October 2015 round up

October was busy. Very busy. This included a lot of firefighting, which I tend to find very draining. My #5pm pictures show that I spent a lot of time at my desk. But, unfortunately, only a minority of that time was spent on writing or, for that matter, on anything remotely related to research. Instead, my month … Continue reading October 2015 round up

Day in the Life of an academic #3: welcoming new students

The sabbatical is well and truly over, and the days of focusing on research are just a distant (but cherished) memory. I am now deep into the new semester, busy welcoming the new students (in my role as programme leader for the MSc Marketing), class preparation for the new semester, and dissertation supervision (for students … Continue reading Day in the Life of an academic #3: welcoming new students

Day in the Life of an academic #2: of meetings and parking tickets

My ‘Day in the Life of an Academic’ post was quite popular, generating interesting discussions on and off line. So, I decided to do another one. For my second instalment, I chose Thursday (May 7th) as this was such a different day from the one I previously wrote about. It was also 43 days after … Continue reading Day in the Life of an academic #2: of meetings and parking tickets

November round-up

This month was super-busy on the work front, with lots and lots of marking (dissertations), teaching, and planning for the next semester. Still, I managed to submit the journal article I was working on at the end of last month, and made good progress on two other projects. So, it was a good month, overall. … Continue reading November round-up

October round-up

This month I did not manage to finish (and submit) a journal article; I learned that I was not shortlisted for a fellowship that I had applied for, and my inbox has practically exploded. But, it wasn’t all bad news. These are some of the highlights from October. Researching I may have failed to be … Continue reading October round-up

September round-up

I like months that start on Monday. I don’t know why. I suppose it’s one of those quirky things that don’t require an explanation. With September starting on a Monday, and no-doubt fuelled by the amazing weather, I was filled with optimism and wrote this in my journal: “September is going to be good”. So, … Continue reading September round-up

The downside of choice

Earlier today I was at an information session, meeting people interested in post-graduate education at the institution where I am employed, Oxford Brookes University. I was doing my best to show the potential candidates all the options that they had access to. We talked about the different modes of study (i.e., full time vs. part … Continue reading The downside of choice

A personal message that I sent to my students

In recent days, I came across 3 persons from very different ages and life circumstances that have one thing in common: each of them has been been struggling with a difficult situation by themselves. Talking with each of these 3 persons reminded me of a message that I sent to my students not long ago. … Continue reading A personal message that I sent to my students

Three questions to define the market

When I taught Principles of Marketing many years ago, I used to draw on Abell’s framework to define the market that a business was operating in. The reference is Defining the business: the starting point of strategic planning written by Derek F. Abell and published by Prentice Hall in 
1980.   Abell’s framework states that … Continue reading Three questions to define the market