Mba Executive Director Podcast

The prominence of shareholder activism and M&A are topics regularly discussed in Boardrooms. Boards and Chief Executives often look to external advisers for support in these situations, and Dhruv Sarda (MBA2003) will be joining us to share his experiences from working in the City of London for over 20 years. As an investment banker, management consultant and restructuring adviser, Dhruv has seen several situations unfold up close. Dhruv Sarda is a Managing Director at Alvarez & Marsal and one of the early founding members of the firm’s European Corporate Transformation practice. He brings over 23 years of experience advising corporate boards and management teams on M&A, turnarounds and performance improvement topics in both corporate and private equity environments. Mr. Sarda has led a number of corporate transformation cases: for example, serving as interim Chief Transformation Officer at a Fortune 20 business, and has worked on 80+ M&A transactions with values of up to USD14bn, primarily focused on carve-o

Social media gave every brand potentially a global reach but in reality, reach did not equate to a global brand or global marketing. And as geopolitical tensions cause a global reconfiguration of supply chains and market perceptions, is global marketing still a positive? Or do we see a return to more localised marketing? Prof Eden Yin of CJBS will look at different brands are adjusting their marketing strategies in the face of geopolitical tensions, does it all matter to younger consumers, and how has ESG changed global brands' marketing efforts.

The Asset Management industry, which manages more than US$100tn of assets globally, will play a key role if the world is going to combat climate change. Vast amounts of capital will have to redeployed to support the shift towards clean energy and help societies less able to make that change. How does asset management influence company decisions when it comes to sustainability and climate change? Is it simply a case of buying and selling shares in companies? Does the industry exert influence in the boardrooms of companies? Are there regional differences in approaches and what about the backlash against some of these moves in the boardrooms? Amelia Tan, Head of Responsible Investment Strategy for LGIM, will address these issues and more.

Most developed nations have decided that replacing internal combustion engines (ICEs) with electric vehicles (EVs) will be the main measure to combat greenhouse gas emissions from transportation. But while electrification of transport will greatly reduce emissions, what about the supply chain that goes into the production of electric vehicles? Are we trading an ongoing source of greenhouse gases in ICEs for new sustainability challenges in the production of EVs, particularly in the batteries? Natalia Dziergwa with the World Economic Forum will talk about how a circular economy approach to EV supply chains could greatly reduce embedded emissions and address issues related to the raw materials for EVs that will only get worse as production of EVs increases.

CJBS Marketing and Decision Sciences Faculty Vincent Mak will talk about the theory of marketing applied to product launches. And we will use a live case study to see how well the 4 Ps or Roger's 5 Factors explain Apple's decisions related to the VisionPro headset. Join us to learn about product marketing and discuss answers to these questions : whether US$3499 is too high a price for a mixed reality headset; what were the words missing from Apple's product launch? Why did Apple emphasise certain use cases? And many more.

What does the future of work mean for the bread and butter HR issues of attracting, retaining and managing talent? The pandemic forced leaders and managers to figure this out for ourselves and as the dust settles, it is time to think whether HR and other parts of an organisation have to re-evaluate these processes. CJBS Alum Mathias Huber has extensive experience in people management, first in consulting projects with McKinsey and now with Viessman. Join us to hear his thoughts on what leaders, managers and HR departments need to do.

Starting with the fall of Silicon Valley Bank, this crisis has been a long time coming. From the forced merger of UBS and Credit Suisse to the growing pressure on US regional banks, the cracks are showing. What caused this crisis? Was it years of quantitative easing, or is it a case of lax regulation? Are we seeing the exposure of fundamentally weak banks, or is this as bad as it will get? Simon Taylor, Cambridge Judge Business School faculty explores the ongoing banking crisis that has been shaking the global economy.

We explore how businesses can minimize waste, promote sustainability, and generate economic growth by adapting concepts of the circular economy. We will learn how circularity can be implemented in an industry and how it can benefit the environment while still maintaining a profitable business model. Rina L. Einy has a lifelong career in the fashion industry and started culthread, a slow fashion brand that uses recycled materials to make stylish and top-quality clothing. This is an important concept given the amount of waste that the global fashion industry produces. They talk about ways to reduce waste in the fashion industry by designing durable products, using sustainable materials, and creating efficient supply chains. David Block is CFO/COO for circulee, which is on a mission to make green IT simple and accessible for businesses of all sizes. Ewaste is another global problem and so any way to reduce e-waste by repairing, reusing, and recycling of IT products is key. The circular economy is becoming inc

Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine was the latest in a series of crises that have engulfed the world and affected businesses, countries and societies. Then there was covid, the US-China tensions, the rise of Trump and other strongmen political leaders, the current banking crisis. Are we truly in an age of permacrisis? Helen Thompson helps us make sense of what's going on. She looks at how slow-moving forces in the energy and currency markets have created tensions within, and between major countries. We are just seeing the first signs of these cracks. Helen's book Disorder : Hard Times in the 21st Century was on the Financial Times Shortlist for Best Business Book and anyone in business should join us to learn from Helen how geopolitics can affect business and society.

How do investors and big pharma assess deals with startups and other companies? It isn't always an M&A, it could be an alliance, a licensing arrangement or some other form of partnership. Anna Gran has worked in many roles in big pharma to spot these opportunities, using her deep science background and an MBA from the University of Cambridge Judge Business School. She will talk about these issues and share points about her career. You need to watch this if you are in a startup in healthcare or biotech pitching to investors, or you are working in deeptech and thinking how to make a career switch to the business side, or you want to work in big pharma.

The 2023 Employment Report showed a strong performance by Cambridge Judge Business School MBA students. The class of 2021-22 did extremely well in the face of an uncertain employment landscape with considerable global economic headwinds, with many going into top consulting firms and other interesting areas. A good part of their success came from the School's Careers Office and Careers Director Sadia Cuthbert will join us to bring out the main themes from the Employment Report. This episode shows MBA graduates, students and applicants, how you need to think about your career. How to use your time in business school to make the career transition that you want.

Generative AI such as ChatGPT have captured the public's imagination with its text outputs that alternates between genuinely useful, to the downright boring, to what Microsoft calls "usefully wrong". People are predicting that this use of AI will mean the end of everything from Google's domination of search to the mass retrenchment of copywriters. How will these predictions come to pass? Professor Michael Barrett will talk about how technologies like AI get adopted and propagated. Kellyann Ripnar, COO and co-founder of Fincrime Dynamics, will share how AI is already being used in less public, but no less groundbreaking settings.

From difficulties in obtaining funding to the lack of support and advice, minority-owned businesses face challenges that can make it difficult to succeed. Meet Cambridge Judge Business School research fellows, Professor Simone Phipps of Middle Georgia State University and Professor Leon Prieto of Clayton State University, who will be joined by Yvonne Lardner, an Associate Research Fellow at CJBS, who has done extensive research in the experiences of Black founder-owners in the UK, and hear about their experiences with host Conrad Chua, Cambridge MBA Executive Director.

Despite technological advances, healthcare costs remain high or access is constrained. The Healthcare Utility Initiative seeks to solve this. What if healthcare providers become more like utilities to deliver high-quality products and services at low, equal costs. The initiative aims to develop rapidly scalable not-for-profit business models for healthcare service innovation to improve healthcare delivery, and keep access and costs low. The co-founders of the Healthcare Utility Initiative, Carter Dredge, Lead Futurist at SSM Health, and Professor Stefan Scholtes at Cambridge Judge Business School will talk about the initiative and how it can improve healthcare outcomes.

For decades, banking meant the usual suspects of big household names. There were national champions and only a few truly global financial institutions and almost no new entrants. Technology and regulatory changes have ushered in an age of challenger banks. Banks that offer new products or repackaged existing products for retail and business customers. Will these challenger banks survive and what do they do that incumbents don't do? We hear from two speakers connected to Cambridge Judge Business School, Tim Harvey-Samuel and Dickson Ma. Tim Harvey-Smith spent more than 20 years in equity capital markets and teaches the Finance Concentration for the Cambridge MBA. He is on the board of UK-based challenger bank that caters to SMEs. MBA alumnus, Dickson Ma, worked in finance and the entertainment industries in Hong Kong and was part of the team that started Alipay's operations in Hong Kong. He also worked in livi bank, a virtual bank in Hong Kong.

Automation, AI and Machine Learning are just some of the terms that are driving old-timers in B2B sales and marketing out of board rooms and corporate suites. Learn from some Cambridge MBA alumni on how technology is changing sales, marketing and customer success in B2B.

MBA alumna Jules Robertson talks about the business models and trends around shared work spaces, that were developed and sprung up during and after the global pandemic. From collaborative days to popular locations in cities, what attracts the best talent to your business in the new global flexible market.

Dr Ronita Bardhan from the University of Cambridge School of Architecture, talks about her recent study about working patterns and models post-pandemic. As we navigate the new hybrid and flexible working environment the data and insights she discusses shed light on the journey we are all taking. Link to Dr Bardhan's You Tube page where she talks about social housing, among other topics, in India: https://youtu.be/7JRNDzdiBtM

Cyber security to invasion - the unsettling position after the recent invasion of Ukraine - Cambridge Judge Business School Faculty talks about the East and the economic impact of war.

What business leaders think about innovation in 2022 - MBA alumnus Marco Donzelli (MBA 2009) talks about the market recovery after the pandemic, as Global CEO of global accounting and advisory network, HLB International. HLB Ltd released their annual survey recently and this year's theme was innovation. The results cover discussions from company culture, to innovation and bold leadership to navigating risk in a new global outlook. For reference - HLB Ltd Annual survey link: https://www.hlb.global/powering-your-innovation-engine/