Month: June 2013

The importance of asking ‘why’

My friend Tim Kourdi brought my attention to this presentation by Professor Clayton Christensen about a market research study done with milkshake consumers: If you abstract from the presentation's background and the fact that he keeps describing the act of buying food items as 'hiring' ***seriously, what's going on there?*** this is, actually, a neat … Continue reading The importance of asking ‘why’

Data collection? There is an app for that

I guess it was only a matter of time. There are apps for virtually any aspect of our personal and professional lines. So, I suppose that it was only a matter of time for a researcher to come up with an app to help with data collection. The researcher is Dan Ariely, a behavioural economist … Continue reading Data collection? There is an app for that

#FollowFriday: @thefirstwebsite

#followfriday (or #ff) is a tradition started by Micah Baldwin (according to Mashable), whereby you name Twitter user your followers should know about. In addition to naming interesting users on Twitter, I provide a bit of background information on them in here. Enjoy!   To celebrate 20 years of making the software required to run a … Continue reading #FollowFriday: @thefirstwebsite

Graduation time at Oxford Brookes University

Today, at Oxford Brookes University, we celebrate the graduation of the students that joined our MSc Marketing and MSc eMarketing programme in September 2011. It is a wonderful occasion - the students come back with their families and we celebrate their achievements together. I am bursting with pride for them. The students' names are called … Continue reading Graduation time at Oxford Brookes University

Electronic surveillance: Minority Report minus the precogs

Details are emerging about the USA’s National Security Agency (NSA) secret surveillance programme to collect and analyse data from computer and telephone networks. It is hardly a surprise that the North American government has a surveillance programme. Rather, it is the secretiveness, the extent and the intrusiveness of the programme that is causing shockwaves. The … Continue reading Electronic surveillance: Minority Report minus the precogs

Impact of the economic recession on marketing – B2C vs. B2B

Research into the investment priorities of marketing managers in the UK revealed that marketing managers in the business to consumer (B2C) sector changed their priorities as a result of the 2008-2010 recession. From a focus on target marketing and the development of value-led propositions at the beginning of the decade, marketers turned to pricing, promotions (particularly … Continue reading Impact of the economic recession on marketing – B2C vs. B2B

The performance review

It’s here. Another ‘performance and development review’. It’s another chance to reflect on what I achieved at work and what I left behind, and why. And another chance to think about what I want to be and do, and how I am going to get there. Where did the last year go??? Over the past … Continue reading The performance review