Fresh Perspectives Events

Wake up and be inspired over breakfast at Aston Business School.

Aston academics present innovative, interesting and informative advice on business challenges. Hear the latest research on business solutions shaping essential tool-kits for strategy and management. Learn our recommendations to accelerate business growth and professional development.

Gain a fresh perspective from Aston.

Overview

What marketers do every day, and what organisations want them to do is constantly changing and evolving.

Initial research conducted by Aston Business School suggests “marketing” is at a tipping point. It’s very purpose, function and activity are under challenge.

Fresh Perspective

Come to this workshop to hear more about this research and discuss how marketing is changing, it’s potential future shape and what contribution it can make to business performance.

Benefits of attending

Hear throughout the talk real examples used to supplement the academic findings.

Overview

Although Brexit relates to the European Union and is unrelated to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), has the appetite for nationalism shown by the UK public in the result of the Brexit referendum in June 2016 had any impact on the Conservative Party's long-stated desire to repeal the Human Rights Act, which does relate to the ECHR?

Fresh Perspective

Our discussion will address the arguments for and against the UK retaining the Human Rights Act

Benefits of attending

Hear throughout the talk real examples used to supplement the academic findings.

Overview

Policy makers and behavioural finance scholars express growing concern that marketing practices by financial institutions exploit retail investors’ behavioural biases.

Investor protection regulation should thus address these marketing practices and include mechanisms curbing behavioural exploitation. That raises the question whether the marketing communications regime of the new Markets in Financial Instruments Directive can live up to this demand.

Fresh perspective

This presentation sits at the intersection between behavioural finance and law. Martin will use the law governing marketing materials as a discussion starter for the bigger debate on how behavioural insights about retail investors' behavioural biases can be integrated into investor protection measures.

Benefits of attending

This debate is highly relevant for businesses as it directly impacts on what is required by an investment firm in order to conduct its business in a fair way.

Martin's findings are also relevant for the new hot investor protection topic in MiFID II, product governance, and the requirements relating to providing investment advice. He will address these wider implications in his presentation.

Overview

As knowledge based services have become increasingly important, traditional managerial responsibilities such as measuring performance, improving quality and controlling processes have become more difficult.

Variable customer demands make processes difficult to control, reliance on expert knowledge makes quality hard to measure, while building the service on the knowledge of employees makes managing people a challenge. This presentation will illustrate how these challenges make life difficult for a small company as its success leads to rapid expansion.

Fresh perspective

The service concept – i.e. the mental picture of the service – is seen as a key part of service design and strategy. This presentation will demonstrate how articulating the service concept helps to diagnose the challenges of professional services by revealing the inconsistencies between how managers, employees and customers understand the service.

Benefits of attending

The presentation will help you to relate the challenges of managing services to those faced by other organisations and explore how the service concept can help overcome these challenges to create successful service experiences.

Overview

Fresh perspective

Benefits of attending

Event Format

Designed to inform. Delivered to inspire.

08.00 - Welcome and networking. Breakfast and refreshments served.
08.20 - Academic presentation followed by Q&A
09:00 - Further networking

Speaker

Dr Enrico Onali is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Finance at Aston Business School. His research interests lie mainly in the areas of capital markets, banking, and corporate finance. He is a member of the editorial board of The British Accounting Review and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK).

Enrico is currently teaching postgraduate modules on Market Microstructure (BFM105) and Security Analysis (BFM119), and an undergraduate module on Further Topics in Derivatives (BF3378). He has been a visiting scholar at the Deutsche Bundesbank and has held visiting teaching appointments at universities in France, Italy, and China.

His research has recently been accepted for publication in leading academic journals such as the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis and the Journal of Financial Intermediation. For more information on publications, click here.

His work has been presented at global prestigious conferences, such as the annual meetings of the European Finance Association, the SFS Finance Cavalcade, the Financial Management Association, and the Royal Economic Society. Output from the research has also been disseminated in discussion papers of the Deutsche Bundesbank and the European Central Bank.

Enrico has acted as a reviewer for the Financial Stability Working Paper Series of the Bank of England and for academic journals such as: Journal of Banking and Finance; Journal of Business Finance and Accounting; Regional Studies; Economics Letters; The Manchester School; European Journal of Finance; Emerging Markets, Finance and Trade; Journal of Management and Governance; International Journal of Banking, Accounting and Finance; Managerial Finance; Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications; Spatial Economic Analysis.

Music by: www.bensound.com

20 October 2016

Promote cohesion in a period of particular uncertainty

In an age in which organisations are more diverse than ever, Andrew will discuss how leaders can adapt and refocus in a changing environment with new challenges. Andrew will share insights gleaned from research focused on some of the most stressful and high-pressure jobs in the world, emergency room doctors, astronauts, submarine crews, and apply them to the challenges of the modern, diverse workforce. Drawing on his experience in designing training for high-stress team scenarios, including NASA, the U.S Army, and Navy, along with his own research on diversity in organisations, he willpresent attendees with practical and useful advice.

Benefits of attending

Attendees will learn best practices and strategies to manage diverse teams and promote teamwork and cohesion in a period of particular uncertainty and stress.

Speaker

Andrew Marcinko, M.S. is a PhD Candidate in the Work and Organisational Psychology department at Aston Business School, working under the supervision of Dr Yves Guillaume and Prof Richard Crisp. He completed his master’s and bachelor’s degrees in the United States and was born and raised in the Washington DC area. His current research is focused on diversity and inclusion in the workplace, with a particular focus on training, team performance, and employee well-being.

Previously, Andrew worked in collaboration with the U.S. Navy Submarine School to update its training programs based on the latest teamwork and training research. He was also involved in research for NASA focused on astronaut health and teamwork during deep space exploration, in preparation for a potential manned mission to Mars. In addition to his academic pursuits, Andrew also has industry experience in corporate sales and marketing, along with extensive experience with social media and blogging.

Music by: www.bensound.com

30 November 2016

Inspire entrepreneurship attitudes

We live in an age of increasing turbulence, uncertainty and continuous change. To face these challenges, societies, economies and organisations around the world increasingly require people capable of finding and exploring new opportunities to generate value. This presentation introduces the importance of cultivating an entrepreneurial mindset and discusses ways to develop it

Dr Bruno Oliveira shares his research insight into what inspires entrepreneurial action and how nascent entrepreneurs can be more purposeful in their pursuit of this inspiration. He will also explore the role of emotions (e.g. passion) in promoting or constraining entrepreneurial action in yourself and others.

Benefits of attending

Learn tools for promoting entrepreneurial attitudes within yourself, your team and your business culture.

Speaker

Dr Bruno Oliveira completed his PhD at Aston Business School in April 2013. In June 2013, he became a Lecturer in Entrepreneurship at the University of Bath. He returned to Aston Business School in February 2015 to assume the role of Lecturer in Strategy and Entrepreneurship. Prior to joining academia, Bruno was an entrepreneur who started and managed a company for two years. He then decided to close the business to embrace his PhD. Bruno also worked for the public, the private and the social sector at different points in time. Bruno currently has two streams of research. The first emerges directly from his PhD and focuses on better understanding the use of strategy tools such as SWOT analysis, Porter Five Forces or Scenario Planning. Recently, however, his research is increasingly focusing on entrepreneurship. He is currently studying the practice of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education programs. Bruno is very passionate about creating the best teaching and learning experiences to students and executives. He is continuously improving his teaching methods and truly believes that learning can be more effective if it is fun and based on action-based activities. He teaches at an international level and works closely with executives and organisations to promote learning and management development.

Music by: www.bensound.com

14 December 2016

Sustainable brands

In collaboration, Dr Keith Glanfield, Aston Business School and Harris Interactive have taken a long hard look at what makes a brand relevant and sustainable in a modern day context. The prevailing models for measuring brand effectiveness are largely based on examining indicators of past and present performance, and can fall short of telling brand managers anything about their brand’s future potential. What was a strong brand yesterday may still be strong today – but what does tomorrow look like? Will your brand still be as relevant?

Benefits of attending

Learn the thinking and research foundations behind the brand sustainability model, to address the question, “How sustainable is your brand?”.
Hear the results of the hi brands™ research study from the Harris Interactive team, who will share how measuring sustainability changes the way we think about category and sector success.
Understand how this new set of measures supports brand managers to manage and track future brand success.

Speaker

Dr Keith Glanfield is a Lecturer and Senior FME Fellow, joining the Marketing Group at Aston Business School in 2010 having secured a prestigious Foundation for Management Education / ESRC Fellowship awarded to fund Keith’s transition into academia from a 20 year commercial career in industry.

Awarded a Phd in identity and strategic brand management in 2013, Keith’s research interests focus on how to transform and optimise an organisation’s brands to improve organisational performance, sustainability and stakeholder satisfaction. Researching with organisations such as John Lewis and Waitrose, Keith’s research also investigates the influence of co-operative and mutual business models on stakeholder cohesion, brand community development, front-line employee performance and the co-creation of services between customers and service employees.

Keith integrates his research, teaching and engagement with practice as a regular contributor to the Times and Sunday Times, delivering executive education programs, consulting with industry and presenting new research and emerging marketing thinking to members of the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants and the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

16 February 2017

Re-examining the customer experience

The customer experience (CX) landscape is rapidly changing and with increasing customer expectations it is vital to be proactive rather than reactive. This session with Dr Laura Chamberlain will examine the changing loyalty landscape and question some embedded assumptions about loyalty. In addition, with the increasing emphasis on understanding customer emotions, we will consider the best way to think about customer emotions and measuring them.

Arguably CX is core to competitive advantage and as such many industries and organisations are placing increased emphasis on CX. Whether in a B2C or B2B context, if you have a customer focus, then this presentation is relevant.

Benefits of attending

Challenge your thinking about CX, loyalty, emotions and measurement.

Speaker

Dr. Laura Chamberlain is a Lecturer in the Customer Experience and Consumer Behaviour at Aston University Business School. Laura is particularly interested in researching the importance of consumer emotions, trust, loyalty and how to influence customer’s behaviour. Laura also researches consumer neuroscience, using neuroscientific techniques to further our understanding of consumers. The customer experience landscape is rapidly changing and Laura’s research intends to develop scientific insights to assist Customer Experience professionals.

Laura's research is broadly located within the psychological tradition, containing aspects of the social, cognitive, and neuroscientific approaches. Within this broad context, the specific research areas she works in centre around the concept of consumer responses to marketing actions and the customer experience. I have research projects underway examining consumer emotions, loyalty, advocacy and journeys.

Laura also researches the role of negative emotions in response to advertising that advocates behaviour change (e.g. stopping smoking or not speeding whilst driving). Laura is also involved in research within the emerging field of organizational cognitive neuroscience and have an interest in measurement theory and the philosophy of science.

22 February 2017

Will politics or economics will determine the final outcome

The first guest speaker was Dr Andrew Glencross, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Politics and International Relations, Aston University. Dr Glencross will be presenting the latest research and thinking on different Brexit scenarios. He will reflect on his new book Why the UK Voted for Brexit: David Cameron’s Great Miscalculation (Palgrave, 2016).

The process of leaving the EU is riddled with trade-offs. Putting politics first could carry a high economic cost, notably by limiting EU immigration or exposing UK companies to European tariffs. But pursuing economic interests above all else risks dissatisfying voters who want a clean break.

The talk set out what the policy trade-offs look like for different Brexit scenarios and explains whether politics or economics will determine the final outcome.

Benefits of attending

Understand what the policy trade-offs look like for different Brexit scenarios
Consider whether politics or economics will determine the final outcome
Ask questions to address specific queries

Speaker

Dr Andrew Glencross, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Politics and International Relations, Aston University.

Andrew grew up in the north of England. A graduate of the University of Cambridge (BA Social and Political Studies and M.Phil. Historical Studies) as well as a former Joseph Hodges Choate Fellow at Harvard University from 2000-01.

His PhD studies took him to Florence, where he completed his dissertation at the European University Institute under the supervision of Friedrich Kratochwil. After defending his PhD in 2007, he was a research fellow at the European Union Democracy Observatory for a year working on a project on e-participation in Estonia. From 2008-10 a lecturer in the International Relations Program at the University of Pennsylvania. He returned to Europe in Autumn 2010 to take up a lectureship at the University of Aberdeen, before moving to the University of Stirling in 2013. In January 2017 he began teaching at Aston University in Birmingham.

Tweets @a_glencross

25 April 2017

How to Prepare the Ground for “Idea Fishing”

The importance of frontline employees for the success of organisations is recognised by researchers and practitioners alike. However their relevance for the innovativeness of companies - resulting from their boundary spanning role - is often underestimated and has received little attention. Based on an academic piece of research, Prof Christof Backhaus summarised the current state of knowledge in this context, and outline results derived from an empirical investigating “idea fishing behaviors” of frontline employees from a diverse range of industrial and business services firms.

Furthermore he assessed the impact of motivators - such as job satisfaction and desire for upward mobility - and the effects of other important conditions like role stress and internal network, on idea gathering and dissemination. Christof shared the results of the study, showing the chain of idea gathering leading to idea dissemination results in innovation. Plus the various effects of role stress underlines the importance of differentiating between role conflict and ambiguity. Based on these findings, he explored the implications for management that are derived.

Speaker

Prof Christof Backhaus, Professor of Marketing, Director of the Aston Centre for Retail Insights, Aston Business School

Christof joined Aston Business School as a Professor and Chair in Marketing in September 2016. Before, he worked as an Assistant Professor at the Universities of Dortmund, Bochum and Braunschweig in Germany, and as a Professor of Marketing at Newcastle University Business School. His research interest lies primarily in the field of Retail and Services Marketing and Management.

His work in these domains has been published in international marketing journals such as the Journal of Business Research, Journal of Retailing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Small Business Management, Industrial Marketing Management and Psychology & Marketing.

He regularly collaborates with companies such as Allianz SE, Deutsche Bahn AG, Deutsche Telekom AG, Vodafone D2 GmbH, and Volkswagen AG to help resolve issues in the areas of service innovation, customer and partner relationship management, marketing control & monitoring, and sponsorship management.

18 May 2017

Discover the role of intellectual property in business innovation

"Growth comes not from competing on labour costs, raw materials or access to capital: our competitive edge depends on our capacity to innovate." Hargreaves, Digital Opportunity: a Review of Intellectual Property and Growth (May 2011) at 10.

If you are an innovative company in order to succeed you must make decisions with intellectual property in mind. You need an intellectual property strategy that is in line with your business strategy. You must know what intellectual property you have and what intellectual property of others you might be at risk of infringing. You can use intellectual property information to help you find worldwide competitors, potential partners, collaborators and gaps in the markets. You can use your intellectual property to reduce your tax bill and attract lenders.

You need to know about intellectual property so come and find out from Aston academic Claire Howell. Claire has taught intellectual property law for over 20 years at various universities and specialises in intellectual property in the business context. She will share her expertise and latest insights from her many publications on intellectual property law and company law.

Speaker

Claire Howell teaches company law and intellectual property law at both undergraduate and postgraduate level and is keen to promote excellence in the teaching of intellectual property.

Claire acted as consultant to the European Patent Office in the ‘Roadmap Project’ on teaching intellectual property in the Slovenian universities. On behalf of ECAP111 AUNIP, Claire drafted the Intellectual Property policy template to be used by the universities in the ten countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). She is a founder and coordinator of the European Intellectual Property Teachers’ Network and convener of the Intellectual Property section of the Society of Legal Scholars. As Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy Claire regularly participates in the Research Inspired Teaching Excellence [RITE] Programme.

Claire won a StudentshIP Enterprise Award prize of over £54,000 from the UK Intellectual Property Office with which she established the multidisciplinary PIPE Club [Patenting, Intellectual Property and Entrepreneurship]. She is currently undertaking a joint research project with Ian Combe into "SME leaders’ understandings of trade mark rights and their strategies used to exploit innovation" sponsored by a British Academy / Leverhulme Small Research Grant.

26 May 2017

Corporate governance beyond compliance and how good corporate governance improves the ability to raise finance

The role of the board is crucial in a growing any business - small companies become bigger ones but often they see corporate governance as merely a compliance issue. Graham Robertson, Chairman Corex Group presents corporate governance beyond compliance and how good corporate governance improves the ability to raise finance. He will consider the role of the Chairman, Company directors, board effectiveness, the balance of the board, non-executive directors and the benefits of on-going director education to build a better board.

Graham passionately believes that if you are ambitious for growth or seeking to raise finance for growth it is crucial that the balance the board reflects your aims and ambitions.

Speaker

Graham Robertson - Chairman: Corex Group.

Graham obtained a degree in Geology from the University of Aston and has since spent 40 years working in the international oil industry. Following several years of managing laboratories in the UK and West Africa Graham founded his own oilfield services company in 1987. At this time he gained an ACCA qualification in Accounting and Finance and raised venture capital to undertake several acquisitions including Corex and to grow the business over subsequent years. Today he is Chairman of the Corex Group, which now has operating laboratories in Aberdeen, Cairo and the Middle East.

Graham completed an MBA in 2011; his research thesis was in Corporate Governance linked to investor relations within the Oil Industry. The MBA experience taught Graham that on-going Director education is a real key to the further development of a successful business. Following the MBA, Graham completed the Institute of Directors (IOD) Certificate in Company Direction and then Diploma in Company Direction. He is now his working towards Chartered Director status also through the IOD in London.

Graham has also occasionally lectured on Corporate Governance on the MBA course at Henley Business School and at Reading University and also his local IOD chapter. He also occasionally lectures on Entrepreneurship highlighting the ups and downs of his own personal business journey.

Graham’s interest in Corporate Governance has led to an interest in “Building a Better Board” the subject of the presentation.

Graham is truly enjoying being reunited with Aston and currently involved in several projects with the university.

13 June 2017

What can we learn from politicians about brand success?

Do the phrases “take back control” and “make America great again” ring any bells? I’m sure they do!

Dr Keith Glanfield and Susan Vidler, Head of Research at Harris Interactive discussed if there’s anything marketers can learn from Politicians to enhance branding success and develop category leadership.

Why on earth would business turn to politics and politicians for marketing advice? Well, firms want their brand to sum them up in a few words. They want a brand with wide appeal that can cross traditional boundaries in society and which appeals to many different audiences. A brand can be used to bring together diverse groups, including customers, employees and suppliers, to generate a strong bond and sense of affiliation with the firm.

The presentation built upon a recent article 'Political Populists and the new branding trail blazers' by Dr Glanfield published in The Conversation and the future relevance aspect of the “HI Brands” model by Harris Interactive.

Speaker

20 February 2018

“Living” the brand - an unachievable, outdated and irrelevant distraction?

Many marketers and organisations set themselves the challenge of wanting their stakeholders, particularly their employees, to “Live the brand” and in doing so create a distinct “brand experience” for their customers.

Some would like to think they’ve achieved this objective but many don’t. Why is this, what are we “really” trying to achieve, what can we do differently and by addressing “Living the brand” are we really addressing the core underlying phenomena of “brand experience”.

Join Aston Business School or this short workshop led by Dr Keith Glanfield. Keith will ask your views on living the brand, arriving at what it means and trying to achieve. We will then explore how to get employees to do this, what the difficulties and challenges are and how achievable this all is. Keith will share the latest thinking on the “identity perspective” to branding and we will finish with a short discussion.

Applying organisational psychology to branding uncovers an alternative way of “creating an environment” for brand experience to evolve and develop. In a workshop style we’ll unpick the conventional “living the brand” approaches to arrive at an alternative perspective on developing brand experience.

Benefits of attending

Walk away with a new set of questions and a different approach to evolving and developing “brand experience”.
Think behind the conventional models and terminology to see if they work in your organisation.
Debate and develop this important topic with other senior managers, marketers and entrepreneurs.

Speaker

Dr Keith Glanfield is a Lecturer and Senior FME Fellow, joining the Marketing Group at Aston Business School in 2010 having secured a prestigious Foundation for Management Education / ESRC Fellowship awarded to fund Keith’s transition into academia from a 20 year commercial career in industry.

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Planning for sustainable competitive advantage

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Inspire entrepreneurship attitudes

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How businesses can grow by exploiting today's fractured media

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Sustainable brands

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Re-examining the customer experience

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Will politics or economics will determine the final outcome

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Apprenticeships offer a ladder of opportunity to all

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Claire Howell teaches company law and intellectual property law at both undergraduate and postgraduate level and is keen to promote excellence in the teaching of intellectual property.

“Living” the brand - an unachievable, outdated and irrelevant distraction?

Global Financial Instability. Causes, effects and everything in-between

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