Original Thinking Podcast

At this Vital Topics event, we are joined by Andy Haldane, Chief Executive of the Royal Society for Arts, former Chief Economist at the Bank of England, and Honorary Professor at Alliance Manchester Business School.

Andy will be exploring levelling up in this Vital Topics lecture.

Levelling up - where next?

Published in February 2022, the Levelling Up in the United Kingdom white paper sets out a plan of action to spread opportunities more equally across the UK.

In September 2021, RSA Chief Executive Andy Haldane was appointed by the Prime Minister to define and develop the flagship national levelling up strategy – a decade-long moral, social and economic cross-government, cross society programme to spread opportunity and prosperity to all parts of the UK.

In this event, Andy Haldane explores how the White Paper’s ambitious vision and 12 national levelling up missions can now be made a reality in towns and cities in every part of the UK, by 2030.

Andy Haldane

During his 30 years at the Bank of England, Andy has become a leading expert on monetary and financial stability as one of Britain’s most influential economists and served as a member on the Financial Policy Committee and Monetary Policy Committee. He was Permanent Secretary for Levelling Up at the Cabinet Office from September 2021 to March 2022.

He stepped down from this role in 2021 to join the Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) as Chief Executive.

In addition to his contribution to the Bank of England, Andy has led HM Government’s Industrial Strategy Council and in 2009 co-founded Pro Bono Economics, a charity dedicated to using economics to empower the social sector. He was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by TIME magazine in 2014 and among other positions, is a Fellow of the Royal Society and the Academy of Social Sciences and Governor of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research.

This event is 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.

Sponsored by DWF, Vital Topics is Alliance MBS' series of prestigious business lectures, bringing powerful ideas and original thinking to audiences from the Manchester city-region and beyond.

At this Vital Topics event we will be joined by Andy Haldane, Chief Executive of the Royal Society for Arts, former Chief Economist at the Bank of England, and Honorary Professor at Alliance Manchester Business School.

Andy will be exploring levelling up in this Vital Topics lecture.

Levelling up - where next?

Published in February 2022, the Levelling Up in the United Kingdom white paper sets out a plan of action to spread opportunity more equally across the UK.

In September 2021, RSA Chief Executive Andy Haldane was appointed by the Prime Minister to define and develop the flagship national levelling up strategy – a decade-long moral, social and economic cross-government, cross society programme to spread opportunity and prosperity to all parts of the UK.

In this event, Andy Haldane explores how the White Paper’s ambitious vision and 12 national levelling up missions can now be made a reality in towns and cities in every part of the UK, by 2030.

Andy Haldane

During his 30 years at the Bank of England, Andy has become a leading expert on monetary and financial stability as one of Britain’s most influential economists and served as a member on the Financial Policy Committee and Monetary Policy Committee. He was Permanent Secretary for Levelling Up at the Cabinet Office from September 2021 to March 2022.

He stepped down from this role in 2021 to join the Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) as Chief Executive.

In addition to his contribution to the Bank of England, Andy has led HM Government’s Industrial Strategy Council and in 2009 co-founded Pro Bono Economics, a charity dedicated to using economics to empower the social sector. He was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by TIME magazine in 2014 and among other positions, is a Fellow of the Royal Society and the Academy of Social Sciences and Governor of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research.

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.

Sponsored by DWF, Vital Topics is Alliance MBS' series of prestigious business lectures, bringing powerful ideas and original thinking to audiences from the Manchester city-region and beyond.

In this episode, we will hear from Heather Waters, Enterprise Manager, Natwest. With over 20 years B2B experience, Heather is now part of the Women In Business team developing and delivering the strategy to support female entrepreneurs across the U.K.

In 2019, the Treasury commissioned Alison Rose, the CEO of NatWest, to lead an independent review of female entrepreneurship. Heather spoke to us last year following the publication of the second annual review, about how she would be working with key national and regional organisations that support female entrepreneurship to start and scale.

During this episode, she will give us an update on the findings from this year's Rose Review Progress Report.

This episode is hosted by MBA alumna Claire-Marie Boggiano, Lurig Change & Development.

At this Vital Topics event we are joined by Marian Sudbury OBE, Director, Regions, Department for International Trade.

The event is facilitated by Mario Kafouros, Professor of International Business & Innovation and Head of the Division of People, Management and Organisations, Alliance Manchester Business School.

In her lecture Marian explores why governments including the UK government actively support exporting. She will discuss why governments partake in trade deals, and how the UK government is helping businesses to export through trade deals and through export support.

Marian Sudbury

A Cambridge graduate with an MBA from Manchester Business School, Marian’s background as a senior business leader means she brings commercial acumen to the role of Director UK Regions for the Department for International Trade.

Marian has worked on behalf of major blue chip companies, charities and government, defining organisational direction and designing and delivering short and long-term commercial strategy. She was made a Board Director in 2001 for planning and then setting up the international division within a Greater Manchester research firm.

Subsequently a Senior Vice President in a top 15 research firm she ran a business division conducting research and advice contracts for multinationals such as DuPont, Caterpillar, Mars and Oxfam. She then founded her own lifestyle business which worked for clients in locations ranging from Sakhalin to Birmingham Alabama. After three very successful years of trading she experienced, at a very personal level, the impact of the banking crisis.

Her career in advising clients on internationalisation began in Istanbul, where she provided research and advice to help Eveready, Mercedes and Avon Cosmetics understand how to operate in the Turkish market.

Since January 2013 she has been working for the Department for International Trade, initially leading Global Operations and the Northern Powerhouse and now as the Director for English Regions, a national role focussed on growing the UK economy by helping high potential businesses learn and grow through doing business overseas and high quality global businesses create wealth by investing in the UK.

Marian also sits on the Advisory Board at Alliance Manchester Business School.

Sponsored by DWF, Vital Topics is Alliance MBS' series of prestigious business lectures, bringing powerful ideas and original thinking to audiences from the Manchester city-region and beyond.

Our Original Thinking Lecture series showcases some of the world-leading research from colleagues at Alliance MBS.

This event is hosted by Sheena Johnson, Professor of Work Psychology and Wellbeing, Alliance Manchester Business School.

In this episode, Sheena details her research into health and wellbeing at work. She outlines her early work into occupational differences and wellbeing related outcomes, before detailing her more recent focus on the ageing workforce which formed an impact case for REF2021 and led her to create the ‘Age, Health and Professional Drivers’ Network’. She will also talk about her ongoing work in the PROTECT COVID-19 National Core Study where she has investigated the impact of the pandemic on workers and workplaces.

Sheena is an Occupational and Chartered Psychologist registered with the Health and Care Professions Council. She is an active researcher into the topics of stress and health and the ageing workforce. She established the ‘Age, Health and Professional Drivers’ Network, comprising transport and logistics firms, unions and industry representatives with an interest in age and health and wellbeing in the transport sector, which builds capacity in the sector to exchange knowledge and best practice.

The episode is facilitated by Elinor O'Connor, Professor of Occupational Psychology, Director of Teaching and Learning, and Deputy Head of Alliance Manchester Business School.

Our Original Thinking Podcast series showcases some of the world-leading research from colleagues at Alliance MBS.

This event is hosted by Antony Potter, Professor of Operations and Supply Chain Management at Alliance MBS.

The electric future: Unravelling how automakers collaborate with suppliers to co-develop electric, hybrid, & hydrogen fuel cell technologies

Over the past ten years automakers have invested heavily in the development of new electric, hybrid, and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. Although a large amount of attention has been given to the policy implications of this paradigm shift in the automotive industry, comparatively little research has studied how automakers work collaboratively with their suppliers to co-develop these eco-innovations.

Using patent data from the Toyota supply network together with econometric techniques and endogeneity analysis Antony will investigate how the automaker co-develops innovations with different suppliers. His findings unravel the unique way in which the automaker collaborates with external suppliers to develop buyer-supplier innovations, supplier-supplier innovations, supplier innovation triads, and inter-firm knowledge spillovers. Finally, he will discuss the managerial and policy implications of his findings considering the transition to net zero in the automotive industry.

Professor Antony Potter is the Professor of Operations and Supply Chain Management at the Alliance Manchester Business School (University of Manchester). His research interests focus on Operations Management, Supply Chain Management, and Innovation & NPD. In particular, his research investigates how different operations and SCM practices enable firms to co-develop innovations within global supply networks, especially for electric, hybrid, and fuel cell vehicles. In addition, he undertakes interdisciplinary research into supply chain risk management, supplier disruptions, lean manufacturing (the Toyota Production System), and the evolution of clusters and supply networks.

His published articles have appeared in leading international journals including the Journal of Operations Management (a Financial Times top 50 journal), Research Policy (a Financial Times top 50 journal), Journal of Product Innovation Management (Grade 4 journal, ABS list), International Journal of Operations and Production Management (Grade 4 journal, ABS list), Journal of Economic Geography (Grade 4 journal, ABS list), International Journal of Production Economics (Grade 3 journal, ABS list), Regional Studies (Grade 3 journal, ABS list), Production Planning & Control (Grade 3, ABS List), Journal of Cleaner Production, and Trends in Food Science and Technology.

He has won a number of international awards for his research, such as the Emerald Literati Award for Excellence: Highly Commended Award (2020), Runner up for IJOPM’s 2019 Best Paper Award, the Chris Voss Highly Commended Award (EUROMA, 2013), Chris Voss Best Paper Award (EUROMA, 2012), and the Chan Hahn Best Paper Award Finalist (Academy of Management, 2012). In addition, he won the 2019 Runner Up Prize for the 'Teacher of the Year Award' and the 2022 ‘Researcher of the Year Award’ at Alliance Manchester Business School.

The event is facilitated by Joao Quariguasi Frota Net, Professor in Operations Management at Alliance MBS.

In this episode, we will hear from Ali Whitefoot, Senior Manager at Deloitte UK.

Ali leads organisations to get more value from finance. This can range from working with her clients to re-structure themselves to save costs all the way through to ensuring they are providing the business with insightful information to drive better decisions.

She has worked for Deloitte for 10 years and is passionate about developing talent within her organisation, thereby ensuring we can provide the best experience for our clients. This is through both traditional pathways and challenging the organisation to think differently about talent in parallel with making a social impact.

Outside work Ali is a relatively new mum of twin boys so is spending most of her trying to juggle family life, work and fitting in some fun for herself!

This episode is hosted by MBA alumna Claire-Marie Boggiano, Lurig Change & Development.

Our Original Thinking Lecture series showcases some of the world-leading research from colleagues at Alliance MBS.

This event is hosted by Michael Hodson, Professor of Cities, Innovation and Society at the Sustainable Consumption Institute (SCI), at the Innovation, Management and Policy (IMP) division, Alliance Manchester Business School.

How are digital platforms being mobilised to re-imagine the future of cities, who is doing this, and why?

Innovation with urban infrastructure and its social organisation has become a key strategic concern for policymakers and other stakeholders at an urban scale. As a response to a range of pressing contemporary and future challenges facing urban contexts, infrastructural innovation is frequently mobilised in visions of the future of the city that are produced by public authorities, business organisations and NGOs. Yet, visions of infrastructural innovation are not benign, technocratic representations of the future of cities but are media through which the struggle for the future of the city, and the role of infrastructural innovation in this, is played out. This requires critical thinking about the strategic centrality of urban infrastructure to how the future of the city is being re-imagined but also focusing on the politics of possibility in shaping urban infrastructure and the future city.

In this event, Mike will construct an argument that provides the first step towards this end by addressing how digital platforms as a form of urban infrastructure are being mobilised in visions of the future of the city, the social interests shaping this, and what the implications of this are.

The event is facilitated by Andrew McMeekin, Professor of Innovation in the Sustainable Consumption Institute.

The University of Manchester celebrates women in business by hosting an inspirational event aimed at showcasing the potential of female entrepreneurship and encouraging students to embrace their creativity, spark connections and test out business ideas.

Hosted by the Masood Entrepreneurship Centre, this event features a range of insightful talks and workshops to help build your confidence, broaden your networks, and introduce you to new tools that will help you refine and launch a business idea.

Starting with our Keynote Speakers Alicia and Nat, founders of The Future Kind Collective, who help companies to grow faster and more sustainably by defining their purpose, designing their culture and growing their impact. You’ll hear their experiences, insights, and reflections on how they continually push the limits and drive change.

We then listen to a panel of entrepreneurs, who share their experiences of building confidence despite the fear of failure, whether that be as students, entrepreneurs or in our everyday lives. With experience ranging from the fashion industry to agri-tech solutions, to the creative and dance sector, learn how each of our panel members overcame barriers and set expectations in their respective fields.

Panellists include:

Dr Beenish Siddique - AEH Innovative Hydrogel

Tina Rehana - Aim Sky High Academy & The Purpose Agency

Danielle King - KIHT Collective

Who this event is for:

Students who want to build connections and understand more about the entrepreneurial experience.

Students who would like to learn more about personal branding, or how to turn their passion into a potential project/business.

Budding female entrepreneurs wanting to accelerate their ideas to the next level through powerful concepts and original thinking.

Our Original Thinking Podcast series showcases some of the world-leading research from colleagues at Alliance MBS.

This event is hosted by Wing Lam, Professor of Organisational Psychology at Alliance MBS.

Does Proactivity Matter at Work?

Proactivity continues to be a major research discussion in the field of organisational psychology, with increasing studies on proactive personality, goals, and behaviour appearing in top-tier journals since 2000. Scholars and practitioners agree that being proactive is distinctive and vital now more than it has ever been due to the dynamic nature of work environment. Is proactivity worth viewing as a superpower at work?

Professor Wing Lam will address her scholarly trajectory in this research domain and current thinking on proactivity, aiming to make connections with scholars and practitioners that might lead to future collaborations.

This event is facilitated by Hongwei He, Chair Professor of Marketing and School Director for Social Responsibility at Alliance Manchester Business School.