Liverpool Business School: Welcome from the Dean

I’m delighted to welcome students to the Liverpool Business School and in particular those who have just joined us. Students from around the globe have applied to our Undergraduate and Masters programmes in record numbers this year and we look forward to working with you all.

Induction week is always a busy time and there seemed to be few days when coaches were not lining up outside the School to take students somewhere. I was particularly interested in the visit to the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) in Snowdonia by first and final year Business Studies students. The visit provided an overview of all aspects of green living and I offer my thanks to the Business Studies team for organising this.

Students Explore the CAT site

Ethics, sustainability and social responsibility are critical issues business schools must promote and we look to take these forward through our work with organisations such as, ‘Business in the Community’.  

Ethics and social responsibility are not the only areas of concern. The business schools sector is challenged by the impact of technology on business operations and strategy. The last Tech Nation report noted that the majority of digital jobs advertised were in traditional businesses. We are seeking therefore to bring as much industry standard technology into the classroom.

This year the Bloomberg trading room has come on stream, a fantastic real-time data and trading system used by leading financial services companies worldwide. We are also introducing the Orange Data Mining software, as a part of Digital Business Intelligence module (Machine Learning for Business and Management), to help students harness the power of big data and leverage their decision making capability. The software teaches students how to perform complex tasks and feeds into the School's strategic determination to provide students with a skill set relevant to the dynamic technological environment.

The start of the year marks an important step in our development as a separate Faculty in the University and we have been recruiting a host of additional staff. Our new status will guarantee further investment by the University in people, equipment and space.

I’m tasked with raising the profile of the School in Liverpool and beyond. The Liverpool Business School name is a fantastic brand and I hope to see the School’s name more prominently displayed around the city. The hoodies seen during Induction Week, for example, were just the start of our marketing activities and we will be distributing them to everyone and hope you all enjoy wearing them!

Beyond the classroom, our relationship with the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) is highly valued and we were pleased to recently host a major event for practitioners and students. Tweets, films and blogs let those who couldn’t join us know what was being discussed and my thanks to all involved for delivering such a thought-provoking event. 

Our guests Perry Timms, Alan Price and David D’Sousa proudly display their hoodies

Working with professional bodies is very important to us and I was delighted to hear that Dr. Peter Barton had been made a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. Keith Thompson was also busy in September, working on a film about the Great War poet Wilfred Owen. The film is providing Keith with research data into crowdfunding, content streams and influencer marketing and its effect on engagement. The School will host a screening of the film next year.

In arts and culture, Prof. Ian Fillis attended Liverpool Psychfest 2017, along with colleague Dr Jan Brown and Dr. Kim Lehman, a visiting academic from the University of Tasmania, to carry out observational research as part of the Liverpool Music City Project. Their research has led to a published paper exploring how the entrepreneurial university leverages value from artistic interventions.

An initiative led by Dr Tricia Harrison and Helen Collins brought together academia, church and civic leaders and politicians to discuss a range of issues concerned with the Roma community as part of their research.  Participants worked to explore ways of improving Roma employability and civic engagement in Liverpool and beyond.

I also attended an interesting series of meetings on the nature of ‘good’ business. The actions required to make Liverpool a distinctive place where values and principles drive business interactions was discussed… so, watch this space.

Last week also saw the launch of the £5million LCR Activate project at FACT – a three year ERDF match funded project seeking to create new jobs, products and services by enabling SMEs to access Artificial Intelligence, Cloud, Big Data and Cognitive supercomputing facilities. We are joined in this by the Faculty of Engineering and Technology, FACT and the Liverpool LEP.

Meanwhile, Dr Jan Brown and Chris Taylor recently returned from Finland as part of their immersion into the ‘Team Academy’ approach to enterprise education, as delivered by a number of universities in Europe and the Americas. Our version of this unique educational programme will be rolled out over the coming years. Staff also took part in the first Erasmus staff visit of the year for the 30^th anniversary celebrations of Erasmus+. We have some great overseas partnerships and I hope students participate in the Erasmus scheme at some point in the future.

Finally, welcome to the School Dr Caroline Morrison (BABM); Dr Lesley Mearns (HR); Dr Jack Tillotson (Marketing); Amanda Ordish (ERDF Project); Emily Thompson (Faculty Office) and Jessica Lou-Hing (Employment Support Office). We wish you well.