In this blog you can find links to all of our courses and social media pages
Kerry Edge, Administrative Assistant Recruitment
At Staffordshire Business School we offer a range of undergraduate, postgraduate and professional courses in Accounting and Finance, Business and Marketing, Esports and Tourism and Events. These courses are delivered either full-time, part-time or via distance learning. More information on each individual subject and course can be found below:
When lockdown is a thing of the past and businesses emerge from a period of limited or no trading, well-planned, low-budget marketing activity is going to be more important than ever.
Angela Lawrence, Associate Dean of Staffordshire Business School is a Chartered Marketer and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. Here she gives advice to small business owners on what they can do now to effectively kick-start their marketing activity.
Have you
ever read a great article, seen a clever piece of advertising, admired a good
picture or felt a pang of jealousy at a distinctive marketing message that one
of your competitors has put out there? Time to get ready to wow your audiences
with clever, meaningful marketing messages that stand out in the crowd.
You know
your business better than anyone and you probably have a wealth of content that
is scattered around in so many places, that you don’t even know the half of
what you have. This could be pictures, staff news, blogs, industry news, or
even quizzes and fun stuff. Now is a great time to build your content into a
bank of resources that can be easily accessed to create some great marketing
content. Create a folder to put it all in, use meaningful titles to label your
content, so that it is easily identifiable when you need it. This is all about
using your time to get organised, so that you don’t have to trawl through all
your files for hours to find that one picture that you want, when you need it
most.
Understand your competitors
When it comes to marketing, nothing could be
more important than knowing your competitors well – after all, you’re trying to
attract the same target audience, so it’s always good to be a step ahead.
Take a
look at their website, their pricing, their marketing activity. Browse their
social media channels – what sort of posts seem to harness engagement and how
do they market their products or services?
In the same way that you created a folder to organise your content bank, create another for competitor insights. Gather all the information you can so that you always have a benchmark to refer to when deciding strategic direction for your marketing activity.
Get to grips with your CSR
Who are YOU
going to buy from when this pandemic is over? How do YOU want to be seen as a
business – greedy, selfish and isolated, or caring, giving and socially
conscious? I’d hazard a guess that we have all questioned our purchasing habits
these past few weeks and that brand loyalty may be eroded for the likes of
Virgin in light of Richard Branson’s approach to the coronavirus crisis.
Now is a good time to consider the social impact of your organisation and whilst it may not be economically viable to provide products or services free of charge, you can still take steps to be seen as an organisation that has a heart. Volunteering within your community is always a good way to make a real impact, consideration of your staff’s wellbeing and flexing working hours to suit childcare arrangements, allowing local charities to use rooms within your premises for meetings – there’s lots that you can do.
Plan, plan, plan!
Now that
you know what your competitors are up to and you have all your content neatly
organised, you can use this time to plan your marketing strategy for the next
12 months or more. Maybe you need to make adjustments to your website or even
plan out a whole social media campaign to ensure that you regularly get
messages about your business and your brands out there. There could well be
platforms that you have yet to explore for your business – with 3.8 billion
social media users worldwide, check out the latest trends in social media usage and make sure you know which platforms are
right for you and your customers and prospects.
Undertaking just one of these activities could make all the difference once trade returns to normal – if truth be known, you should be doing all of this, all of the time. So, my advice would be to do something proactive for the good of your business today. Don’t just sit there and wait, do something now and create good habits to support the future success of your business.
Bring yourself up to date with the modern business world, whilst developing and mastering core business competencies by studying for a degree in Business Management at Staffordshire University
Angela Lawrence, Associate dean, staffordshire business school
For March 2020, Postgrad.com asked Angela Lawrence to be their ‘expert of the month’. Here she explains what the benefits are of studying a business-related masters program…
Angela Lawrence
A business-related masters program is intended to develop a student’s thinking, skills and professionalism to an advanced and specialist level. Bachelor business degrees focus on giving students a broad range of knowledge around business operations, so that they understand the interactions between finance and marketing, operations and HR, and the important leadership and management skills required of a manager within a business environment. To support a more in-depth understanding of the complexities of the modern business environment, masters-level business degrees help students to develop strategic thinking skills that will drive a business forward in tune with fast emerging trends.
So, for me, postgraduate business study is about three things
1. Developing strategic leadership skills by learning how to bring together all elements of business performance, to drive an organisation forward to achieve positive outcomes. A good postgraduate business degree should challenge a student’s thinking and push them out of their comfort zone. It should demand research-based decision-making and equip them with the skills and confidence to drive those decisions through an organisation, harnessing the support of the management team along the way.
2. Gaining transferable skills at a high level. Postgraduate business programs teach transferable skills that are relevant for senior management positions whatever the industry sector. So, whilst there are a variety of masters-level subject-related degrees available, these could actually restrict employment outcomes to specific subject sectors. Studying for an MBA or similar postgraduate business qualification gives a graduate access to a multitude of senior positions that require a strategic thinker who can demonstrate a sound understanding of business environments. This experience is usually gained via project work that is built into the award program. Project modules provide an opportunity for students to demonstrate the full suite of management and leadership competencies that are derived from the program of study.
3. Proving yourself. Studying for a business-related masters program says something about an individual to me. It tells me that they have stamina and resilience in the business world, that they understand how to handle complex business challenges, that they have the confidence to make decisions that could change the direction of a business and that they are not afraid of that change. It tells me that they are a consummate professional and that they recognise the importance of evidence-based decision-making and the requirement to have their finger on the pulse of emerging business opportunities, which can only happen if an enquiring, inquisitive and entrepreneurial mindset is fostered.
In a post-Brexit business environment, more than ever before, businesses will need leaders who possess these attributes in order to survive and thrive.
Develop and master core competencies in support of your management and leadership ambitions. The Staffordshire University MBA is designed to accelerate your professional and personal development and to contribute to the journey of being the best you can be.
Are you struggling
to get your small business a strong following on social media platforms?
Small businesses are often mistaken for believing that social media marketing doesn’t need to be implemented for their company as they already have a loyal, communal following that are aware of who and what they stand for. However, this mindset is limiting the possible audience in and around the local area who aren’t aware of your business, but require your services, which your competitors could easily steal just by being on social media.
A successful social
media campaign will include the following steps, in order to see a growth in
traffic and overall sales:
Create a marketing strategy plan and a set of smart objectives
Research your audience, current trends and market place
Post engaging content to social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, such as competitions, stories, images, videos and polls
Create a relevant hashtag for your audience to share with their friends and family to establish brand identity
Introduce a reward system – this incentive offers rewards to customers after each visit to eventually receive a free product/service will show an increase of returning and loyal customers. An example of this is Starbucks, offering their audience stars to collect to redeem a free drink.
Engage with your audience regularly to build a strong relationship
Using Google Analytics; your small business can then measure what parts of their social media advertising is working and where they are generating traffic from. This could be an opportunity to be more specific in your advertising, and if it is generating interest from people not in the area, you could consider expanding your business globally if there’s a desire for your product/services elsewhere. Expanding your business will therefore increase revenue which you can then be implemented back into your social media campaigns, to continue to grow your brands reputation positively.
Storm Barratt, Lecturer, Staffordshire Business School
The world has turned upside down but for any University, it isn’t too soon to be thinking about a return to “normal” (in whatever guise that may be) and the young students who are (hopefully) excited to leave home, albeit temporarily, and join us for the new academic year come September. Many of our thoughts are not only about the academic guidance we shall be giving but also the extra-curricular support to help these young people transition from school children to University student.
But what about the Mums (and Dads and others) who are left behind feeling bereft at their child moving on without them?
The dreaded “Empty Nest” Syndrome.
This is a very real occurrence for many and whilst I would not want to make light of it, the following is a slightly irreverent piece I wrote when my boys moved out. Was I worried and anxious? Of course. Upset and tearful? For a while. Then, over time, sanity was restored, and a delicious feeling of freedom began to creep my way.
It was picking up yet another soggy towel from the bathroom floor that tipped me over the edge. That and looking forward to a biscuit with my cup of tea when, surprise! No biscuits. ‘That’s it!’ I shrieked to my husband, ‘It’s high time they moved out’. He raised one cynical eyebrow and replied: ‘You don’t mean that; look what happened last time’.
Three years ago, both of my children left home at the same time – one to work in America, the other to his first year at university. Suddenly after 22 years of nurturing, cherishing, catering for their every need and generally interfering, my life changed in an instant with a simple, ‘Bye Mom’ and a slam of the front door.
I remember how I felt. The first few weeks I was miserable; I couldn’t concentrate, thinking about all the bad things that would befall them in their new lives. They were obviously drawn into an underworld of sex, drugs and rock and roll. My imagination ran riot and I would lie awake at night in a hot sweat as I imagined the worst, a small voice in my head whispering over and over, ‘Come back boys, all is forgiven’.
A friend of mine was so distraught when her last child moved out, she felt compelled to invite foreign students from the local university to dinner on a regular basis, then to lunch as well and before her husband knew where he was, whole weekends. He eventually put his foot down when she invited two of her new-found “family” on holiday. An amusing tale but with serious undertones. Lynn simply could not cope with not being needed. Any mother knows that the first few weeks without their children, when they first leave home can be quite traumatic.
Empty Nest Syndrome is well documented with some women falling into a deep depression, no longer a full-time mum but not quite knowing who they are.
I’d heard of the empty nest syndrome. ‘Empty Nest?’ I’d scoffed. ‘What rubbish’. Personally, I couldn’t wait for the boys to leave. I would be able to reclaim some “me time”. I would be able to do all those things that had been put on hold while the children were growing up. I would be able to please myself about what time I went out and came home, instead of creeping in at midnight to find one of them sitting on the settee, tapping his watch and saying, ‘What time do you call this?’ (Erm, who is the parent here?)
Over the past 25 years, I had been the consummate mother, taking care of my boys’ every need. Taxi, cook, chambermaid, interfering mother, you name it, I was at their beck and call (mind you, also at the beck and call of the husband but that’s a whole other issue!), and I thoroughly enjoyed it most of the time. But three years ago, both of my children left home at the same time, albeit temporarily. One to work in America, the other to his first year at university.
I wasn’t prepared for the feelings of sadness when my boys moved out. The advice dished out by well-meaning friends was that I take up a new hobby to fill my time and give me something else to think about. Distraction therapy, I think it’s called. But I didn’t want to be distracted. I didn’t want to think about anything else. I wanted my boys back – I liked my children at home.
We would come back after a night out to a dark house and eerily quiet – when they lived at home, they would leave all of the lights on even if they went out. The neighbours nicknamed our house “The Lighthouse”. We didn’t trip over the sports bags or numerous pairs of shoes in the hallway. There were no dirty pots strewn around and the kitchen looked just how I had left it. All very peculiar.
Gradually, as the weeks passed, the feelings of sadness began to subside and I noticed that, actually, there were quite a few positives now that the boys weren’t there. Not least the dramatic reduction in our electricity, food and petrol bills. I’d stopped thinking for four people and could concentrate on me and my husband. Biscuits stayed in the tin; towels were not found on the bathroom floor. A sense of freedom had returned. Admittedly I had lost my way a bit, but the peace and quiet afforded me the time to sit and think about me and my needs. My husband and I could do what we wanted to do without restriction. For the first time in 25 years, I could put ME first without the guilt trip.
I was getting used to all of this, when, just like a boomerang, they came back. You would have thought my prayers had been answered, but these were not my babies anymore. These were young, independent adults, with their own opinions, ideas and ways of doing things. Admittedly, it was nice to have them around, but it was encroaching on my new way of life. I gradually found myself sliding back into the role of chief cook and bottle washer, laundry maid and housekeeper. And, do you know, I didn’t like it very much.
So, just as the pain of childbirth has long been erased from my memory, so have the feelings of sadness at being initially separated from my children. So here we are, all together again, one big happy family but boy, am I counting the days….. Selfish? Definitely. Guilty? Definitely not. Empty Nest? Bring it on…biscuit anyone?
Sohnia Butt, MSc Digital Marketing Management student
As of right now, there are a total of 2.9 billion social network users around the globe. Therefore, it is essential that businesses stay ahead of their competition by building up their social media presence to reach a wider audience. However, thanks to Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, live content is the fastest growing segment of internet video traffic in the past 3 years.
Instagram live gives you a perfect platform that will help businesses to engage with their customers. When doing this, you are establishing a relationship and building customer loyalty through the process of connecting with your audience in a quick and easy manner. However, like any relationship goes, engaging and having the ability to build a strong relationship with your audience and customer base can take some time.
Answering questions and queries through live videos are not
enough to build
customers trust in you, as a brand, you must make customers
feel wanted by asking them what THEY want FROM YOU, instead of assuming that
through appearing on live videos every now and then will make them stay loyal
to your company.
Businesses can engage customers through their Live streaming options through adding them to their live videos with the “Add a guest” feature, this way businesses can add their audience to their live videos for a chat and to answer questions directly that customers will ask them.
This will have a significant impact on the business sales
because it will make customers feel comfortable, through them having the
ability to ask
questions directly to business employees and owners, without
feeling like they are being invasive or annoying.
Businesses making use of live streaming will help to boost
popularity through building a hype for events the business might be
holding. The business might decide to hold an event for a new product/service
launch, what better way to promote the launch? Through Live
streaming, of course!
People who do not follow the company page on social media
sites will also be aware of the event, due to people sharing it and live videos
and stories appearing on the Instagram
explore page. This is the perfect tool for businesses to
make use of so that once people are aware of the company and the events it
holds, they will make sure to follow them on their social media pages for
future reference.
To make sure that consumers are aware that you are about to go live, one of the things to do is turn on the “Send Notifications” toggle in your video settings, this will send a notification to your followers that you have started a live video, so that wherever you go they will be aware that you have started your live!
As well as making sure your audience can see your live video, in order to well and truly grab the attention of the audience, make sure to add a catchy title on the video so that customers will be interested in seeing your video, which will increase the popularity of the business as a whole!
Instagram and Facebook live have worked wonders for companies that initially began by operating via social media, this works out extremely well for clothing companies such as Pretty Little Thing, who operate heavily on their social media sites! They do this by getting social media influencers to take over their live videos for the day to promote their new, seasonal clothing and deals that they have available at that time.
A recent study found that 80% of
people would much rather watch live videos from brands than read a blog, and 82% would
prefer to watch live videos than looking at posts on social media. This tells
us that businesses need must make sure that promoting through live streaming on
their social media sites is something that they do on a regular basis.
Live streaming should be done at prime
times of the day to ensure that their followers will more than
likely be available to tune in to their lives at that time, certain times of
the day people are more active on their social media times are Wednesday
through to Saturday at 10am till 8pm; other prime times to post with high
engagement include Wednesday at 11am, Friday from 11am, 12pm and 2pm, and
Saturday at 6pm to 8pm.
Paul Dobson, Senior Lecturer at Staffordshire Business School
According to a number of reports Google has implemented a substantial search engine algorithm update in January, plus a number of smaller ones in February 2020 … But what does this mean for businesses?
The Google search engine uses a combination of algorithms
and numerous ranking signals to deliver webpages ranked by relevance on its
search engine results pages (SERPs) and we’ve seen these changes have a direct
impact on the Google Analytics results and effectiveness of the customer
journey to gain sales for businesses. An example of this, is the page ranking has changed to
be more themed based. However, there are
ways for businesses to enable their website to be high up in the SERP. These
include :-
1. Snippets
Dominate More Search Clicks
Google has changed over recent years with the aim to deliver better search results for the reader, examples include providing the answers through featured Snippets which appear above the organic results. For example, I’ve search “how to walk in snow”
For your website to take advantage of this, you need to provide clear answers to commonly asked questions in your website area of interest. These featured Snippets are evaluated and boosted to the top depending on their quality, with the results that 54.68% of clicks from Google come from featured Snippets. There are various ways to create featured snippet at the top of the page but the key ways include :-
Create something better than the current Answer
Card / Provide updated information, and Google will prioritise this ‘Freshness’
Take the most frequent People Also Asked questions,
listed in the Google search, and create content to match*
Focus on the most frequently asked types of
questions: “How”, “Is” and “Why”
2. Keywords no longer work
Trying to pack key words into landing pages is no longer effective. Google is using more natural language and wants to independently rank websites and use them as quality data sources. Your website needs to be written as a natural language rather than trying to pack key words at the top, and consider the long key words that readers may use to find your website. In addition, you need to consider your website as an overall themed area rather than a mixture of items or topics, for example if you’re selling car parts do not include information blogs on other areas such as toys, or if you do include other areas setup robot.txt and sitemap.xml so that Google does not to index them and get confused.
3. Mobile User Experience (UX) affects your ranking and Sales.
On some of the websites that we use for student demonstrations of Customer Experience, (CX) User Experience (UX) and Google Analytics (for example https://aubergedechabanettes.com/ ) we can see up to 80% of the hits to the websites are from smart-mobiles in some weeks. A website that is not mobile compatible will lose customers especially as mobile access is a growing trend. How people find information using their mobile devices is also getting more advanced, so your website must be easy to read, grab people’s attention and then can answer their questions or keep them entertained. If you own a business based at a property such as a Hotel, Restaurant, Bar and Beauty Salon, local SEO is vitally important. Studies show that 4 in 5 consumers conduct local searches on search engines using their mobile devices. Google now allows customers, at a click of a button, to navigate to you, call you or even book directly.
4. Websites Optimize for Voice Search such and Alexa and
OK Google
With the growing use of mobile devices and home devices, voice searches are becoming an increasing trend. These searches are not only done on phones, but they can also be performed on home voice assistants such as the Amazon Echo, Samsung Smart TV, Voice Pod, etc.
Questions asked via voice instead of entering search queries
are going to make short choppy keywords less relevant and therefore search
terms have become more conversational and targeted. This increasing use of
voice searches has already had an impact of Google’s algorithms and Artificial
Intelligence systems since the search engine needs to do more work to get the
relevant information that the user is looking for.
5. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the way forward.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is an important technology
behind Google to deliver better search results to its users to create
personalized experiences for consumers.
The AI has been learning the characteristics of what makes websites of
high quality or not, then classifies these web pages and determines their
rankings. Therefore, high-quality
content is essential for effective SEO strategies. Users want content that is
relevant, helpful, and timely, so Google tends to place websites with
consistently themed high-quality content with higher search engine rankings.
If you’d like to know more about becoming an expert in using data driven strategies to lead businesses to success including how to use data to analyse, design and test elaborate customer experience systems in the customer journey to optimise growth, plus learning to work in development environments for Fitbit, Alexa and Google home and mobile devices/smartwatches/ smart home devices as well developing using cloud computing, have a look at our MSc in Customer and Data Analytics.
Author :-
Paul Dobson is a Senior Lecturer at Staffordshire Business School in Digital and Strategic Marketing. He is actively involved in supporting local and EU charities and businesses especially hospitality businesses such as hotels and restaurants. Further details can be seen at https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulmddobson/
Eerik Beeton, MSc Digital Marketing Management student
Increase return on Ads spend with these 3 steps!
There are a few reasons why your Google Ads might not work as well for your business as it seems to work for your competitors. Make sure you follow these three steps and you’re guaranteed to be more productive with your Google Ads.
Many businesses have struggled to make most out of their digital marketing efforts and have employed strategies where they use an external marketing agency to handle paid digital marketing. I’m here to suggest that outsourcing Pay Per Click and Cost Per Mille (PPC/CPM) is not sensible anymore in the 2020’s. Why would you pay someone else to do what you can do yourself?
To prove this to you, the next three steps in this blog will bring to your attention some issues around outsourcing your Google Ads and how to do it yourself to both save money and increase the effectiveness of your paid ads!
1. Exploit automation, lose that agency and save up to half of the cost
Historically, making your ads has been time-consuming and has required a lot of technical input from marketers to stay in top of the game. Year 2019 was the year of automation, this also changed how PPC works. Now your PPC can be automated with budget diversification and smart audience targeting, making the use of an agency inferior. I’m listing more handy tools throughout this blog so keep reading!
If you buy click-based advertising services (Google Ads, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter), a service provider will usually charge a 10-20% of the ad spend and a minimum monthly fee for their work. If your competitor advertises their services in-house for £300 per month and you outsource this service, then your advertising spend on Google AdWords is £150-200. This gives your competitor 30-50% higher advertising budget and an advantage.
As the average return on advertising pounds spend on google is 1 pound spent, 2 earned, you’re most likely giving your profits away using a marketing agency.
2. Optimise and save up to 69% on your Ads
Understanding you Ad quality score can help you to create better campaigns and improve your digital marketing as a whole.
Poorly optimised Google Ads are a costly mistake, not only are they more expensive but they won’t get your business the leads they are after. Once you get your Ads optimised, your Ad spend can be decreased by 69%.
Maybe the most important part of your Google Ads optimisation is that they need to be eligible for Google auctions. This means that your ads need to focus on a few strange terms like Quality Score, Maximum Bid and Ad rank. Ad rank is influenced by the maximum cost-per-click (CPC) you choose for your ad and your ad’s Quality Score. In the following, I will explain how you can create the best quality score for your ads.
To improve the quality score of your ads, focus on the following 4 strategies
Use keyword planning to increase relevance of your adds by making ad groups based on keywords
Improve the quality of your landing page. This can be achieved by (re)targeting your ad and landing pages using long-tailed keywords or by using Dynamic advertising.
Be patient! Google’s algorithms will take more than a few days to improve the quality score of your Ads and being patient is the key to measure the improvements.
If reading pages of descriptions is not for you, I’ve also included a 4-minute video clip on the strategies for your convenience.
3. Set tracking and retarget customers to get 3x more leads
Often, micro-conversions, such as referral browsing, shopping cart additions,, are ignored in tracking. However, they are essential metrics that tell about the quality of traffic and enable accurate re-marketing to visitors who completed a specific activity. This can also be used to track the performance of your paid advertising and to make changes accordingly. See the short video below on how to set you tracking!
The importance of setting conversion actions to help your customer tracking is essential; if you’re not sure how to do this here’s a link to a Google Ads article that explains it step by step.
Lastly, understanding the whole customer journey and to assess all the steps is important. By setting tracking and using retargeting can feed into 3 times more leads for your campaigns.
Future-proof your Google Ads revenue
Google has focused heavily on machine learning and keeps finessing the technology in order to deliver helpful and frictionless customer experience. There have been some setbacks in the technology and most of the features are not fully functioning for the SME’s, but this said: – The year 2020 will be the year to look out for improvements in:
Next big things in the early 2020’s
Google has focused heavily on machine learning and keeps finessing the technology in order to deliver helpful and frictionless customer experience. There has been some setbacks in the technology and most of the features are not fully functioning for the SME’s but this said: – The year 2020 will be the year to look out for improvements in:
Responsive search adds: Just give Google 5 headlines and 4 description lines, and they will do the rest.
Google Bumper Ads: use machine learning to create you 6-second ads for your YouTube ads
Maximize lift: is a smart bidding strategy that uses machine learning to determine which users are most likely to be interested in your promotions and drives down your costs of advertising.
Marzena Reszka, lecturer, Staffordshire Business School
Everyone is talking about technology and how it can suit nearly everything. Wherever there is a problem, there is the promise of a technological solution, using some combination of artificial intelligence or machine learning, big data, automation, and the Internet of Things.
There’s no doubt that technology
is set to have a big impact on every part of supply-chain operations, from
planning to logistics. By focusing so much attention on digital solutions,
however, companies may inadvertently be ensuring their failure. That’s because
the technology-first approach ignores an inconvenient truth: the intensely
human nature of the supply chain.
Technological optimists paint a bold picture of
supply chains that are so highly digitized that the function itself disappears.
They envision a world in which forecasting, planning, and execution are fully
automated and seamlessly integrated, where systems adapt to solve problems and
respond to changes in supply or demand without human intervention. Can this be
achieved? In the future such supply
chains might eventually become a reality, but today’s digital solutions must be
integrated into today’s supply chains which can be a challenge.
Today’s supply chains
are wrestling with the same problems they have faced for decades: poor
visibility, uncertainty, mistrust among functions and stakeholders, biased behaviours,
misaligned incentives, and slow decision making. Can technology fix that?
Problems like these won’t be
solved by algorithms. Worse, left unaddressed, they could destroy much of the
potential value of other digital solutions. The most sophisticated demand
forecasting system is of little use if commercial teams and production planners
ignore its outputs. And the value chain may be impacted.
Recognizing the critical role of
people doesn’t invalidate the use of supply chain technology.
However, technology for sure may
support supply chain operations. It can provide more data, and new insights
from existing data. It can automate previously manual tasks, such as with
electronic order-taking or robotic warehouse automation. And may help organisations
address the human problems, by enabling greater trust, better communication,
and enhanced collaboration across the organization. But we are far away from
the dream.
Holmström,
J. (2019). The digitalization of operations and supply chain
management: Theoretical and methodological implications. Journal
of operations management. https://doi-org.ezproxy.staffs.ac.uk/10.1002/joom.1073
Conference Monday 23rd March 2020 Time: 9:30am Location: Ashley Building LT004
Staffordshire University is the ‘Connected University’ that meets the needs of its students, businesses and society both in the UK and internationally. The conference focuses on the areas of contemporary accounting and finance, hence the title … “Digital Accountants … Getting Connected”.
At Staffordshire University Business School,
the accounting and finance courses (both undergraduate and postgraduate) have
always been at the frontier of the digital revolution in terms of contents,
platforms and delivery. The conference will bring together practitioners,
academics and consultants to deliver and engage our students with a wealth of
their knowledge and expertise in a range of areas such as, Financial
Technology, Taxation, Auditing, Islamic Finance, Charity Organisation and
Management accounting. The aim is to support learners in building an advanced level of critical
awareness and reflectivity which
are necessary for a successful career in the 21st Century.
We are pleased to announce that this year’s keynote
innovative, globally experienced and industrial speakers are Karen Staley;
Sally McGill; Abdel-Haq Mohammed; Al Bahloul Mohammad;
Simon Harris; Rick Jones; Julius Ejechi; Glenn Parkes; and Sarah Ralph.
Our
speakers will speak on areas such as:
Oracle Cloud
Financial Technology (Fintech)
Contemporary Audit
Customer centricity in Modern
Business
Charity Engaging Digitally
with Financial World
Islamic Finance in Modern
Society
Auditing in Digital age
HMRC’s digital tax returns: A
practitioner’s perspective.
Sally McGill
Chief Financial Officer Staffordshire University
Sally is
responsible for the on-going financial sustainability of the University working
with a range of internal and external stakeholders to ensure that the
organisation is able to respond to key opportunities as they arise. As a member of the Executive, Sally
contributes to the strategic and commercial leadership and management of the
organisation.
Sally is a
graduate of Durham University, where she studied modern languages, and holds a
master’s degree from Sheffield University in Information Technology
Management. She is also a Fellow of the
Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and has been active
within the British Universities Finance Directors Group for many years, most
recently as Chair. She has also been a
School Governor and Trustee for a Multi Academy Trust in the North East of
England.
Prof. Mohammed Abdel-Haq
Professor in Banking and Assistant Vice Chancellor, University of Bolton
Mohammed Abdel-Haq is a founding member and CEO of a newly formed, FSA regulated, Merchant Bank based in London. He is a private equity investor and Director of a number of UK companies. He was MD and Global Head of HSBC Amanah Private Banking and CEO of Barwa Capital (UK) Ltd. He is Vice President of The Disability Partnership, and a Trustee of the NGO Forward Thinking. In 2011 Mohammed was appointed Chairman of the UK Ministerial Advisory Group on Extremism in Universities and FE Colleges.
Karen Staley
Director at GEENS Chartered Accountants and Registered Auditors
Karen specialises in all aspects relating to the firm’s varied and extensive corporate client base, from the relatively small owner managed to the larger more complex corporate entities. She works closely with her clients in supervising their routine accounts preparation and audit and corporate taxation matters. She is the firm’s senior statutory auditor and her audit team also looks after statutory and non-statutory audits and regulated client compliance work such as solicitors, pension schemes and our clients within the financial services sector. She also advises landed estates and trusts on all matters relating to accounting and tax. She qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1998 at Geens and became the firm’s first female partner in 2003.
Dr. Mohammad Albahloul Lecturer in Accounting, University of Salford
Dr. Mohammad Albahloul is a Professionally Certified Accountant and a graduate from the University of Manchester. His research focuses on the international characteristics of accounting profession, auditing and accounting education. Prior to joining Salford University, he worked as International Management Consultant re auditing and accounting profession enhancement and curricula development. In particular, he has gained a valuable consultancy experience in accounting and auditing reforms including projects management in UK and overseas.
Sarah Ralph
PwC – Corporate Finance
Sarah attended Staffordshire University to study Accounting & Finance on their two-year fast track course, where she achieved a first-class degree and obtained employment with PwC on their One Deals graduate scheme in 2019. Sarah is currently working within their Corporate Finance division and is studying towards her ACA chartered accountant qualification with ICAEW, which she will complete by the end of 2022. Within her role, Sarah specialises in M&A transactions, with a leaning towards the Retail, Consumer & Leisure sector.
Simon Harris
Chief executive, Stoke-on-Trent Citizens Advice Bureau
Simon Harris is currently the Chief Executive of Citizens Advice Staffordshire North & Stoke-on-Trent, a post he has held since 2002. Prior to that he held a number of operational management roles in the same organisation, which he joined in 1985. He was a Board member at Staffordshire Housing (now the Honeycomb Group) from 1990 to 2014 and is a Trustee of ASIST (Advocacy Services in Staffordshire), having been Chair from 2003 to 2013. He currently sits on Citizens Advice’s national Equality Committee and the Stoke-on-Trent Hardship Commission.
Julius Ejechi
Lecturer in Accounting and Finance, University College Birmingham
Julius Ejechi is a Lecturer in Accounting and Finance and Programme Leader BSc Finance and Accounting at University College Birmingham (UCB). He is currently a doctoral student and a Visiting Teaching Fellow in the School of Finance and Management at School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. His research interest includes accounting for climate related risks; impact of fintech on business financing, economic growth and financial inclusion; economic impact of further education colleges, universities and alternative higher education providers; and valuation and tax modelling of oil and gas assets and renewable energy investments.
Rick Jones
Customer Experience Expert
Rick has explored behind the scenes with several of Britain’s most accomplished customer experience brands including Lexus, Prêt a Manger, Microsoft, Mandarin Oriental, and has worked with Customer Experience thought leaders in both the U.K. and U.S.A.In 2012, Rick set up his own business and has provided Change Management services to Nationwide Building Society, Coventry Building Society, Barclays, Capita, and online Bank, Aldermore. Rick is an accomplished speaker and coach who transfers his passion for customer experience to audiences through real life situations and explanations, achieving memorable light-bulb moments which act as a mechanism for sustainable focus.
When we started the MSc in Digital Marketing Management (FT and PT available), we were determined that students would get credited work experience working with partners. To set up the placement there is a whole module dedicated to the preparation of the placement (which is three months long). Details of when and how to get involved are on our earlier blog here.
Charlotte
Cunningham is working with Valentine
Clays in Fenton. The placement will be focusing on a strategic digital
marketing plan and improving their SEO performance of their main website, along
creating website content for their sub-companies LoveClay and Art in Clay.
Charlotte Cunningham
Eerik Beeton will be completing his placement with a Staffordshire local IT Company, CoRE Educational Ltd. During his placement Eerik will improve the SEO performance of the company’s e-commerce site selling refurbished IT.
Charlotte Gooding will be completing her project placement with City Stage Crews Ltd. The project will focus on implementing a digital marketing strategy due to the business currently not having one including creating a website for the business.
Charlotte Gooding
Sohnia Butt will be undertaking a project at The Mitchell Arts Centre in Hanley, Stoke on Trent. The project will focus around the social media marketing, email marketing and website revamp to increase sales with their target audience
Sohnia Butt
Amber Mottershead will be completing her placement in her current employment at Stone Cricket Club. The placement will focus on developing and implementing an improved digital marketing strategy. This will include building a new website, monitoring the Google Analytics, developing a clear and consistent brand identity and managing multiple social media channels.
Grace Thomson will be completing her placement with Staffordshire University in the Careers Team. Grace is focusing on implementing a social media strategy with an aim of increasing brand awareness. Grace is also working on increasing website traffic.
Grace Thomson
Leah Mahon will be completing her project placement at creative recruitment agency, The Candidate in Manchester. The project is focused on creating a content marketing/SEO and social media strategy to increase reach, particularly with client audiences.
Craig Holdcroft, will be completing his placement with The Donna Louise Trust, a charitable organisation located in Stoke On Trent. The initial plan will be to extend the digital reach of the charity with the aim to grow followers and charity engagement within the Staffordshire and South Cheshire area.
Craig Holdcroft
Keair Bailey will be developing the website and social media content for PeakMyRun
