The Next Business Generation: Management Challenges of the 21st century

By MSc Management Class 2010-2011

A record-breaking 160 authors have collaborated in writing this (e)Book. Each student of the Cass Business School ‘MSc Management 2010-2011 promotion’ has written a visionary page on a Management topic. In addition the same students managed projects, people and budgets in 26 different teams to produce and launch ‘The Next Business Generation’.

Book Production Team: Nina Hohlrieder, Aayushi Jain, Anass Koudiss, Shao Wern Lim, Katie Rodgers and Dimitra Tsetsoni

• Language: English
• Publisher: OpenMute Press
• Release date: Mar 11, 2011
• ISBN: 9781906496579

Book preview

THE NEXT BUSINESS GENERATION: Management Challenges of the 21st Century

By: Cass MSc Management 2010-2011

Representing 48 countries:

Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Cyprus, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Hong Kong (Special Administrative Region of China), India, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Republic of Korea, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Morocco, Nepal, Netherlands, Nigeria, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Serbia, Seychelles, Sweden, Switzerland, Syrian Arab Republic, Taiwan, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States of America and Venezuela

Cass Business School

London, UK

March 2011

'The Next Business Generation – Management Challenges of the 21st century'

First six authors: Aanchal Aggarwal, Aayushi Jain, Abhinav Jain, Adam Loannidis, Alero Alakija and Alexander Debare

Published by OpenMute Pod & eBook Consultancy at Smashwords

Copyright 2011 by Cass Business School’s MSc Management Class 2010-2011.

Publishing year: 2011

ISBN: 978-1-906496-57-9

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of these authors.

The views expressed in this book by the individual authors are those of the author only. This publication is a collaborative effort of Cass Business School’s MSc Management Class 2010-11, but the individual writings do not necessarily reflect the views of all authors. Also, these writings do not necessarily reflect the views of Cass Business School and its members.

Acknowledgement

We would like to thank our Advanced Practice of Management (APOM) professors, Sue Douthwaite, Clive Holtham and Paul Palmer who have initiated this unique project whereby 26 teams managed time, people and resources. Furthermore, we would like to thank all the guest speakers that have shared both their professional successes and their personal views on management topics that have partly inspired us to write this piece. Also, we would like to thank Simon Worthington and his colleagues, at OpenMute POD & eBook consultancy. In addition we thank our illustrators Marc De’ath and Andy Gibbs from The Creative Coop. The cover they have designed embodies the APOM lectures and this work perfectly.

Last but not least! We would like to thank all MSc Management 2010-2011 students for their effort, patience, cooperation and professionalism. At the end of the book you will find a list of the student authors together with the page numbers of their works.

Cass Business School’s MSc Management Class 2010-2

Contents

Part 1

1.1 Introduction

1.2 Importance of the Electronic Book to 21 century management

Part 2

2.1 Opportunities from recession: new business models

2.2 Globalisation and Emerging Markets

2.3 Lessons Learnt from 2008-2010: Banks and Financial Institutions

2.4 Management of Crisis

2.5 Unpredictability and Risk

2.6 Managing Sustainability

2.7 Flat Organisations

2.8 Demographics

2.9 Creativity and Innovation

Part 3

3.1 Office Politics

3.2 Ethics and Values

3.3 Diversity

3.4 Communications and Networking

3.5 What Top Executives Think

Part 4

4.1 What we have learnt from practicing management

4.2 Connecting the World’s of Practice & Theory - Innovator vs. Imitator

4.3 Conclusion

1.1 Introduction

London. Cass Business School. MSc in Management. No other place offers the knowledge, expertise and diversity that we are exposed to this year. The class of 2011 has over 160 people from over 48 countries with different backgrounds. Engineers, musicians, entrepreneurs, IT professionals, designers – we have it all. What unites us is a passion for business, an aspiration to succeed and a desire to improve the world around us.

Located in the heart of the City of London, the immersion into the real business world is inspiring. Being next to such big names as Bloomberg, Standard Chartered and Unilever, and a walk away from Lord Mayor’s house puts everything into perspective. Numerous guest speakers and company presentations at Cass Business School have broadened our horizons and opened new opportunities. Working on projects on a daily basis has allowed us to learn from each other and, more importantly, learn to work with each other. Today we live in a world characterised by fast-paced change and globalization, and such qualities as open-mindedness, flexibility and tolerance are key to successful leadership in the 21st century. We might not know in which part of the world we will wake up tomorrow, but we will for sure know how to manage it.

Combining the knowledge and experience of 160 individuals with the connections and expertise that Cass Business School offers, gives this book a competitive edge. Objective, multidimensional approach allows for both broad coverage and individual opinions on current business issues. The MSc in Management programme has been once more ranked second best in the UK by The Financial Times in 2010. It is also one of the few to be accredited by the Association of MBAs (Cass Business School, 2011). This demonstrates the underlying academic force and business insight of Cass graduates.

Katie Gramenova

With these credentials, we, MSc in Management, have created this book to illustrate the problems we face in management in the 21st Century. In this book, we will cover issues ranging from culture to ethics, from broad to detailed, from the past to the future. It is crucial for us to understand the implications of each of these areas on how outstanding management is achieved. We do this because we are passionate about management.

Management is an art, Cass Business School not only provides us with top tier education, but also provides us with soft skills through simulation and experience of the real management world. This is the exact reason why this book is conceived by us. The production of this book involves close interaction between each individual in the MSc in Management Course and creates issues that will arise in typical management scenarios. This includes cross collaboration between different teams within the course, much like how different teams will fair in a company. Further, conflicts may arise due to contradicting objectives of different stakeholders. Solving these problems is crucial for the production of this book. We do this because we are eager to learn management first hand – not by taking word for word from a textbook.

Additionally, management is also a science, and part of this book dedicates to finding solutions to the recent financial crisis, of which one of the main triggers was poor and unethical management. By compiling this book, not only will we cover information on how to be an ethical and responsible manager, but also learn in the process the importance of corporate social responsibility and corporate governance. We do this because we all aspire to become managers and we have the responsibility to prevent future financial crisis from occurring due to poor management.

Finally, we hope to produce a book that we can call ours. According to Mintzberg, ‘Management is a practice, where art, science, and craft meet.’ With the unified effort of MSc in Management class of 2011, this book is created to illustrate our views in this multi-dimensional practice.

Michael Hung

To create this book, we needed a number of teams each being responsible for different task; for the overall project to be successful we had to move from being Postgraduate students to functioning together as a successful consultancy.

I was part of the Management Consultancy, one of the core teams. We, along with the Performance Management Team were responsible for the overall cohesion of the project. We led weekly meetings, mediated disagreements and conflicts, clarified information, answered questions and became the core link between the Consultancy and the Senior Management. Other groups within the Consultancy included Finance, Marketing, a weekly Newsletter Team, teams responsible for every guest speaker, teams responsible for each topic within the book, the exhibition co-ordination and logistics and the electronic book production. Each week the entire consultancy was treated to a guest lecturer, notable in their field, that a specific team was responsible for organising. Any team who needed to give information or speak to the consultancy as a whole were then invited to take the stage and a brief question and answer session would follow. These sessions, once initial teething problems had been resolved, were informative and enjoyable for all.

The actual creation of the book was heavily supervised by the Senior Management. Nearly every group was given the task of supervising a topic and simultaneously writing one; every individual had the opportunity to manage and had to learn to be managed. Once all the chapters were written, they were then sent to an editing team who were responsible for the overall flow of the book and ensuring the seamlessness of different chapters.

To celebrate the launch of the book an exhibition was held attended by industry leaders and prestigious Cass Professionals. This was co-ordinated by several teams with help from Cass Business School marketing. This was the moment when all the hard work came together and the book was unveiled; an illuminating evening was enjoyed by all. This year we also launched an Electronic Book; a first in the history of Cass Business School. This again facilitated by separate teams who worked closely with upper management to ensure it was a success.

Hiral Mistry

All the chapters in this book have one common idea, despite their noticeable diversity. They all encompass as keystone the changes that have already irreversibly happened. The new realities and their excessive demands postulate vital redefinition of policies that have work efficiently for the last decade, even more an alteration in the mindset of organizations as well as of individuals. The issues this book discusses are issues that next generation managers should be able to tackle and resolve. It is a management book rather than a business book and the challenges it presents affect all organizations of today’s society.

The book starts out with the opportunities from the recession and the effects of globalization and the recent financial crisis. It is emphasized the substantial importance of successful crisis management through real cases and the implementation of managing sustainability analyzing the three-pillar concept. Moreover, examples of approaches of risk management from different sectors are provided. Then the book moves to essential issues of flat organizations and a wide range of demographics regarding developed and emerging markets. Afterward, it is examined how innovation and creativity can be promoted in organizations as well as there is a comprehensive elucidation of the tools and effects of office politics. The next chapters cover the significant topics of ethics, values and diversity along with different types and techniques of communication and networking within organizations. In its last section are provided thoughts and actions of top executives under diverse circumstances connecting the worlds of practice and theory.

How to use the book? I suggest, for a more effective exploration, to read a chapter at a time and initially ask: What do these challenges mean for my organization? Once you have reflected this, you have to think about: What kind of actions should our organization and I take to transfigure this challenge of the corresponding chapter into opportunities for the organization and me? and finally to make the decisions actions. Decisions are commitments to action (Drucker 1995). Effective actions for the present is the only way to create our future.

Foteini Mitrousia

Throughout the course, number of speeches was arranged to assist us in the process of writing this book. These speakers ranged from independent entrepreneurs, speech writers and inventors to consultants and wealth managers working for large corporations have addressed various issues related to the topics discussed in this book. The speakers have shared their views, personal experiences and most important, the challenges they have encountered during their careers. This enabled us, future generation managers, to realize our potential of what could be achieved.

Simon Lancaster, a professional speechwriter, shared his views on language of leadership and evolution of speech throughout the history. He further elaborated on how leaders and speakers can use rhetorical devices in order to influence their audience and examined the communicational abilities of leaders such as Barack Obama and David Cameron. Simon emphasized on an important aspect of issues which are discussed in Communications and Networking chapter of this book.

Mandy Haberman, the inventor of Haberman feeder and the Anywayup cup, talked about how thinking strategically about her personal limitations have given her the idea for her inventions and raised the issue of Intellectual Properties which are of primary importance for all inventors. Her speech was an inspiration for chapters on Creativity and Innovations and Unpredictability and Risk.

Mike Baxter, a partner in Bain & Company’s London office, described his personal journey in management consultancy and gave an account of his day to day responsibilities as a manager who works directly with top executives and business leaders. His speech illustrates how management theories could be implemented practically in solving business problems which is closely related to final chapters of this book.

We would like to thank all speakers, including those who were not mentioned above, for their contribution in providing practical guidelines to undertake the challenges of 21st century management.

Babak Rahimiardali

The production of the electronic book has proved a challenging, complex, and yet thoroughly enjoyable enterprise. Combining the expertise of diverse and yet uniformly talented individuals, the entire MSc cohort has high hopes for the future success of Cass Business School’s first ever fully student-produced Management guide. The breadth of topics covered by the book, both those treated at length and those dealt with on an individual basis give the book a unique quality. From ethics to management tools, the book ranges across the field of Management and offers insight into such a high number of areas as to be relevant to a wide public audience. Using Cass Business School’s extensive list of contacts and reputation within the Business world, the students intend the book to attain the acclaim it surely deserves. The textual content effectively avoids any pigeon-holing under a specific Management sub-discipline and the basis of the authorship will hopefully generate sufficient publicity for the book to be a swift success for both the students and the Business School.

Written by students, the book of course does not have the academic pedigree of most Management texts, and it would be foolish to expect ground-breaking research. That said, the book’s authorship is unique. In Ancient Greece, Aristotle wrote the young have exalted notions, because they have not been humbled by life or learned its necessary limitations. Clearly the Cass electronic book will not be the first Management consultative written by young authors, but with the electronic book, the virtue of young inspiration is multiplied 160 fold. Further, with no disrespect to professional Management thinkers, long service in any field can impose mental shackles and a pre-determined point of view. The thoughts and creativity that have gone into the composition of the Cass electronic book by contrast, have the potential to make the book a real best seller. The authorship crosses a plethora of boundaries, from age and gender to culture and religion and this is manifestly reflected in the content. It is the sincere hope of the entire MSc body that the book goes on to achieve the success and garner the reputation that both the authors’ endeavours and the Business School’s vision deserve.

Mark Hornsey

1.2 Importance of the Electronic Book to 21st century management

EBooks have become more than appealing to the public since their release date. There is no doubt that this pioneering initiative will determine the future of the next generation’s reading preferences, as their attitudes will be influenced by the market conditions and trends. Additionally, this new invention does not only contribute to the educational profile of people, but it can also be considered crucial for serving professional purposes as well.

To begin with, the existing historical data on eBooks indicates their successful path over time. The determining point occurred at the eBooks’ launch, which revealed how the market had developed and determined the extent to which the industry would flourish. This occurrence dates back to 1971 when Michael S. Hart made his first attempt to provide the public with a digital form of library-called ‘Project Gutenberg’, where electronic books were available to readers at any time (Hawkins, 2000). As years passed by, the interest for this alternative reading method rose and led to the evolution of eReaders in 1998, which increased efficiency in terms of professionalism and enhanced organization in the workplace (Wallen, 2009). This was the first attempt to provide people with a lightweight handheld-device that could offer the convenience of reading numerous books already stored in their eReader. Since 1998, there have been lots of companies that have adopted this practice once they realised the attractiveness of the industry, by incorporating these technological features in different devices. Subsequently this was done in order to attract a higher proportion of the niche market (e.g. businesspeople) and then to enter the wider mass market.

Bearing the aforementioned facts in mind, it is important to consider whether eBooks can become one of the most significant technologies of the 21st century. What consequences can this cause to the demand of hardcover books? What can the future bring and how can the world of management benefit from eBooks? In trying to answer all these questions, it is important that one can define the differences between a physical and electronic book.

Dimitra Tsetsoni

A comparison of the physical and electronic book

The Oxford Dictionary of English defines a book as, a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of paper, parchment, or other various material, usually fastened together to hinge at one side (1994, p. 25) and an eBook as an electronic version of a printed book; however eBooks can exist without any printed equivalent. EBooks are usually read on dedicated hardware devices known as e-readers or eBook devices. Both of them are quite similar as it helps a person to read books. The actual difference lies in the appearance of the book.

Real books use paper, but eBooks do not, so it is an innovation that is environmentally friendly. Both books might include illustrations, but eBooks can use animations and soundtracks, which makes it more attractive for the readers. Amending books is a difficult task as one needs to re-print the entire copies of those that are already printed while eBooks can be easily edited. EBooks help the customers make their buying decisions as it allows them to read a book online before they actually purchase it. EBooks have a low cost of production and there are no limits on its publishing. A real book is read one by one, but an eBook is read by a large number of readers at the same time via the Internet. Books need more space, but eBooks require a tiny space, like using storage devices such as a Handy drive or CD. Therefore it is more portable. EBooks offer readers a zoom function and letter resizing, making it more readable. People prefer eBooks to traditional books, because it saves time and money but still there are various tribulations with eBooks. (Evans, 2008)The disadvantages of eBooks mostly arise from the hardware we are reading them on. If it is a computer, one can experience hindrances such as eye strain, power related problems as well as portability issues, while books don't need batteries, and can be carried anywhere. EBooks are not readily available, and format wars are making it difficult for a reader to make a buying