Cass Business School Students Get A Taste For Middle East Business World
Cass Business School MBA students from London, led by Executive MBA Dubai Course Director Roy Batchelor, took a tour of leading companies throughout the UAE.
During the five-day tour, students met with leading UAE companies such as Mubadala Development Authority; Emirates National Oil Company; Abu Dhabi Investment Authority; Masdar Institute of Science and Technology; du; Emirates Airlines; JWT; and Nakheel. In addition to in-depth industry outlooks, the tour also allowed for interesting insights into local customs and culture. The delegation visited The Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding, the Abu Dhabi Grand Mosque, while also enjoying a desert safari and a trip up the iconic Burj Khalifa tower.
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Cass Business School Announces Partnership with White & Case
Global law firm White & Case LLP has become the exclusive legal industry Senior Sponsor to the Mergers and Acquisitions Research Centre (MARC) at Cass Business School.
The Firm has announced a strategic partnership with MARC from the beginning of 2015 and joins Credit Suisse, one of the world’s leading financial services providers; EY, a global leader in assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services; and independent private investment company Ardian as a Senior Sponsor. MARC is the first centre dedicated to research into the global M&A industry established by a major business school.
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Cass Business School Hosts Inaugural Smart Beta Europe Conference
Top asset management experts joined up at Cass Business School for an inaugural conference on smart beta investing.
More than 220 investment professionals snapped up places at the first Smart Beta Europe Conference organised by Cass and ETF Strategy. The conference was designed to give delegates an insight into current and future developments in smart beta, which is shaking up traditional investment approaches in the asset management industry.
Among the line-up of speakers were senior executives from leading asset management firms and index providers, together with academics from Cass’s Centre for Asset Management Research.
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Cass MBAs Bring Their Ideas For Change To Whitehall
Cass Business School MBA students played a role in re-imagining the UK civil service through a new voluntary project. Three teams of MBA volunteers took up the challenge to present recommendations for improving the Cabinet Office’s image to Francis Maude, the Minister for the Cabinet Office.
This was the first time the Cabinet Office has invited MBA students to undertake a consultancy project in this way, and was an exclusive opportunity for Cass Business School.
The teams were free to explore the issue from any angle – one group focused on accountability whilst another looked into how civil servants could increase transparency. The third group explored Cabinet Office culture. They carried out a cultural survey on their MBA classmates that mirrored an internal Civil Service one, to compare outside perceptions with actual employees’ views.
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Cass Business School Scholars Identify Top CEOs and Start-Ups to Watch in 2015
A number of Cass Business School scholars spoke about the CEOs and start-ups on which they have their eyes in the new year. Check out some of their suggestions below.
Chris Roebuck, Visiting Professor of Transformational Leadership
“Dick Costolo, CEO of Twitter, is a persona type leader who enjoys the strong backing of his employees. The company has been voted as one of the top five best organisations to work for. He’s one to watch on account of how it will be interesting to see how a more “technical expert” deals with being the leader of a fast growing organisation that’s becoming more corporate.”
Professor Vince Mitchell
“Anything to do with the sharing economy is going to be worth watching as it’s a way of matching untapped value in the things we already have with unmet needs of people. In addition, there’s a feel good factor because consumers are often helping to save the planet as well as give each other a little money rather than giving it to large companies. For a new solution to our UK weather, checkout Umbrella Here, or for a time out from our busy city lives checkout Breather.”
Professor Costas Andriopoulos
“Elizabeth Holmes, the CEO of Theranos. She revolutionised the blood testing industry. With a drop of blood, Theranos can perform different tests ranging from standard cholesterol checks to complicated genetic analyses. This clearly is a game changer, since the results are far cheaper, faster and more accurate than conventional blood testing methods.”
Cass Business School Survey Paints Picture Of New Pension World
A majority of UK employees now expect to keep working beyond the age of 65 – or so says a new poll.
More than half of the 2,000 members of defined contribution (DC) schemes, interviewed in a nationwide survey conducted by YouGov, Aon Hewitt and Cass Business School, conceded they will work past age 65. Almost one in 10 claimed they will work into their 70s, while one in 50 said they will never retire.
Most workers also expect to draw a pension of less than half their salary, consigning the old expectation of two-thirds to history. The greatest number of people – nearly half – believed their pension pot will be between 21 and 50 per cent of their salary.
The shift in employee attitudes portrays a new sense of realism among employees about their retirement prospects.
“Members of employer sponsored DC schemes have grasped the harsh realities of the 21st century pensions world,” said the report’s co-author, Professor Andrew Clare of Cass Business School.
Other study findings, however, indicate that there are reachable solutions for addressing these issues. Said Sophia Singleton, DC Partner at Aon Hewitt: “Taken together, our survey reinforces the message for employers and trustees to engage more with their scheme members. Employers should consider providing tools to guide members with their pension choices, while trustees should consider how they could provide guidance and education.”
