Message from a Director - Cranfield School of Management ...

Staff and student News FORUM May 2006 7
Taking the plunge – all in the name of Work!
When a CCED consultant says they’ll go the extra mile
to customise a programme for a client, you know they really
mean it - especially if it’s Mark Threlfall who’s proved he’s
prepared to ‘take the plunge’ for the sake of the job!
Mark, an Executive Development Consultant within the
School’s Centre for Customised Executive Development,
recently won new business with the Acergy Group, a sub
sea contractor, to develop their Offshore Management
Development Programme.
To enable Mark to design a programme that fits Acergy
and their requirements he wanted to fully understand their
context and the unique challenges of working offshore -
which meant not only getting his hands dirty, but getting his
whole body very, very wet!
Before Mark could visit the Acergy vessels stationed in
the Norwegian sector of the North Sea to meet delegates in
Going like a Fair!
The School’s Career
Fair proved a great
success for both
students and the 16
international
employers who
attended the event.
Pre-arranged
interviews with
50 students were conducted over the course of the day,
in addition to multiple ad hoc interviews.
Each company brought members of their senior
management team to the fair so students could interact
with CEO, MD, Directors and senior managers who gave
detailed insights into the company opportunities.
Both companies and students were impressed with the
day, organised by the School’s Career Development team.
“The Fair was so productive and well-organised that
we will be back next year,” said Amer Daoudi, Chief of
Logistics for the UN’s World Food Programme.
Companies attending included Amazon, Barclaycard,
Orange, Norwich Union, Tesco and Royal Mail.
Knowledge Interchange Winner
Rudi Hausladen is capturing his thoughts about his year at
Cranfield online for the German career development
website Junge Karriere. Here we catch up with him during
Term Three...
The electives have started and have been, in large part,
very interesting. In the Entrepreneurship lectures guest
speakers have shared their experience in starting their own
company. I found this very revealing. I now see starting my
own company with rather different eyes. This is certainly still
my ultimate professional goal but I will not be trying to
achieve it in too hasty a manner, just for the sake of
achieving the goal.The lectures on Managing Strategic
Innovation (MSI) were also very interesting and the highlight
came when the MSI Project Teams had to complete a
business simulation within two-and-a-half hours.The
objective was to launch a new vehicle at the Geneva Motor
their work
Mark is pictured below
environment and
start the process of
management
development he had
to complete a fiveday
offshore survival
training course.
Mark said: “I truly
believe that
understanding the client’s context is crucial to designing
and delivering an appropriate programme. Well, I had to put
my money where my mouth is and complete the survival
training, helicopter ditching exercises and all.”
Acergy’s modular programme is continuing back on dry
land at the Cranfield Management Development Centre.
Chicken Run – Cranfield Style!
A new ‘eggshibition’ is being
launched this month when
three chickens take up
residence in the garden area
at CMDC.
The chickens are being introduced by Professor
Richard Wilding and the Knowledge Interchange staff to
demonstrate first hand the workings of a small scale
supply chain.
The exhibition will focus on a large company -
Heineken - and Omlet, which manufactures and supplies
designer chicken houses called Eglus (see photos).
There will be a full-size Eglu in the Knowledge
Interchange, with a live working example in one of the
garden areas of CMDC complete with three chickens in
residence for around three months.
Some of the eggs laid by the
hens will be available to buy via
bids on a special website, with
the proceeds going to charity.
The Eglus and chickens are
due to arrive on May 17.
David Horne, who recently entered the competition at the Knowledge Interchange, has won a year’s subscription to The
Economist and a book on corporate governance signed by Professors Nada and Andrew Kakabadse. David got full
marks to 10 questions on executive pay that were set by Dr Ruth Bender while attending a General Management
Programmes networking event.
Bowling, poker and making Lego cars –
all part of the Cranfield MBA!
Show in 2010 that can automatically
park itself. We had at our disposal a set
of Lego pieces, two laptops and a
control box.The roles were distributed so that nobody would
be working in his/her own specialist area. Thus, the finance
people became operations managers and the marketing
people became software engineers. Finally, the vehicles had
to be presented and demonstrated, and a price and costs
had to be given - lots of fun and bags of learning!
We have also had a lot of fun here in recent weeks,
despite all the stress. Our Social Reps are always busy
organising events for Thursday evenings. Two weeks ago
almost half of the Year went bowling in Milton Keynes, and
this was great fun.This week we had a poker evening. As is
so often the case, the beginners were the luckiest and had
some quite big wins, imitation money of course!
Distinguished Alumnus Seminar
The Cranfield Management
Association (CMA) has
launched a new event, The
CMA Distinguished Alumnus
Seminar, with the first lecture
being given this month (on
May 9) by John McFarlane,
MBA 1975.
John was the first recipient of the
Distinguished Alumnus award when it was
introduced in 2003, and is Chief Executive Officer
of the Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) Banking
Group.
He retains close links with Cranfield and his
lecture to alumni and students formed part of
Murray Steele’s MBA elective ‘Leadership and
Top Management Skills’.
John recently pledged an initial donation of
£50,000 to the School to reward high-achievers
on the MBA programme, creating the £5,000
annual Cranfield Leadership Prize and an annual
£2,000 Spirit of Cranfield Prize to be awarded to
the MBA student who best exemplifies the values,
spirit and nature of the Cranfield MBA. He is
funding both of these prizes in perpertuity.
Sportsman’s Dinner raises Cash
The second annual Cranfield Alumni Sportsman’s
Dinner is taking place at the exclusive RAC Club
on Pall Mall on May 19.
Guests at this black tie event will enjoy a
champagne reception followed by a three-course
dinner, celebrity speakers, and a charity auction
with prizes including stunning holidays, artefacts
and even a private flight around the UK.
The guest speaker is former professional
cricketer Geoff Miller who spent 20 years on the
professional circuit playing for Derbyshire, Essex
and England.
Funds raised will go to the
Colin Javens Trust, set up by
Colin Javens (left) to help
fund research into spinal
injury research after he was
paralysed from the neck
down in a diving accident five
years ago.
Colin has recently
completed a world first,
driving from London to Cape Town for his charity
in a specially adapted vehicle. He will also speak
at the dinner and his expedition Land Rover will
be displayed in the foyer of the RAC Club.
Peru Trek for cancer Research
Meetings and Events
Administrator Carly Williams
is donning her boots in
October and trekking the Inca
Trail in Peru to raise money
for the Breast Cancer
Campaign.
She is planning to raise
£2,675 for the charity while fulfilling her dream of
completing the Inca Trail.
“The challenge of raising money, training and
trekking the Inca Trail will be tough, but I'm sure it
will be worth it,” she said.
For more information or to sponsor Carly go to
www.justgiving.com/carlywilliams