Merry Christmas! Last round up of the year.

Firstly, just a reminder that Librarians will not be in from 19th December until the 5th January so make sure you email us NOW with any last minute research help for Christmas assignments. But if you miss us, don't despair! There are plenty of help guides on the library subject guide if you just look for them - http://libguides.mdx.ac.uk/content.php?pid=459779

I am not the only one planning for the end of the year. The Financial Times have started releasing end of year round-up reports and they are fascinating reading. The FT's Year in Finance has a downloadable review of the year as well as links to key stories. Similarly here are the FT's reports on  The Connected Business - how IT is affecting Business practice, a review of Japan and The FT's Wealth report. Keep your eyes peeled for the rest of the end of year reports.

For those of you who want something new to try over Christmas - check out Lynda.com which has a huge range of video courses for you to choose from to develop some new skills - This link is to their business videos but they have a huge range of resources. Have a lovely holiday and we'll see you all in the new year!

Second to Last Round up of Term!

It's nearly the end of term and we all all tired and staring at approaching deadlines so let's start with blog round up with some videos! Firstly an interview with Ted Sarandos of Netflix on what's next for the company and how they are challenging traditional TV networks. A less 'fun' but very interesting video on the gender pay gap and how women can negotiate a pay rise.

An interesting sounding book review on how workplace friendships and  camaraderie can create the best workplace and output. Might be interesting to the students on the MGT3000 module. Are the falling oil prices actually a good thing? What do those of you who specialize in oil think? For finance and accounting students, an article on how more must be done to support regulation and control of the banking sector. And finally Black Friday seems to have taken root in the UK despite our not celebrating Thanksgiving nor a day off to go to the shops. Sales this 'Black Friday' broke records but it this a wholly positive thing given the violence and crowd control issues?

Facebook the new LinkedIn, an Energy special report and other interesting news stories.

Teaching and Boards of Studies are winding down as we get closer to the end of term, although I have seen many more of you in one-to-ones this week as deadlines start to bite. Remember our Library Subject Guide has lots of worksheets and and presentations to recap the use of databases and planning literature searches or you can always email us with quick questions as well.


Facebook is apparently working on 'Facebook at Work' to compete with LinkedIn but will need to gain the trust of corporations if it is to succeed. For those of you looking at Energy and energy companies, this is great special report from the Financial Times on Energy and the section also has a host of useful articles on the topic. A fascinating article for MBA students on leadership, the role it plays in your career and the how you can develop it both at University and in work.

More bad news for the large supermarkets - have they become uneconomic in the face of online shopping? Very useful article for Second and Third years looking at a supermarket as their company. But on the flipside digital marketing is threatened by fraudsters who embed bots in  click-through ads, create fake shop fronts or sell fake items, damaging the brand. Finally could your Human Resource skills make you a great CEO? This article from the Harvard Business Review Blog thinks so.

Quick Round-up. Help for some MGT3170 & MGT3000 assignment

Hello all. I hope you are enjoying the term so far. it's been a very busy week with teaching sessions and Boards of Studies. I hope you have all fed back to you Student Voice Leaders, especially about your Kortexts.

Thinking of some of the topics that have come up in recent teaching sessions I have some news stories that might add colour to your assignments. Firstly an article on a potential new aeroplane shape from Airbus - the Flying Donut. What do you all think? Looks strange to me but maybe more comfortable? A mention in the 'Week in Review' about promotions at Goldman Sachs might be useful for those of you in MGT3000 who are looking at the Goldman Sachs Group. Also an interesting video on corporations' vulnerability to crime and extortion is an interesting watch.

One for MGT3170 students doing a supermarket, looking at the price war in groceries and the serious knock-on effect for the big retailers. Finally two articles with good pieces of advice, why start-ups should listen to criticism and why you shouldn't check your phone in meetings - and for meetings read in Seminars and lectures too!

Entrepreneurship at MDX this week - Check it out!

1/3 of current day students will at some point work for themselves.

How can you be ready for when the idea pops into your head.

Give yourself the best chance for success by attending this interactive workshop.

EDH@MDX

Presents

An interactive workshop

·        Got an idea for a business?

·        Will it fly or fail?................

You need to know the right kind of questions to ask yourself to test your ideas.

This must see workshop will introduce you to the 5 Mind-Opener Questions  that will enable you to build a successful business and avoid the common pitfalls.

Tuesday 18^th of November

13:00-15:00

W154

Book Here

Getting ready for deadlines?

I have seen a lot of students this week at the Librarian's desk in the study hub and booking appointments to check their research is up to scratch and deadlines start to creep up on us. I hope the rest of you are all confidentially getting ahead with your work but if you have concerns or questions don't forget to email us - businesslibrarian@mdx.ac.uk or to our personal emails which are available on the Library Subject Guide. You can , of course, also make appointments with us or drop by the Study Hub on the first floor of the library.

I hope some of you saw the seminar I was promoting earlier in the week and found it useful I will try and post up more of those events as they come in. So onto articles I have found interesting this week. First Thomas Piketty's Capital in the 21st Century has been named the Business Book of the Year. This been a fascinating and controversial book and is available in the library so check it out and expand your horizons. Speaking of expanding horizons, this is the Guardian list of the Top 10 Sustainable Business Tweeters. Have a look, follow some of the accounts and get inspired! On the subject of inspiration, apparently a third of MBA graduates are taking an entrepreneurial path and starting their own companies rather than returning to corporations. Will that be you? Don't forget to take advantage of the support for Entrepreneurship and Innovation here at Middlesex. On a different note, here is a question and answer about dealing with someone who is not a team player. Hopefully all of you are in supportive and hard working groups for projects but just in case you are not. Here's some tips! Hope everything is going well.

Passport Webinar

Four Steps to Create a Route to Market Analysis in Passport I'm excited to offer our fourth Euromonitor University Session: Using Passport for Route to Market Analysis. Thursday, November 13 | 9 a.m. CST / 3 p.m. GMT About this Session Creating an effective route to market analysis can be daunting. Even with the best product in the world, its success depends on how well you can reach potential customers. In this webinar, you will learn four steps for navigating Passport to understand the retail landscape and create a successful route to market analysis. Register now, and learn to: Identify the distribution landscape for your product Understand the strongest potential distribution channels Prioritise potential retail partners Target top cities for distribution About Euromonitor University Euromonitor University is a complimentary series of webinars covering the business challenges we are asked about most. They offer an instructional road map for your market strategy. Thank you, Euromonitor International  Improve your Passport skills and use this webinar!

Library Sessions and Reading week

I've really enjoyed doing library sessions for MGT3170 this week. We were trying a new approach which we thought would be more wide ranging and hands-on than the sessions we have done for this group in the past. I hope you all liked it  and found it enjoyable. I also hope you are already for reading week and getting a head start on all the projects and deadlines you have coming up. Don't forget, the librarian's are still here and available to support your research even if classes are not happening next week.

Starting this round-up with some interesting videos from the Financial Times - firstly a piece on  Ryanair's current success which might be useful for those of you researching Airlines. The second video is on the  stress tests of European banks and the future for the banks afterwards which is very interesting. Finally, also from the FT, a fascinating interview with Google's CEO. Finally, seven easy ways to improve your CV for those of you looking ahead to jobs and internships.

Weekly round-up

If you have been using Passport GMID this week, you may have noticed that the homepage looks different and it it hard to find the visual dashboard which I know is a popular feature. Just explore the site, all the functionality is still there and the visual dashboard is still on the home page, it's just called 'Dashboards' now.

It's been a busy week so just a three articles caught my eye this week.The first is on China's economy where outbound investment is set to eclipse inbound for the first time, demonstrating the slowing of China's domestic economy. Another focuses on Apple boosting the budget for Research and Development which is interesting as a hint of what the future might hold for Apple. Finally an article of specialist wine MBAs, don't you wish Middlesex had a specialist wine MBA?

Industry, Company & Coutry Reports & New Round-up

Hello and apologies for the belated blog post for last week. I've been incredibly busy meeting lots of second year students and taking you through finding Industry, Company & Country reports on key databases. I hope you all found it useful and it was lovely to see you all. I also have a first library session with the MBA students which was very enjoyable and hopefully illuminated some of the resources available. Don't forget to email me or make an appointment if you need any further help or missed your session.

So a few articles I found interesting last week. First a video analysis on Tesco's current financial woes, which has been quite dramatic given the high street standard has suffered a massive drop in share price and in like for like sales. Where can Tesco go from here? The article is a fascinating look at how demands on the supply chain and managing them are a crucial part of business and are also driving technological innovation.  This is an article on 'The Spotify Effect' and how Sweden has become the model country for the streaming industry.

Tow articles now on career and job preparation; one on how to find and make the best of work experience. Work experience is obviously becoming ever more important in terms of career success and you will probably all be looking for internships and work experience in the summer, if you are not going on placements as part of your course. The second is on tips about preparing for your first job interview, but works for second and third interviews too and is well worth a read!

New business training tutorials on video at Lynda.com

Lynda.com has access to online tutorials and documentaries, including a wealth of videos on Business and Management practice, how to use software and social media tools. "Explore a wide range of business skills from project management and negotiation to leadership skills and online marketing strategy. Our professional development tutorials can help you learn SEO, spreadsheets, word processing, and more." To use Lynda log into MyUnihub, go to MyLibrary, click on the link to Databases and select L for Lynda. When you first use Lynda.com you need to create a personal profile. This allows you to keep a record of all the Lynda.com training you do whilst at Middlesex University. New videos include: Twitter for business, small business secrets, executive leadership fundamentals, managing project quality and writing business reports.

Hello!

Second week has been very busy for me! I have done 15 hours of contact time, meeting all you students and hopefully getting you set up for all your research needs this year. But anyone who missed a session, has a question or forgot something - please email me via the Library guide and ask your questions.

Remember to subscribe to the FT.com for all your business news and here is my blog post on downloading the app (again :) ).

So what business related news stories did I think might be interesting this week? Firstly the announcement from Apple and Facebook that they are going to pay for employees to freeze their eggs! Persoanlly I think this is a little creepy, but what do you all think?
This post from the Harvard Business Review is about the 'Best performing CEOs' and the metrics they used to assess them. What do you make of the best performing CEOs?

Finally two stories on tech developments; in France people can tweet money - would for feel safe doing that? And would you like your smart phone to be able to lock and unlock your house? Could be very scary if your phone was stolen.

In case your aren't overwhelemd by first week -

- Here are some interesting news stories.
A piece on Snog - the frozen ice cream company and just in time for Fashion week, information about MBAs working in fashion. Does networking make you feel dirty? Here's a fresh perspective on this. And good news for money in business, of a sort. Women on boards in the UK reach an all time high. This is a very short post but I have been very busy with teaching this week and have loads more to come. Looking forward to seeing you all.

New Features on Key Note

You can access Keynote for the Business & Management Library Subject Guide

What's new this month from Key Note? New Market Reports for October - Click on a report title to view a Table of Contents for the report Featured Reports: Premium Lagers, Beers & Ciders - Find out how tax cuts are helping prospects for growth Analyst Comment - Mobile Phones - iPhone 6 release Market Reports - Out Now > Breakfast Cereals  *     > Clothing Manufacturing   * > Commercial Insurance (to be published shortly) > Exhibitions & Conferences   * > Medical Equipment > Mobile Phones  * > Packaging (Plastics)  (to be published shortly) > Premium Lagers, Beers & Ciders      > Sports Sponsorship    > Toys & Games   * * These reports contain additional dynamic financial data and performance league tables (updated monthly) for the top companies in these markets. Tax cuts help to brew future growth in premium lagers, beers and ciders Feature Report: Premium Lagers, Beers & Ciders 2014 Market Update According to Premium Lagers, Beers & Ciders, our new Market Update, the UK market for premium lagers, beers and ciders grew in value by 0.5% in 2013. Growth in the market in 2013 is, however, mainly a result of increased prices. In volume terms, the market is currently in long-term decline, with total volume beer sales across both the on- and off-trade contracting each year since 2004. This ongoing downward trend is largely attributable to the current trend towards healthier lifestyles among many consumers, coupled with greater awareness of the negative health implications of excessive alcohol consumption, alongside a period of rapid price increases as a result of heavy taxation. Read more... The Premium Lagers, Beers & Ciders Market Update examines the market in the UK for premium lagers, ales, stouts, bitters and ciders, analysing the size and growth of the market, as well as key trends, issues and drivers impacting the market in the 5 years from 2009 to 2013. It also provides projections for the market over the 5 years to 2018. Analyst Comment: Mobile Phones Herds of people camping outside in the famous streets of London, having dedicated up to 11 days of their busy lives to queue for a little piece of history, undeterred by the classic British downpours as summer draws to a close. Is it an opportunity to meet an A-list star? Are they giving out free gifts? Not quite. This hype is centred around the latest release from mobile phone giant Apple, the iPhone 6, with consumers around the globe clamouring to be the first to get their hands on the coveted holy grail of the mobile technology world.  Yet within hours of its release, owners were complaining about their new phones bending in their pockets, spurring an ongoing twitter campaign dubbed #bendgate to trend all over the world. But, as they say, no publicity is bad publicity, and this media hype and demand for the latest smartphones is said to be a key factor driving sales in the UK mobile phone market.  The new Key Note Mobile Phones 2014 Market Report, released this month, examines these industry trends and indicates why advancements in smartphones may be causing shoppers to pitch their tents at the doors of mobile phone stores. Read more... Follow us on Twitter to hear the latest from the Key Note analysts in your market sector What's coming soon... > Baby Products > Charity Funding > Childrenswear > Cruise Market > Electricity Industry > Ethnic Foods > Household Appliances (Brown Goods) > Life Insurance > Offshore Oil & Gas Industry > Packaging (Food & Drink) > Stationery (Personal & Office) > Soft Drinks (Carbonated & Concentrated) Don't forget: You can also keep updated with all the latest market and company analysis, when you follow us on our social media sites...