Last post!

Thanks to all for keeping up to date with the faculty leads of the very first MBS Executive Series.


Good luck to all those who have registered for what will be a remarkable experience.


See below for details about last minute registrations as there are a few lucky spots available in some of the programs.


Watch this space for any news about the current Executive Series and any future programs!


Hope you have enjoyed and your feedback is most welcome.


All further queries can made to Marianne Carollo at MBS on +61 3 9349 8292 or m.carollo@mbs.edu.

MBS Executive Series blog highlights!

As the MBS Executive Series is about to commence, we would like to feature some blog highlights from over the last two months.

What were some of your favourite posts and why?

Ian Williamson, a talented and engaging speaker, speaks on talent and how to engage.

Revisit this podcast here.

Mark Ritson looks at top brands using Social Media - does it work?

Find out here.

Paul Kirkbride recommends a whole new way of thinking about change.

For a sneak preview, watch the podcast here.

Debi Mishra gets to the heart of strategic partnerships.

For ideas on finding your ideal strategic partner, click here.

Sven Feldmann finds answers to a bunch of eclectic questions using game theory.

Have a second read of this blog post here.

Registrations for Executive Series programs are closing soon!

Ian and Mark's will close tomorrow.

Paul, Debi and Sven's will close at the end of next week.

For all enquiries, contact Marianne Carollo at MBS on +61 3 9349 8292 or m.carollo@mbs.edu.

You can also register online HERE.

The first MBS Executive Series is about to begin!

After weeks of interesting content highlighting the Executive Series faculty and their ongoing research areas and specialties, the programs are about to begin!

Registrations are closing soon, so don't miss out on your opportunity to sharpen a specific skill area, refresh some prior education or prepare your organisation for an aggressive growth agenda.

Join Ian Williamson for Creating Value through People on Tues 22 February till Wed 23 February 

Mark Ritson will bring you up to speed with Brand Management on Thurs 24 February till Fri 25 February 

Make Change Happen with Paul Kirkbride on Mon 28 February till Tues 1 March 

Debi Mishra will help you Manage Strategic Partnerships on Wed 2 March till Thurs 3 March

Price in a competitive environment with Sven Feldmann on Wed 2 March till Thursday 3 March

REGISTER HERE

Twitter feeds to watch! | Debi Mishra

Debi Mishra advises on some great Twitter feeds to look out for on the topic of Strategic Partnerships.

Do you have any to add to the list?


Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google recently remarked that strategic partnerships and alliances have created the greatest value for Google in the past five years.

Eric Schmidt's Twitter profile pic

According to a 2007 Fortune Magazine survey of the top 200 US corporations, almost 2/3 of the respondents ranked their strategic partnerships as one of the top five value creating assets for their firms.

Fortune Mag's Twitter profile pic

Did you know that Steve Jobs once remarked that had it not been for the company’s expertise in managing strategic partnerships, with a number of firms spanning different continents, the iPhone would never have been as successful as it currently is.

Steve Jobs' Twitter profile pic

Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, emphasizes how strategic alliances have helped the company’s diversification and growth over the past decade, in his book “Pour Your Heart Into It”.


Jack Welch, the former CEO of GE once remarked, “Today’s organizations are boundary-less… for us, strategic partnerships are vital… yet in America we educate managers around the limited mind set of competition… consequently our employees are not well educated in the nitty-gritty of understanding and managing partnerships." 

Debi Mishra

Debi's MBS Executive Series Managing Strategic Partnerships begins March 2nd. For more info contact Marianne Carollo at MBS on +61 3 9349 8292 or m.carollo@mbs.edu

Even change changes | Paul Kirkbride

Back in 2009, when the dust of the GFC began to settle and its impacts appeared in full view, Paul Kirkbride recognised a transformation in the training and development landscape. Attitudes shifted and companies began to target their change management and training budget more sensibly. (HR Monthly, 1 December 2009)

For each organisation a critical choice arose:

· Continue to manage in the same way, struggling with the same issues and getting the same results.

or

· Step into a completely new way of seeing, thinking, being and leading, offering new possibilities for organisational success.

Moving now to 2011, here is an opportunity to take part in an intensive two day Executive Series program with Paul Kirkbride. Paul will provide you with new knowledge and new thinking on the topic of creating change within your organisation, bringing it into the new year with success.

Paul Kirkbride

Making Change Happens begins February 28. There are still a few places left. Contact Marianne Carollo at the Melbourne Business School for more info +61 3 9349 8292 or m.carollo@mbs.edu 

Human Resources shouldn't have to fight for a seat at the table! | Ian Williamson

Ian Williamson says that when companies are making decisions about entering new markets, HR's 'seat at the table' should be a given. 

According to Williamson's research into what makes a successful business unit, a deciding factor for HR should be whether the company is setting up an office overseas in order to produce the same product it is selling at home, or to create a product that is customised for a new market.

If the product being produced off-shore is standardised, a standardised approach to people management makes sense, he says. When this is the case, HR should leverage efficiency of communication, transportation of staff and shared knowledge to 'synch' overseas processes with the home office.

But where the product is being customised, a localised approach to hiring, training, performance management and rewards is usually more appropriate, he explains.

"So the strategy decision and the market decision are one and the same."

It follows that when the company is asking itself, "Should we come in as a standardised producer?" or "Should we come in as a customised producer?" HR must have a voice.

For more on this see the full article in HRDaily. 

Ian Williamson

Ian Williamson is also conducting a program as part of the Executive Series. What an opportunity it will be to see this man in action. His presentation methods are cutting edge and interactive, with the aim of providing actionable knowledge and skills the can be used the minute you walk out the door.

For more info on his program, Creating Value through People, click here or contact Marianne Carollo at the Melbourne Business School +61 3 9349 8292 or m.carollo@mbs.edu 

Founders as the Logo of their own Brands? | Mark Ritson

Branding guru Mark Ritson says that founders are fundamental to a brand’s fortune because they have the brand in their bones.

• 'When a founder runs their own brand it can confer astonishing strategic advantages.' 

• 'Time and again, they instinctively and instantly make the right decision.'

• 'The most powerful form of marketing communication occurs when a founder talks about their business. Suddenly consumers listen. Even more amazing, they believe.'

• 'Such is their power, that when the founder finally departs, dies or retires many brands struggle to retain their trajectory. A fact reflected in the 6% drop in Apple’s share price since the news of Steve Jobs’ departure was announced.' 

Steve Jobs

• 'There are many cases where a founder returns to their failing brand and resurrects it. Steve Jobs did it against all the odds in 1997 and Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel did it in 1963 and at the age of 70.' 

Coco Chanel

On a not so side note, here is a break down of Apple’s iPhone profit margin, compiled by Mark Ritson and an example of top brands using extreme methods to make profits.

In what ways do you think this will change now that Steve Jobs is gone?

Google also announced a pretty huge management changeover, in this case from non-founder Eric Schmidt to co-founder Larry Page. Read more about this in Ritson’s article here. 

Eric Schmidt

Larry Page

Ritson’s Brand Management program as part of the MBS Executive Series is filling up. Don’t miss out on the chance to learn from one of the top associate professors in marketing, an award winning columnist, and a consultant to some of the world’s biggest brands. 

Mark Ritson

For more on his program, click here or contact Marianne Carollo at the Melbourne Business School +61 3 9349 8292 or m.carollo@mbs.edu 

Strategic Partnerships that work: Hewlett Packard & Mac, Dell & Microsoft - Can you suggest one? | Debi Mishra

In recent years, firms have moved away from the traditional mode of 'arms-length' transactions toward inter-firm ties based on long term partnerships. It has been argued that this change in emphasis has bestowed firms with competitive advantage in the marketplace. Stated differently, today firms create more value ‘outside’ their boundaries by initiating, developing, and enhancing inter-firm partnerships. Case in point—Dell.

Read about Dell's partnership with Microsoft.

What is special about Dell? To answer this question, consider the power of ‘partnerships’ and why a company like COMPAQ had to eventually merge with HP. Compaq could never convince ‘retailers’ that selling over the Internet was viable because these retailers were worried about a loss in their market share. Hence Compaq was mired in the morass of ‘sticky’ unproductive relationships that proved disastrous. 

Another example is the HP and Mac alliance.

While there is general recognition about the power of strategic partnerships, relatively little guidance is available to mangers on the appropriate mechanisms that can be used to set-up, nurture, and grow these partnerships. Over the past two decades, Dr. Mishra has worked with numerous Fortune 500 companies around the world and developed actionable models that provide guidance to managers on how to best manage such relationships.

All this and more will be covered in Dr. Mishra's Executive Series program, Managing Strategic Partnerships, starting 2nd March.

Debi Mishra

What does Carbon Tax, Game Theory, Broadband Policy and the Australian Dollar have in common? | Sven Felmann

With the application of microeconomics and game theory, Sven Feldmann is able to develop managerial and political decision-making strategies. He is thus an academic of all trades. 

Through his methods, Sven advises on an eclectic range of challenges facing our time, from how carbon tax should be priced to how game theory can be used to match children and kindergartens.

Sven is also running a very popular 2 day program in the upcoming Executive Series, called Pricing in a competitive environment, which starts on 2nd March.

For more on his views about Carbon Tax pricing, see the transcript from his appearance on ABC's Lateline. The interview podcast can also be downloaded from this link.

Kwang Lim also provides a piece on Sven's use of Game Theory in linking children to kindergartens, including some helpful references explaining the more complex details. See the full article on ThinkTank.

Sven's summation of the polictical responses to Broadband policy and his theories about the Australia Dollar can also be found on MBS in the Media.

For more information on Sven Feldmann or his Executive Series program, please contact the Melbourne Business School at executiveseries@mbs.edu

Sven Feldmann

Is the Australian population disappearing? | Chris Lloyd

According to Kerry-Ann Walsh the future of the Australian population is in dire straights unless a healthy immigration level is introduced by the Government.

Using a few data projection techniques, Chris Lloyd illustrates something quite different.

The current TFR [total fertility rate] in Australia, as in the average number of children a woman will have, is 1.97. According to Chris’ data, which assumes zero net immigration, a population of 22.1 million in 2010 will increase to 24.6 million by 2050. Hardly disappearing. 

Even in the worst case scenario, if the TFR drops to 1.80, the baby bonus is abolished and net overseas migration rates are reduced from 200,000 to 100,000 per year, the extreme of what is politically possible, the total population is still projected to increase to 28.7 million by 2050 and continue to grow.

For the finer details of Chris’ data projections, visit CoRE Economics. 

Chris Lloyd

Chris Lloyd’s expertise is in the fields of statistics, data analysis and market research within both academic and business environments. For more on his Executive Series session starting on 28 February, click here.

“It’s not you it’s me.” Ever wondered how to better manage your sponsorship relationship? | Richard Speed

A message from Richard Speed, 

"When the football clubs of Australia announce their new sponsorships for the year, the sponsoring firms explain how proud they are of the association and how central the relationship is to their marketing strategy. I am happy to guarantee, here and now, that by the end of the season, bad behaviour by players, officials or a club as whole will lead to some of those sponsors cutting their ties as fast as possible, leaving their marketing strategy in tatters.

Sponsorships are one of the situations in marketing when you rest the success of your strategy on something outside the firm and outside your direct control. If you manage these relationships like your traditional resources, your risk of failure goes through the roof.


Have you had any experiences like this? Please share them below.

And to learn how to better manage these risks, join me for Hired, borrowed or stolen; Making your marketing strategy work with someone else’s resources, starting March 2nd."

Richard Speed

Richard’s research focuses on creating effective marketing strategy and valuable brands, such as sponsorship and its use in marketing strategy.

Can you guess the 4 ideal types of change? | Paul Kirkbride

When you think of change within your organisation these are the typical elements of change you might consider: 

1. Structural 
2. Organisational 
3. Technical 
4. People 
5. Financial 

Paul Kirkbride presents us with a new model for change based on two major dimensions: 

The What of change, in terms of targets and goals and The How of change, considering its tools and methods.

Listen to Paul’s podcast to discover his alternative model for assessing and implementing change.

Before you listen, can you guess what the 4 ideal types of change could be?

Copy and paste the below into comments, adding your response. 

Paul Kirkbride's 4 ideal types of change. 

1. 
   
2. 
   
3.  
4.  

Paul Kirkbride

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE.

Click this link for more info on Paul’s Executive Series session, Making Change Happen, starting February 28th, 2011.

QUESTION: How do I get my top management to pay attention to Marketing? | Don O’Sullivan

ANSWER: Reposition it from an Activity to an Investment 


........Obviously but......



How can I make this happen?

What are the approaches leading marketers take to ensuring that marketing becomes mission critical and not as a discretionary activity?

What role does marketing play within these firms and what practices and approaches can we adopt from them?

How can I sell marketing internally an what is the best way to make a case to the board for marketing expenditures?

We already have an array of marketing metrics... Can we get beyond metrics?

The best performing firms show that the solution is both simple and complex: 

1. Position marketing as the engine room of growth within the organisation
2. Charge marketing with the task of building and leveraging the firms market based assets
3. Create a business enabling mindset within the marketing function as a basis for engaging with other functions
4. Develop, deploy and manage credible, reliable, predictive measures of marketing's contribution
5. Leverage marketing's 'wins' to raise the function's sphere of influence and contribution to the firm

Don O'Sullivan

In this two day program, Marketing and Firm Value, we will work with the frameworks and practices adopted by the leading marketers. We will learn from the experience emerging from best and worst practice and provide a basis for ensuring that marketing optimises its contribution to the performance of the firm and is recognised as a key business driver.