Video Transcript
Wayne Brown: Wayne Brown, I was born in Leeds, I'm a local man. I started my academic life really at age 21. I decided to go to University part time. I joined Halifax Bank of Scotland, a local organisation, and worked there for 7 years.
Svetlana Kopytina: My name is Svetlana Kopytina and I come from Kazakhstan, the former Soviet Union country, and I graduated from the University in Kazakhstan in 1999.
Michael Rockel: My name is Michael Rockel, I'm 24 years old and I'm German, so I'm from the Cologne area in Germany. And before I came to Bradford I was part of a trainee programme within my home company, which is Bayer.
Patricia Aretuo: Hi, my name is Patricia Aretuo. I am from Uruguay, South America. I am a chartered accountant and I am a visiting lecturer of accounting and labour relations in the Uruguayan University and I have been working in Deloitte in the tax department since 1995.
Juliane Stuempel: Hi my name is Juliane Stuempel. I decided to go to Bradford because I always related studies abroad to England because it's like you have to many pictures in your mind when you think about going abroad and doing some studies and I always thought England was quite a nice place to go for that.
Professor Stuart Sanderson: Professor Stuart Sanderson, I'm the Associate Dean for Graduate Programmes, which is a big mouthful but what it means is I'm responsible for all the MBA programmes, the MA programmes and executive education at the School.
If I was to say there was a Bradford experience which applied to the MBA, I would say that what it was composed of no matter which form of the MBA you did, would be a foundation of what I would call key subjects which we'd expect everyone to know about. And, then of course, one of the unique features of Bradford is the amount of choice which we then offer to students and the choice of delivery mechanisms as well. So for example, a full time student could learn with part time students. A part time student could take a distance learning subject if they wanted. It's to fit, if you will, the course to their circumstances and with a degree of flexibility. So what we're talking about is a foundation and then the ability for students to choose pathways that they think appropriate to their development with our guidance, of course.
The other thing about Bradford, of course, we have been doing it for a long time, we are an old Business School and been running MBA's since '74. So we've built up a lot of experience about what students on different forms of MBA are looking for, and how we can help them. I often say to students, we are very pleased to welcome you and we're even more pleased to get rid of you, particularly if you've got a great job to go to and we've put efforts in at both ends to do that. But a recent feature is this notion that they can build the course to suit their circumstances, and we think that's important.
The Business Stimulation, or Business Game as most students would call it, comes at the end of their course, and what it is, they have to run a company in the European Car Industry. They choose their own teams, we don't select the team, and we give them car companies to run, but they can choose at the end of the day which segment they want to sell into and what sort of car they want to make. And they actually do make cars, albeit on paper, well electronically, which they have to design, market, sustain in the market place, influence dealers and all the usual things you would get with a car company.
Wayne Brown: Welcome to the initial corporate meeting of Pegasus, we believe that we have a unique approach to marketing cars in Europe and we are sure that after you've viewed our presentation you will want to invest in this exciting opportunity.
Professor Stuart Sanderson: Much of the game is not just about the application of what we've taught them, it's about working in situations where they have to use what they know but with others.
Wayne Brown: What we're about to do now is check whether the parameters that are actually happening in the business game match the assumptions that we made. So what we're gonna do it have a chat for about 10 or 15 minutes, look at the things that we assumed, look at the things which are happening and try and find out where the differences are.
Group discussion: We produced 55,000 and we've got 5,000 stock to you want to sell 60,000?
Yes, yep
Let's make a compromise.
Yes, well we're safe
Yes
I don't want to go too close to their price, I prefer going a bit with the volumes¿¿.
Professor Stuart Sanderson: It is about managing others, working with others. It is about things like time management. It is about things and it's importantly about influencing others, persuading others to your point of view, they do fall out, we do have rows, jobs do change, they do spy on each other, hopefully, and indulge in all sorts but that's part of the game and it's part of the experience.
Wayne Brown: We have to perform well in the game, but then we have to write reports and present them at the end and at the beginning. Basically give a complete performance and let's hope the best team wins.
Michael Rockel: So in the end to sum it up we had a really good time, we learned a lot, especially in terms of group dynamics, how a real company would be working in this time.
Patricia Aretuo: We think it's a very good learning experience and would recommend it.
Juliane Stuempel: I enjoyed every moment spent here in Bradford, in UK, I enjoyed everything. This was the year of my life as well, I will never forget it.
Professor Stuart Sanderson: The big learning is working with others and how to influence teams and how to play the role of a finance director or managing director. It's interesting last year I said to one of the part time students, "What have you learned from your week with us?" she said "I've learnt that I never want to be a managing director." Well it was safe learning for her, the laugh is she's gone on to be a managing director!