The Exeter MBA

Posted on 1st Sep, 2017 by Alexandra Marie Williams

From September 2018 we’ll be changing the name of the programme to ‘The Exeter MBA’. Moving away from the ‘One Planet’ MBA name doesn’t mean that we’re changing the ethos and content of a programme which has been increasingly successful both for us and our students and partners since 2011. The change is a result of developments in our relationships with partners and our aim to bring the principles of the One Planet MBA to a wider body of potential students.

We intend to strengthen the Exeter MBA offering to address a growing group of potential MBA candidates and sponsors who recognise that good business is now in the mainstream. They will look for MBA programmes that help them acquire the range of skills needed to drive forward the emerging business models we have developed in the One Planet MBA in a widening set of business, third-sector and governmental situations.

You’ll see ‘The Exeter MBA’ name appearing in our literature and communication over the coming months.

Post written by Stuart Robinson

Message from the New MBA Director

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I was very pleased to be appointed as the new Director of MBA programmes here at Exeter University Business School. I’ve been teaching on the MBA since I joined the University from industry in 2012 and have enjoyed (and learned a lot!) from working with our MBA students over the last five years.

I’m also taking over an MBA that’s in great shape and that has an exciting future. We’re highly committed to MBA level education and see it as a way that the School can really make a difference in the world. My predecessors have built a programme that has a strong and growing reputation as well as a large and diverse cohort of students. I’m looking forward to meeting the new students when they arrive.

Dr Stuart Robinson – MBA Director

Written By Stuart Robinson

The Global Challenges of our Times – Digital Connectivity

Posted on 13th May, 2017 by Jacqueline Elizabeth Bagnall

In a digital age people still matter and connecting well to those that you lead certainly matters

A post by Jacqueline Bagnall

Even with the computing power to analyse huge datasets and the big data world of companies such as IBM, there is still the need for the human sense maker. The human ability to ask questions and make sense of the results, spotting inconsistencies and better defining the question at the core of the analysis. As automation takes hold and we see the diminished need for low skilled manual labour, this calls for a better understanding of how the human mind can add value to the organisation. What is it that creates the difference between competing organisations when the slick precision of a wholly automated function delivers product perfection?

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The Global Challenges of our Times Call for New Business Models

Posted on 5th May, 2017 by Nicolas Forsans

The Global Challenges of the 21^st Century – A post by Prof Nicolas Forsans

Once again in 2017 the World Economic Forum highlighted in its 2017 Global Risks Report the interconnections that exist between some of the most significant challenges that are shaping business and society in the 21^st century. Those interconnections are represented below in their Risk Interconnection map.

Economic and societal challenges

Globalisation has lifted millions of people out of poverty by enabling people in emerging countries to take part in world trade. Deregulations and privatisations have encouraged competition and innovation, leading to declining prices and higher quality products while urbanisation and industrialisation in emerging economies have enabled 3 billion people to generate an income of at least $10/day.

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One Planet MBA shines a light on Women in Science and Technology

Posted on 13th Apr, 2017 by Jacqueline Elizabeth Bagnall

Young girls in Europe take a great deal of interest in STEM subjects (science, technology, math) and that interest peaks at around age 11. According to a new survey, commissioned by Microsoft, by age 15, girls’ enthusiasm for sciences wanes and all but vanishes by the time they finish secondary school. Much of this is due to conformity and social expectations, and lack of positive female role models. “Not surprising”, says Stephanie Lindan, one of the recent graduates of the University of Exeter’s One Planet MBA programme. Having been featured as an Outstanding Woman in STEM by IBM, Stephanie may very well become the role model young girls need. Continue reading →

Discovery in the landscape by Hugh St Aubyn

Posted on 12th Apr, 2017 by Jacqueline Elizabeth Bagnall

Part two of exploring creavity by Hugh St Aubyn

The theme of place continued in the talk through a discussion of another work by, Faye, carried out on a pilgrimage trail; the St Michael’s Way where visitors were encouraged to carry stones along the trail up a hill and leave them at the top with a view of the Mount. She asked the participants to imagine the stone represented an issue, problem, pain, or person that no longer served them. Carrying the stone accessed a ritual side of experience that spoke of hope, love, and purpose. This physical participation in the landscape helped change people’s perceptions by encouraging them to slow down, listen to the environment, and their reactions to it.

Faye Dobinson, The Weight of Experience

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The One Planet MBA puts the Circular Economy model to work

Posted on 10th Apr, 2017 by Jacqueline Elizabeth Bagnall

Unilever sells some 400 brands across the world with 2016 revenues standing at some €52.7 billion. Despite the products’ vast popularity, much of its packaging ends up on landfills and oceans, not recycling bins. How can Unilever start reducing waste, especially from plastic, while putting the circular economy model to work? Gavin Warner of Unilever presented the challenge to the cohort of the University of Exeter’s One Planet MBA on Monday and by Friday the students were to present their ideas on how to repackage an item as ubiquitous as a shampoo bottle in order to create a solution fit for the circular economy. The quality of shampoo and its price, however, were to remain the same.

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Encountering the Unexpected by Hugh St Aubyn

Posted on 7th Apr, 2017 by Jacqueline Elizabeth Bagnall

In discussions over the One Palnet MBA cohort’s trip to, St Michael’s Mount the theme of creativity was often talked about, Cornwall is known for its art scene and the arts play a vital role in the life of the local community and in attracting visitors to the area. We were lucky enough to make contact with the Newlyn School of Art who kindly provided one of their artist tutors, Faye Dobinson, to give a talk to the cohort about how artists respond to place. We spend a huge amount of our week applying cognitive learning and group work to challenges in sustainability, so spending a day in an area of outstanding natural beauty seemed like time we could connect with our felt responses to place.

Faye, talked about how there is a growing movement in art that sees humans as living in a landscape they hadn’t counted on. This landscape is a product of ideas, economics, urban, and spatial planning fuelled by an undercurrent of exploitation of natural resources. She asked us how we can rest easy in this landscape and how can we interrogate it? Faye described how she lets spaces unpack around her over time, as she gets to know different places and make artwork in them. Continue reading →

Thinking through the 4th Industrial Revolution

Posted on 5th Apr, 2017 by Jacqueline Elizabeth Bagnall

“We stand on the brink of a revolution”, writes Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum. A revolution so profound, it will “fundamentally alter the way we live, work and relate to one another. In its scale, scope and complexity this transformation will be unlike anything humankind has ever experienced before.” It may seem like Schwab is overreaching at first, but Adam Lusby, lecturer and Circular Economy Research Fellow at the University of Exeter Business School, says that the Fourth Industrial Revolution is indeed characterised by how new technologies are fusing digital, physical and even biological worlds. “This disruption impacts all disciplines, economies and industries. It will challenge what it even means to be human,” he says.

In the intense, four-day module appropriately titled “Leading in the 4th Industrial Revolution,” Adam, the module’s creator and lead, covers everything from Artificial Intelligence, robotics, digital manufacturing, blockchain, cloud computing, mixed reality, augmented reality and much more. The standard model of a module was also flipped. Instead students have the preceding weeks to first immerse themselves into online content, watch videos, complete assignments and even produce videos of their own. Only at the end of a five week lead in, the cohort gathers for a four-day “living lab” of hacking and immersion in technology including Raspberry Pis, NodeRed, and BlueMix from IBM.

Accenture’s latest research shows that the new relationship between human and machine and its impact could boost productivity by as much as 40 per-cent, profoundly changing the very notion of how work is actually performed. In the United Kingdom alone Artificial Intelligence could add an additional $814 billion to the economy by 2035. The growth of 3D printing is also set to skyrocket. Gartner projects that 3D printing will grow from $1.6B in 2015 to some $13.4B by 2018. Some 67% of manufacturing is already using 3D printing, according to PwC, and it will only get faster, and cheaper.
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MBA Students Step Back in Time: A retreat to St. Michael’s Mount – By: Delfina Zagarzazu

Posted on 20th Feb, 2017 by Jacqueline Elizabeth Bagnall

Picture Credits: Chayaporn Kongcharoenkitkul

Conscious of time with deadlines fast approaching in the next few days, we departed Exeter at 7AM to spend a day away from the books. Away from Devon, we stepped into Cornwall – a first for many international students who had yet to explore all of the Southwest treasures!

The day was co-designed by Hugh St. Aubyn and myself to allow the 30 person cohort a creative and inspiring visit to balance off the business theory from class. We placed colourful and inviting signs to find the emerging leader within each of us.

Don’t ask what the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people that have come alive

– Howard Thurman, Great Civil Rights Leader

The day promised to be filled with friends, nature, personal reflections and a beautiful historic castle to carry our minds away into imaginary stories and tales that made us step back in time – couldn’t have asked for more on a cold February morning halfway through Term 2 of our MBA.

The magic about St. Michael’s Mount is that you can only access it during low tide, something very rare in the 21st century of drones, planes and automobiles. The patience and timing for our visit set the pace for the day, as we removed our MBA ‘speedometers’ and tried to slow down to the pace of the tide to connect with the magic of the island and the castle.

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