Deon Wong, Visitor Attraction and Resort Management Student
On Wednesday 24th March 2021, Year 1 & 2 Fda Visitor Attraction and Resort Management Students (VARM) attended a virtual Q&A with extra special guest Francis Jackson (Alton Towers Resorts Operations Director). The meeting enabled students to ask Francis on all things Alton Towers, specifically his journey, COVID impacts, new role and advice on how to be successful within the industry. I (Deon Wong), one of the VARM students, was given the opportunity to become the master of ceremonies and lead the Q&A.
Francis Jackson began the Q&A by giving us a brief
background history into his experience, from working at Australia’s Falls Creek
Ski Lifts as the Director of Snowsports to being the beloved Operations Director
at Alton Towers. He has a solid belief in transferring his knowledge gained and
sharing them with his team to make them bigger and better. Francis expressed
his huge heart towards Alton Towers and how he enjoys the customer focus
moments, where he has built relationships to improve the customer journey. He
regrets not having time to be out there with the customers and staff due to his
administrative role.
Moving into the 2021 season, ATR aims to deliver a ‘thrilliant’
season of celebrations and fun. With an increase in footfall, new safety
regulations are introduced to adhere to the safety guidelines. Francis mentioned
various new additions to accompany guests’ safety and capacity, from utilising
the lawn space, new ride openings, temporary flat rides, and monorail
adjustments. Maintaining a ‘fantabulous’ presentation and customer journey is a
massive priority for Francis. From ensuring cigarettes and chewing gum are
picked up to repainting areas. Francis states it’s all about the “pursuit
of guest excellence for the guest journey “- (Francis Jackson, 2021).
Francis Jackson discussed his new role as general manager. With
over 30 years of experience in the leisure industry, he’s driven to make the
customer journey and experience better. He understands change is always good,
as businesses can’t stay static. They have to adapt, change and constantly move
forwards to progress. He’s a firm believer in achieving an outstanding
organisation by refocusing on corporate social responsibility, diversity and inclusion.
Within his new role as general manager, he’s accountable for all things COVID
related, capacity and having the final say in difficult decisions.
Lastly, Francis Jackson passed on specific advice on how to
be successful within the leisure industry. From knowing your product, listening
to guest feedback and continuously pushing the product your offering to entice
guests. One advice he advises is for people to be authentic and be true to
themselves; once you divert and create a fake facade, issues will arise. It’s
important to feel confident and ensure you have questions to ask, as It’s
constantly a lesson of growth and development.
Angela Lawrence, Associate Dean, Staffordshire Business School
Just about every university
that you stumble across will offer degrees in Business – it’s an
all-encompassing subject that prepares students for a multitude of careers. It’s
popular and fun to study. So, what is a business degree?
The foundations
Business degrees usually
cover a range of core knowledge that will help you to understand how businesses
operate, whether you start work in the offices or as part of a management team.
Learning core subjects such as marketing, finance, human resource management
and organisational behaviour will equip you with knowledge that makes sense of
the business environment within which you work. Modern businesses appear to be
less hierarchical, so a good all-round knowledge of the mechanics of business
operations is a great foundation for a career in any business sector.
Where will this take me?
Most students decide to study
so that they can enhance their employment opportunities on completion of their
degree. Business students often ask what careers may be opened up to them with
a degree in Business and to be quite blunt, pretty much every organisation that
you will work for throughout your working life will operate as a business.
Whether public, private, not-for-profit (charity) or self-employed, the same
business principles apply – an organisation has to make money to invest money
in the growth of the business.
How can I specialise?
So, although a business degree gives you an all-round view of business operations, there are still ways in which you can specialise within your degree, to make it more enjoyable and more relevant to you:
1) Degree Choice
Students can specialise in their business degree choice. For example, at Staffordshire Business School we offer 3 business degrees, each of which has a specialised focus in contemporary areas of business:
The beauty of each of these degrees is that during the first year, students follow a common syllabus regardless of which degree they have chosen. This means that should they decide to change their study focus having “dipped their toes” into the waters of business study, the transfer onto one of the other business courses is fairly seamless.
2) Different lengths of study
For some of our business degrees you can also specialise by choosing different lengths of study – we have accelerated two-year versions of both our Business Innovation and Entrepreneurship and our Finance and Business Enterprise degree. Two years of study means two years of fees, not three, so it costs less and you get to the job market more quickly! Added to this, employers recognise that students who have undertaken an accelerated degree are resilient and hard-working – you have to be to take on continual study without the Summer break afforded to most university students.
3) Options modules
You can also specialise by choosing optional modules that suit your interests and needs. All of our courses offer options modules in the second and third year of study, making it possible for you to control the content of your degree to suit your preferences. We recently asked students and graduates which options choices they would like and they chose subjects such as Psychology in Business, Social Media Strategy and PRINCE2.
4) Placement years
Taking a year out to undertake a business placement is possibly one of the best things you can do to add value to your degree. We know from experience that the students with placement year experience tend to do better in the jobs market when they leave university – which makes sense, as they have more to write about in their CV. One of our Business School students, Jack, had this to say about his placement year at Aldi:
“I have experienced first-hand just how relevant a Business Management degree from Staffordshire University can be. The theories we learn, practice, and apply to assignments can be similarly applied to real-life business situations. I completed a 12 month Industrial Placement with Aldi. Throughout the Placement I had the opportunity to lead various projects – looking at real business issues – where the models and approaches taught at Staffs proved to be instrumental in promptly understanding the situation and assessing the appropriate direction to take to find the most effective solution. A Staffs Business degree is your competitive advantage!” – Jack Tordoff.
Further study
And of course, many of our business graduates enjoy the university experience so much, that they decide to go on to study further on completion of their business degree. Fortunately, we have an attractive range of postgraduate degrees in subjects such as International Business Management, Digital Marketing Management and Accounting and Finance, so there are plenty of options to choose from. Going into the job market with a postgraduate qualification immediately gives employers an indication of how committed and capable you are – it’s a great asset to your CV.
Enterprise and entrepreneurship
Not everyone wants to work for someone else. In the UK currently, there are approximately 4.31 million self-employed workers. If you’ve got a business dream and want help in turning it into a reality, then on completion of your business degree you could get support from our Enterprise Zone, who can help with your business start-up challenges
Find out more about the range of courses on offer at Staffordshire Business School today – we don’t just teach business, we’re busINess.
Digital marketing is a rapidly changing business environment, Google has changed its algorithm several times and this is affecting SMEs website visibility, search engine ranking and therefore sales, plus customers have changed their use of social media, for example increased their use of Facebook and Instagram to purchase online. As lock-down is being reduced and customers are used to viewing and purchasing online, businesses are substantially increasing their use of digital marketing. The increase in competition to gain customers will makes sales tougher, especially as businesses look to recover their lost income. So it is essential that business get their digital marketing right.
I’ve been in the consultancy world for over 25 years and here at Staffordshire Business School (SBS) for over 10 years. During this time, I have helped numerous SMEs successfully grow their sales and develop their brand via effective targeted digital marketing, including changing a loss making organisation to making a profit in eighth weeks, increased sales by over 400% by advising on improvements to an organisations website, and increased sales by over 600% by developing an organisations social media strategy. We are now developing this further by pulling together teams of experienced digital marketing lecturers and trained students to offer support to our local SMEs. This will be via free digital marketing clinics to support our local SMEs.
The areas we’re starting to help business are :-
SEO Audit – to help improve your page ranking on google and therefore help your customers find you.
Local SEO Audit – to help local customers find and contact you
Social Media Audit – to help improve the impact of your social media
Competitor Analysis and Audit – to help see what your competitors are doing right… and wrong so that you can improve your competitive position.
And soon we are extending these to include :-
Mobile Marketing Audit – mobile is the most popular platform for most customers, so we help improve your online / digital marketing for mobiles.
Customer Analysis – we’ll analyse your customers online buying behaviour, keywords that they use, what they use and when.
Website and customer analytics – a combination of analysing your website and it’s effectiveness at gaining customers and enabling customers to buy from you or contact you.
A big thank you to the North Staffs Dementia Support Charity Approach Staffordshire, for being involved in the pilot, their support has been invaluable.
Please note that places are limited so if you’re not able to get a timeslot please email me and we will start with an initial chat with myself to clarify which area you are interested in, plus I’ll booking you into a future 30 minute clinic with one of our teams at a later date. For further details please contact paul.dobson@staffs.ac.uk or via LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulmddobson/
Radicic, D., Pugh, G. and Douglas, D. (2018).
Promoting cooperation in innovation ecosystems: Evidence from European
traditional manufacturing SMEs, Small
Business Economics. Accepted 01-08-2018. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-018-0088-3
Abstract
We investigate whether public support for innovation
increases the propensity of SMEs in traditional manufacturing industries to
cooperate for innovation—in particular, for incremental innovation—with other
firms and external knowledge providers. Using data from seven EU regions, we
find that support programmes do not promote cooperation with competitors,
marginally promote cooperation with customers and suppliers and strongly
promote cooperation with knowledge providers. These findings suggest that, in
this case, the role of public policy is systems conforming rather than systems
creating. Innovation support programmes can assist SMEs in traditional
manufacturing industry to consolidate and/or extend their innovation ecosystems
beyond familiar business partners by promoting cooperation with both private
and public sector knowledge providers. Finally, our findings suggest that
evaluation studies of innovation support programmes should be designed to
capture not only input and/or output additionality but also behavioural and
systemic effects.
Keywords
SMEs; Traditional
manufacturing industry; Innovation ecosystems; Innovation policy; Cooperation
for innovation; Behavioural additionality
Radicic, D., Douglas, D., Pugh, G. and Jackson, I.
(2018). Cooperation for innovation and its impact on technological and
non-technological innovations: empirical evidence for European SMEs in
traditional manufacturing industries, International
Journal of Innovation Management. Accepted 07-09-2018. https://doi.org/10.1142/S1363919619500464
Abstract.
Drawing on a
sample of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in traditional
manufacturing industries from seven EU regions, this study investigates how
cooperation with external organisations affects technological (product and
process) innovations and non-technological (organisational and marketing)
innovations as well as the commercial success of product and process
innovations (i.e., innovative sales). Our empirical strategy takes into account
that all four types of innovation are potentially complementary. Empirical
results suggest that cooperation increases firms’ innovativeness and yields
substantial commercial benefits. In particular, increasing the number of
cooperation partnerships has a positive impact on all measures of innovation
performance. We conclude that a portfolio approach to cooperation enhances
innovation performance and that innovation support programs should be
demand-led.
From the MAPEER project:
Radicic, D. and Pugh, G (2016). R&D programmes, policy mix, and the “European Paradox”: evidence from European SMEs, Science and Public Policy, 44 ( 4 ) ( 2017 ), pp. 497 – 512. doi: 10.1093/scipol/scw077. First published online: October 2, 2016.
Abstract
Using a sample of small and medium-sized enterprises from
twenty-eight European countries, this study evaluates the input and output
additionality of national and European Union (EU) R&D programmes both
separately and in combination. Accordingly, we contribute to understanding the
effectiveness of innovation policy from the perspective of policy mix.
Empirical results are different for innovation inputs and outputs. For
innovation inputs, we found positive treatment effects from national and EU
programmes separately as well as complementary effects for firms supported from
both sources relative to firms supported only by national programmes. For
innovation outputs, we report no evidence of additionality from national
programmes and cannot reject crowding out from EU programmes. However, crowding
out from EU support is eliminated by combination with national support. These
findings have policy implications for the governance of R&D policy and
suggest that the European paradox—success in promoting R&D inputs but not
commercialisation—is not yet mitigated.
Key words: R&D support; SMEs; policy mix; input and
output additionality; European paradox
Radicic, D. and Pugh, G. (2017). Performance
Effects of External Search Strategies in European Small and Medium-Sized
Enterprises. Journal of Small Business
Management, 55, 76-114. First
published on-line: Feb.15th 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jsbm.12328
Abstract.
There is little evidence regarding the performance impact of
open innovation on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), especially across
different firm-size categories and sectors. Using new survey data from 28
European countries, we specify ordered logit and generalized proportional odds
models to explore how seven individual external search strategies (knowledge
sources) affect SME innovation performance across different size categories and
sectors. While we find some consistently positive effects, in particular from
using customers as an external knowledge source, we also find that some search
strategies may not be beneficial. These findings suggest managerial and policy
implications.
Radicic, D. (2020). National and international
R&D support programmes and technology scouting in European small and medium
enterprises. Journal of Science and Technology Policy Management 11(4), 455-482. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSTPM-10-2019-0091
Abstract
Purpose. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of
national and international R&D support programmes on firms’ technology
scouting, defined as firms’ use of external knowledge sources.
Design/methodology/approach. Drawing on a unique data set on
R&D support programmes for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
operating in both manufacturing and service sectors across 28 European countries,
this study reports treatment effects estimated by the copula-based endogenous
switching model, which takes into account unobserved firm heterogeneity.
Findings. Empirical results indicate that R&D support
programmes have heterogeneous effects on technology scouting. In particular, a
crowding-out effect arises in the case of informal sources of external
knowledge, whereas additional effects are reported for formal, strategic
sources.
Practical implications. For informal sources of external
knowledge, a random distribution of R&D measures would have a substantially
larger effect rather than using current selection criteria.
Originality/value. To the best of the authors’ knowledge,
this is the first study to explore the policy effects on technology scouting
applying a copula-based endogenous switching model. Most cross-sectional
empirical studies use matching estimators, although their main disadvantage is
the selection on observables.
Key words External knowledge search; Behavioural additionality; Copula-based endogenous switching model; European SMEs; Technology
GPrix project (November 2009 – February 2012) commissioned by the European Commission’s DG-Research. Full title: Good Practices in Innovation Support Measures for SMEs: facilitating transition from the traditional to the knowledge economy; Instrument: SP4-Capacities—CSA—Support Action; Call: FP7-SME-2009-1; Grant agreement Number: 245459. The website for this project, including aa very large number of deliverables etc., is currently available at http://business.staffs.ac.uk/gprix/en/index.htm
MAPEER project commissioned by the European Commission’s DG-Research. Full title: Making Progress and Economic Enhancement a Reality for SMEs. Funded under FP7-SME. Grant agreement ID: 245419. The MAPEER project website is no longer available but the results are reported in summary form on CORDIS: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/93511/factsheet/en
The two projects coordinated their questionnaire surveys to
facilitate analysis and eventual publication. Together, participants at
Staffordshire University contributed to seven publications arising from these
datasets.
The GPrix project
focused on evaluating innovation support measures for SMEs in traditional
manufacturing industries. In brief, three published articles and a UNI-MERIT
Working Paper arising from the project reported that:
the estimated effects of innovation support
programs are positive, typically increasing the probability of innovation and
of its commercial success;
although innovation support measures in the EU
are mostly designed to support product innovation in R&D intensive sectors,
for firms in traditional manufacturing industries a broader innovation (policy)
mix is more appropriate, including support for product innovation, process
innovation, marketing and organizational innovations (of particular
importance), together with internationalization, design and cooperation;
innovation support programmes can assist SMEs in
traditional manufacturing industry to consolidate and/or extend their
innovation ecosystems by promoting cooperation with both private and public
sector knowledge providers, suggesting that initial input and/or output
additionality from public support may be propagated and amplified by behavioural
and systemic effects; and
increasing
the number of cooperation partnerships has a positive impact on all measures of
innovation performance.
The MAPEER project focused on innovation support for SMEs more
generally. Three articles arising from this project reported:
that the
“European paradox” regarding SME support — i.e. success in promoting R&D
inputs but not commercialisation — is not yet mitigated;
new evidence on “open innovation” strategies, suggesting
not only some consistently positive effects, in particular from using customers
as an external knowledge source, but also that some search strategies may not
be beneficial; and
evidence that R&D support programmes have
heterogeneous effects on technology scouting – defined as firms’ use of
external knowledge sources – including a crowding-out effect on informal
sources of external knowledge but additionality with respect to formal, strategic sources.
For convenience, the abstracts of all seven contributions
are reproduced below
From the GPrix
project:
Radicic, D., Pugh, G., Hollanders, H., Wintjes, J., and Fairburn, J. (2016). The impact of innovation support programs on small and medium enterprises innovation in traditional manufacturing industries: An evaluation for seven European Union regions. Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, 34(8) (December): 1425-1452. First published online December 18, 2015. doi:10.1177/0263774X15621759
Abstract
We evaluate the effect of innovation support programs on
output innovation by small and medium enterprises in traditional manufacturing
industry. This focus is motivated by a definition of traditional manufacturing
industry that includes capacity for innovation, and by evidence of its
continued importance in European Union employment. We conducted a survey in
seven European Union regions to generate the data needed to estimate
pre-published switching models by means of the copula approach, from which we
derived treatment effects on a wide range of innovation outputs. We find that
for participants the estimated effects of innovation support programs are
positive, typically increasing the probability of innovation and of its
commercial success by around 15%. Yet, we also find that a greater return on
public investment could have been secured by supporting firms chosen at random
from the population of innovating traditional sector small and medium
enterprises. These findings indicate the effectiveness of innovation support
programs while suggesting reform of their selection procedures.
Keywords
Small and medium enterprises, evaluation, traditional
manufacturing, innovation support, innovation outputs
Innovation
support measures in the EU are mostly designed to support product innovation in
R&D intensive sectors. To increase the still considerable contribution to regional
employment and competitiveness from SMEs in traditional manufacturing industries
a broader innovation (policy) mix is more appropriate. This paper draws data
from a survey of more than 300 SMEs from seven regions within the European Union,
as well as case studies, to address the question: How can innovation policy interventions
be improved to support SMEs in traditional manufacturing industries more
effectively? We claim that innovation support should be sensitive to the way SMEs
in traditional manufacturing sectors innovate and grow. We find that product innovation
(and support used for product innovation) is less likely to generate growth, than
(support used for) process innovation. Also (support used for) marketing innovations
and organizational innovations are of particular importance – together with
internationalization, design and cooperation. The increasingly selective application
procedures applied are not the most efficient to generate impact, since those
who are supported (and those who are supported more frequently), are the ones who
are most likely to take the same innovative steps anyhow, irrespective of
policy support.
Keywords
Innovation;
SMEs; traditional sectors; low-tech; policy evaluation; manufacturing; process innovation
The global pandemic has put resiliency on the agenda of every company in the world. As they cope with the seismic changes brought about by COVID-19, businesses of all sizes and types have needed to adapt to remote work, reconfigured physical workspaces, and revised logistics and supply networks. They’ve also changed operating procedures to cope with the pandemic’s risks and effects.
But what do companies do now?
The reality is that supply chain shocks are usually impossible to
predict but happen with frustrating regularity. That means real value is at
stake.
The promising news is that organisations can both protect against
downside risks, such as pandemics, and gain substantial economic returns from
increased output and productivity.
The successful organisations today, and in the years ahead, will redesign their operations and their supply chains to protect against a wider and more acute range of potential shocks and disruptive events. Thus, there is a need for increased visibility on both the demand and supply side.
Supply chain digitization can enable organisations to have visibility
across the whole value chain—from the production of raw materials to the end
customer—and better meet the needs of their customers. A bonus: it improves the
agility and responsiveness of operations without increasing costs. In fact,
research by the World Economic Forum, in collaboration with McKinsey,
shows that companies often achieve significant and simultaneous improvements in
multiple performance measures when they integrate advanced digital technologies
across the value chain.
Marzena Reska
Before the coronavirus hit, most companies were already accelerating the digital transformation of their customer journeys and value chains. The expectation is digital technologies to be at the core of the new normal, enabling organisations to better meet the needs of their customers, and improving the agility and responsiveness of operations without increasing their costs. Companies often achieve significant and simultaneous improvements across multiple performance measures when they integrate advanced digital technologies across the value chain. This also allows them to build resilience which is an internal trait, but the disciplines and strategies that support it can also have a far wider reach.
During the crisis, many businesses have been able to overcome staff
shortages by automating processes or developing self-service systems for
customers. These approaches can accelerate workflows and reduce errors—and
customers often prefer them.
Digital approaches can transform customer experience and significantly
boost enterprise value when applied end to end.
Also, technology-enabled methodologies can significantly accelerate
cost-transparency work, compressing months of effort into weeks or days. These
digital approaches include procurement-spending analysis and clean-sheeting,
end-to-end inventory rebalancing, and capital-spend diagnostics and portfolio
rationalization. However, the businesses
will need to be smart and careful in their approach. Leading organisations are
adopting increasingly sophisticated techniques in their strategic planning, assessing
each resource and opportunity very carefully as the environment changes and new
data emerge.
Now, with the likelihood of prolonged uncertainty over supply, demand, and the availability of resources COVID-19 represents the trigger for operations functions to adopt an agile approach to transformation.
Dr Bharati Singh, Senior Lecturer, Staffordshire Business School
This
is my 3rd blog and I will continue with the theme of sharing my
thoughts from previous corporate employment. So, this one is dedicated to
work-life balance.
While teaching on a level 6 module ‘Change and Transformation’ we watched a video where the HR Manager for sales in Google was talking about creating trust and people management (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRsJbpppvEU). She stated that she does not check on how much time her team spends in office or how many sick days they take. She further said that there was no rule on specific office timings. It was all about performance which was evaluated quarterly and an individual could decide how they met their targets as they were adults and could work out their own schedules and holidays; thus, managing their work/life balance.
This
reminded me of one of my favourite bosses in the corporate world. I had to
travel home which was in another city on a personal emergency and in my request
did mention that all work will be taken care of – his reply – I don’t care if
you work out of Timbuktu, till the work is done. That was the trust my boss had
in me and that trust helped in creating the best work/life balance I had in my
corporate life.
A checklist by CMI, confirms that the employers need to provide the control to employees to manage their working arrangements taking into consideration their social aspects and also achieve organisational objectives.
If organisations offer flexitime, the communication should be clear and the corporate culture should support it. Creating a culture of respect and trust (Grimes, 2011) is the first step towards successful flexitime policies supporting work/life balance. This is not easy and has its challenges; however, with correct implementation, this can lead to employer/employee satisfaction, thriving organisations and increased employee retention.
In
the face of the pandemic, when working from home has become the ‘new normal,’
the need for trust between employer and employee has further heightened. Many
companies like Unilever have gone on record about increased productivity and increased
employee engagement as an outcome of remote working.
In a study conducted on ethical behaviours by managers, trust shown by senior management and supervisors and their support for work/life balance was perceived to be ethical (Cowart, et al., 2014).
The Mental Health Foundation, UK has also confirmed that 1 in 6 people will experience mental health issues emanating from a negative work/life balance. Thus, it is imperative that organisations support work/life balance. This can be achieved by:
Clear guidelines by the organisation
Transparent dialogue between employer and employee
Expectations management
Trust across the ranks and not only limited to a few employees
As we move through the Government’s Roadmap to ‘normality’ over the next few months, employers will be starting to consider what this may mean for staff returning to office environments. Many staff who have been able to work from home throughout the pandemic have reported increased productivity, better work life balance, saving time and money through the elimination of the commute, as well as many other benefits.
There have been some drawbacks, particularly where staff have had to juggle home-schooling and caring responsibilities, but as these staff become able to return to a normal working routine, it is likely that they will start to experience some of the same benefits as their colleagues
A recent YouGov survey showed that 91% of respondents surveyed who have been able to work from home during the pandemic, want to continue to do so at least some of the time. This pressure from employees (who have proved that they can successfully work from home), should be a catalyst for most organisations to make changes to the levels of flexibility they will allow. If organisations choose not to offer greater levels of flexibility in WHERE staff work, they may see their employees move to a competitor who IS willing this. More and more frequently ‘working from home’ can be found on job advertisements for professionals, allowing these organisations to take advantage of the changing demands of employees, and opening their vacancies to a much wider talent pool, giving them more choice in their chosen candidate.
What the ‘mass working from home experiment’ over the last year has taught us is that everyone in our organisations can benefit from a level of flexibility, and the organisation will benefit in return through higher levels of engagement and commitment. Consider another benefit to increasing flexibility, the ability to truly open vacancies to more diverse candidates, from those with disabilities for whom homeworking would be much easier, to increasing the number of women in the workforce (and in senior roles) through allowing more flexibility around WHEN the work can be done.
Vanessa Oakes
One of the main challenges to remote working has been around managing (or monitoring) performance. This link between presence and performance has been prevalent in sectors where a judgement about performance is not based on measurable KPIs, rather about the complexity of work and behaviours demonstrated in performing it. This could provide challenges to organisations who are willing to improve the flexibility which they offer. This raises a series of questions for managers and leaders:
What does ‘good’ work look like? This will be a question that needs to be answered by each manager as they attempt to define what their performance expectations are within the new parameters of work.
Are managers communicating their expectations clearly enough?
Are they making themselves available, but not inserting themselves unnecessarily into the working day of their teams?
And most importantly, are they developing relationships built on trust with each of their team members? It is these relationships that will determine the success of the flexible working strategy and will allow the organisation to take advantage of the many financial and intangible benefits of a flexible workforce for the foreseeable future.
Professor Fang Zhao, Associate Dean Research and Enterprise, Staffordshire Business School
By 2050, two-thirds of the
world’s population will live in towns and cities, resulting in the consumption
of over 70% of energy, and the emission of an equal amount of greenhouse gases
(European Commission, 2019). The Covid-19 pandemic is exacerbating the challenges
that cities have already been facing from multiple fronts such as rapid
urbanisation, digital disruptions, demographic, climate and environmental
changes, economic restructuring and reforms. Covid-19 is changing how urban
residents live, work and commute and reshaping economic structures and business
models. In the current global battle against Covid-19, smart cities have a
pivotal role to play in responding to the crisis in terms of track-and-trace of
coronavirus cases using smart technologies, enforcing social distancing rules,
getting homeless people off the streets, and special emergency measures for
care homes, to give just a few examples.
The concept of a smart city has
been seen as a strategy to tackle the grand challenges facing urban planning
and development. Smart city is a fuzzy word with various terms being used – intelligent
city, digital city, green city, knowledge city, and smart sustainable city.
Research on smart city can be traced back to the 1990s, taking on many perspectives,
mostly in four aspects: the technological aspect including the technological
infrastructure and support network for building smart cities, the
socio-cultural aspect, or citizen engagement, the political-institutional
aspect, such as government support and policies, and the economic-business
aspect, namely business models and profitability.
A team of researchers (Prof Zhao, Dr Olushola Fashola, Dr Tolulope Olarewaju and Dr Ijeoma Onwumere) at Staffordshire Business School have been investigating what has been done in smart city research over the past 20 years. After a systematic and comprehensive literature review, the research team found that smart city research tends to revolve around six key areas: digital technology diffusion, smart city strategy and implementation, supply chains and logistics, urban planning and governance, smart city entrepreneurship and innovation, and Smart city evaluation and measurement. The team also identified four major challenges for small city research: (a) smart city research is often fragmented and technology-driven; (b) many studies are on perceived benefits of smart cities and fewer on the downsides of the effect of technologies and failure projects; (c) there is a need to build new theories for smart city research; and (d) there is a lack of empirical testing of the conceptual frameworks developed in smart city research. Furthermore, the team found that there was very limited research on crisis management in smart city before 2020. However, the research landscape is changing with emerging literature investigating how smart cities respond to crises and pandemics, and exploring strategies that can be used to tackle swiftly the crisis effectively at both strategic and operational levels.
Directions for future research and practice in smart cities are proposed. If you want to know more and/or seeking for collaboration, please contact Prof Fang Zhao – Associate Dean Research and Enterprise at fang.zhao@staffs.ac.uk.
Carol Southall, Course Director, Staffordshire Business SChool
STudent Life and Learning in
Lockdown: achieving Resilience (STeLLL:aR)
Staffordshire Business School
students are not alone in their sense of isolation as they work remotely on
modules and projects as part of their undergraduate, postgraduate or research degrees.
What makes them STeLLL:aR is their efforts to work with
the tools and technology they have access to and really engage with industry, as
well as with other Schools and students across the University.
So far this academic year we have seen numerous examples of this resilience and engagement with learning through projects such as the Social Isolation Project – Digital Pub in the Cloud https://www.staffsunion.com/ents/event/16189/, a joint collaboration between Arts and Events students to address the issue of social isolation through the medium of art and well-publicised events to showcase and disseminate the messages that #ArtsMeanBusiness and #AMEtoConnect are key to better communications about this issue in these challenging times.
The Connected Café, designed and managed by Staffordshire Business School students, including our Department Representatives, will enable students to meet virtually, engage in fun activities and get to know their peers across different courses.
For Level 5 Event Management students, working with Appetite to establish the need for greater engagement with the arts and cultural sector across the City of Stoke on Trent, has offered a real insight into the importance of the arts and culture in our daily lives, especially as we recognise now more than ever, the human need for social interaction. The questionnaire, designed by the students, in partnership with Appetite, aims to establish awareness of Appetite and give a chance for respondents to suggest what arts and cultural entertainment they would be likely to engage in, were it possible to do so.
The Trentham Gardens
volunteer programme, set up by staff from Staffordshire Business School and the
Events Team at Trentham, aims to offer events volunteer opportunities to all
SBS students. Event Management students have already been involved in
volunteering for the December Fairy Lights event and have clocked up an
impressive number of (socially-distanced) hours between them in the lead-up to
Christmas. The package of training, travel expenses and opportunities to
enhance employability skills has really enhanced student learning, and offered
some respite from the challenge of lockdown. Events students have also been
able to work remotely with the team at Trentham Gardens, to carry out a survey
to establish awareness of the Gardens and Retail Village amongst specific
target markets. Students presented their survey results and gave suggestions of
how to attract their identified target market, as well as suggesting some
events more likely to attract the target market in question. The students will
also form a focus group for the Trentham team when their new event ideas are
explored further.
Recognising the challenges faced by people in lockdown, Level 6 Event Management students have organised a challenge event #TogetherAtHome, for their final year project, the aim of which is to bring people together throughout lockdown, by encouraging them to share original, unique and creative photos/videos to generate positivity. Their Facebook page is www.facebook.com/TogetherAtHomeChallengeStaffsUni2021 and any donations received through this project, will go towards Stoke-on-Trent Foodbank, to help individuals in need during COVID-19.
The Celebrating Student
Success Awards were held at the end of January 2021, to showcase student
achievements throughout the course of lockdowns 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0. The Awards
event was planned and hosted by students for students, highlighting the
resilience and successes of students, as well as their ability to mentor their
peers. With categories ranging from Staffs Superhero, through to Funniest Teams
Moment (and there were many) and Helping Hand Award, nominees were recognised
for their contribution to their own success and that of others.
Throughout lockdown, Deon
Wong (FdA Visitor Attraction and Resort Management) has strived to use his free
time effectively, whether that be developing new key skills or taking advantage
of learning opportunities. To maintain his level of creativity and imagination,
he took the time to produce a unique online competitive gameshow, allowing a
diverse range of people, to compete against each other in a variety of social,
physical and strategic challenges. As Deon says:
“The project allowed me to challenge myself through innovative designing, planning and executing a live-event. Hosting involves a depth of planning, time management, problem-solving and technical skills. The skills accumulated, have been evident in my academic work, where I have demonstrated a range of skills. I’ve also been a contestant myself, developing my strategic-thinking, communication and observational skills, when evaluating my opponent’s social behaviour. The knowledge gained can be applied to future opportunities, for instance, marketing as it involves analysing customers behaviours.”
For Tom Murray (FdA Visitor Attraction and Resort Management), lockdown has been anything but a hindrance. Despite multiple lockdowns and cancellation to events his endeavour to remain a lifelong learner has continued to flourish. In the first lockdown, he was able to completely redesign his website from a mobile friendly site to a fully-fledged mobile web app. Not only did he learn the necessary skills to design, develop and test his site, but also the business skills to set targets and reasonable goals and measure achievement…Throughout summer he continued his employment at Alton Towers Resort with the Rides department and continued to grow existing and new skills (like shouting with masks and visors on!) which enabled him to hit the ground running with the start of his first year studying Visitor Attractions and Resort Management.
Tom says “Like the rest of us, I’ve also had to get to grips with Teams meetings, interviews, lectures and everything in-between but it’ll certainly be a valuable skill in the future!”
For Business Management students, studying ‘Managing Across Cultures’ could potentially be a challenge in the current situation, where access to, and immersion in, national cultures is restricted. Not so for the current Level 5 cohort undertaking this module. They will be heading off, virtually of course, to KAMK University of Applied Sciences in Finland for 2 days in March, to explore how organisations are ‘Going Global’. In addition, the same students will also be heading to Stuttgart in Germany, again in March, to attend an international business simulation, organized by DHBW (Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg, Stuttgart – Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University, Stuttgart). Those virtual passport stamps just keep on coming!
Studying
Visitor Attraction and Resort Management is about so much more than
rollercoasters, as evidenced by our students’ engagement in the recent
Institute of Hospitality and Manchester Hoteliers Association virtual student
forum – Passion 4 Hospitality. The 90-minute webinar discussed and reviewed the
merits and rewards of the global hospitality industry, with a high-profile
panel discussing career opportunities available this year. The keynote speaker
was Matt Townley FIH, GM of the Dakota Hotel Manchester, with his focus on “The
road to being a GM in your 30’s”. The panel comprised Adrian Ellis FIH, GM The
Lowry Hotel, Manchester and Chair of the Manchester Hospitality Association; Steven
Hesketh, CEO at Savvy Hotel Group and Vice Chair of Liverpool Hospitality
Association, Chair of Chester Hospitality Association, Board Member of the
Liverpool Enterprise Partnership Employment & Skills Board; Sue Davison,
Head of Apprenticeship, Sodexo; and Q&A moderated by Peter Ducker, Chief
Executive FIH. Also in attendance, and discussing student opportunities in the
north of England was Garry Fortune, Melia Hotels Regional General Manager.
Their enthusiasm and passion for the industry really shone through, and in Dylan’s words, [it was]
“Fantastic to have an insight on the challenges and methods to achieve well in the hospitality industry”.
Tom also commented,
“One of the main things I took away from the webinar was the amount of opportunities the Hospitality sector can provide. Learning about Matt Townley’s journey to becoming manager of the Dakota Hotel was really inspiring”.
This was supported by a passionate statement from Chloe who said
“One thing I learned from this webinar that really resonated with me, was when Matt Townley touched on striving to find your specialism and niche within the hospitality industry, which can be done by having a well-planned strategy and having that passion to achieve your goals”.
Tom and Steven
also commented on the forum, noting the importance of mentoring, the idea that
attitude, passion and desire to learn is vitally important to success in
industry and that “complacency has negative impacts and should be avoided to
ensure you are always on top of your game or proactive to resolve issues”.
An
often-underestimated attribute, the importance of emotional intelligence was acknowledged
by industry leaders. As Jade says, “It’s an underestimated skill which is
critical in leadership roles and, recognising this will improve employability
in the industry in ways that I can’t wait to witness”.
Both Lucy and
Ella noted the importance of identifying a route through to your dream job:
Lucy – “it was really good to listen to the fact that they’re pointing out how if you want to work for a brand, anyway you can you should get involved, and it may not be in the role you want but you can climb up and get there with time and hard work”.
Ella – “learning more about the hospitality industry has gave me an insight on what career paths I can take down that route, what I can do to be successful whether it is in my job role or applying to future jobs within the industry and it was lovely to see another person’s point of view of how they gained success through the hospitality industry. I can use this information on future assessments or in general to help me become successful in the career I would like”.
What’s more, look at how useful and versatile our Staffordshire Business School hoodies are – especially at protecting against the elements!
For Heather
Wingfield (FdA Visitor Attraction and Resort Management) lockdown has simply
been an opportunity to enhance knowledge and skills and gain those
micro-credentials that are so important for employability enhancement. As
Heather herself states:
“The pandemic has presented me with the opportunity to spend lots of time investing in myself. I have been keeping busy by carrying out extra learning, which has provided brilliant insights into the Visitor Attraction Industry. The cancellation of in person events has allowed students to access a range of industry events and webinars from home, at no or little cost, for the first time. For example, the IAAPA and Blooloop Virtual Expos. These events have proven to be invaluable and have allowed me to build my network with students and professionals from around the world, even in a time when we can’t travel. Another great way to network during these difficult times is to join an industry association, for example IAAPA (The International Association for Amusement Parks and Attractions). I have found they also have a wide range of resources which have enabled me to improve my commercial awareness.
I have also been able to build my knowledge by completing a Certificate in Post Crisis Hospitality Management for free due to the pandemic, this would usually cost $250. As well as improving my knowledge, I have developed skills such as time management and organisational skills. These opportunities have helped me realise the importance of being a lifelong learner, one of the Staffordshire Graduate Competencies in the University’s new Employability Framework. I anticipate that these opportunities to invest in myself will improve my employability and enable me to become a global citizen.”
