of the most famous events in Germany and attracts hundreds of visitors, many of whom dress in traditional costume for the event.

    The OUBS group consisted of alumni, OUBS students, invited students, research candidates...

  • Evan Davis digs deep in new OU series - 5th October 2012

    Britain's infrastructure – the roads, railways, water and power networks that we all rely on everyday – is creaking. 

    In Built in Britain, the new OU/BBC co-production, which starts on BBC2 at 8pm this Sunday, 7 October, Evan Davis sets out to find the scale of the engineering challenge Britain faces, and how we can tackle it.

     
    The series was commissioned for the Faculty of Business and Law, and Maths, Computing and Technology. Dr Leslie Budd and Dr Matthew Hinton from the Business School were the academic consultants on the series.   
     
    In Episode 1, Evan visits...
  • The Bottom Line - boardroom politics - 4th October 2012

    Presented by Stephanie Flanders this week, business experts in The Bottom Line reveal the secrets of the boardroom and offer their tips for mastering boardroom politics—from hidden agendas and clashing egos, to a simple failure to agree.

    ...
  • Launch of Business Perspectives - 2nd October 2012

    Drawing on our partnership with the BBC’s The Bottom Line radio programme, we are delighted to announce the launch of a series of Business Perspectives events which will offer the opportunity to hear first-hand from many of the key business leaders who have featured on the programme, as well as from the host of the series, Evan Davis.

    The first event in the series takes place on 15th November at the Cumberland Hotel, London W1. Under the theme “...

  • The Bottom Line - products that shape business - 27th September 2012

    This week in The Bottom Line, Evan Davis welcomes three more guests, each of whom have a story to tell about a product which shaped the fortunes of their business.

    If business is about anything, it's about products.

    Evan's guests come from companies that invent them, manufacture them and sell them and they each tell the story of a product that has shaped the fortunes of their business in some way.

    They also discuss the art of dismissal. How easy should it be to fire an employee?

    In the studio are:

    • Sir George Buckley, former Chief Executive of 3M, the US firm behind the Post-it Note and Scotch Tape
    • Clara Gaymard, Chief...

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