Henley Blogs

Sam Meets… Simon Grosse

Whiteknights at the University of Reading is a home for many; students, academics; small businesses, even ducks and swans. One organisation that truly considers Whiteknights as home is a business called Foundation SP, a business based at the enterprise centre in Early gate. Foundation SP is an award-winning Technology Company that provides dynamic technology solutions….

A life-affirming experience in South Africa

During the application process and first few days of the Executive MBA at Henley, the “South Africa Trip” was billed as the highlight of the programme by alumni and faculty alike. I was eager to find out why. Our NGO Our group of 6 was paired with an NGO working to treat, heal and educate…

Should robots have the same rights as your child?

Did you know that a third (35%) of UK workers are excited about the prospect of their own personal AI assistant? Having an AI assistant could increase human work productivity and give workers back 12 working days a year by taking on admin tasks, Henley’s research suggests. As we can probably all agree – these…

What’s Going On in Reading This Christmas

Christmas is the most exciting time of the year and the busiest! With deadlines over and done with you can be free to celebrate the season and get into the Christmas spirit. If you do find yourself with a spare moment in between preparing for the festivities, there’s more than enough going on in Reading…

Leadership of the Cashless Society

MANY ECONOMISTS believe the world will someday be cashless. They point to India, which recently banned notes with lower denominations. “How long before the UK follows suit, and what should leaders know about this growing phenomenon”, asks Henley Business School Professor Dr Benjamin Laker. Consumers are embracing a wide array of payment options in today’s…

My Brand Winners and Losers of 2018

Below I have conducted a list detailed the brands I feel have proved to be the best and worst of 2018. The Best: Marks and Spencer Despite their delicious food, Marks and Spencer have made my list of the top brands of 2018 due to the fact that they have continued to upkeep their…

The entrepreneur’s business case: astronomy and rhetoric

In the quad of the Bodleian library in Oxford is a series of old lecture rooms, each door labelled above with the name of the subjects taught there. Titles such as Moral Philosophy and Divinity are unsurprising, but not so the juxtaposition of Astronomy and Rhetoric. What have they to do with each other or…

Women in Business

Last week I attended the ‘Leadership without gender’ event hosted by Henley Business School and the ICMA Centre. The event was all about the changing role of women in business, and as a final-year undergrad who has just completed a year’s placement in the traditionally male-dominated tech industry, I was excited to hear about leadership…

The Japanese word for “leadership” is, er….

In 1971 Peter Drucker wrote an article for the Harvard Business Review entitled “What We Can Learn from Japanese Management”. Through several, mostly favourable, comparisons with management and leadership practice in the US, Drucker’s writing describes with typical grace and sagacity how the West might understand the economic success story of Japan that had taken…

Freshers! Don’t snooze after the blues

“First year doesn’t count”. You may have heard this phrase thrown about the place, partnered with “you only need 40% to pass”. Don’t get fooled into believing this. To some extent, you can spend your first year getting used to being at university and finding your feet. However, don’t just do the bare minimum to get by with that 40%, because your first year could have more of an impact than you originally thought.

Transformational Leadership Embraces Innovation

In the 21st century, we understand that political and business leaders in the East and the West face different challenges. For example, there is still slow economic recovery and a strong demand for job creation and social stability in the West, while in the East the need is for the delivery of economic and…