Leadership comes under the spotlight as Manchester Business School Middle East Centre hosts public seminar in Dubai by leading Business School Faculty

17 January 2012 (Dubai, UAE): Manchester Business School (MBS) Middle East Centre will host a public seminar on 'Visionary Leadership: The Art of Leading Organisations Successfully in a Globalising World Economy', led by Professor Pikay Richardson, BSc, MSc, PhD (Bus. Admin), a Senior Visiting Fellow at Manchester Business School and a seasoned economic and management educator and consultant. The seminar will take place on Sunday, January 22nd at 6.30pm, at the Dubai Knowledge Village Conference Centre; it is free of charge and open to the public (pre-registration required (mbsevents@mbs-worldwide.ae).

Speaking about the seminar, Professor Richardson comments: "It has never been harder to run a business successfully. Today's is a difficult and turbulent business environment and it is not going to get easier. In the post-war period the world economy grew steadily, spurred on by macroeconomic stability and there was little real competition. The pace of change was slow and one didn't need to be a genius to run a business - 'good management' was the main requirement for successful business outcomes. 

"But all this changed from the mid-1970s, as the business environment became more turbulent, characterised by fast change, and the relative importance of "Management" and "Leadership" changed. Good management was no longer enough and increasingly leadership skills became vital for steering organisations through such change. It has become apparent that highly successful firms are those led by CEOs who combine managerial and leadership skills." 

Some of the other questions that Professor Richardson will pose include - How is Change in the business environment affecting the way businesses are run? What separates successful firms from struggling ones? What is Strategic Leadership and why is it vital for success in today's fast-changing gobalising world economy? He will also use examples of strategic leaders and how they run businesses.

The public session is being organised during the induction session held in Dubai to welcome the single largest cohort of MBA students (142 students) admitted to the MBS Global MBA programme from around the Middle East region, in the January 2012 intake.

Professor Richardson will also lead a workshop on 'Leadership and Change' for current MBS students and alumni during his visit. This workshop will look at the causes and impact of change and the strategies today's managers must employ to successfully manage change. The workshop is interactive and highly practical using case studies throughout to address real world challenges and issues in leading change.

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Professor Pikay Richardson, BSc, MSc, PhD (Bus. Admin) 

Dr Pikay Richardson is current Senior Visiting Fellow at the Manchester Business School.  He is a seasoned economic and management educator and consultant.  He holds a BSc in Electrical Engineering, an MSc in Management Sciences and a PhD in Business Economics and Strategy from the University of Manchester.  From 1989 until 2006, he was a full-time member of faculty at Manchester Business School, the Faculty of Business Administration of the University of Manchester, and at the School of Management, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ, USA, where he was Research Professor and Academic Director.  In both institutions, he taught various course at the MBA and PhD levels.

Apart from degree courses, Dr Richardson also has over 20 years of experience in the design and delivery of short executive development courses for in-service managers and executives in the UK and many countries, including Nigeria, Ghana, Botswana, South Africa, Jamaica, Hong Kong, and the US.  His areas of expertise include Micro- and Macro-economics, the Economic Environment of Business, Corporate Strategy and Strategic Management, Marketing Management, Corporate Restructuring and Turnaround, Corporate Governance and Strategic Leadership. He has consulted for companies in the UK, Ghana, Nigeria and India, where for 10 years he was a management development consultant for the UK Department for International Development. He holds a visiting position in Lingnan University College, Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, where regularly teaches MBA courses in Leadership.

About Manchester Business School
Manchester Business School is the UK's largest campus-based business and management school. It provides a comprehensive range of undergraduate, postgraduate and custom-made executive programmes, for organisations from both the private and public sectors. Manchester Business School holds triple MBA accreditation - AMBA, EQUIS, AACSB. All successful MBA students are awarded a degree by the University of Manchester and no distinction is made between the different learning formats - all have reached the same high standard expected of a Manchester MBA.

Issued on behalf of Manchester Business School Middle East by WPR.

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Jonathan Walsh
WPR
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© Press Release 2012