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Only ethical leaders can study power safely

Ethical leaders who value their souls need not fear the study of power. They are, in fact, the only ones who can study it safely, says Douglas Board, author of Elites and Honorary Senior Visiting Fellow at the Business School of City, University of London

The day when resembling Niccolò Machiavelli unnerved me was when I realised that he had written comedy. I’m a Christian who wants to build a moral world; so was he. I’m a senior courtier (an executive coach, previously a headhunter) who has seen power close up, exercised some myself and thought about it a lot; so was he. But comedy was the cherry on the cake [the writer of this article is the author of the campus satire, MBA]. With hindsight, humorists love to see the world through two lenses at once, which is a valuable power skill.

One floor down from the top

Machiavelli’s The Prince (published in 1532) is a survival guide for Renaissance leaders at the top. My latest book, Elites: can you rise to the top without losing your soul? (2021) opens instead with a survival guide for leaders, managers and professionals who work closely with the top (the C-suite) but aren’t quite there. The book opens with the true story of a fight between the top (a big league CEO) and one of my hidden heroes (an acting COO); this time the acting COO wins.

This difference disguises a similarity. Machiavelli wrote to make the world a better, more moral, place. So he wrote for the individuals – princes in his day – with the power to do that. Elites is written for the prince’s corporate and professional lieutenants for exactly the same reason.

Let’s call them the ‘D-suite’ – one floor down from the top. And ‘D’ is for danger: it’s a dangerous place to earn a living. Knowledge can be dangerous. When Marie Curie investigated radium, she may have had anxious days but there was an innocence to her risk-taking. Terra incognita isn’t planted with warning signs. Her search killed her and, to this day, her notebooks are too radioactive to touch. By contrast, if you or I decide to investigate power, there are warning signs. The biggest of these is silence.

For 18 years, I was a headhunter for the C-suite and the D-suite, working across organisations large and small, blue-chip and entrepreneurial, for-profit and governmental, academic and community-based. I did a doctorate when I finished because I was convinced that there was something true across all this work of which I couldn’t find a trace in articles in Harvard Business Review, let alone books on selecting people. A year into my doctorate the penny dropped: the unspoken word was power.

Ethical leaders’ fear of power is misplaced

Once you notice ‘power’ as a topic, you see all the other warning signs. For example, Machiavelli’s terrible reputation, the saying ‘power corrupts’, or the all-too-prevalent and disgraceful behaviour by the powerful (as shown by the #metoo movement). The result, as Stanford Professor, Jeffrey Pfeffer, laments in Power: why some have it and others don’t (2010), is that ethical leaders don’t study power; they value their souls too much. The result of this is that too much of the world managed by a**holes.

But this fear of power is wrong. It’s caught up in a wider mistake about the nature of individuality, especially as understood in the anglophone world. The mistake is to think power is simply resources or techniques for getting more of what you want, regardless of what you want. If you think like that, then power will corrupt and dehumanise you; it will be like radium.

Because to be human is not just to want things (as dogs or economists would have it) – be those things chocolate, designer jeans or freedom. Instead, we have wants about our wants. We wish we wanted certain things and did not want others. This is called ‘ethics’.

How to study power safely

I’m delighted to report that ethical leaders can study power safely. That news means, if we can survive long enough on this planet, a better world is possible. To study and use power safely:

  • Politics and ethics must be taught side by side. No one can be politically competent without critically questioning what we want, why we want it and whether we are happy to want it – which is ethics. Consequently, only ethical leaders can study power safely.
  • Anyone who teaches power should be as transparent as possible about their (probably complex) motivations.
  • Our teacher should show up as a flawed, life-size human being. Without this, we cannot know that they fully understand what being human involves.

Elites weaves together three strands – a close analysis of the C- and D-suite worlds; a searching inquiry into ideas about success (not least my own); and warts and all descriptions of standout incidents from my own journey.

Notice that the three criteria rule out purely scientific studies. Marie Curie studied scientifically and it killed her; the social nature of power is much more complex than the physics of radioactivity. Pfeffer’s book tries to be scientific (presenting neutral laws and techniques) but what saves it is his humanity leaking through. He has a moral objective: he doesn’t want ethical leaders to be exploited as saps.

Also exposed are ‘pornographies of power’, like Robert Greene’s bestseller, The 48 Laws of Power (1998). Greene doubles down on ways for you to get more of whatever you want, whatever your desires may be. Studies like this dehumanise the reader as well as whatever ‘objects’ they try to manipulate.

That ethical leaders can study power safely is news; good news. Even better news is that only ethical leaders can.

Douglas Board is an Honorary Senior Visiting Fellow at the Business School (formerly Cass, soon Bayes) of City, University of London. He is the author of Elites: can you rise to the top without losing your soul? (2021), the product of his years of experience as a headhunter. He is also the author of the campus satire, MBA, and Time of Lies, an exploration of the collapse of democracy.

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Feeling ‘forgotten’? Seven steps to reclaim control of your future

From turning rejection into opportunity to identifying strengths and matching these up with a suitable role or industry, there are lots of things students and graduates can do to lessen any sense of feeling ‘forgotten’ by their university during Covid-19, says Results Strategist, Cel Amade

This past year has been tough, and the graduating classes of 2020 and 2021 may not have had the same opportunities as preceding classes to gain additional skills before graduation day. In the blink of an eye everything changed. Internships, job offers, and graduation plans went out the window. These cancellations and postponements left many graduates around the world feeling overwhelmed and, in many ways, forgotten by their university.

University is a great platform to explore and strengthen our natural talents and strengths safely. The reality is – exploring one’s strengths in order to do what we love post-graduation is not an obvious choice, but it’s a crucial one if you are after personal and career fulfilment and not just ‘any job’.

When students and graduates find themselves feeling abandoned, forgotten, or let down, they often find it harder to believe that they have what it takes to achieve their graduate goals. On that note, here are seven steps that I would recommend to any students and graduates looking to combat the idea of feeling forgotten by their university and to shift their focus to ideas they can actually execute. Ideas that are within any student or graduate’s control and that can help them design their own world after graduation.

1. Forgive yourself for past mistakes, shame, blame, guilt, regret or anger

We all have our fair share of shame, blame, guilt, regret or anger. Whether it is the shame of thinking you’re not employable after graduation. The blame for getting your internship or job offer cancelled. The guilt of what you could have done while you were too immersed in your studies, busy procrastinating or the pain of regret that comes with all of the above… Even though we cannot change our past, the most valuable thing students and graduates can do for themselves is to forgive their past and understand where they are now in relation to where they want to be.

2. See rejection as an opportunity

Too often, recent graduates use someone else’s definition of success before coming to the realisation that they have been rejected for roles that had nothing to do with their strengths. And from that perspective, rejection might not feel so painful after all.

Rejection can provide graduates with the opportunity to choose a role that is more in line with their natural talents and strengths. Rejection can provide more clarity. More clarity often equates to greater confidence in knowing what value a graduate is bringing to the table. And this increased confidence lessens the idea of feeling forgotten. Rejection might even make graduates realise that they have paid little attention to what they really ‘want’. Perhaps, for example, they have been applying to big companies all along just so that they could tell themselves and others that they work for ‘a big company’.

3. Identify your strengths

When we use our natural talents and strengths, we tend to feel more engaged and productive. We feel happier and energised. We get that buzz that comes with doing what we enjoy and we feel like we are being our ‘true self’. We are not pretending to be someone we are not. A great way to identify our strengths is to think back to some of our biggest achievements and try to identify which strengths were used to achieve those great outcomes.

4. Ask for feedback

If you are having trouble identifying your strengths, ask for feedback. It would be premature to conclude you have no strengths or natural talents. Everyone is good at something… Reach out to friends, peers, university staff and colleagues that know you well and ask them to help you answer these three questions.

  • When you need to ask for my help, what do you generally come to me, versus anybody else, for help with?
  • What do you see as my biggest strength?
  • What do you think makes me unique?

Any common themes in their responses – and that also feel right – would be a good indication of what your strengths are. Their responses will also be a reminder that your university connections have not forgotten you.

5. Exercise your strengths

The largest room in the world, is the room for improvement. Being aware of our strengths is life changing, but it’s only truly transformational when we choose to use our strengths. Once you have figured your strengths out, look for opportunities to apply those strengths. What resources does the university have? Are there any volunteering projects or partnership opportunities with student societies that would enable you to exercise your strengths?

Actively participating in leadership activities or creating new opportunities to reconnect with the university as you exercise your strengths can help combat this idea of feeling forgotten or abandoned by the university. There is boldness, genius, magic and power in recognising your strengths, using your strengths and taking strategic action towards your desired result!

6. Follow the rule of five

Match your strengths to a job type, field, or industry you would enjoy working in and get laser-focused to achieve your goal, by following the rule of five. Commit to do five (big or small) tasks every single day that bring you closer to your definition of a successful graduate life or your desired result. These five tasks could be as simple as sending five LinkedIn messages to professionals who are currently working in your dream role and which might allow you to gain insights of what their role entails on daily basis.

7. Define success in your own terms

What does a ‘successful’ graduate life look like for you? What industry or field do you wish to work in? What impact do you wish to have in the world of business and management? How do you wish to be remembered? Do you belief you can achieve it? Being able to define your own meaning of success clearly will add a sense of purpose to your life and get you one step closer to achieving it.

Cel Amade is a Results Strategist who delivers workshops and keynotes to facilitate, guide and inspire university students and graduates. Her educational YouTube content has amassed more than 433,000 views in the past year. She is committed to helping students make a smoother transition from university to graduate life and feel empowered to design their own world.

 

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Leaders and entrepreneurs in focus: Nicky Story, Supplies for Candles

An entrepreneur who has seen his fair share of setbacks, Nicky Story offers advice based on his experience and five tips for growing a successful business

‘“Overnight success” is a total misnomer,’ says Nicky Story, a 29-year-old entrepreneur and owner of successful online companies, Supplies for Candles and the Soap Kitchen, with more than 100,000 customers and 100 employees across two UK locations.

After graduating with a degree in business and management from Leeds University, Nicky set up his first enterprise from his dad’s garage but found the road to success is riddled with pitfalls and that it can take years and some serious failures and lessons to get there.

In this interview for Business Impact, he details his experiences, before offering five tips for growing a successful business.

Tell us about your first setback as an entrepreneur

I was working on my own in the freezing cold every day with no support and I was just failing. I was utterly miserable and I didn’t want to get out of bed anymore to even pack a few orders in the garage. I didn’t want to do it – whatever I did, didn’t work. I had no money, or motivation, and realised that my business, as it was then, wasn’t going anywhere. My parents were so worried that I sought help and was prescribed antidepressants.

What made you want to try again?

This one year working for someone else made me realise what kind of boss I didn’t want to be. This guy wasn’t a great leader and lots of the staff were unhappy. I remember sitting in the office thinking, ‘when I run my own company, I’ll never act like you do or treat my staff like you.’ I also knew that owning and running my own business was exactly what I wanted to do.

I quit my job, bought some wax, glass and fragrance and set up Supplies for Candles in 2016. Just six months later, sales started to boom and I needed a helping hand. I employed my best friend and everything took off.

What advice would you give to business graduates and budding entrepreneurs?

My message to other entrepreneurs and business leaders is keep going. Business can be tough, but it can also be incredible. One of my favourite quotes is from the late, great Muhammad Ali who said: ‘Don’t quit, suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.’ I have this quote in my gym and I think it’s a great motto to live by in life, but also in business.

I want to encourage entrepreneurs, from their kitchen tables to their online marketplaces that they can do it! But, it takes determination, flexibility and teamwork.

Five tips for growing a successful business

In the below, Nicky Story offers five tips for entrepreneurs who are seeking to set up and sustain a successful business:  

1. Determine what drives you

Even after four years of failure, I knew I didn’t want to work for somebody else, I wanted to make a success of myself. Everything I learnt in the four years of a failing business and also within employment for a year, I applied to my business, and see that experience not as wasted time, but as lessons learnt that are now enabling me to reach my full potential. I kept visualising what I wanted and that kept me motivated daily.

2. Understand yourself and your market

The market I went into initially wasn’t big enough and that’s why it didn’t make money… and I wasn’t in the right place in myself either. That year in employment really helped me to see the kind of entrepreneur I wanted to be and why it was so important to me. We often forget about the ‘why’ in pursuit of the ‘what’ and for me, it’s not just about being successful, but bringing other people with me.

3. Be fearless

One of the biggest lessons second time around was having the resilience and confidence to just go for it — I’d lost everything once already and decided it was time to take some risks. I learnt to be fearless — I invested all my money into marketing to make Supplies for Candles work — I really drained it down to my last £1 GBP this time. Previously, I played safe and was constantly so scared of it failing that I was really conservative but continued to fail anyway. This time, I took some risks in order to gain.

4. Generate good quality content

Top tips, how to guides, blogs, videos… focus on your content — it all helps with customer interaction. We aim to make it easy too — so once our customers have viewed the content they can click and add everything to the cart in one go. We know that the more quality content we produce, the more sales we get on the back of it.

5. Be prepared for the long haul

Cue Muhammad Ali – don’t quit. Your dream is worth pursuing. And now that we’ve determined that success isn’t going to come overnight, you can develop realistic strategies based on realistic timescales. If it happens more quickly, then great, but it will help you from becoming despondent. Keep going!

Nicky Story is the Director and Founder of Supplies For Candles, and Director of the Soap Kitchen.

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How to treat your team like a group of talented artists

Leading by example and inspiring others means embodying your company’s vision and its underlying values. Gerald Leonard, author of Workplace Jazz, offers five ways to treat your team like a group of talented artists

Donald Robinson, a Grammy-nominated producer, composer and pianist who worked with Grover Washington Junior – a hugely popular saxophonist often credited as a founder of the smooth jazz genre who collaborated with Bill Withers on Just the Two of Us – called it the ‘burning bus tour’.

Grover’s band was near Denver on its way to the Aspen Jazz Festival. The tour bus was going up and down the mountains. Then one of the brakes started smoking. The band members were sleeping in back while the bus pulled over and the driver ran outside. The band started to stir, hearing the driver hustling around looking for a fire extinguisher. The driver sprayed the tires but they caught on fire. The band, now fully awake, scrambled off the bus.

Turning a bad situation into a good one

It burned down in 10 minutes, just as the sun was rising. By the time the fire department got there, the bus was pretty much gone. Later, some vans arrived to take the band to a retirement home where they waited for transportation to Aspen.

At the retirement home, Grover pulled out his horn and started playing. Then Donald started on an upright piano while the older people were getting up, dancing, and having fun. Grover’s band turned a bad situation into a really good one. The retirement home loved it, and the band loved it.

Leading by example

Finally, the band arrives in Aspen where the air is thin, you have to really control your breathing. Walk a block leaves you winded. Due to the altitude, the concert venue has oxygen tanks on the side of the stage. When you get a little dizzy, you go put the oxygen on, then go back out.

Grover was playing hard, with passion and joy. He’d play, run to the side and grab the oxygen tank, then come back out and play some more. Then more tank. Even though it was difficult, he just kept playing. His stamina and drive was infectious. It kept the whole band energised.

Like Grover, the head of an organisation must lead by example — not only in their vision, but also by demonstrating that vision in action and the underlying values that support the vision.

Five ways to inspire your team

Do you want to inspire your team in the same way that Grover inspired his band? If so, how can you treat your team like a group of talented artists?

1. Provide expert guidance: expert guidance is required when your team seeks growth. They want to be led by someone who has real-world experience as well as strategic and innovative ideas that they have gained from continuous study and working on their craft. Think of going on a safari. Who would you rather have: someone who gives you a brochure or someone who has been there and can show you all the risks, issues and dangers to look out for as well as the beautiful scenery to observe?

2. Share your background and experience with your team: world-class athletes and musicians continuously seek advice from coaches who have a well-rounded background. They find someone who has a lot of coaching experience and who has already worked through and corrected many of the challenges they are facing.

3. Listen, collaborate, and communicate to connect and increase trust: when you are working with an experienced coach, you have someone to collaborate with and bounce ideas off of.  Take advantage of having someone who can help you obtain a different perspective because of their experience and knowledge, which in turn gives you a competitive advantage.

4. Set an example that accelerates the change and performance you want to see: reap the benefits of focusing on things that will make the most significant impact on the change that you are seeking.  By picking a few things to work on you can accelerate the time it takes to achieve your goals.

5. Demonstrate your desire to increase your team’s capacity and capabilities: coaching increases the capacity of the person being coached. It helps them accomplish more and improves their ability to get more done in less time. By having a dedicated professional coach or engaging in peer-to-peer coaching, your team will be able to accomplish more, compared to a team that is not being engaged this way by their manager or leader.

Gerald Leonard is a professional bassist and the CEO at Principles of Execution, (dba Turnberry Premiere) a consulting practice with 20+ years’ experience and past and present clients that include Verizon, Medicare, and Hewlett-Packard (HP). He is the author of Workplace Jazz: How to Improvise and Culture Is The Bass: 7 Steps To Creating High-Performing Teams.

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Are professional networking sites hazardous to job searches?

The importance of understanding how to use LinkedIn and other professional networking sites, and the risks of overuse, highlighted in research from Emlyon Business School’s Nikos Bozionelos

Professional networking sites, such as LinkedIn, have long been hailed as one of the best ways to connect with others in a professional capacity; through online networking with those in the same industry, its online CV platform and its easy-to-use job searching and application features. It’s safe to say the platforms’ main purpose is to connect people for new professional opportunities, and this is exactly what it does. 

In fact, according to LinkedIn, 100 million job applications are submitted through its platform every single month – which makes it seem like the ideal place to seek new job opportunities. This is certainly the case, but only if the platform is used correctly and wisely.

Common beliefs challenged 

In a study conducted at Emlyon Business School, we looked into the effective use of LinkedIn as a job searching platform to determine whether there was any best practice for finding a new role. A key finding was that jobseekers who excessively use professional networking sites (PNS) such as LinkedIn, to search for jobs are less likely to find a job via that route. 

Two common beliefs seem to be that the amount of time you dedicate to looking for job opportunities via PNS is of equal importance to other factors, such as qualifications and experience, and that the more applications you launch, the better your chances of finding a job. These beliefs were challenged by the findings of the aforementioned study, which surveyed 104  employed individuals in France at the end of 2019. The respondents represented all age categories, with a third aged 45 years old and above, for example, and were relatively balanced in terms of gender, with 41% women and 59% men. 

Respondents completed questionnaires that covered: frequency of use of PNS (all of them were using LinkedIn); intensity of interaction when using the platform (i.e. the degree to which they connected with other individuals and organisations); the number of job applications they launched; their desire to change jobs; and the number of job offers they had received. They were also asked for their main reasons for using PNS, and the impact they believe it has had on their careers. This data was supplemented with questionnaire responses from 28 people who were involved in recruitment, and four interviews with hiring managers and HR professionals with more than 85 years of working experience between them, to gain a recruiter’s perspective. 

A cautionary note for candidates in frequency and intensity of use

The results found that 70% of the employed individuals perceived that PNS had increased their opportunities for a career change, including finding a new job and changing their occupation. Indeed, 44% of respondents indicated they had found their current job through PNS. 

There was also a very clear pattern between the length of time they have been using PNS for and the desire to find a new job. The less time people were using PNS for, the greater their desire to find a new job. However, the vast majority of participants did not think that use of PNS increased their desire to change jobs. Therefore, our data suggests that it is the desire to find a new job that may entice people to start using PNS rather than the other way around. 

Yet, arguably the most arresting findings were how frequency of PNS use, intensity of use, amount of job applications launched, and the number of job offers received were related to each other. The relationship between frequency of use and receipt of job offers resembled a U-shape. People who used PNS either very infrequently or frequently had the highest chances of reporting receiving a job offer. Those with intermediate levels of frequency of use were the least likely to report receiving a job offer. 

The pattern with respect to intensity of use – defined as the amount of effort expended to contact others and launch job enquiries – was the reverse. Results here approximated an inverted U-shape, with the chances of receiving a job offer increasing until a point at which the chances then drop dramatically. An increasing intensity of job search via PNS was therefore beneficial to finding a job until a certain point, but too much effort was detrimental to the receipt of job offers. Finally, the amount of job applications launched was negatively related to job offers, the more applications launched the less the chance of them leading to the receipt of a job offer.  

Taken together, these findings suggest that a high number of job applications and a high number of attempts to contact others on PNS do not, in themselves, bring the best outcome. In fact, if viewed in terms of utility (a useful scientific index of benefits divided by effort expenditure) the outcome is close to the worst possible. The most plausible explanation is that PNS users who initiate many contacts and launch job applications with high frequency through PNS may lack selectivity. They may, for example, take all responses as ‘invitations’ to apply and launch job applications regardless of whether the positions fit their skillset, background or experience. 

Launching a great many job applications is also likely to lead to applications not being thoroughly put together. Such applications can often lack sufficient detail, or a persuasive cover letter, which fail to impress recruiters. As a consequence, there is less chance of identifying those jobs that suit them best and they have less time to prepare their application adequately and maximise their chances of success.

Indirect importance of a strong profile

The responses of recruiters and HR professionals were in line with the findings from the main survey. Eight out of 10 recruiters felt that PNS are most useful for expanding one’s professional network and becoming aware of opportunities rather than for directly applying for jobs. Their responses also pointed out the importance of PNS for indirect success in the job market – seven out of 10 noted that they look at applicants’ PNS profile, regardless of the route via which he/she applied for the job. 

It seems that the best approach to using a PNS, such as LinkedIn, to search for jobs is to view the social media platform as a way to network with as many relevant people as possible. Putting a name to a face and having general conversations can increase a person’s chances of being informed about, or applying for, a job that fits their skills, experience and desires. This is more effective than just applying for any job that is loosely related to their desires. 

PNS may also be more beneficial when used as a piece of personal branding, self-promotion and an impression management tool – making it easier for recruiters to see a candidate’s skillset and knowledge and making them more accessible to these same recruiters. 

In the circumstances created by the Covid-19 pandemic (or other crises of a similar nature), people should ‘keep their nerve’ and hold on to the above approach. The pandemic is far from being over in the ‘western’ world, and firms will continue to be cautious while trying to maximise resource efficiency – hence, they are less likely to hire. When they do hire, they will be very selective to attract, and get, exactly the right person (and they will have the luxury of a larger-than-usual pool of well-qualified candidates). 

An approach that allows PNS users to launch well-thought and well-prepared applications for the jobs into which they fit most will therefore maximise the chances of success in a difficult market. Enhancing one’s personal branding through a PNS profile – at which firms look at – will further enhance the chances of success in a job application. 

Nikos Bozionelos is Professor of International HR Management at Emlyon Business School. His research focuses on careers and career management, employability, individual differences in the workplace, high-performance work systems, and cross-cultural issues in management.

This article originally appeared in Ambition – the magazine of the Association of MBAs (AMBA).

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How prioritising prices has hurt businesses, consumers and the planet

Price wars push manufacturers to produce more for less, at the expense of employees and the environment, and often result in products that consumers are ultimately unhappy with, says Mei Xu, author of Burn

When I set out to look for a niche in the home fragrance industry, national big-box retailers like Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and Bed, Bath & Beyond engaged in heated competition for consumers. These stores offered everything from diapers and shampoos, to fashion items, competing for the same middle-class American demographic.

Trying to find a space in this daunting, pre-Amazon-dominated, global retail landscape meant that I had to contend with price. How does Target compete against Walmart when selling the same box of Tide detergent and bottle of Pantene Shampoo? The answer, of course, is price. Over the years, retailers advertised more and more discounts and coupons on core products, even if it meant losing margin on those items. They figured that if they could lure consumers through their doors to buy the detergent or shampoo, these customers often stayed to purchase other staples as well as impulse items like fashion, toys, and even candles.

Retailers’ race to the bottom

While national brands in the US, like Tide, have more established retail pricing, smaller brands which lack consumer brand recognition often can’t compete. Consumers expect to purchase their ‘go to’ brands at discounted prices, making their everyday purchase an impulse buy.

Retailers’ race to the bottom has meant that manufacturers are forced to ‘value engineer’ their entire sourcing and production processes. When retailers offer a discount of 20% or more, often to stay competitive during seasonal or holiday promotions, global factories must race to find cheaper suppliers to save on packaging materials, accessories, and raw ingredients.

Consider the example of candles, a product that has five essential ingredients: wax, colour, fragrance, wick, and vessel (or ‘holder’). When competing on price, factories could substitute refined petroleum wax for unrefined alternatives; switch quality fragrance oil formulas – the results of long hours of R&D – with cheaper alternatives; and replace pure cotton wicks with blended synthetic wicks that cost half the price.

Unfortunately, consumers cannot detect these manufacturing decisions when shopping. Factories know how to make cheaper products look appealing on the shelf. It is only when consumers burn the candle at home that they can appreciate the differences. As they often discover, candles with low-quality wax emit a gassy, almost petroleum-like odour. Rather than having a predictable flame that evenly consumes wax, non-cotton wicks have trouble trimming themselves, resulting in large, sometimes dangerous flames, or candles self-extinguishing as their wicks become submerged in pools of melted wax. Instead of diffusing beautiful fragrance notes into the home, such candles can send dark soot into the air and damage walls and ceilings.

Over my career, I often saw consumers returning those candles to retailers, demanding reimbursements. This represented a financial and reputational loss for retailers, factories, and supply chains, but there was little recourse if they wanted to remain in business.

Repercussions of a relentless focus

As large retailers competed with one another on price, factory owners squeezed more production out of each shift, creating a stressful and toxic work environment, while securing lower-priced raw materials that degraded the environment. This relentless focus on lower prices has been driving manufacturing into developing countries where abundant labour and a lack of worker and environmental protections enable this global low-price manufacturing and retail system.

We often hear stories about fires in garment factories that claim human lives, or waterways near textile mills becoming so polluted that residents suffer long-term health problems like cancer. When factories produce goods with the cheapest possible materials the result is that workers, communities, and the environment ultimately suffer.

I founded my company, Chesapeake Bay Candle, not to compete on price, but simply to create wellness-oriented and fashionable products that were creative and affordable. After pursuing this for more than 20 years and establishing three factories in Asia and the US, I feel that I have discovered a formula that benefits workers, protects the environment and serves the consumer. It was the best choice for my business and could hold the answer for many more retailers as well.

Mei Xu is a Chinese American entrepreneur and the Founder and CEO of three global companies – BlissLiving Home®, Chesapeake Bay Candle® and Yes She May, the latter of which is an e-commerce platform designed to help women-owned brands survive and thrive.
Xu is also the author of the memoir, Burn (Wiley, 2021).

BGA members can benefit from a discount on the RRP for Burn, courtesy of the BGA Book Club. Please click here for details.

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What do students want and expect from the future of education?

The future role of technology and faculty, the importance placed in international study options, growing societal concerns, and perceived strengths and weaknesses in higher education – EDHEC Business School reports on a survey of students in France, the UK, US, India and South Africa

The pandemic has pressed Business Schools and universities to offer students online courses, generating questions about the role of the teacher, how knowledge is transmitted, and the importance of international study options.

The thoughts and perceptions of students in these areas and more were highlighted in EDHEC’s 2020 OpinionWay survey on the future of education, which collected the thoughts of more than 5,000 students across the UK, US, France, India and South Africa.

The future role of the teacher

Among the major transformations in higher education, the adoption of new technologies is seen as positive in the UK (94%), but also in France (87%), India (98%), US (92%) and South Africa (99%). All of the countries also agreed that the introduction of new technologies will change the way professors teach. However, there is a significant contrast among countries in terms of their perception of digital’s impact on the role of teaching staff and how they convey knowledge.

While 56% of French students think the primary role of educators tomorrow will be to hand down knowledge, students in the UK (51%), US (48%), India (55%) and South Africa (62%) think professors will focus more on teaching the right methods for self-learning through new technologies.

In response to the question of how knowledge will primarily be conveyed in the future, students in the UK (42%), US (44%), India (41%) and South Africa (55%) expect it to be mostly through the use of computers, tablets and smartphones. However, among French students, only 21% see education moving in this direction, whereas 41% think the future of knowledge transmission lies in a combination of augmented teaching staff, robots and humans.

What’s clear is that new technologies must help Schools deliver a rich education, giving students greater flexibility and allowing teaching staff to concentrate more on their students.

It is therefore not surprising that the survey revealed a strong belief that remote learning will become more prevalent. Tomorrow’s teaching will be much more than a physical place with a course and a teacher – Schools and universities need to position themselves as platforms and not just as campuses.

Social concerns are rising among students

The survey also shows a high level of interest among students in the social issues of tomorrow. Therefore, it is imperative that the higher education industry reflects on how education can adapt to meet this need.

Quite commonly, the first concern of students is social inequality, closely followed by the preservation of the environment. Regarding these two issues, the proportion of interest among students are relatively unanimous at between 39% and 51% in every country surveyed. Elsewhere, priorities differ. There is a strong desire to raise awareness of gender inequalities in France (40%) and India (30%) but the equivalent figure among UK students is rather lower, at 21%.

When asked how education can help raise awareness of environmental conservation, the top answer among students in the US (cited by 44% of respondents in that country), South Africa (43%), India (41%) and the UK (40%) is ‘by funding and helping projects to preserve the environment’. The most popular response among those in France (cited by 35% of respondents in that country) meanwhile, was ‘by adapting its programmes’.

Higher education and the challenges of a changing world

Overall, students in all of the countries surveyed have a positive image of higher education. They judge higher education as being able to cope with the multiple challenges that are shaking up the economic environment and, more broadly, our societies.

Among the perceived strengths of the higher education system are the diversity of courses on offer and the variety of subjects taught, which guarantees openness and adaptability for the younger generations. But students in all locations point out two areas for improvement: being more international and linking better with economies.

Unsurprisingly, there are some differences between countries. For example, professional integration into economies is seen to be an area of strength in the UK education system (cited as such by 75%), and the US system (cited by 72%). An area for improvement for the US, meanwhile, is accessibility – only 42% of students polled in the North American country think that the education system is open to the largest number of people. The equivalent figure among students in South Africa is comparable, at 40%. These rates are much lower than those expressed in the UK (60%), India (77%) and France (50%).

The possibility of expatriation during studies: an asset for students

Sadly, the Covid-19 pandemic has dramatically affected the number of international student exchanges that can take place, although what is reassuring is that the chance to study abroad during a course is still highly regarded among students and considered to be a real asset.

Of course, attitudes do differ. For example, around 30% of students in the UK and US think that spending part of their higher education course abroad is not a necessity, but this is only true for 13% of students in South Africa, 11% of students in France, and 9% of students in India.

Likewise, in response to the question: ‘Do you think that it is better for a student in your country to do all or most of their higher education abroad?’, students in France were almost unanimous – 85% gave positive responses. The equivalent figure among those in South Africa was also high, at 79%.  However, the proportion of positive responses from those in the UK, US and India were markedly lower, albeit still high enough to conclude that studying abroad is deemed as being important.

Commentary from EDHEC Business School, France.

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Where and how to look for early-stage funding

Early-stage funding can often seem elusive to those eager to get their business ideas off the ground. David Pattison, author of The Money Train, outlines your options, and shares the questions you must ask yourself before you get going

Starting your own business is an amazing experience. It’s not easy – if it was then most people would do it, and most people don’t. Equally, looking for investment is very hard. There is no money tree growing in the garden that just requires a shake.

At the earliest stage of setting up a business, the whole idea of fundraising can feel daunting or even impossible. Whether you are at a Business School, a university incubator, or just a young startup, knowing where to start looks hard.

It’s also easy to underestimate how hard it is to raise money. This isn’t helped by the current market environment – 20 years ago, most people’s career ambitions were to ‘get their boss’ job’. Now, most people in their 20s want their own business. It’s an expectation that has been largely driven by the investment community.

Let me explain; there is a lot of investment money out there looking for a home. It’s hard to get but it’s there. The current model encourages young businesses and startups to take investment, or carry debt, to accelerate the growth of their companies. Not all of these businesses actually need to give equity away to investors to be successful. Some would get there anyway, albeit at a slightly slower pace and with a different financial model.

Do you need funding?

So, the first thing to do is work out if you really need to raise money through investment. Ask yourself some of the following questions:

  • What would funding add to the business?
  • How much do I really need?
  • How much time would it save?
  • What would be the costs of raising money and diluting shareholding and controls
  • What multiple of success would it add?
  • Could I run the business without funding?
  • When would I need the money?

Having answered these questions, you should have a good idea of what level of funding you need, if any. At very early stage, that might be a very small amount. It could be as little as £500 GBP, or as much as £100,000 GBP. In my experience, most founders seriously underestimate how much they need to get things going because £5,000 GBP can feel like a lot of money at a young age. For a startup, it isn’t.

You will need the first round of money to get towards proof of concept. Being able to answer these sorts of questions:

  • Does the product/service work?
  • Are people prepared to pay for it?
  • Are they prepared to buy it multiple times?

And to be able to answer the really key question: ‘I know there is a gap in the market, but am I convinced that there is a market in the gap?’

Having got to this point, don’t just jump straight into looking for investors. There are other options, particularly if the money required is at a low level. Look into:

  • Government or commercial grants
  • University business incubators which have funds available
  • Loan options            

I said at the beginning that getting an investor on board is really hard. Getting the first investor on board can feel like the hardest. But, looking for money at a really early stage can be slightly less difficult. The reasons are twofold: firstly, you are most likely to be dealing with individuals and not institutions, and secondly there are often attractive tax breaks available to these individuals. For example, in the UK there are government schemes like the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) and the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS). I won’t go into details, but these schemes offer instant tax relief to individuals and even offer some relief against losses.

Emotional and rational investors

It’s worth pointing out at this stage that, in my view, there are two types of investor: the emotional and the rational. The emotional tend to be individuals who choose to invest and, at the early stages, this type of investor will almost certainly be who you will be looking to raise money from. The rational are the institutions which have to invest, as they have to commit all of their funds on behalf of their clients. The rational tend to be more formal and much more rigorous around the due diligence and legal processes.

So how do you find these ‘emotional’ individuals and how do you then get them to put money into your business? In its most simplistic form, you need to get out there with confidence and a good coherent story. Show that you know your company, your market, your people, your competition and, most of all, your opportunity and your exit strategy. You have to be prepared to sell yourself and your company/idea to a whole range of people.

Be prepared to drink a lot of tea/coffee and accept that you will be a lot of frogs to kiss before you find your prince/princess.

Sounds easy doesn’t it?

Getting out there

But how do you meet these people? Talk to everyone you know. The first place to go is the three Fs: friends, families and fools. Do not be afraid to ask. If they can’t help, they might know people who can and be prepared to introduce you. These will be your best-ever investors. They won’t be too rigorous or insistent in their demands around the shareholders agreement and may well be there if you hit a bump in the road in the future. They really want you to succeed and will probably be attached emotionally as well as rationally. Just one word of warning, make sure that these investors understand that they may lose their money. Potential investors who can’t afford to lose their money should not invest.

Approach other young businesses in the sector you are in and ask if the founders would be willing to share their ‘war stories’. You will be amazed at how many will be happy to chat to you. Don’t waste their time though. Ask them to point you in the directions of potential investors. There are also angel networks that you can approach. These tend to be more formal, but can sometimes be the solution if you are looking for a larger amount.

Talk to experienced businesspeople you or your family know. They will all know someone who knows someone. Approach experienced people that you don’t know who have been in the sector that you want to operate in. These will probably be people you don’t know. They all operate in informal networks and they will probably be able to advise on more than just fundraising. Again, other founders will know who they are.

Crowdfunding is another option, particularly if you have an interesting product that the investors can get at a discounted rate, or access to something that is unique to them.

There are other options as well, but the basic advice is the same. Get out there and find these people. Be well prepared and explore all of the options. Say ‘yes’ to every potential contact even if on the face of it there is no sense in doing it.

It’s very hard to predict where money will come from at the early stage. You need to be well prepared for all the conversations and be unfazed by disappointments. Remember that the person who is most excited and enthusiastic about your business is probably you. Don’t take someone not investing personally. One thing I can predict is that, at this early stage, money will be offered from places you don’t expect it to come from.

Good luck.

David Pattison is Co-Founder of media agency, PHD – later sold to become part of the Omnicom Group and now a worldwide brand in 80 markets. For the last 10 years, David has worked as a chair or mentor for a variety of businesses and CEOs. He is the author of The Money Train (Practical Inspiration Publishing, 2021).

BGA members can buy a copy of The Money Train at a discounted price, courtesy of the BGA Book Club. Please click here for details.

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The continuing quest for knowledge

Lifelong learning research from AMBA & BGA shows that more than a third of graduates have sought to continue their education beyond their studies, and outlines their areas of interest. David Woods-Hale reports

From quarantined students to a rapid migration to online teaching and learning, business education experienced its fair share of disruption in 2020.

Yet, during this tumultuous year, AMBA & BGA was able to carry out a 360-degree portfolio of research, looking at the perspectives of Business Schools, employers, students and graduates as they sought to acclimatise to the conditions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic. The research delved into the need for greater technological innovation – both in terms of course delivery and digital skills – and explored respondents’ views on how successfully the business education landscape is evolving to meet the ever-changing needs of stakeholders at all levels. 

This section of the research focuses on the views of 2,110 MBA graduates, surveyed in the spring and early summer of 2020, on their satisfaction with their MBA and their continuing relationships with the Business Schools at which they studied, in relation to lifelong learning and their continuing development. 

Graduate satisfaction, post-MBA

Graduates’ sense of satisfaction with their MBA qualification was gauged in an earlier part of the year’s research. Encouragingly, 71% of those polled were either ‘very satisfied’ or ‘fairly satisfied’ with the impact of their MBAs on their careers to date. At the other end of the scale, 10% were either ‘fairly dissatisfied’ or ‘very dissatisfied’. 

Following this, participants were asked for their opinion on the areas in which they believed the MBA had added the most value to their career prospects. Among respondents, 88% agreed that they have ‘gained substantially more skills to help them do business better’ as a result of completing the MBA. Meanwhile, 81% agreed that ‘the skills they learned during their MBA have helped them be more mentally resilient’, and 74% believed ‘they have been able to develop all the business-related skills they wanted’ as a result of completing the qualification. 

In terms of salary expectations, graduates were less sure as to how far their MBA has made an impact. Just over a third (23%) neither agreed or disagreed that ‘they felt equipped to reach the salary they wanted to achieve in the future’ – and 11% actively disagreed with this statement. 

When the sample was segmented to only include the findings for MBA graduates that had completed their qualification less than a year before taking the survey, the results revealed a higher level of satisfaction, compared with the rest of the sample. In all the areas measured, recent graduates are either one or two percentage points higher in agreement that they had achieved the outcomes listed, on account of completing their MBA programme, than those that graduated more than a year ago.

Survey participants were also polled on the difference that their MBA made to them in terms of their behaviour in the workplace. The top answer, cited by 68% of MBA graduates, was ‘I was more confident about myself’, followed by ‘I was better at resolving problems by finding new solutions’ (62%), and ‘I was more prepared to work in a highly competitive environment’ (58%).

‘If I were to do an MBA again…’

Graduates were asked: ‘On reflection, if you were to do an MBA again, which of the following aspects would you like to see more of, or improved?’ and were provided with options ranging from ‘better quality of teaching’, to ‘more confidence building’. 

Overall, the largest proportion of respondents (54%) said they would have liked ‘more networking opportunities’; 37% would have liked ‘more knowledge and skills specifically to help them start a new business’; 34% would have liked ‘more content on how to run a profitable business’; and 31% would have liked ‘content that was more appropriate to the industry in which they work’. At the other end of the scale, the smallest proportion of respondents (22%) would have liked ‘better quality of teaching’.  In an open-ended question, graduates were then encouraged to share other thoughts as to what they would like to see more of in their MBA programmes, if they were to study for the qualification again. 

Answers were diverse, but responses comprised the following: 

• Case studies that inspire students to find solutions and help in developing a way of thinking.

• More practical case studies with a current or recent focus, relevant to today’s and future industry needs.

• More information about new disruptive businesses.

• To shed more light on current local and global challenges, and how to
handle them. 

• More technological updates and a means to learn how to improve
business skills in such a fast-paced technological environment. 

• Equip me to manage jobs that don’t yet exist and to look more into the future.

• Develop emotional intelligence and cultural intelligence.

• More practical experience of running an SME, or starting an SME.

• Greater oversight of managing a business’ finances.

• The reality of the job market and how to understand that an MBA doesn’t put you at the top of the food chain.

Remaining ahead of the skills curve

Business changes continually, as do individual career paths, so in a volatile world MBAs must keep abreast of evolving trends and issues constantly, and make sure they are nurturing and enhancing the skills they need continuously, in order to succeed in their career trajectories. 

With that in mind and considering these postgraduate reflections, Business Schools have an opportunity to remedy knowledge gaps in their alumni by keeping contact with graduates and offering access to lifelong learning in a variety of ways. 

The survey therefore sought to find out graduates’ views on the subject of lifelong learning as well as the means and frequency with which they are currently accessing it from their alma mater, as well as other Business Schools and further providers in the market. 

To start off with, participants were asked if they had accessed any lifelong learning opportunities through the Business Schools from which they graduated. Lifelong learning opportunities were defined as courses, modules and other initiatives related to MBA study that graduates can complete or attend after completing their MBA and throughout their careers. Just over a third (34%) of participants had accessed lifelong learning post-MBA from their own institution. 

Participants were then asked to share some information, in open-ended questions, about the nature of the lifelong learning options they had accessed. Formats cited included executive education programmes, masterclasses and alumni weekends, while topics cited included ethics, presentation skills, mentoring and negotiation.

Satisfaction with lifelong learning to date

Considering the myriad of courses and lifelong learning initiatives in which MBA graduates had partaken, the survey moved on to examine their levels of satisfaction with the options accessed.  

Almost three quarters of alumni who had taken part in postgraduate lifelong learning opportunities from Business Schools said they were either ‘very satisfied’ (32%) or ‘fairly satisfied’ (41%) with what they had completed or attended. Less than 3% reported dissatisfaction with lifelong learning provisions undertaken. 

Areas of interest for continued learning

Graduates were subsequently asked which subjects they would be most interested in, if their Business Schools were to offer additional management programmes to its MBA alumni.  

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the rapid evolution of the technology sector, MBA graduates are most interested in tech-related refreshers. The most popular topic cited by respondents was data analytics for managers (47%) closely followed by digital strategy (45%). Other popular topics among survey participants, included strategy execution (42%) global leadership (41%) and global strategy (39%). 

Topics and modules that are most commonly core elements within traditional MBA programmes were of less interest to the survey sample as a whole, in terms of postgraduate lifelong learning or refresher courses. Less than a fifth were interested in completing additional management programmes with a focus on economics (19%) supply chain management (17%) strategic HR management (16%) business ethics (16%) statistics (15%) or accounting (12%). 

Survey participants that selected ‘other’ were prompted to share what they would like to learn more about in their pursuit of lifelong learning. Answers put forward mirrored some of the courses that other participants had already completed (as evidenced earlier in the report), with suggestions encompassing diversity, project management, philosophy, presentation skills, crisis management, financial modelling, conflict resolution, game theory, branding and design, as well as culture and intercultural business. 

Conclusions

If 2020 has taught us anything, it is that business continuity and success depends on leaders who know what they want to achieve and understand how they can make a difference in the world.

In conditions that remain volatile and uncertain, businesses are crying out for a new breed of leader to future-proof economies and innovate through complexity. This new breed of leader needs people skills, as well as focus – and this presents Business Schools with the challenge of developing these game-changing traits and relevant skills both while studying on a degree programme at the School and – as this survey confirms – throughout their future careers and lives. This challenge provides an opportunity for traditional business educators – Business Schools – but also for the corporate world and other training providers, who represent growing competition to Schools’ provision of executive and custom education. With adaptive learning and AI also emerging, ‘business as usual’ is no longer sustainable. Traditional Business Schools cannot continue without embracing fundamental change.

Having said that, this piece of research demonstrates that graduates, for the most part, are satisfied with their MBA experience, hold a high opinion of what their School has offered them after their graduations, and have ambitions to continue to grow and hone their skills. 

The test which the Business School community will have to collectively pass is to take this thirst for ongoing development and compete – or collaborate – with the corporate world strategically, effectively and quickly.

This article has been adapted from a feature that originally appeared in Ambition – the magazine of the Association of MBAs (AMBA).

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Strategy is not just for organisations

People need to plot their course for the future as much as firms, and using the same processes deployed by organisations can help develop your career strategy, says Saïd Business School’s Kathryn Bishop

Sarah works in the head office of a UK retailer, and has been frantically busy over the last few months, as her employers have moved their business online. They’ve made rapid changes, opening up new distribution and delivery methods and investing heavily in web design and data collection.  This was all new to them – and to Sarah, too. She has had to learn fast to oversee these new developments, and work closely with people in partner organisations whom she has never met and whose work she doesn’t really understand. It’s been a demanding year, and it doesn’t look as if things will ever go ‘back to normal’, or return to the way they were.

As we come out of the pandemic, Sarah is wondering what to do next – and so are her employers.

She has proved to herself that she can adapt and pick up something new quickly – and this could help her to make a transition into completely different role. Could this be the right time for her to pursue her interest in film, maybe by working for a media distribution or streaming business?  Or should she stay where she is? After all, online retail is here to stay and there will be plenty of new developments in the months ahead. 

Sarah needs to plot her course, decide whether to make a move and to time it to best advantage. And that’s precisely what organisations will need to do, as consumer behaviour continues to change.

Defining new strategies

Strategy teams inside organisations are gearing up for the work ahead, researching new market trends and devising possible new operating models. They are also thinking about the right time to implement these plans.

So, as they sharpen their pencils and get to work, there are parallel questions for each of us: what are you going to do next? Where do you want to work in the next few years? Is this the right time to change employers or even to move into self-employment? And if you are forced into making some changes because of post-pandemic pressures, how will you decide what to do?

Applying strategy ideas to yourself

This is the what, when and how of strategy: what to offer the market, and when – and how best to make these changes. There’s a why, too: has the organisation’s purpose, its reason for being, changed in this new context? All those questions apply to Sarah, and to all of us, as we try to manage our working lives for the next few turbulent years.

‘Strategy’ is a word with multiple definitions but here’s one: ‘a set of guiding principles which when communicated and adopted in the organisation generates a desired pattern of decision making.’ Having our own set of guiding principles will make the next few years easier to navigate.

Start with a focus on the present, and then look forward

For individuals, these principles come from your view of both the present and the future: where are you now, and where do we want to be?  To develop your own strategy for you, start where organisations typically start: look at your current skills and resources and see what’s working well now, and what’s not going so well.

Add to that a view of your ideal future – where do you want to be in five or 10 year’s time? – and you will have a much better basis for deciding on your next step. For example, Sarah might conclude that her aim is to be promoted into a much more senior role and that therefore she’d be better off capitalising on her current experience and networks and staying where she is.

It’s easy to ask these questions about your possible future options, but they are often hard to answer. The tried-and-tested strategy processes used by organisations can help you develop your own answers, so that you are ready to make the choices and seize the opportunities which lie ahead for all of us, as we move into our next normal.

Kathryn Bishop is an Associate Fellow at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford and Chair of the Welsh Revenue Authority. She is also the author of Make Your Own Map: Career Success Strategy for Women (Kogan Page) – written for women, but containing ideas that will work for everyone.

BGA members can benefit from a discount on Make Your Own Map, courtesy of the Book Club. Please click here for details.