The value of an MBA, Professionalism and developments in New Technology

This week, Harvard Business School have introduced a new online learning system in the style of MOOC, (Massive open online courses) which are designed to prepare students for MBA study and even the knowledge and experiential gap produced by students coming from different professional backgrounds. Although these courses are currently only available to students in Massachusetts, this could be a really good way for recent grads to broaden their knowledge base and perhaps prepare for post graduate study themselves. In good news for business students, MBAs have held their value and graduates during the recession have not noticed a reduction in salary and prospects.

Some articles on the world of work now, Forbes has a blog on 6 things Entrepreneurs should stop doing. (I am particularly fond of 'stop whining'.) Meanwhile,. The Guardian is offering 6 ways to send inspiring signals and get ahead at work, so it's all about 6 this week. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this blog suggests smiling! Finally the Harvard Business Review is discussing what professionalism looks like which has some really interesting reflections on office space. Facebook continues to make interesting purchases in new technology buying up Oculus VR, which make virtual reality headsets and also purchasing a team that makes drones and lasers.The future of social media seems a bit scary! In less scary news, Ray Ban maker Luxottica are to work with Google to develop and design designer eyewear.

Despite a very high valuation., Candy Crush Saga's stock fell by 15% on its debut, which is the biggest first day fall for 20 years. Meanwhile India is seeking to build on its economic recovery and  the economist Hyman Minsky's theories on recession and crashes may explain what happened in 2008. Hope you are all enjoying the fast approaching end of term and taking advantage of revision support.

Global Supply Chains Summit

Global Supply Chains Summit This Free event hosted by The Guardian newspaper is an opportunity to hear about the latest thinking on CSR, Business Ethics and Global Supply Chain Management. Business leadership to tackle trafficking and forced labour in supply chains: responsibility, respect and rights - 11 April 2014, London

Giving 110%, Sustainability and Technology

For those of you stressing over exams or course work, I bring this interesting article from the Financial Times about why giving 11% is not always the best thing. In short, work hard but also take breaks and try not to put too much pressure on yourself. Moving from exams to the world beyond, this article has some advice on interview techniques and closing an interview well rather than feeling awkward when they ask you if you have any questions. This article from the Harvard Business Review, talks about which types of women are in senior business roles and the likely effect that will have on confidence and recruitment throughout the business. Perhaps something for our female graduates to remember in their careers and to encourage the younger women following in their footsteps.

The Guardian has been discussing how well Business Schools have taught about sustainability and whether they are doing enough to support and encourage sustainable innovators and entrepreneurs. What do you think? Did Middlesex encourage you to consider sustainability and to pursue green entrepreneurship? Thinking of sustainability and alternative business models, this FT editorial is a fascinating discussion of mutuals and how the Co-op's current troubles don't actually damage the mutual model.

In other news, the UK Budget was announced last week with a massive shake-up of pensions and also a reshaping of the pound coin. Google and Apple have stepped up their battle over operating systems for Smartwatches and a new generation of wearable technology. Microsoft has announced an end to it';s support of Windows XP which is used for many ATM machines, meaning ATMs may becomes more vulnerable to crashing and hacking. Last week I attended lots of and lots of Boards of Study and listened to student feedback which is so useful for helping improve the library. This week I have some more teaching sessions as well and I am very much looking forward to seeing students again.

CSR, Procrastination & Women in Business

I had a slightly  challenging week last week as I had several one to one appointments that challenged my information retrieval skills but it is fascinating to see the different work you are all doing and to try to help you achieve your research goals. On to news and articles that were interesting this week.

Harvard Business Review has an interesting blog post on CEOs and Corporate Social Responsibility, focusing on Apple's CEO's decision to tell climate change deniers not to invest in his business. This blog also looks more widely at the ethical and business case for investing in green technologies and renewable energy. Staying with a 'green' theme, they have been several pieces on air pollution in the last week. China has declared 'war' on air pollution and is pushing forward with a controversial environmental tax in an effort to improve air quality. Paris is also struggling with air pollution and has banned cars from the city centre. Only cars with an odd number on the license plate will be allowed to run on some days and only even numbers on others. They have also made public transport free for several days to encourage commuters out of their cars. Looking at green issues from a different angle, this article looks at the problems facing Mongolia as business and mining places growing demands on limited water stock, this is especially important given rare earth minerals used in smart phones have been found in Mongolia.

Turning to the work place more generally., this discussion between Sheryl Sandberg and Anna Maria Chavez on the use of the word 'bossy' and women in the work place is fascinating. Sandberg's book Lean In is also well worth a read for women in business. The FT.com also has an interesting article about why we seebosses as parents and what the potential pitfalls of this are. Finally two articles taking very different perspectives on procrastination. This one, from the Guardian, talks about 10 steps to end procrastination and may well be useful when you have that essay deadline or exam looming. This article from ThePsychologist, takes a very different tack discussing the advantages of procrastination and how to make it more useful. So pick your approach and don't forget to come to ReWise if you want any help in the build up to exams.

Belated weekly roundup

Last week was full of Boards of Study so we have been extremely busy listening to student feedback and working out how to improve on your concerns and worries. More laptops and more space came through loud and clear and that is what we are working on. Very pleased however to hear that more and more students are finding the books they want, enjoying their library support sessions and using the reading lists. And so to news stories that caught my eye last week.

Despite many years of jokes that New Zealand had more sheep than people, it now has large numbers of cows and is leapfrogging up the world producers of dairy , or 'white gold' as they are apparently calling it. Samsung has shown its creative ambition in topping the the European Patent List for the second year running; it is also likely a response to their court battle with Apple over Intellectual Property. Google is also very creative and had almost 2,000 patents awarded in America last year. Speaking of mobile phones, China's mobile phone industry continues to grow at a rapid rate, especially since they are finally starting to benefit from 4G rollout. In other Chinese news, China has more bankcards in circulation than anywhere else in the planet and seems to have 'fallen out out of love with cash'.

Two bits of news for those business students already wondering 'what next?' as they contemplate the end of university. There is a huge growth in the number of business and MBA students working in film and entertainment and a number of specialist MBAs have been started to support this growing interesting in the entertainment industry. The number of vacancies in the City of London have also increased by 25% as the market recovers so maybe its time to consider accountancy? And if everything goes very well, you may one day end up on the Forbes list of new billionaires!

Business Twitter feeds to follow!

Keeping up-to-date is vitally important in Business but also when you are trying to improve your employability and current awareness. Here are some twitter accounts to help with that.

The Financial Times - Remember you can sign up for a free account with your Middlesex Email address.
https://twitter.com/FT

Reuters Business & Financial News.
https://twitter.com/ReutersBiz

BBC Business News - you might want to subscribe to the RSS feed
https://twitter.com/BBCBusiness

Harvard Business Review - you should have access to this via Summon and the Library's subscriptions
https://twitter.com/HarvardBiz

The Guardian Business & Sustainable Business feeds.
https://twitter.com/GuardianSustBiz
https://twitter.com/BusinessDesk

Forbes
 https://twitter.com/Forbes


Please add suggestions in the comments as these are rather focused on Europe and America!

New Resources

Check out our new resources

BoB/ Box of Broadcasts

 Box of Broadcasts, or BoB for short, is a new resource that we have recently purchased for recording and keeping Freeview TV and Radio for educational use. You can record from over 60 TV and Radio channels, set recordings one week in advance and record or view programmes from the previous 30 days. The BBC TV and Radio archive is now part of BoB, with programmes going back to 2007. Any recorded programmes are kept indefinitely and added to a growing media archive of over 1 million programmes with all content shared by users across all subscribing institutions. Everyone can keep their own clips and programmes in an area called ‘myBoB’.There is a limit of 5 requests per 24 hour period for each person and if you make a clip, it counts as a request.  You can watch or keep as many programmes as you want in your 'myBoB' area if they have been previously recorded or requested. You cannot watch programmes outside of the UK.

 Create your account now by:

1.    logging into my UniHub and searching for ‘Box of Broadcasts’ in the library catalogue – click on the words ‘Middlesex users click here’. 

2.    Enter your computer login and password when asked.

3.    Type in ‘Middlesex University’(it will come up on screen) when asked for your organisation

4.    You will only be asked to ‘update your account details’ the first time you go into BoB, please enter your Middlesex   email address.  Enter your computer login and password when asked.  Watch the 'how to' videos to help you get the       best out of BoB.

We also have a BoB online Library guide available at: http://libguides.mdx.ac.uk/BoB

Latest Releases from Lynda.com & a good list of Business Resources.

 Latest release include tips on improving your productivity and giving feedback to employees as well training on advanced Excel Macros. Create your account and check it out.   

Also a great blog from a business librarian recommending a range of good alerts and resources.