As you know, consultation has been underway for some time to explore combining FBE, MGSM and MAFC to strengthen the University’s reputation as a leader in business, management and economics education and research in Australia. FBE embarked on this journey in early 2016, with extended consultation to discuss the direction and priorities for aligning these entities. In January 2017, FBE, MGSM and MAFC formally came together under one Executive Dean, Professor Stephen Brammer.

Further deep and broad consultation regarding the vision, strategy and structure of the new unit has been undertaken in the last six months with University staff, Faculty staff, students, corporate partners and alumni. A new vision is now emerging that will achieve a clearer sense of an integrated unit that encompasses all business and management research and education to create the strategic and operational coordination seen in leading global business schools.

Stephen Brammer, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Business and Economics says: “This will allow us to respond to global industry demands to provide a more interdisciplinary and engaged learning experience. With a strong shared sense of purpose, our future will be cutting edge, well resourced, aligned with market needs, and exceed both local and international student expectations.”

The brands of MGSM and MAFC will continue to be developed and nurtured. Recent campaigns for our business and management programs signal our determination to preserve the brand value of MGSM and MAFC qualifications. We’re also recruiting significant numbers of new academic staff with proven capacity to contribute to leading business, management and economics postgraduate programs.

Of the world’s top 100 MBAs and business schools, only a very small number are independent. The majority draw significant strength and benefit from the universities they sit within. By combining and fostering greater collaboration, we will provide a more interdisciplinary and engaging learning experience for our business and management students. 

Consultation and research on our shared identity is continuing. There is still considerable work to be done and we look forward to updating you with more detail along the way.

For more information, please email Professor Stephen Brammer on stephen.brammer@mq.edu.au

Before MGSM scholarship recipient Maria Bennett completed her Graduate Certificate in Management last year, she thought learning would mostly come through formal study.

“A year down the track I have a completely different perspective,” she says. “The scholarship gave me a fantastic skeleton of theory and knowledge which has been brought to life through the practical application of my knowledge at work. Accounting is the perfect example of this –  although in class I learnt the theory of creating a balance sheet, it was only after spending time putting this into practice that I was then able to create one myself.”

Organisation Development Consultant Fiona Cross says professional development involves viewing all of your experiences as potential learning opportunities.

“When we think about professional development, many of us think about what workshops or courses we can enrol in. While there is a place for this type of learning, it’s only a small part of the picture.”

One way to approach professional development is the 70:20:10 model, which estimates that 70% of our learning comes through experience, 20% from other people, and 10% from formal learning.

Experience – 70%

• Set development goals. Identifying goals helps us become focused, effective learners. When setting your development goals, think about the skills you need to develop in your current role and potential future roles. Record your development goals in the PDR system. Aim for three goals with two to three activities for each.
• Look for opportunities. If for example you would like to develop your project management skills, identify opportunities to develop these skills in your role. Can you take on some of the management of an existing project you are involved in?  Could you start a small project group to address a need or challenge you have identified?
• Share your learning. Explaining to others is a good test of how well you understand something – plus it’s a great way to support colleagues. Have you read an article lately that’s worth sharing in your next team meeting?
• Ask for feedback. Although daunting, it’s one of the best ways to fast-track your development. Be specific about the feedback you are seeking and ensure you ask the right person.
• Reflection is a powerful way to synthesise and abstract the key lessons taught by experience. Take time out after a significant piece of work to think about what worked well and what could be improved.

Other people – 20%

• Identify a colleague with the skills you are looking to develop. What are the opportunities to observe these skills in action? Sit in on a meeting with them, have coffee with them or ask them to mentor you through a project you are working on.
• Develop networks. Connect with a peer group or external network to access diverse perspectives, current thinking and best practice. For example, can you connect a group of colleagues in similar roles to discuss common challenges and opportunities?

Formal learning– 10%

There are a number of formal study/development options at Macquarie, including:

• Skill development workshops: Attend on campus workshops facilitated by experts in their field to enhance your skills across a range of areas from influencing key stakeholders to building your emotional resilience.
• Development Grants. Identify a development opportunity relevant to your role and apply for a grant. Applications are open now until 21 April.
• MGSM scholarships. Develop your management skills through the Graduate Certificate of Management. Four scholarships are on offer to Professional staff each year. Applications are open now until 21 April.
• MQ Postgraduate Scholarships. Develop skills in your field by completing a postgraduate course at Macquarie. Two scholarships are on offer each year. Applications are open now until 21 April.
• Study for Staff. Attend a lecture series without enrolling in a degree program, paying tuition fees or undertaking assessment activities.
• Lynda.com. Access a huge library of videos by recognised industry experts on topics including Microsoft Office suite, project management, and communication.

What do you think of the 70:20:10 model? What has helped your professional development? Share your thoughts below.

International Business and Communications student Jackson Vanharte’s fridge is covered in drawings and letters from dozens of Cambodian orphans.

There’s seven-year old Srey*, who alongside her nine-year old brother Kolab, was abandoned by their mother and found going through garbage.

Devi*, an eight-year-old who was addicted to inhaling industrial solvent.

Chandra*, whose parents both died from HIV.

“Forty percent of the population of Cambodia is under the age of 20,” says Jackson. “If there aren’t initiatives to support younger demographics…” he trails off. “You get the picture.”

Jackson knew he had to do something and when he combined his passions for art and volunteering, an idea was born. Jackson set out to create a business that provides a sustainable income for artists in the developing world while simultaneously supporting humanitarian causes.

Through the university’s Global Leader Program (GLP) Jackson attended the ‘Be the change you want to see in the world: Social Entrepreneurship’ colloquia hosted by Associate Professor Debbie Haski-Leventhal. The GLP is an extracurricular program that enhances the study experience and develops leadership skills.

Debbie recalls meeting Jackson at the colloquium, “It’s so exciting and inspiring to see a student at Macquarie doing amazing things,” she enthuses.

The Masters of Social Entrepreneurship students at MGSM offered Jackson a free consultation and a business plan to help him grow Frontier Collection.

“Jackson is an inspiration,” says Jennifer Lee, one of Debbie’s students who helped Jackson. “He showed that regardless of our age, life experience and resources that we start with, we can make a positive difference.”

The assistance provided by Jennifer and others involved in the MGSM consulting project allowed Jackson to propel Frontier Collection into the next stage of development.

“It opened up the floodgates to all these ideas and different directions I can take Frontier,” he says.

Funds raised since have helped pay for food, drinking water, healthcare expenses and school supplies for Srey and the other orphans.

For Debbie, leading this program and teaching corporate social responsibility is so rewarding.

“I may never be the CEO of a big company as my passion lies in guiding the hearts and minds of future CEOs. Along with the coursework, I teach them values like empathy and integrity to ensure that when they are in a position to make a difference, they can do it in a way that contributes to a better society. Every day I come across amazing businesses that are making a real difference, not just making a profit,” she says.

“Whatever you do, you have the ability to use your role and your abilities to make a difference. To know that as a teacher and a researcher that you can make a difference is really rewarding. And I think the biggest impact is making a difference in someone else’s life. That’s what gives your life meaning,” Debbie adds.

Support Frontier Collection by purchasing artwork, becoming an Ambassador or signing up for updates.

Macquarie Graduate School of Management and Macquarie University are proud to be co-delivering Australia’s first Master of Social Entrepreneurship, designed to develop leaders who are able to use business strategies, knowledge, tools and entrepreneurial spirit to address complex societal and environmental needs.

*Names of all children changed.

“It’s been really fascinating to share the game [of rugby] around different communities and across different cultures… it’s a really inclusive sport that I would love to see most parts of the world have a go at.”

Listen to previous Pioneering Minds episodes on Soundcloud.

“The people in power protect their power – and that’s what I see when I see these arguments about women, when I see these arguments about married people, when I see these arguments about homosexual people. It is the people at the top who protect their position.”

“To date we have raised nearly $4 million in corporate sponsorship matched by the same amount in fee relief from MGSM. That’s $8 million in total. This has to be the biggest contribution to addressing the gender imbalance in MBAs launched by any business school in the world,” said The Hon Kristina Keneally, Director of Gender Inclusion and Adjunct Professor at MGSM.

Current sponsorship recipient, Ashleigh Wright of Defence Housing Australia, said the WiMBA program had allowed her to progress in her career, become involved in not-for-profit organisations and access mentoring opportunities – none of which would have been possible without it.

“It would have been ten years before I’d been able to afford to do an MBA – if then,” she said. “Often, investing in ourselves takes a back seat to the mortgage and everything else. Through WiMBA I’ve gained invaluable professional skills but just as importantly, have had formal mentoring both through MGSM and my employer.”

Ms Keneally said that an MBA was a powerful tool for helping women step up into senior leadership roles. “It’s imperative business schools do their part to make sure potential candidates don’t miss out,” she commented. “That’s why we set ourselves this huge target to become one of the first business schools in the top 50 globally to achieve gender balance in our domestic student intake.”

By meeting this original target the percentage of female participants in the MGSM MBA domestic program has increased from 29 per cent in 2014 to 35 per cent in 2016.

Launched in November 2014, the WiMBA program works with corporate and government organisations to identify their top female talent and support them through an MBA. This includes not just financial support but mentorship and career planning.

The initiative has secured 50 corporate partners to date – including Canon, Dow Chemical, GE International, Hollard Insurance, Johnson & Johnson, Nanosonics, Qantas, the Royal Australian Navy, Star Entertainment Group, Volvo and Woolworths – with 100 sponsorships in place.

Now the School has reached its original target it plans to conduct a full review of the initiative to ensure the program is meeting the needs of both the corporates it works alongside and the female students it sponsors.

Ms Keneally said: “Through this program we are determined to make a real difference to the numbers of women in leadership. In order to do that, we are prepared to take a moment to review how we are tracking as we continue on the journey of supporting these women through to graduation and beyond.”

Hear from more Pioneering minds in our podcast series.

During this period of interim stewardship, an extensive consultation period is planned to explore greater future alignment between the School and the Faculty of Business and Economics.

Professor Charles Areni
Professor Areni is an expert in branding and retail design, and his research has been widely published in a variety of academic journals including the Journal of Consumer Research, the Journal of Retailing, the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, the International Journal of Research in Marketing, and Cognition and Emotion. He has served on the editorial review boards of the Journal of Retailing, the Journal of Business Research, the Journal of Advertising, and Psychology & Marketing. As a consultant, he has advised the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Woolworths, the Houston Astros of Major League Baseball, the Australasian Performing Rights Association, and Satellite Music Australia, among other clients. In addition, he has been an expert witness in federal trademark and intellectual property cases in Australia, South Africa and Ireland.

Professor Norma Harrison
Professor Harrison has over 35 years of experience as an academic at a number of universities and 30 years of experience in consulting to industry and government agencies. She has served as Professor of Management at MGSM since 1996. Prior to this, she was the Foundation Head of the Graduate School of Business at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS). From 2008 to 2010, she spent three years at the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) in Shanghai and Beijing as Professor of Operations Management. She has served in the Innovation Council of New South Wales, the Governing Board for the Joint Accreditation System for Australia and New Zealand (JAS-ANZ), and in the Council on the Cost & Quality of (NSW) Government.

‘Science Meets Parliament 2016’ Science & Technology Australia President, Emeritus Professor Jim Piper and delegates Dr Lee Spitler from the Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Dr Alfonso Garcia-Bennett from the Department of Chemistry and Biomolecular Sciences met with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in his office at Parliament House earlier this month.

The 16th annual Science meets Parliament brought 200 working scientists to Canberra for a two-day program of professional development and networking aimed at helping them better communicate their science to the media, policymakers and parliamentarians.

Last Tuesday March 8 saw the Macquarie staff and student community come together in a wonderful show of support for International Women’s Day. The event saw inspiring speakers joined by student musicians and sport scholars in a vibrant collection of performances.

27 diverse student societies were also present, and more than $1400 was raised to support the work of the UN Women International Committee Australia to end violence against women and girls in the Pacific region.

As of today, visitors to mgsm.edu.au will encounter a brand new website for the Macquarie Graduate School of Management. A key component of the Shared Identity project, the new site aligns MGSM with the University’s new identity while still maintaining a distinct brand look for the leading business school. Other major improvements include responsive mobile-friendly design and a new site structure that better meets audience needs.

[Left] The newly refurbished Department of Linguistics. [Right] Unveiling of the ‘We Are Ubuntu’ artwork by the Head of the Department of Linguistics, Associate Professor Jan-Louis Kruger (pictured right), and Macquarie University Visual Voices Art Group artist, Olegario Gonzalez.

The long awaited refurbishment of The Linguistics Department C5A building has been completed, in the record time of five months, by the company Inaphase. The new interior has proven to be a hit among staff, showcasing crisp modern features in neutral tones, complemented with splashes of turquoise and copper.

To celebrate, the Department of Linguistics held an opening last Friday afternoon in the elegant space, during which they unveiled the newly installed artwork created by members of the Macquarie University Visual Voices Art Group. The group was established in August 2014 by speech pathologist Christine Sheard in the Macquarie University Speech and Hearing Clinic. The group encourages people with some physical paralysis and language communication difficulties (aphasia) following stroke, to use art as a medium to practise friendship, social participation, renewed self-identity and autonomy.

The unveiled piece pictured is called ‘We are Ubuntu’ from three artists from the group, John Giliberti, Olegario Gonzalez, Alasdair MacLennan and their artistic facilitators Viviene Mewing, Romny Vandoros and Karlene Wilcox; who named the piece after the African term ‘ubuntu’ which means “l am what I am because of who we are”. The artwork rejoices in the fact that communication can occur in more ways than just via speech and that its ultimate success resides also in the attitudes and engagement of people in all our social contexts.

Congratulations to the Macquarie University Catering team on receiving the New South Wales Banquet and Catering Award at the Meetings and Events Australia (MEA) industry awards for the second consecutive year.

The Award recognises organisations that provide catering services for business events either as a stand-alone catering business or as a banquet department providing food and beverage services for conferences and events.

This adds to the long list of awards the team have received throughout the years for their outstanding effort.  Learn more about their achievements.

Late last month more than 800 mathematics teachers from across New South Wales, including many from regional and remote areas came to campus to take part in the Higher School Certificate (HSC) Mathematics Review day.

Run by the Mathematic Department in partnership with the Mathematical Association of New South Wales, and with the assistance of the Board of Studies, Teaching and Educational Standards New South Wales, the day included a number of sessions reviewing each of the mathematics papers from the 2015 HSC. It was an opportunity to highlight areas of concern and provide information and insight to help classroom teachers better prepare their students.

“For two decades I have been working on identifying the principles underlying resilient, high-performing organisations – from small firms through to entire nations,” Gayle explained.

The meeting was organised to discuss how countries in the G77 could use the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy (SEP), developed by the King of Thailand to successfully implement the UN’s new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In her presentation, Gayle outlined the SEP process, showing delegates how it applied to several of the SDGs. Her research into sustainable leadership is of great interest in Thailand, which is looking for practical, evidence-based guidelines for implementing the SEP.

“My associates and I have often been invited to address large audiences and conduct various research projects based on the SEP, including editing a forthcoming book of case studies by Thai experts about applying the SEP to business, health, education, community development, prisoner rehabilitation and agriculture,” said Gayle .

The G77 is equivalent to the United Nations’s G20 but for developing economies, giving them an enhanced negotiating capacity in the United Nations. The group currently includes 134 member countries, with Thailand being the chair in 2016.

“The meeting in Thailand is just one of many forums where experts and policy makers can work together to help achieve UN goals,” said Gayle . She has been invited to address the G77 again, at its meeting in June.

 Learn more about Gayle and her research.