Tag Archives: business

Graduating as a couple and changing their lives for the better together

Henry and Raisa Capetian have been together for 7 years and both graduated on the same day this month. Henry graduated from BSc Economics, Raisa from BSc Economics and Business. This is their story. 

Henry and Raisa Capetian

Both in their early thirties, Henry and Raisa chose to pursue degrees later in life for different reasons. For Henry, this was his first foray into higher education, after years of working in retail and not feeling challenged. “It was a job to pay the bills and live day-to-day”, Henry explained. “Brexit happened and it sparked my interest in finance. I started looking into it, reading the Financial Times, doing a bit of market analysis and managing small investments.” Having no A-Level qualifications, Henry started by enrolling on a Foundation degree in Economics, and then doing a BSc Economics degree at Birkbeck. 

For Raisa, studying at Birkbeck was her third time pursuing an Economics degree. Other opportunities had arisen for Raisa which led to her dropping out of two other universities. She began a career as an influencer, doing YouTube make up, lifestyle and wellness tutorials and blogging, amassing a number of followers. Microsoft headhunted her for a Marketing Manager role, which Raisa decided to pursue. A few years on, Raisa decided to pick up where she left off and chose to transfer her credits from other universities to Birkbeck, meaning she only studied at Birkbeck for one year. 

They describe their time at Birkbeck as life changing. Henry explains, “It’s been interesting because it hasn’t been the journey I expected. I thought I’d hold the same part-time job over the three years, but I’ve had three promotions and four different jobs in that time. Studying at Birkbeck has changed the way I think and approach things and it’s allowed me to grow in ways I wouldn’t otherwise have been able to. I’m now working as an account management executive at a tech company.” Raisa adds, “Henry is a totally different person. You wouldn’t recognise him from when he started his degree.”  

Making friends at Birkbeck was easy for Henry and Raisa, with Henry being part of the Economics and Finance Society. He went to their socials, bringing Raisa along. “Everyone at Birkbeck had different journeys and we felt like we belonged to a community. The society leader introduced me to a network of city banking professionals and it was great to enter that world prior to graduating”, Henry says. “The teaching at Birkbeck was great and we liked the fact that everything was so easy – you get all the course notes well in advance”, Raisa adds. 

On their Graduation day, Henry and Raisa felt disbelief, pride and joy. “I’m the first person in my family to graduate”, says Raisa, “so it was an emotional day for me. My grandparents couldn’t read and write and they always used to say ‘we work with our hands but you work with your brain – keep being creative and never stop studying’ – I was thinking about them the most on that day and how proud they’d be.” 

Both Henry and Raisa are looking ahead to the future and considering Master’s degrees at Birkbeck. Raisa is looking to pursue a Master’s in January in Marketing, “I’m really proud to be part of Birkbeck, an institution where I can hand on heart say it aligns with my values and morals.” 

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Henry and Raisa Capetian

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Birkbeck Sport Business Centre heads to Paris for Executive Master in Global Sport Governance (MESGO)

BEI Events and Communications Coordinator Orla Walsh shares the highlights of Birkbeck Sport Business Centre’s recent trip to Paris for Session 2 of the MESGO programme.

The MESGO VI participants at the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games Organising Committee. 

The Executive Master in Global Sport Governance (MESGO) is a unique programme designed for sports sector professionals wishing to master the complex dimensions and the diversity of international practices related to professional sport.

Birkbeck is a founding academic partner in the MESGO programme. The MESGO, now in its sixth edition, is supported by four of Europe’s leading sport federations: UEFA, FIBA, IIHF, and EHF, and the Council of Europe EPAS.

A week in Paris dedicated to Competition Design and Financial Sustainability

Having previously attended their sessions and webinars online, MESGO VI participants were able to meet face to face in Paris, France, for Session 2 of the programme in late November.

The session was dedicated to competition design and financial sustainability and was directed by Sean Hamil, Senior Lecturer in Management and Director of Birkbeck’s Sport Business Centre.

Sean Hamil, Senior Lecturer in Management and Director of Birkbeck’s Sport Business Centre.

The five-day session covered several sub-topics related to governance, evolution of competition design, regulation of international player transfer markets, and diversity in sport.

Each day, we visited a different sporting facility, including the Paris Saint-Germain Football Stadium, the French Football Federation, the Auteuil Hippodrome Racecourse, the Ice Hockey Accor Arena, and the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games Organising Committee.

The participants also got the chance to engage in sports events in the evenings, such as a game of basketball and attending a professional volleyball match between Paris and Nice.

 

Keep up to date with Birkbeck’s Sport Business Centre on LinkedIn and Twitter.

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“My business wouldn’t have taken off without Birkbeck’s Pioneer programme”

The Pioneer 1.0 programme is the springboard for entrepreneurially minded students to develop their skills and business ideas. In this blog, Kate Strivens, winner of ‘Best Business Pitch’ in the recent Pioneer Awards and Birkbeck graduate, tells the story of how her business idea came about and her ambitions for the future.

Kate Strivens

Back in 2019, as an avid cyclist who cycled every day to work, Kate was growing increasingly frustrated with how damaged her hair was getting by wearing a helmet. She trawled the internet for helmets designed for adults with afro hair but to no avail. This led her to dreaming up her business idea in early 2020, during the first COVID-19 lockdown, of designing a helmet that provides safety to the cyclist and protection for afro hair.

Kate first heard about Birkbeck’s Pioneer 1.0 programme in early 2020, through a recommendation from a friend. Having already graduated from Birkbeck’s MSc Global Environmental Politics and Policy programme in 2019, she was pleased to find out that it wasn’t too late for her to enrol, as the course accepts recent graduates as well as current students.

Kate set out on the course, and cites it as being the reason for her taking her business idea seriously. “Initially, enrolling on the Pioneer programme was just for fun. I didn’t really see my business idea as being something I would properly pursue. However, not long after I started the course, I began to realise it had the potential to be a feasible and viable business. What held me back initially was my imposter syndrome. If I could give advice to others in my position, it would be to believe in yourself and your idea. It’s just crazy I’ve now won a Pioneer Award, I’m still in shock!”

Having completed the Pioneer programme, Kate is now balancing developing her business and working full-time in Sierra Leone, as a Business Development Manager for Plan International, a development and humanitarian organization that advances children’s rights and equality for girls. It is a world away from her upbringing in rural Wales, “I grew up on a farm in North Wales and when it came to choosing a university, I wanted to get as far away as possible, so I moved to London to study. My passion for travelling from a young age has now meant I work abroad as much as I can – I find different cultures and languages fascinating.”

Kate is currently at the prototyping stage and is spending time conducting market research. She says, “The recent headlines in the news about Fina, the water sports world governing body, rejecting the use of a swimming cap designed for afro hair at competition level has really brought the conversations around sport and afro hair to the fore. I find it so motivating that my invention will be helping others and I can’t wait for my helmets to come to life over the next few months.”

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Department of Management Welcomes Professor Vijay Pereira for first Meet the Editor Session

The Senior Associate Editor for the Journal of Business Research and Global Real Impact Editor for the Journal of Knowledge Management joined the Department for a virtual presentation on how to publish in top management journals.

Meet-the-Editor Sessions are free for anyone to join.

Screenshot of the group meeting for the Meet the Editor session

Dr Muthu De Silva (top left) and Dr Geoff Walters (top right) introduced this presentation by Professor Vijay Pereira (bottom left).

Dr Muthu De Silva, Director of Research and session chair opened the discussion by sharing the objective of the Meet the Editor series: to motivate and support our community of excellent scholars to thrive in research, during this difficult time.

While we are all missing face to face contact with colleagues across Birkbeck and beyond, it has to be said that lockdown has presented opportunities to be more creative and geographically ambitious with events in the School of Business, Economics and Informatics, as Dr Geoff Walters, Executive Dean reminded the audience during the welcome speech. Around fifty researchers in the field of Management tuned in to this online talk by Professor Vijay Pereira of NEOMA Business School, France, designed to provide greater insight into the types of research that top management journals are looking to publish.

As Senior Associate Editor for the Journal of Business Research and Global Real Impact Editor for the Journal of Knowledge Management, as well as a member of the editorial board for a number of other journals (e.g. Journal of Management Studies), Professor Pereira has extensive knowledge of prestigious publications, commenting on the ‘outside the box’ thinking that he brings to academia and the journals on which he works.

In this session, Professor Pereira provided a detailed introduction to the ethos and outlook of the Journal of Business Research and the Journal of Knowledge Management, along with his advice for those looking to publish in these journals.

Journal of Business Research

The Journal of Business Research (JoBR) is a UK ABS 3* and ABDC ‘A’ journal. Firstly, Professor Pereira highlights the importance of understanding the scope of the journal in which you wish to publish. In the case of JoBR, in addition to the theoretical rigour, the journal aids the application of empirical research to practical situations and theoretical findings to the reality of the business world. This practical underpinning is reflected by JoBR’s broad target audience, which includes executives alongside scholars and researchers.

JoBR has a somewhat unique organisational structure, with two Editors-in-Chief, three to four Deputy Editors-in-Chief, five Special Issue Editors and 65 Associate Editors covering sixteen discipline areas – this number is large but unsurprising considering that JoBR receives 4,500 -5,000 submissions a year! While publication is competitive, the journal’s 6% acceptance rate represents a significant number of papers, so Professor Pereira warns not to be discouraged from applying.

There are three key points to consider when submitting to JoBR:

  1. The quality of the theory
  2. Robust data or concepts
  3. Real-world implications for business or management situations

There are also three key points to consider in terms of the journal’s positioning:

  1. JoBR is international in scope, looking for work from new contexts and new scholars and continuing to grow globally
  2. The journal has moved from being marketing focused to being interdisciplinary covering a wider range of management disciplines, such as international business and innovation
  3. JoBR has a key focus on impact – it is the number one cited marketing journal according to Google Scholar’s H Index

Keeping the three I’s of international, interdisciplinary and impactful in scope is key for researchers submitting to this journal.

Journal of Knowledge Management

In the second part of this presentation, Professor Pereira discussed the Journal of Knowledge Management, a leading journal in this field with an ABS 2* and ABDC ‘A’ rating.

To Professor Pereira’s knowledge, the Journal of Knowledge Management is the first journal to have a Global Real Impact Editor and has also recently appointed Regional Real Impact Editors.

Putting impact at the front and centre of the work it looks to publish, the Journal of Knowledge Management invites pieces by scholars, academics and individuals from industry. It is similarly international in scope, with articles from China, India, Brazil, France and the UK in the pipeline. The journal looks to maximise the diversity of its output without compromising on quality, and a focus on impact from the beginning of the process enables it to do this.

A focus on the practical impact and applicability of research is therefore key when submitting to this journal.

We would like to thank Professor Pereira for his time and for an insightful and informative start to our Meet the Editor Series. All are welcome to join us for our upcoming Meet the Editor events:

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