Original Thinking Podcast

This episode will be hosted by Javed Siddiqui, Professor of Accounting, Alliance Manchester Business School.

Pressures from various donor agencies (such as the World Bank), combined with the pursuit of legitimacy by governments in many developing countries, have resulted in various western accounting and corporate governance mechanisms to be exported to the developing world.

Accounting researchers have identified the inherent limits to what (western) governance systems can achieve, especially in certain (non-western) contexts, and have often termed these practices as ‘ritualistic’. Drawing from his personal research journey, Professor Javed Siddiqui will discuss the potential policy implications of such research.

For example, given the presence of weak capital markets, where investors do not really appreciate the value of a ‘good’ audit, and the reasonable success of various supply chain certification schemes, is there a scope for changing the focus of auditing and governance mechanisms in developing economies (as suggested by the Brydon review)? If so, what is stopping certain forms of change from coming within? Also, given the tendency of governments in developing countries to adopt western governance mechanisms without considering the context, do regulators in western countries need a more cautious approach towards policy development?

Javed is a Professor of Accounting at the Alliance Manchester Business School, and the school Director for post-graduate taught (PGT) programmes, responsible for a portfolio of fifteen specialised MSc programmes. Javed joined Manchester Business School as a Lecturer in 2008, and was promoted to a Senior Lecturer in the same school in 2015. His primary fields of research are auditing, corporate governance and corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting, especially in the context of developing economies. His research has been funded by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS), the UK Financial Reporting Council (FRC) and the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission, UK. Professor Siddiqui worked with international development agencies, such as the World Bank and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Big Four accountancy firms, as well as national level professional accountancy bodies.

This event will be facilitated by Christopher Humphrey, Professor of Accounting in the Accounting and Finance division of Alliance Manchester Business School. 

In this episode we will hear from Miki Shika, founder of Ekhaya Empowerment Community Interest Company and an entrepreneur with a passion for childcare, families and integration.

Miki qualified as a Montessori directress (teacher) almost two decades ago and in that time has mastered her skills in childcare and community engagement with a specialised focus on children, working on the needs of pre-primary school aged children. She has managed nurseries and currently runs a childcare business.

Miki originates from South Africa where her interests in education and child development were spurred. Her community engagement work was born out of her identification amongst displaced groups and her commitment to activism. She founded Ekhaya Empowerment C.I.C, an organisation which works with women and children from communities experiencing a range of social injustices.

Hosted by MBA alumna Claire-Marie Boggiano, Lurig Change & Development.

The Scale-Up Forum is a peer-to-peer network for ambitious scaling up businesses in Greater Manchester. It gives businesses at all stages of the scale up journey the opportunity to share experiences, challenges and lessons learnt for mutual business benefit.

Launched in 2018, it provides a platform for businesses in the scale up phase to gain insight from their peers and from academic experts on challenges experienced by business growing at pace, whatever their sector. The Forum is managed and delivered by our Business Engagement and Knowledge Exchange team, who help to identify routes for mutually-beneficial collaboration between our academic researchers and business partners.

Our quarterly events are all based around themes proposed by the partner firms.

Achieving Innovation and incorporating innovation strategies

How have large and growing organisations successfully embedded innovation strategies to deliver success? We will hear an academic perspective presenting past research into this area along with a practitioner perspective.

As per the usual format the session will encourage interaction and shared learning, starting discussion points include “Should innovation be tasked to specialist teams within a business or is it everyone's responsibility? How should businesses plan their strategy and decision-making process to facilitate innovation?”.

Speakers

Bruce Tether

Bruce Tether is Professor of Innovation Management and Strategy, Associate Head of Research for the Innovation Management and Policy Division, and the Research Director of the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre led by Nesta in London. He teaches innovation management and his research interests centre around three inter-related themes:

1. Innovation and entrepreneurship through creativity and design.
2. The competitive dynamics of professional service firms, especially those oriented to design and creativity, such as architecture practices, design and engineering consultancies.
3. How firms make choices regarding their geographical locations for competitive advantage.

Azhar Quaiyoom

Azhar is the director and CEO of QSustain, an independent award-winning specialist consultancy to the construction industry offering strategic support across many sectors.

Azhar is a highly motivated and charismatic entrepreneur and Engineering professional with 20 years’ experience within sustainable design and delivery across different sectors such as mix use, commercial, and in particular, rail, creating first of its kind achievements across complex projects. This is coupled with invaluable experience in practical major programmes with extensive knowledge of the feasibility, design and implementation stages. With this experience, Azhar now runs a successful consultancy that is well placed to expand and diversify.

Azhar has a rare and exclusive combination of Engineering design, sustainability and practical project management experience with knowledge of how to implement low carbon and sustainable developments from concept, design, and procurement to construction and operation.

The Scale-Up Forum is sponsored by Bruntwood Works

Audit in the UK is in transition, with major reform and increased regulation being planned by the Government and the Financial Reporting Council.

This episode with ICEAW Manchester and Alliance MBS will give the business community the opportunity to feedback to the government and to comment on the proposed reforms. This episode will also look to highlight the areas where practising and business accountants and Directors can start to understand how to deal with the changes. There will be ample opportunity for the audience, both present and online, to question the panel and make constructive comments on the proposals.

Background

In July 2022, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) published a Position Paper setting out the next steps to reform the UK’s audit and corporate governance framework.

The paper follows the Government Response to the consultation on strengthening the UK’s Corporate Governance, Corporate Reporting and Audit systems, including the creation of the Audit, Reporting and Governance Authority (ARGA), to replace the FRC.

The document builds on the areas of the Government Response that fall within the FRC’s remit, providing advanced clarity for stakeholders on how the work of reform will be delivered ahead of government legislation.

That work includes revising existing codes, strengthening auditing and accounting standards, setting expectations to drive behavioural change ahead of statutory powers, and the development of guidance to address issues set out in the Government Response.

In particular, the Position Paper sets out proposed changes to the UK Corporate Governance Code. This will provide a stronger framework for reporting on the effectiveness of internal controls and Board responsibilities for expanded sustainability and ESG reporting, and new guidance on enhanced resilience statements and fraud reporting by directors.

Speakers

Lord Callanan, Under Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Corporate Responsibility

Lord Callanan was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on 14 February 2020. He was Minister of State at the Department for Exiting the European Union from 27 October 2017 to 31 January 2020.

Callanan was a Conservative Councillor on Tyne and Wear County Council between 1983 and 1986 and Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council between 1987 and 1996, and a Member of the European Parliament for the North East England constituency from 1999, re-elected in 2004 and 2009.

Callanan was created a Life Peer on 24 September 2014 taking the title Baron Callanan, of Low Fell in the County of Tyne and Wear. He was Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Department for Transport between June and October 2017.

Julia Penny (President, ICAEW)

Julia qualified as an ICAEW Chartered Accountant in 1989 having first completed an honours degree in Accountancy and Finance at Brighton Polytechnic. Soon after qualifying she moved into a training role, initially teaching students and later moving into CPD training and technical roles. She specialises in audit, financial reporting and anti-money laundering and has worked for diverse organisations including Wolters Kluwer, Wilmington plc, Chantrey Vellacott and Baker Tilly (now RSM). 

Julia became involved with Thames Valley Society of Chartered Accountants early in her career and served first as treasurer and then as the Society President in 2001-2. Later she became chair of the ICAEW Technical Advisory Committee and a member of both the Technical Strategy and Financial Reporting Faculty Boards. Julia has been a Council member since 2013 and an ICAEW Board member since 2017.

Julia was Vice-President for the year June 2020 to June 2021. She became ICAEW President and will hold this office from June 2022 to June 2023.

In this Original Thinking podcast we will be joined by John List, Kenneth C. Griffin Distinguished Service Professor in Economics at the University of Chicago, who will be discussing his book 'The Voltage Effect: How to Make Good Ideas Great and Great Ideas Scale'.

The Voltage Effect: How to Make Good Ideas Great and Great Ideas Scale

The premise behind the Voltage Effect is deceptively simple: No great idea is guaranteed to succeed. Be it a life-saving medical breakthrough, a new policy initiative, a cutting-edge innovation, or a bold plan for building a better world, translating an idea into widespread impact depends on one thing only: whether it can be replicated at scale.

Many college students will graduate into the world with a bold idea they hope to scale – whether by starting a company, through social advocacy or non-profit work, in the private sector, or elsewhere. The book draws on John's years of behavioural science research, as well as examples from the realms of business, education, policymaking, and public health to present a data-driven approach to the science of scaling. In it he outlines the five hurdles that must be overcome for an idea to succeed at scale, as well as four research-based strategies to achieve maximum-impact scaling. Topics include:

• Best experimental design practices to validate an idea (and reduce the risk of false positives)
• Navigating the supply-side economics of scaling
• Using marginal thinking to assess the viability of an enterprise at scale
• Preventing the negative externalities that may emerge when an idea is implemented on a large scale
• Using behavioral-economic incentives to spur widespread adoption of an idea or increase compliance with a policy or program
• How we can apply the principles of scaling to drive change in our schools, communities, companies, and society at large

To order the book or download a preview, visit The Voltage Effect.

John A. List is the Kenneth C. Griffin Distinguished Service Professor in Economics at the University of Chicago.

His research focuses on combining field experiments with economic theory to deepen our understanding of the economic science. In the early 1990s, List pioneered field experiments as a methodology for testing behavioural theories and learning about behavioural principles that are shared across different domains. To obtain data for his field experiments, List has made use of several different markets, including charitable fundraising activities, the sports trading card industry, the ride-share industry, and the education sector, to highlight a few. This collective research has lead to collaborative work with several different schools and charities, as well as firms including: Lyft, Uber, United Airlines, Virgin Airlines, Humana, Sears, Kmart, Facebook, Google, General Motors, Tinder, Citadel, Walmart and several non-profits.

His research includes over 200 peer-reviewed journal articles and several published textbooks. He co-authored the international best seller, The Why Axis, in 2013, before releasing The Voltage Effect in February 2022.

List was elected a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2011, and a Fellow of the Econometric Society in 2015. List received the 2010 Kenneth Galbraith Award, the 2008 Arrow Prize for Senior Economists for his research in behavioural economics in the field, and was the 2012 Yrjo Jahnsson Lecture Prize recipient. He is a current Editor of the Journal of Political Economy

The episode will be facilitated by Timothy Devinney, Professor and Chair of International Business at Alliance Manchester Business School.

This event is hosted by Yu-Wang Chen, Professor in Decision Sciences and Business Analytics at Alliance Manchester Business School.

Knowledge and Data-Driven Decision Making

Data-driven decision making is the practice of using data to support decision making, and it becomes more widely recognised with the development of decision science, data science and artificial intelligence. Real-world decision making problems are usually characterised by multiple criteria and associated with uncertainty. Data often come from different sources in different formats. In addition, decision makers’ domain knowledge also plays an important role in making informed decisions.

In this episode, Yu-wang will introduce his work in this research domain and a number of examples from his own research will be used to highlight how data and knowledge can be aggregated to support decision making in business and management.

Yu-wang Chen

Prior to joining AMBS, Yu-wang worked briefly as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Department of Computer Science, Hong Kong Baptist University. He received the PhD degree in Control and System Engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

His research focuses primarily on Decision Sciences and Data Analytics, including their applications in business analytics, supply chain risk analysis, healthcare decision support, etc. He has published more than 60 research articles in leading journals, such as European Journal of Operational Research, Computers & Operation Research, and more.

He has successfully coordinated and taught across a broad portfolio of course units at all different undergraduate and postgraduate levels at AMBS. He currently acts as the Programme Director (2015-2018 & 2020-present) for the MSc Business Analytics programme (2022 QS Ranking: 2nd in the UK & 10th in the world).

The episode is facilitated by Richard Allmendinger, Professor and Business Engagement Lead of Alliance Manchester Business School.

Placing health and wellbeing at the heart of organisations makes business sense.

Key business priorities such as productivity and staff retention have been shown to improve significantly when employers genuinely care about employee wellbeing. Younger workers today are also placing an ever-higher priority than previous generations on wellbeing over company loyalty, a trend only accentuated by the pandemic.

But to create an authentic and sustained culture of wellbeing in an organisation requires a clear definition of what wellbeing is and how to measure it. Metrics need to be simple and easy to understand, drawn from robust data sources, and relevant and credible to a wide range of stakeholders.

The National Forum for Health and Wellbeing, based at Alliance Manchester Business School, has been looking at the evidence linking wellbeing and performance, and at the specific information that organisations need in order to select the wellbeing metrics that are right for them.

At this special event the Forum will be unveiling its work with members and sharing their own personal experiences of how they have tackled measuring wellbeing in their workplaces. Members will also take part in a live panel debate to discuss these pressing issues.

Speakers include Sir Cary Cooper, Professor of Organisational Psychology and co-founder of the National Forum for Health and Wellbeing at Work, and Forum member Dr Richard Heron, Independent Chief Medical Officer and former VP Health for BP, who has been spearheading the metrics initiative.

This event will be hosted by Kieron Flanagan, Professor of Science and Technology Policy at Alliance MBS.

What next for UK science and innovation policy?

The UK was an industrial and scientific pioneer. Yet for nearly as long, the country has fretted about falling behind industrial and technological competitors. For decades the UK’s not terribly impressive R&D/GDP ratio of around 1.7% has resisted all attempts to improve it.

For historical reasons, UK government R&D spending is unusually biased towards the ‘basic’ end of the spectrum by international standards, and the geographical distribution of that spending is highly concentrated on a small number of institutions in a few places – the so-called ‘Golden Triangle’ of Oxford, Cambridge and London.

Now the UK is once again aiming to transform its technological fortunes, with increases in public spending in the pipeline and a target of 2.4% of GDP to be spent on R&D by 2027. The hope is that this additional R&D effort will help ‘rebalance’ regional growth prospects and drive improvements in productivity.

This lecture will examine what progress has been made in this agenda, what its prospects are, and in doing so will draw out some broader questions about why we fund research and what we hope to gain from it.

This event will be facilitated by Luke Georghiou, Deputy President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Manchester and Professor of Science and Technology Policy and Management in the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research at Alliance Manchester Business School.

This event will be hosted by Tony Venables CBE, Professor of Economics, Alliance Manchester Business School, and Research Director of The Productivity Institute.

Why some places are more prosperous

Why are regional disparities so persistent? Why do adjustment mechanisms fail, and what should policy do (and not do)? This lecture will review answers to these questions and offer insights based on a new measure of the structure of the UK’s local economies.

Tony Venables

​Tony is a Fellow of the British Academy and of the Econometric Society. Former positions include Chief Economist at the UK Department for International Development, professor at Oxford University and at the London School of Economics, research manager of the trade research group in the World Bank, and advisor to the UK Treasury.

He has published extensively in the areas of international trade, spatial economics, and natural resources, including work on trade and imperfect competition, economic integration, multinational firms, and economic geography.

The event will be facilitated by Professor Bart van Ark, Professor of Productivity Studies & Director of the Productivity Institute at Alliance MBS.

This month we will hear from Chaido Doulala-Rigby (Yuli), chair of ICE North West - Institution of Civil Engineers.

Yuli is a Chartered Engineer (CEng), a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers (FICE), a Fellow of the Permanent Way Institution, and a Fellow of the Institution of Royal Engineers. With over 25 years’ in Geotechnics, her work experience includes working as a Tunnelling Engineer for Balfour Beatty/AMEC JV at the Jubilee Line Extension Tunnelling project in London (1995), as a Geotechnical Engineer for Mouchel Asia Limited in Hong Kong (1996-2005) and as the Chief Civil Engineer for Tensar International, the inventor of polymeric soil reinforcing and soil stabilising geogrids (2005-present).

Yuli is the current (2021-2022) Chair of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) for the Northwest region of the UK, a past Chair (2016-2018) of the UK Committee of the International Geosynthetics Society (IGS), an elected member of the British Geotechnical Association (BGA) Executive Committee (2020-2023) and has authored and delivered several publications about reinforced and stabilised soil around the world. She is a regular judge for the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) Engineering Awards in the NW of the UK, the UK Ground Engineering Awards and she is the coordinator and a judge of the Baroness Platt of Writtle Awards on behalf of the Worshipful Company of Engineers, of which she is a Liveryman and a Court Assistant. She is a registered STEM Ambassador and was a Governor of Welbeck Defence Sixth Form College until it closed in 2021. She is the first female Engineer in the Northwest of the UK to obtain Fellowship of the ICE in September 2011 and the first non-military Engineer, to become a Fellow of the Institution of Royal Engineers (FInstRE) in May 2018.

Hosted by MBA alumna Claire-Marie Boggiano, Lurig Change & Development.