MBA Blogs @ Manchester Business School

The first-ever Manchester Business Summit – “Applying Original Thinking” was held on 5 November 2010 at the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester, and it was a huge success by all standards with close to 200 business people, alumni and MBAs in attendance. The event has established an enviable benchmark for future MBS Summits to follow.

Without having any precedence or model to imitate, five determined and committed team – Manchester Business Summit 2010 Organising Committee – pulled this great event through. Of course with the support of the MBA Director, the Summit champions, the club presidents, MBS staff and the MBA community as a whole.

The event was opened by the Director of the MBA Programme, Professor Elaine Ferneley after a nerve soothing session from the Scottish bag pipe player.

Watt Nicoll, a motivational expert who has worked with an amazing range of clients from David Beckham to Helen Sharman took the delegates through an exhilarating session exploring the 4 steps to success – focus, excitement, goal setting and commitment.

This was built upon by 3 other entrepreneurs: Stewart Pickering (CEO Kids Unltd), Chris Arnold (CEO Smaller Earth) and Denise Proctor (CEO Noise) who demonstrated how they used these 4 steps to build their successful and still growing business empires.

Ten (10) MBA clubs each made very impressive presentations to the audience in the “Pecha Kucha” style highlighting the various activities and achievements of their clubs. This served as a great way to showcase the potentials of the clubs to the business community and also state areas of possible partnership and mentoring.

The panel was made up of three very successful MBA alums; Simon Hayward (Cirrus Consulting), Vasilis Rallis (Economic Advisor to the Greek government) and Paul Haslam (Retail management Consultant). They shared their experiences pre- and post-MBA and answered  numerous questions on recruitment, starting a business, engaging with the business school, tapping into the alumni network, the importance of having fun at work and choosing the career path that best suits your personalities and experiences.

It was not all business but we also had fun with the live music performance by the quartet from The Cheetams school of Music. The creativity workshop stirred everyone’s creative streak with Malcolm (Founder Bearhunt) who reminded the delegates that work can also be fun. The head massages were also very relaxing and a great accompaniment to a sumptuous lunch.

Before the event closed, the contributions of 5 current Full-time MBAs and one alumuni were recognised with the “MBA Outstanding Citizens award” for various categories by Prof. Elaine Ferneley and Prof. Pete Naude. They are;

1. Umair Qazi (MBA 2011)

2. Alejandro Cruz (MBA 2011)

3. Luisma Gonzalez (MBA 2011)

4. Suvajyoti Ghosh (MBA 2011)

5. Oluwatoyin Akinwuntan (MBA 2011)

6. John Macaulay (MBA 2010)

The event was brought to a grand close by the Dean of the Business School; Professor Michael Luger.

So far, there has been very positive feedback from the MBAs, alumuni and business people alike.

More importantly, the class of 2012 are gearing up quickly to put up a BIGGER, BETTER and BOLDER Manchester Business Summit for 2011.

A special thanks to the Manchester Business Summit 2010 Organising Committee:

Toyin Akinwuntan, Alejandro Cruz, Nathalie Ngatia, Carla Autelli, John Macaulay!