Meet our Term One Lecturers: Julia Richardson

 Associate Professor Julia Richardson 

I'm please to introduce Julia Richardson, one of our perennial favourite lecturers, from York University, the Schulich School of Business, in Toronto Canada, ranked number thirteen of Elite Global  Business Schools in the QS Global 200, 2013 report. We (the Otago MBA management team) consider Julia's involvement in our programme as an example of our ability to recruit top professors from around the world (see also Denis Kobzev).

Julia is our lecturer for Organizational Leadership for the tenth year and views teaching on the Otago MBA as "always one of the highlights" of her academic year, owing to the diversity of students’ professional, academic and personal experiences. "This diversity in the classroom adds an extra ‘edge’ to learning outcomes and, equally importantly, offers a unique opportunity to challenge taken-for-granted assumptions about the implications of what it means to be a leader."

Julia’s interest in global leadership careers stems from her own international work experience. She has worked in the private and public sectors in the UK, Indonesia, Japan and Singapore prior to taking her current position at York University, Toronto. Her corporate experience focused primarily on career coaching, recruitment and selection, and training and development. In her position at York University, Julia teaches undergraduate and graduate courses, with a specific focus on international human resource management and career management.

As a personal insight, Julia is a phenomenally likeable person with an upbeat approach to life.  She innately focuses on the quality of students' reasoning (i.e., what and how they think) rather than whether they adopt a "lecturer advocated" perspective.  She recognizes that "right answers" do not exist at the MBA level and readily adapts her class (and pedagogies) to enhance students' conceptual reasoning abilities: she wants students to explore what it means to be a leader in an ever changing global business environment. 

Thank you Julia!

Congratulations James!

James Nation

We have our first Otago MBA graduate of 2014!  As a little background, James is a former Olympian in NZ hockey and wanted to pursue a career in performance sports. He identified a client with a specialization in sports (software) technologies. His client had previously enjoyed a leadership position in this industry but had recently experienced growing competition. Rivals were catching up. James was charged with analysing the competitive landscape and identifying both strengths and weaknesses in his client's current product offerings (as well as opportunities). He was also asked to evaluate the professionalism of the company's management systems (and separability of the company from the owner) as part of formulating an exit strategy: an essential component of any entrepreneurial venture. James needed to interact with the scholarly entrepreneurship literature to identify "best practices" for a maturing venture.  James' project supervisor best describes the quality of his work:

"James has done an excellent job of this project for [his client].  The task was rather difficult given the two very distinct parts of the business that required separate analyses with respect to the market / competitors and an internal analysis of the professionalism of the company's management systems. James did a great job of splitting these parts more distinctly than staff / management were able to do, so this project is beneficial for the company.

James did a significant number of in-depth interviews with a range of internal and external experts, as well as analysed and presented their views well in his report.  From this, he was able to formulate a way forward for the company that meets the objectives of the owner who may want to exit the business in around five years.

The fact that James has been employed by the company attests to the excellent job he did in this project and from a supervisor's perspective, James was a good student.  We met weekly throughout the project, he took my feedback very well, and maintained the progress schedule we had compiled early in the project.  I cannot fault his management of the project in any way."

Congratulations James!

This project and James' management of the work involved constitutes a model for how

our BUSI 540 projects are intended to work.

New Zealand: top Chinese tourist destination

This country tops China's favourite travel hotspots

Tuesday, 22 Apr 2014 | 11:23 PM ET
CNBC.com
New Zealand topped a list of 22 nations as Chinese tourists' favourite destination for the first time, according to a survey by the China Tourism Academy (CTA).

The quarterly poll measures travellers' satisfaction across key indicators including public services, environmental conditions and security. A total of 4,119 Chinese citizens were interviewed for the first quarter of 2014.

New Zealand rose 4 spots from the previous quarter, winning the hearts of Chinese holidaymakers with its scenic natural sights and low levels of pollution.

"Respondents are most satisfied with the picturesque landscape, air quality, green policies, hygiene conditions and city infrastructure. Across the board, New Zealand won positive approvals of above 80 points for each indicator," Dai Bin, President of China Tourism Academy (CTA) told CNBC.

While New Zealand's clean air provides an escape from China's smog, the promise of an outdoor adventure also fuelled interest among the young and well-to-do Chinese middle class. According to China's state television broadcaster, CCTV, younger mainlanders see the country as a hotspot for road trips.

In 2013, the number of Chinese tourists visiting New Zealand jumped 16 percent on year to 228,928. Meanwhile, total expenditures by Chinese tourists rose 7 percent on year to NZ$723 million (around $621 million), statistics from the New Zealand Tourism Board show.

See also (Boom in Chinese Tourism)

The Otago MBA: update

Our MBA students have settled into their routines and, from all reports, have embraced the expectation of actively contributing to the classroom experience.  Our MBA 38 class has gelled and all students are enthusiastically engaging in discussions, suggesting that the Power of Introverts Ted Talk may have helped to embolden our more reflective students.

Julia Richardson introduced her Organizational Leadership class to Intelligent Leadership Theory, a "who, what and why" overarching framework to students; discussed motivation and transformational leadership, (see Steven Jobs' Stanford Commencement Speech, below); and has emphasizing the critical nature of trust and justice in leadership.   Each reading for Julia's course introduces a specific perspective (i.e., definition and logic) on leadership (or motivation) with each perspective having legitimacy: no one right interpretation of leadership exists. The students were then asked to applied these materials to their first case, designed (as practice) to refine their ability to apply an academic frame to a complex business problem.

Julia reports that our MBA students enthusiastically engage in discussions, at times precluding mid-class breaks. They continue to refine their conceptual reasoning abilities, distinguishing between alternative definitions of leadership, as well as the value of alternative perspective to business practice.  The first syndicate case analysis went very well, with Julia reporting that our students conducted the best analysis she has ever seen: better than analyses of her Masters HR students at York University

Paul Hansen began his course with a focus on learning to think as an economist; he has strongly encouraged students to listen to NZ National Radio and starts each class with a chat about economic and/or political topics in the news.  The students have discussed the possible “tech wreck” as technology firms overseas (e.g. FaceBook & LinkedIn) and in NZ (e.g. Xero & PacificEdge) experience falling share prices.  They have also examined the link between the NZ Reserve Bank's increase in the Official Cash Rate (see RBNZ - ORC) to 3 percent and the response in the NZ dollar exchange rate versus the U.S. dollar.

Paul's contribution to the class has focused on the macroeconomic environment, with an analysis of New Zealand's transition from a regulated Welfare State (with a sixty-six percent tax rate) to a market-driven economy as a case study (see six-part Revolution).  Weekly tests scores indicate that all students in Paul's class are performing well.  Next up, Multi-Criteria Decision-Making and Conjoint Analysis.

Beth Rose continues to coax her students through an understanding of the research process, with both descriptive and exploratory analyses. The students have used SPSS to conduct cross tab analyses and are currently engaged in regressions analyses and modeling.  Beth reports that the nervousness of mastering stats has past and everyone seems to be performing well.

Meet our Term One Lecturers: Paul Hansen

Associate Professor Paul Hansen

Classes have begun, students are settling into routines and they're undoubtedly enjoying Economics under the guidance of Paul Hansen.  Paul is a Kiwi, or more properly a Pakeha (i.e., New Zealander of European descent), who maintains an easygoing attitude about life and learning: often wearing jandals to class.  He maintains an active classroom, encourages discussion and takes personal interest in knowing each of his students.  Paul refers to his role as a lecturer in the MBA as a high-wire act: exhilarating.  

Paul's objective for the class is to help students learn to "think like an economist;" he eschews "the systematic building of theories and models, or their empirical estimation" (from Robert Solow, 1987 Nobel Laureate) as an end in itself.  His course covers a wide breadth of topics including Macro and Micro economics, Multi-Criteria Decision-Making, Conjoint Analysis, Economic Psychology and Game Theory. Students conduct a syndicate (group) level analysis of a real business problem using Multi-Criteria Decision-Making, including the use of the 1000minds software invented by Paul and his business partner, Franz Ombler.

When 1000minds won a Consensus Software Award (sponsored by IBM and Microsoft), the judges said:

“In removing complexity and uncertainty from decision-making processes, 1000Minds has blended an innovative algorithm with a simple user interface to produce a tool of great power and sheer elegance.”

Paul has taught in the Otago MBA for several years and consistently ranks as one of

our best lecturers.  Office hours: "Whenever I'm around (most of the time!)"

Thanks Paul

The Power of Introverts

Everyone Contributes Valuable Insights!

In a prior post, I emphasized the importance of active learning and the collaborative discovery of
knowledge through shared inquiry in our classes.   Some of our students may remain reflective by nature; others may initially feel hesitant to speak in class; still others may face the challenge of thinking in one
language (e.g., Chinese) before translating thoughts into English; and differences in
culture may compel others to remain respectfully quiet.

I have included the "Power of Introverts" Ted Talk to embolden our more reflective students
and encourage more vocal students to remain culturally sensitive, respect everyone's
right to participate and strive for an inclusive learning experience.

Thank you,

David

Public Speaking: the neuroscience of fear

The Fear of Public Speaking

Our Otago MBA programme began yesterday with an orientation highlighted by a public speaking exercise aimed at getting to know each other.  All participants (students and management team) were paired up and took turns: first introducing their peer (20 sec) and then offering a two-minute talk about themselves.  Many individuals expressed apprehension about the task, with several individuals verbally acknowledging their discomfort (fear).

Here's a brief neuroscience explanation of emotion intended to give our students 

more control over the emotions they experience, especially fear.

In neuroscience, emotions (e.g., fear) are most productively defined as a stress response – initiated by the sympathetic nervous and neuroendocrine systems – and experienced as a physiological reaction in the body that informs the person about what is relevant. The weights and labels we then attached to stimuli and events remain subjective (i.e., a choice) and vary across individuals, over time, and with experience.

Emotion is fundamentally a relevance detector telling you,

"Pay attention: this is important."

An MBA student, for instance, may affectively weight (positive or negative) such things as choosing to return to school, the lost income of attending a full-time programme, conflicting commitments, the thought of receiving a rejection letter, quantitative courses, working in teams, expressing ideas in class, major projects, formal presentations, professional networking, midterm / final exams, failing courses, or even the idea of advancing his or her career. Physiological reactions in the body (triggered by the amygdala and related structures) inform the person about what is relevant and steer her through daily and career-changing decisions.

How does the stress response occur? 

Specifically, the amygdala receives sensory data and highly processed information about experiences out there; as well as endogenous data concerning physiological discomfort (pain), sociopsychological happenings (rejection and uncertainty) and thoughts (returning or failing in school) that knock the individual out of homeostasis.  The amygdala then triggers a peripheral reaction.  

The amygdala projects to the brainstem to activate the sympathetic nervous system, thereby initiating the characteristic physiological stress response: heightened attention, catabolic release of energy from fat cells into the bloodstream, increased blood pressure, galvanic skin response, and the acceleration of cardiac and respiratory output to fuel brain, heart and muscle. The amygdala also projects to the paraventricular nuclei (PVN) of the hypothalamus to initiate a hormonal cascade through the Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis leading to the release of adrenal stress hormones.

This combination of autonomic nervous system and hypothalamic neuroendocrine system comprises the efferent limbs through which the brain influences all peripheral stress responses – and those engaged in classical fear-conditioning studies in which a stimulus (e.g., Statistics) acquires emotional value when paired with a biologically significant event.  "I had a bad experience in maths."

For the student, then, physiological responses register in the brain and are reflectively interpreted as “feelings.” The individual names these feelings as specific emotions: he or she chooses labels (e.g., fear). In this manner, emotions arise and a task comes to be viewed as onerous, a fellow student as kind, or thought of pursuing an MBA degree as exciting or terrifying.

Here's the point.  You gain control, if you know the physiological reaction is normal.  

You get to choose the labels you apply (e.g., scary or exciting).

Cheers,

David

Shared Enquiry: the path to becoming a self-reliant thinker

Shared Enquiry = the path to becoming a self-reliant thinker

Right answers do not exist in MBA-level discussions; everyone

in the classroom should actively engage in the discovery of knowledge.

The Otago MBA management team and our lecturers subscribe to an active learning model in which students participate in the learning process and daily practice their thinking skills, while demonstrating the ability to apply course material (e.g., marketing, finance, organizational leadership, economics, statistics) to complex business problems. In other words, we encourage shared enquiry as the path to becoming a self-reliant thinker, someone who can express him or herself with clarity and conviction; who can think conceptually (e.g., identify and define key terms); as well as contribute to the collaborative discovery of a deeper understanding of fundamental challenges facing global businesses.

Our students are asked to adhere to essential guidelines for engaging in productive discourse in our small seminar-style classes:

• Resist overly quick judgements
• Avoid arguing from small-N experience (e.g., we did it this way) and opinion
• Support your reasoning using credible references (e.g., course materials)
• Relate comments to the ongoing discussion
• Strive for dialogue rather than a monologue
• Seek to include all others in the conversation
• Do not direct all discussions through the lecturer
• Consider questions as a good way to enter the conversation
• Avoid dominating with comments that are too lengthy or of little interest to others
• Use courtesy and civility in all communications
• Feel encouraged to continue lively debates outside the classroom

I will have more to say about the importance of building powerful thinking

skills in future posts: we consider this as fundamental to the transformation our students

experience in our programme.

Cheers,

David

Day One: The start of MBA 38

MBA 38 - 2014 MBA Programme 

The start of MBA 38, our thirty-eighth year as an MBA programme, is rapidly approaching with orientation on Friday the 4th and classes beginning on Monday.  We have a total of 60 students across our programmes, some full-time and part-time, some just beginning their MBA and others striving to finish their capstone 540 business consulting engagement. We also unofficially have twelve nationalities represented among our students, including Australia, China (w/Hong Kong), India, Indonesia, Kiwi (Maori & Pakeha), Vietnam, South Africa, Finland, Pakistan, England and Scotland.  Their backgrounds range from IT consulting and project management, to finance/accounting, banking, healthcare, construction, public service, media/marketing, hospitality, HR consulting and film production. Plus, we have one professional snowboarder in this year's class, an individual striving to make the transition to the business side of action sports.

Our core MBA programme is designed as four terms of three courses each lasting eight weeks, with students kicking off the year in Organizational Leadership, taught by Professor Julia Richardson from York University in Canada, a perennial top lecturer in our programme; as well as Economics and Statistics & Decision Tools taught by our own standout lecturers Paul Hansen and Elizabeth (Beth) Rose, respectively.  It's an exciting time, with the Otago MBA management team striving to get everyone registered, conduct final checks on course designs, and help our students adapt to their new home.

We welcome our new students to the programme and look forward to

continuing to work with returning students.

Cheers,

David