Management and Business Academy

MBAcademy International Business Conference

Our Vision:

“We in the Management and Business Academy strongly believe that the main factors that contribute to any organisation’s creation, differentiation and success are organisational culture and innovation. Therefore, the ultimate goal of the MBAcademy is to inspire and support researchers and practitioners in business and management not only nationally, but internationally.”

Keynote Speaker: Dr David Fuschi

SUSTAINABILITY & SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP

In a world that is getting smaller by the day, where resources are not infinite and every human being aspires to a better living as well as to reach self-actualization, it is becoming of paramount importance to plan for sustainability. We need to consider that:we do not own the world we live in, we simply borrow it form the future generations. Therefore, we can say that sustainability basically means meeting our own needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. In addition to natural resources, we also need social and economic resources. Sustainability is not just environmentalism. Furthermore, economic Sustainability stands for ensuring organizations / products are “built to last” and are able to function efficiently over a long period of time.

Additionally, in order to provide what is needed to a constantly growing population (which growing needs too), it is required to find innovative solutions if sustainability has to be met. Overall, there are so many challenges to be faced, especially in the developing countries, but not only there, that innovation and sustainability is not enough, there is the need for Social Entrepreneurship, which can be interpreted as companies or institutions operating with innovative solutions to society's most pressing social problems, tackling major social issues and offering new ideas for wide-scale change.

However, Social Entrepreneurship is not yet well understood, its is perceived as not profitable, believed to apply only to emerging economies and more as a “fashion” rather than a “business”. Similarly, Sustainability is not yet perceived as necessary, it is believed as hard to achieve, not-profitable and necessary only for emerging economies.

Growing concerns over climate change, stricter government regulations, pressures from NGOs and shifting consumer expectations are surging and will force businesses to change. Understanding this latent change that will be inevitable, suggests embracing the sustainability agenda and rethinking long-held axioms. The transformation will take committed leadership at the top and a motivated, talented workforce in order to execute this agenda.

First and foremost is needed a LEADER, someone with a vision that will champion the transformation. Secondly, is needed a clear objective and aim that can be shared within the organization at all levels. Thirdly, is needed to have the “buy in” of the management and staff. Fourthly, is needed to gain the support of business partners, suppliers, and most of all, CUSTOMERS. Lastly, is needed a good COMMUNICATION STRATEGY that will support in all the above-mentioned steps.

As example let's have a look at the KiT Smart Village Living Lab (SVLL), a network of Open Innovation enthusiasts from academia and business with its hub in a few villages in Odisha, a South Eastern State of India. The Lab’s current focus is on Education, Water, Energy, Environment and Affordable Housing sectors. All activities are managed through student projects, in the end user driven, real life environment of the rural communities and processed into knowledge through Living Lab infrastructure. The SVLL is part of the European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL) and very closely supported by experts from Finland, Belgium, UK and from other parts of India

SOURCES

Prive,T.,(2012), “Top 10 Qualities That Make A Great Leader”, [On-line], [Last accessed 2016-4-8], Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/tanyaprive/2012/12/19/top-10-qualities-that-make-a-great-leader/#6abf7cb73564

Deloitte, (2014), “Commitment. Stamina. Results.”, [On-line], [Last accessed 2016-4-8], Available at: http://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/operations/solutions/about-our-sustainability-service.html

The Air University – The Intellectual and Leadership Centre of the Air Force, (2014), “Leadership Traits”, [On-line], [Last accessed 2016-4-8], Available at: http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/sba/traits.htm

Witkin,J.,(2009), “The 5 Stages for Achieving Innovation Through Sustainability”, [On-line], [Last accessed 2016-4-8], Available at: http://www.triplepundit.com/2009/09/the-5-stages-for-achieving-innovation-through-sustainability/

ENoLL, (2015), “KiiT Smart Village Living Lab (SVLL)”, [On-line], [Last accessed 2016-4-8], Available at: http://www.openlivinglabs.eu/livinglab/smart-village-living-lab-india.

Prof. Dr.Ing. David Luigi FUSCHI

Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), Chartered Manager (CMgr) as well as Chartered Engineer (CEng), David has almost 30 year experience, a track record of over 98 projects (for over 300 million Euro) successful completion (12 rescued), acquisition of over 21 projects (for over 62 million Euro), and over 100 projects assessed. Strong connection with industry and academia (over 140 industrial partners, 70 universities/research centres and 20 cultural institutions) including HP, IBM, Microsoft, Siemens, EADS, THALES, NATO, Telefonica, Tiscali, Orange, BBC, Rai, Fraunhofer, Open University, SINTEF, VTT.

David is Invited Professor of Project Management & Problem Solving at the Catholic University of Cordoba Argentina (Faculty of Engineering and ICDA Business School), Visiting Professor at Vilnius Technical University and at Kokshetau State University, Invited Lecturer at the School of Design of the Politecnico di Milano, Senior Trainer at Fondazione Clerici Milano, Visiting Research Fellow at Brunel University and Associated Senior Research Fellow at Reading University

Proposal Writing & Research Funding

How To Turn Research Ideas Into Project And How To Run Them Successfully

Prof.Dr.Ing. David L. Fuschi PhD

BRIDGING Consulting

The workshop will focus on two different, although related, themes: 1) the landscape of research funding and related applications and 2) projects, what they are and how they work.

The objective of the first part is to support for gearing up for Research Income Generation by looking at the Research Funding Landscape, Research Programmes Evolution, Proposal Instruments and Project Types to then focus on Project & Sustainability Management, Impact Planning and Benefit Realisation

The objective of the second part is to provide a simple, yet sound and grounded, understanding of how funded research project are construed and managed, what are the expected outcomes from the perspective of the funding body (which may be very different from the one of the researcher) and how they are assessed, monitored and evaluated. Additionally to the Project Life Cycle (How does it work), the context (Where we operate), the expected outcomes (What we get out of it), attention will be placed also on how best identifying suitable opportunities (The when). The proposal process (The how) will then looked at in detail pointing out the Project Success measuring criteria (What to do) as well as the possible Project Failure incidents (What not to do). The Proposal structure (What to say about your work) and its Evaluation (What happens to your work) will also be examined along with some recommendations.

There will be also a practical section with the opportunity to pitch an idea in 3 slides and then discuss briefly how best to develop it (15 minutes question and answers). It is possible to ask for individual follow up also if a brief presentation has not be done. All presentations and ideas discussed / presented in the seminar will be considered confidential and disclosed to the present “in confidence”. Supportive material used for setting-up and conducting the seminar will be available along with the presenter's contacts.