bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Scaling innovative solutions during times of transformation
Authors: Macon Marque
Published: July 2024

Atrium Health is a nationally recognised leader in shaping health outcomes through innovative research, education and compassionate patient care. As the health system experiences rapid growth with a larger geographical footprint owing to multiple strategic combinations, it has identified and designed an organisational structure that strategically drives systemic change and creates buy-in for integrated, large-scale value-based initiatives. The population health division effectively applies population health data and analytics to formulate a strategy to address health-care disparities, identify community needs and provide access to high-quality care.
A preliminary analysis of high-stakes decision-making for crisis leadership
Authors: Oroszi Terry
Published: July 2024

High-stakes decision-making is a critical component of crisis leadership. This study examined the decision-making processes of global, national and local crisis professionals to identify common decision-making process traits, and proposes a useful model to guide crisis leaders’ high-stakes decision-making. Crises have distinct factors: they are time-sensitive, pose significant risks and require consequential decisions. A sample group of 15 national and international expert crisis professionals in leadership positions from national security, law enforcement and government sectors participated in this study. Seven popular decision-making models were deconstructed into 50 individual process traits and converted into a survey. The experts were asked to identify process traits from the survey that they felt best reflected their approach to decisionmaking. The responses of the professionals were analysed, and a new model assembled based on their expertise. The findings identified a pattern of practice across the spectrum of crisis leaders and demonstrated the potential usefulness of a new decision-making model that captures the decision-making process traits of expert crisis leaders. This research provides inexperienced crisis professionals with a model drawn from the experiences of national and global crisis experts. In addition to benefiting the novice crisis professional, the model can be used by organisations to create a personalised company crisis plan.
Triple bottom line, environmental, social and governance and net zero in commercial real estate
Authors: Hardy Charles , Schultz Sandrine , Gilligan Brian , Mcclung Adam , Tersch Walter
Published: July 2024

Climate and sustainability are at the forefront of dialogue within corporate real estate (CRE) organisations. Nearly 40 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions come from the real estate sector. Of these emissions, approximately 70 per cent are produced by building operations, while the remaining 30 per cent comes from construction.1 A common language and aligned path is essential in making progress if we, as an industry, are to meet the goals we are setting. Sustainability, when referring to the triple bottom line, is a concept that refers to the environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance of an organisation and measures three areas of impact: people, planet, profit. This paper explores how sustainability takes into account the needs of an organisation’s stakeholders (including the community, general public and its employees) along with its own interests. This results in stronger relationships with these groups. The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) is a federal government entity with a mission to deliver the best customer experience and value in real estate, acquisition and technology services to the government and the American people. One of GSA’s strategic goals is to provide financially and environmentally sustainable, accessible and responsive real estate solutions that enable a productive federal workforce. This paper provides highlights of how GSA is driven by three guiding principles: buy clean, build clean; net zero operations by 2045; and design for people, design for impact. The challenge of finding appropriate solutions to meet the demands of today are presented in actionable ways in examples from GSA as it continues to partner with industry, other organisations and communities to develop innovative solutions that support customer missions, enable community development and protect the environment, while providing effective stewardship of taxpayer dollars.
Building the Black History and Visual Culture collection at Penn State University Libraries
Authors: Rea Bethann , Green Patrice R. , Clair Kevin
Published: July 2024

The Penn State University Libraries recently published the Black History and Visual Culture digital collection — a curated selection of photographs, poster art, pamphlets and audiovisual materials documenting Black student life at Penn State, as well as Black political and social movements throughout the 20th century. The conception and development of the collection is highly collaborative, involving contributions from Special Collections Library curators, technical service specialists and the digital collections development team. Public programming in support of the collection and use of the collection in outreach and instruction are key parts of its ongoing stewardship. This paper analyses the initial development of the collection, the digitisation process and future plans for collection development.
The landscape from above: Continuous cloud monitoring for continuous assurance
Authors: Khalil Fouad
Published: July 2024

The concept of monitoring information system security has long been recognised as sound and valuable management practice. For additional consideration, a large portion of compliance requirements for information security and privacy are supported by such monitoring. Security programmes must be aligned with privacy and compliance programmes to ensure those areas of data protection compliance are appropriately met and monitored, and then actions based on maturity levels must be aligned with information assurance programmes. Some key areas to consider in information security programmes include: 1) Continuous assurance (full data life cycle, continuous monitoring, continuous awareness, continuous compliance, challenges, benefits); 2) continuous supply chain management (continuous vendor management and oversight, benefits, challenges); 3) continuous cloud assurance (private cloud, community cloud, public cloud, hybrid cloud); and 4) continuous improvement (what is involved and necessary, including actions, monitoring and metrics). This paper posits that organisations, building out their digital transformation strategies, must think strategically about the way in which they manage privacy compliance in the cloud, committing to a data-driven continuous assurance privacy programme which would provide a more robust compliance posture.
Innovate or stagnate: Digitalisation in investment management
Authors: Bates David , Migliore Paul
Published: July 2024

For decades, investment managers have been digitising information and processes, but we have only recently moved into a new era where firms are reengineering every facet of the business upon a digital foundation. This paper will explore the transformative technologies that will drive digitalisation efforts in the future, how asset managers will need to differentiate themselves in the new digital landscape and practical steps to embrace the digital frontier for organisations that are still held back by legacy technology, processes and behaviours.
How surviving businesses respond during and after a major disaster
Authors: Zolin Roxanne , Kropp Fredric
Published: July 2024

Disasters take an enormous toll on businesses, ranging from short periods where no income will be generated, to permanent closure. When businesses fail, the economic repercussions add more negative consequences to a community already struck by disaster. One of the first needs in disaster recovery is distribution of goods and services. One of the first goals in reconstruction is regrowth of the economy. Both of these needs are served by business activity in the community. It is important, therefore, that government bodies assist and interact with affected businesses to increase their chances of survival. What helps or hinders business survival of a cataclysmic disaster? This paper uses business survivors of Hurricane Katrina to illustrate a timetable of business disaster response and similarities between disaster response and new business start-ups. In conclusion, the paper explores characteristics of government response that can help more businesses survive and prosper in the midst of a disaster.The concepts in this paper reflect ongoing research on business survival under crisis (Zolin and Kropp (2007) 'Communicable crisis: prevention, response and recovery in the global arena').
The role of innovative technology in monetising content by delivering it to more people more efficiently
Authors: Campanotti Brian
Published: July 2024

With the proliferation of smartphones, tablets, streaming players, connected televisions and other high-bandwidth connected devices, today’s audiences demand information and entertainment anywhere, anytime, on any screen. Content owners could meet that demand using clever, cost-effective, highly automated systems that have the potential to make it feasible and profitable to distribute all kinds of content. However, many content owners currently rely on home-grown and unnecessarily complex content management and distribution solutions that require excessive manual manipulation — and often capital investment — which reduces efficiency and cost-effectiveness. In fact, these inefficiencies often undermine business viability and viewer access, especially if the actual ‘value’ of the content is unknown. To overcome these challenges and make the most of their assets, content owners must implement technologies that streamline content management and distribution for over the top (OTT) direct targeting of consumers. Fully automated, rule-based, online publishing solutions exist today that target the most popular consumer technologies. Where possible, cloud technology — elastically scalable resources — can also be leveraged to minimise capital costs and streamline workflows. This paper will describe the capabilities of new, highly efficient, automated OTT publishing systems, including technology advances in online, viewer-targeted publishing and best practices for metadata transport, migration, encoding, transcoding and cloud-based deployments. The paper will focus on practical application, with consideration for interoperability, sustainability and return on investment.
Attributes of successful university brands in the USA
Authors: Duesterhaus Alan P. , Duesterhaus Molly
Published: July 2024

Increasing adoption of modern marketing techniques by colleges and universities coupled with challenging economics has created significant competition in higher education. Institutions that avail themselves of current research and best practices in regard to brand management will be in the best position to succeed. This paper looks at factors that can help create a successful university brand. The use of a consumer-driven revealed preference ranking metric provides a testable method for location and brand experience attributes. The results provide support for particular attributes of a successful university brand. This analysis extends the understanding of university brands and develops a greater understanding of successful university brand components, particularly within the USA. Implications for future research and suggestions for practitioners are discussed.
Digital marketing: Incompatibilities between performance marketing and marketing creativity
Authors: Lies Jan
Published: July 2024

Within digital marketing, marketing intelligence fosters two major developments. First — and even in the absence of key performance indicators — it improves marketing efficiency, as life-cycle marketing, automated price adjustment and programmatic advertising based on artificial intelligence (AI) all support the vision of fully standardised marketing automation, with real-time, optimised customer centricity. Secondly, new marketing areas such as viral marketing, social media marketing and content marketing emphasise the increasing significance of creative marketing. Looking for paradigmatic principles reveals that performance marketing is shaped by analytic, processual and lean thinking. In contrast, creative marketing depends on agile outside-in thinking as a key element in the debate regarding marketing 3.0. Thus, digitisation seems to foster paradigmatic incompatibilities within marketing 4.0. This paper argues that until Big Data and AI can judge creativity, the digitisation of marketing will continue to suffer teething problems.
Innovation and how it can be used to differentiate between payments products
Authors: Deslauriers Philippe
Published: July 2024

This paper illustrates how innovation can be put to use to differentiate between products in a mature market. It explores the impact of innovation in the various payment ecosystems. In times of compression and compromise, is innovation viable or superfluous? The answer lies within the market. Companies that are able to differentiate themselves are showing strong financial results. Basic questions such as 'How can innovation change the bottom line?', 'Can it be used to mobilise employees?', 'Will it fulfil customers' needs?' and 'What is the role of corporate managers?' are answered. The paper also details an ideation process (the Concept Generation Process) and alternatives for managing innovative projects. Finally, it uses two scenarios to demonstrate how innovation can work within payment realities.
Assessing the impact of non-banks on the payments business: The challenge to safety, efficiency, customer loyalty and payment revenue streams
Authors: Sar Brian Le
Published: July 2024

This paper explores the impact of non-banks in the payments/transactional banking arena and some of the business models they use. These non-traditional bank competitors include: retailers, mobile phone operators, beneficiary service providers, payment service providers, system operators, direct debit and other bureaus, payroll service providers, money transfer service providers, etc. A high level overview of each of these ‘new’ competitors is given and then a brief synopsis of some of the risks inherent in the services provided. The impact these competitors are having on banks, the financial services industry and other stakeholders and other issues need to be considered, namely the needs they have identified and are fulfilling where banks have not played or cannot easily play; more specifically, the unlevel playing field they compete in with banks, due to little or no regulation and/or regulatory oversight of these players and the effects on the risk, safety and efficiency of the payment system. How can the services they offer be fulfilled in a more appropriate risk-based manner, what can these competitors learn from each other and how could regulators possibly address the issues to enable the non-banks to fulfil the identified needs but ensure risks are adequately addressed?
Aligning real estate with the corporate environment
Authors: Dent Peter , Winter Paul
Published: July 2024

This paper questions current practices both in management science and real estate management which consider real estate outside of the strategic decision-making process. The paper starts with an examination of organisations as complex adaptive systems and the nature of work in times of transformation. It suggests that the fundamental mistake often made is to focus too much on the change being about the use of technology. Instead, the authors believe that the real opportunity lies in the change in operation, process and culture. As such, management decisions need to be linked to real estate potential and real estate decisions have to incorporate resource impacts. Evidence suggests, however, that there is a deep disparity between the research produced in management science compared with that in the real estate field. What the authors suggest illustrates a bounded rationality which requires shared experiences and research to bridge the differences in approach and ideas. Several models are put forward to address this disparity but the authors believe that the real solution lies in a model which embraces the five dimensions of real estate through a process of dialogue and anticipatory learning.
The impact of heuristics on the practice of risk management: The example of default probabilities
Authors: Van Deventer Donald R. , Zimmermann Tom
Published: July 2024

Kahneman and Tversky's work has shown how individuals use heuristics when they face the difficult challenge of coming up with probabilistic judgments. This paper describes some of their results and illustrate how they regularly impact risk management. Behavioural biases, both on the part of the regulators and the regulated, can thwart the best-intended regulations and block their effectiveness.
Innovation and financial inclusion: A review of the literature
Authors: Yawe Bruno L. , Prabhu Jaideep
Published: July 2024

Financial innovation is a major driver of financial inclusion, and
its relationship with inequalities in income and opportunities
raises some important policy questions. This review covers the
following areas of financial inclusion: savings; microinsurance;
payments; banking services for the excluded poor; financial
literacy; and consumer protection. The review shows that increasing
financial inclusion should go beyond the traditional banking
sector. This is because mobile network operators have, in most
cases, initiated mobile money services, although this is not within
the mandate for which they were initially licensed. This has aided
the provision of financial services to the majority without bank
accounts. There is now competition between commercial banks and
mobile network operators, especially when the latter expand
financial products on their networks. Partnerships should be
established between and among commercial banks as well as between
mobile network operators providing mobile money services to fast
track interoperability. In most cases, the appropriate
institutional and regulatory framework was absent at the inception
of mobile money services. Therefore, there is a need for an
institutional framework composed of regulators of
telecommunications; for mobile network operators as well as central
banks to expand financial inclusion without compromising the
strategies aimed at eliminating contemporary global challenges such
as money laundering.
The emergence of new payment service providers and their impact on the regulatory and market environment
Authors: Santamaría Javier
Published: July 2024

In July 2013, the European Commission issued the proposal for a revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2). With the proposed PSD2, the Commission introduces the notion of ‘third party payment service provider (TPP)’. These are described in PSD2 as payment service providers (PSPs) pursuing business activities that are based on access to payment accounts provided by a PSP who is not the ‘account servicing’ PSP, in the form of (a) payment initiation services and/or (b) account information services. The European Payments Council (EPC) believes that substantial amendments to the proposed new set of rules related to the activity of TPPs will have to be agreed in the further dialogue between the European Union (EU) co-legislators, ie the European Parliament and the Council of the EU, to ensure the security of bank customers’ funds and data with payment account access services under the forthcoming PSD2. Moreover, an interim solution would be required to address the current lack of a legal framework regarding the licensing of TPPs until PSD2 is fully implemented in EU member states. The EPC reiterates: ‘Convenience is a priority; security is indispensable. Promoting payment innovation to the benefit of both payers and payees requires combining the two.’
NATO: Stepping up its game in cyber defence
Authors: Shea Jamie
Published: July 2024

Events in 2016 significantly raised the importance of cyberattacks, not just to NATO governments but to societies as well. The interference of Russia in the US election campaign, the first major cyberattack through the Internet of Things, the disruption of the Ukrainian energy grid and the publicity given to the greater use of cyber instruments against ISIL or the North Korean missile programme all served to increase public awareness of the multiplicity of the cyberthreat — whether for intelligence gathering, hybrid warfare operations, disruption or even outright destruction, not forgetting in the process the more traditional understanding of cyber as a growing domain of criminal activity. Against this background, NATO has had to raise its game in improving its own cyber defences. This paper outlines the various approaches the Alliance has taken and covers, in particular, NATO’s Cyber Defence Pledge to improve the investments, capability development and internal coordination of its member states; NATO’s recognition of cyber as an operational domain and what this means for NATO’s ability to conduct its missions in a cyber-contested military environment; and finally what NATO is doing to further assist its member states to develop their own capabilities by facilitating education and training, operational exercises, smart defence projects and engagement with industry through the NATO cyber industry partnership. The paper is intended to give a sense to the reader of where NATO is going and is likely to go in the future in making cyber defence part of its core collective defence mission.
COVID-19 and continuity planning: One university’s perspective
Authors: Mclaughlin Anne-Marie , Palley Caleb
Published: July 2024

In 2018, New York University shifted from conventional continuity of operations planning to what the team has dubbed ‘continuity for action’. Prior to 2018, business continuity efforts at the university were decentralised. Now, however, the university uses a relational database that allows data to be accessed quickly to meet the needs of an emergency. The migration of plans into this database has taken time, but the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the utility of the approach. This paper describes the university’s adoption of the ‘continuity for action’ approach and offers insights into how business continuity planning data plays a critical role in speeding an organisation from response into recovery.
Resilient heritage
Authors: Crofts Sara
Published: July 2024

The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) uses money raised by National Lottery players to help people across the UK explore, enjoy and protect the heritage they care about. HLF supports a broad range of projects including archaeology, historic buildings, ships and trains, parks and landscapes, museums, archives, rare wildlife and intangible heritage. HLF is the largest dedicated funder of heritage in the UK and has always tried to provide the best and most appropriate support for the organisations delivering those projects. In recognition of the challenges that arose when austerity measures first began to bite and sources of UK funding dwindled, HLF put in place a new grant scheme to help voluntary organisations to find new sustainable business models. Three years later HLF has taken the lessons learned from these capacity-building schemes and shaped a new funding programme designed to enable organisations, and the heritage sector more broadly, to achieve long-term resilience.
What airports can do in the event of the failure of their main airline
Authors: Linkweiler Holger
Published: July 2024

Taking Budapest Airport as an example, this paper sets out to show how an airport can react in the event of the collapse of its most important airline, in this case, Malév Hungarian Airlines. The paper highlights the role played in such a situation by an active industrial manager and investor as a shareholder. It outlines what measures an airport company and its owners can take in advance and examines what can be done in the event of airline insolvency in order to get the airport concerned moving forward again.
How an in-house creative team can develop videos that hit the mark (without breaking the budget)
Authors: Hill Gaye , Harris Vanessa F.
Published: July 2024

Demand for video content has never been higher. Creating marketing videos that are both authentic and tell the intended story can be challenging, expensive and time-consuming. This paper describes how refining the video creation process can help an in-house creative team develop videos that hit the mark — without breaking the budget.
Expedited payments: A fee service to compensate for the rising costs of online bill payments
Authors: Roth Jennifer
Published: July 2024

Offering an online bill payment solution to retail banking customers will cost US financial services institutions (FSIs) an aggregate US$903m in 2008 for the portion of the service they outsource. The majority of banks provide their customers with free online bill payment, justifying the expense based on enhanced customer retention, cross-sell opportunities, reduced call centre activity and the higher profitability of online bill payment users. The anticipated cost savings that banks expected from higher volumes of online bill payment due to consumers' increasing adoption and transactions, however, never materialised. This paper presents the case for charging fees for expedited payments as a means of creating a new 'hard-dollar' revenue stream within the online bill payment business to compensate for the expense of otherwise free online bill payment services. The discussion begins with an overview of online bill payment, including usage trends and projections of continued growth. Next, it describes the multitude of deployment options available, their associated costs and the ways in which financial institutions have traditionally compensated for the costs. An overview of expedited payments and its challenges and viability as a continued revenue stream follows. In closing, this paper delineates opportunities for FSIs to promote the adoption of expedited payments.
5th Kind and Marvel: How studios increase efficiency, reduce costs and improve quality of content and products
Authors: Cronan Stephen
Published: July 2024

For almost a decade 5th Kind has been working with studios and productions to create a holistic secure platform to streamline and organise all the digital file and communication workflows throughout the production process. This paper explores the challenges and solutions to a range of production workflows and how the 5th Kind platform can be used to deliver a high ROI with increased efficiencies and help create better quality products.
Collaboration in crisis and emergency management: Identifying the gaps in the case of storm ‘Alexa’
Authors: Sawalha Ihab Hanna Salman
Published: July 2024

Failing to collaborate in crisis and emergency situations will increase the vulnerability of organisations and societies towards potential disasters. This paper highlights the significance of effective collaboration at different levels in times of crises. The case of snow storm ‘Alexa’, which hit Jordan in December 2013, was considered for the purpose of this research. The impact of Alexa raised many questions regarding the country’s preparedness and the capacity of its infrastructure to maintain critical business functions across various industry sectors. First, should people individually take all the responsibility to manage crises and emergencies in order to protect themselves and their belongings? Secondly, should organisations join efforts with other organisations within the same or different sectors? Thirdly, should governments seek external collaboration for the ultimate goal of securing their economies? These issues are significant as they underline the element of collaboration. This paper contributes to the understanding of the role of collaboration in times of intense difficulty and loss of control. The proposition made by this research is that an effective collaborative process is positively associated with perceptions of improved disaster risk reduction practices.
Neurodesign: An emerging design discipline that can be used to boost the performance of enrolment and fundraising marketing communications
Authors: Kohl Deborah , Zapata Andrés
Published: July 2024

The emerging field of neurodesign employs fundamental knowledge about human brain function to enhance the effectiveness of interface design. This information can be applied to websites and other marketing materials to capture donor and prospective student attention to drive action. Some basics of brain function are described, and specific creative directions stemming from the knowledge of brain–behaviour relationships with respect to attention, working memory and emotional reactivity are offered.
Innovation in open banking: Lessons from the recent wave of payment institutions that have been authorised to provide payment initiation and account information services
Authors: Bär Fred , Mortimer-Schutts Ivan
Published: July 2024

The Revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) came into force in all EU member states in 2018. One stated aim of this legislation was to create room for innovations in technology and business models in order to give account holders more choices and more direct control regarding access to their account information and ways of initiating payment transactions. Although an evolving array of new services and service providers has emerged over the past few years, the market remains in an early phase of experimentation. Nevertheless, information about the range of newly licensed service providers in the EU, and their business models, provides some insights into how the market is evolving and how it is reacting to recent regulatory and market infrastructure changes introduced through the PSD2 and open banking architecture. This paper reviews the population of payment institutions that have recently obtained authorisation to provide payment initiation or account information services in the EEA. It examines the (1) geographic reach, (2) company origins and investors, and (3) business function of these new actors to provide early insights into the changing economics of banking and payments.
Greening up our cities: Bringing new value to new spaces in the Paris region
Authors: Nappi-Choulet Ingrid , Labussière Simon
Published: July 2024

Measures to green up cities and built-up areas have begun to spread faster in recent years. For architects, property developers, business property users and local communities, this no longer means reserving a small area of green space in urban and real estate planning, today, greening up means imagining buildings or even entire cities that carry plants and vegetation, with nature taking a dominant place. After years of being considered remote and obscure subjects by urban actors, especially businesses, greening up and biodiversity are now in the front line of debates. As urbanisation gathers pace across the planet and our natural environments become fragmented, devoting attention to these issues is a genuine factor for differentiation and greater appeal, as well as a channel for innovative positioning in sustainable development. But this new paradigm raises two questions concerning the meaning and true functions of greening up, and the technical and economic factors that must be taken into consideration by the real estate sector. This paper sets out to achieve a better grasp of what is at stake in greening up, especially greening up our buildings, and to identify the additional value it provides for businesses in addition to sustainability benefits. Against the dual background of the ‘Grand Paris’ plans for the Greater Paris area and the city council's aim to make Paris one of Europe's green capitals, the case of the Paris region is particularly interesting to explore.
Leveraging machine learning to deepen customer insight
Authors: Abbas Zain , Merbis Roland , Motruk Artur
Published: July 2024

Banks have been sitting on troves of customer behavioural data for decades; only recently, however, have they had the computing power to find meaningful patterns in all these data. This article discusses how Scotiabank’s analytics team is using machine learning to better understand its customer base and identify meaningful events in its customers’ lives, like first job/employment, income change, starting or graduating college/ university, and family growth, thus improving the bank’s ability to provide contextual, personalised service and support. Understanding when customers are going through these life events makes it possible to deliver more meaningful contextual communication, and improve customer-centric service and support. This approach improves the customer experience and brand loyalty, translating into better marketing results and increased revenue for the bank.
Coping with European regulatory requirements for automated trading: Best practices and new requirements resulting from regulation
Authors: Stangl Gunnar
Published: July 2024

Risks resulting from large trade and order volumes made possible by the automation of trading processes have been steadily climbing the agenda of regulators — even before the publication of books capturing the popular imagination. At the same time, it is widely accepted that automation significantly reduces the risk of ‘classical’ mistakes like fat fingers, with regulation increasingly explicitly or implicitly demanding straight-through processing and setting limits for trade-related processing which, without a highly automated trading environment, are not achievable. Nevertheless, even where automated trading is used only in a conservative way, the volume of trades in a volatile market can impact risk management and order facilities. This paper discusses the implications for operational risk management of the requirements introduced by the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) II in Europe for a firm using automated trading to support market-making and risk management across a number of different markets and products.
Looking for ‘Uncle Johnnie’: The extraordinary success of Johnnie Walker Scotch Whisky in India
Authors: Sinha Jay I. , Contractor Sunil H.
Published: July 2024

This case study examines the factors underlying the success of Johnnie Walker Scotch whisky in India. India provides a quixotic case in that it is the world’s largest whisky market, despite having a long tradition of abstinence and social stigma towards alcohol-drinking. The paper traces the history of Johnnie Walker and how it metamorphosed from a tradition-bound Scottish company into a global brand with its footprint in more than 180 countries. India has emerged as a very profitable market for Diageo, the parent company of Johnnie Walker. Detailed here are the distinctive characteristics of the Indian alcohol market as well as the novel tactics Diageo has implemented towards Johnnie Walker’s goal of capturing 56 per cent of the Scotch market in the country. The paper ends with managerial implications that are relevant for marketing professionals and brand practitioners even in disparate industries looking to penetrate and develop overseas markets.
The GSK Workspace Performance Hub : Promoting productivity and wellbeing through office design
Authors: Marsh Patrick , French Simon
Published: July 2024

Reflecting employees’ needs in the physical workspace should form a key part of a company’s ethos. As a major global healthcare company with a large real estate portfolio, GSK identified an opportunity to explore the impact of the work environment on employee experience and performance in the face of the growing attraction of co-working spaces. GSK’s Worldwide Real Estate and Facilities (WREF) team, alongside leaders in innovation, strategy and science, designed and developed the Workspace Performance Hub (WPH) as a way to measure and quantify this impact. The WPH facilitated the testing of a number of environmental variables on the occupants’ physiology, wellbeing and productivity. The WREF team and their partners, EY Seren and ART Health Solutions, designed a rigorous scientific approach to safely explore the impact of workplace design and environmental factors, such as temperature and biophilia, on 70 GSK employees (50 in the WPH and 20 in a control group) across a six-month period. The study showed that physical environment has a considerable impact on employee health, wellbeing and performance. Participants experienced an increase in cognitive performance after their residency of the WPH, while also reporting a reduction in stress. In addition, occupants saw a rise of 17 per cent in innovation cycles during their stay. The greater variety of workstations, circadian lighting and biophilia also meant that the WPH residents were more active and had a lower resting heart rate than their control group counterparts. While further research is required on a larger scale and across a variety of personas representing different working styles and cultures, this pilot study demonstrates that by creating better, tailored human experiences, organisations can create environments that bring value to the business and their employees.
Developing the return on workplace investment (ROWI) tool
Authors: Oseland Nigel , Tucker Matthew , Wilson Hannah
Published: July 2024

Facilities managers and the wider corporate real estate (CRE) community have increasingly become focused on cost reduction, with organisations typically viewing property as a cost burden rather than an investment. Consequently, it remains rare for organisations to include performance benefits in financial investment appraisals of workplace projects. A change in narrative is required to one where value can be demonstrated rather than simply costs reduced. Previous attempts have been made to quantify workplace performance, but a tangible tool to assist in recommending major decisions regarding changes to the workplace has eluded discovery. Therefore, the authors joined forces with the Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management (IWFM) to create the Return on Workplace Investment (ROWI) tool. The ROWI tool is a ready reckoner for calculating the impact of workplace projects (including planning, design or operation) on people performance. It can be used as part of a cost-benefit analysis to help professionals build a business case which accounts for positive factors other than cost alone. The initial step to developing the ROWI tool was to conduct an extensive literature review to determine the performance metrics that could be used to calculate a return on workplace investment. Some 105 unique and robust literature sources, with a total of 194 individual assessments of performance, were selected. Five dominant and recurring performance metrics were identified, along with nine recurring broad workplace design elements affecting task performance. Previously, there was little confidence in productivity research due to the range in performance data that various studies produce. A unique aspect of the ROWI tool, however, is that the performance data for each study was weighted to make it more relevant to real office work. The corresponding, more realistic, potential impact of workplace design on each of the performance metrics was calculated using the weighted results from all the research studies.
Comparing military and civilian critical thinking and information processes in operational risk management: What are the lessons?
Authors: VanVactor Jerry D. , Gill Tony
Published: July 2024

Business continuity has expanded into a discipline that spans most functional areas of large enterprises. Both the military and financial sectors have consistently demonstrated an aptitude to expand the boundaries of continuity planning and crisis mitigation. A comparison of both enterprises is provided to see how their respective methodologies compare. Interestingly, the similarities far outweigh the differences. The paper provides commentary related to comparative insight from risk practitioners’ perspectives from within the US Army, one of the largest military organisations in the world, and the Bank of Montreal, one of Canada’s leading financial institutions.
Beyond the box: The intriguing challenges of branding service companies
Authors: Cheinman Ida , Bishop Susan
Published: July 2024

Differentiating service-based companies is a difficult task, and the associated challenges have resulted in a plethora of similarly positioned brands within many service categories and, ultimately, the commoditisation of entire service industries. Defining the unique intangible value of a service offering is important to developing a differentiated service-based brand that creates a significant competitive advantage. Once the most compelling intangible is identified and its underlying value is articulated, service-based companies can begin the process of making that intangible value real for customers through both brand experience and marketing. This paper discusses how to put ideas into action when branding a services company, including understanding customer perceptions, exploring many different possibilities for branding, finding a meaningful essential idea and indoctrinating employees into the brand so that each employee acts as a brand ambassador.
Modernising global trade finance practices
Authors: Casterman André
Published: July 2024

The partnership between the ICC and SWIFT will revolutionise global trade finance practices by establishing paperless inter-bank practices and by leveraging electronic transaction data available from dematerialised business-to-business processes. As annualised trade growth is expected to accelerate after 2015, the need for modern trade finance practices based on electronic data flows becomes unquestionable. There has never been an equivalent instrument to enable an exporter to trade on open account terms with the same degree of confidence as a payment that will be executed in accordance with the terms of a letter of credit. Both the ICC and SWIFT believe that, by working together and leveraging their respective positions in the trade finance community, the Bank Payment Obligation rules (BPO) will have an important role to play in supporting the development of international trade in the 21st century and in addressing cost pressures in the face of increased automation and changes in the regulatory environment. The time has now come for banks to prepare for this innovation and start extending their supply-chain finance services from invoice-based processing services (eg e-invoicing, factoring and reverse factoring) to BPO-based services such as payment assurance, pre-shipment and post-shipment finance.
Communicating you are worth it in a noisy marketplace
Authors: Redfern Paul , Rursch Keri , Yates Jamie
Published: July 2024

This paper provides guidance and specific examples of common elements needed for communicating the value proposition of liberal arts colleges to prospective students and families. In an environment where the worth of a college degree is questioned daily by the public and the mainstream media, this paper demonstrates how strategies that are distinctive, rooted in research and complementary to the institutional brand are imperative for communicating the worth of an institution. The paper suggests tactics to develop the key partnerships needed and provides metrics for how leaders can assess their value proposition initiatives.
Dementia and the use of the access audit: Identifying reasonable adjustment to buildings across all disabilities
Authors: Mclean Simon
Published: July 2024

This paper is part of the author's investigation of disabled access to goods and services, to assess whether current legislation, policing of that legislation and the processes adopted to facilitate the terms of the legislation are delivering as intended. Signs of dementia are often hidden, but they meet Equality Act definitions for the term ‘disability’. Dementia creates conditions that can make the use of buildings difficult. Having established the statutory position for providing equal access to goods and services, this paper looks at the building block of any access strategy — the access audit. Access audit templates are often used to undertake the survey part of an access strategy. These often refer directly to guide documents and standards. The paper investigates whether these templates, guides and standards contain the specific checklist items required to provide equal access for those living with dementia. It then measures some of the most commonly used guide documents and templates against a specific checklist for dementia, to see how the required adjustments are included. The research concludes by access auditing two case study buildings against the dementia checklist. The buildings have been significantly adjusted to offer enhanced disability access and the audit will establish if core adjustments for dementia are included among those measures. Unfortunately, the paper concludes by noting that in these case studies, they mostly have not.
Training the airport manager in a post-COVID-19 world
Authors: Abeyratne Ruwantissa
Published: July 2024

Understandably, the overall approach of airports to the post-COVID-19 pandemic has been focused on cultural adaptation with a view to securing economic sustenance. It follows therefore that economic sustenance would depend on whether the passenger would choose to go through a particular airport if he or she has other choices, particularly in transit. The operative word in this context would be ‘confidence’ that the airport would generate in the passenger. The qualities of service that airports have offered thus far are efficiency in delivering services and convenience. These essential qualities would have to mesh with a new relationship with the passenger whereby the airport offers assurance of awareness of the passenger’s health concerns. This paper discusses the possibilities available to airports in the digital age, with which airports can assure the passenger of information sharing in the overall consideration of health and privacy as well as act through a global system that encapsulates precautionary measures that airports could take based on their connectivity to the outside world. The paper also posits that at the centre of this shift of focus is the need to subvert the dominant paradigm of efficiency per se to a combination of efficiency and professional empathy. This is where the manager would come in, and in turn his role would be dependent on the management training he undergoes. In that sense, this paper serves both the manager and the trainer, where the manager would take away the essential elements of predictive intelligence, prioritising and strategising the needs of the passenger that would impact the entire journey of the passenger and not merely his airport experience. The trainer would benefit from the ethical, moral and legal concepts discussed herein that could be incorporated into the training package through the spectrum of digital technology.