E-nsights March 2012

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During the 2nd week of the spring semester, on 5 and 6

March, the International Faculty of the University of Shef-field organised for the very first time student plenary meet-ings. All students from all departments were invited to at-tend these meetings.

Plenary Meetings - A New Initiative

What does CITY mean to you? CITY is my first step towards adulthood and mature life. It is a great experience and life lesson of how to build different relationships with people and how to actually maintain them and keep them valuable.

Interview with Dragana Krstic

This year’s meeting of the International Industrial Advisory Board (IIAB) members took place on Wednesday 28 March at CITY premises. Following a short presentation of BAED and its undergraduate and postgraduate pro-grammes, delivered by Dr. Nikolaidis, Head of BAED, and Mr. Efstathiadis, Director of ExMBA, the members of the board engaged in a discussion around current market trends and related requirements that graduates must meet.

Industrial Advisory Board

Teaching is a great experience. But what makes this experience even greater is the possibility to teach in different places, different contexts, talking to different people and trying to understand how issues can be interpreted and applied in a variety of different ways.

Lecturers’ Exchange Programme

EDITORIAL MORE on page 2

LATEST NEWS MORE on page 5



2 Editorial

INSIDE THIS ISSUE: MARCH 2012—ISSUE 28

nsights E- Monthly e-Newsletter

by the Business Administration and Economics Department

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Company Visits 4

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A Kaleidoscope of Studying

Business Seminar Series -

Two More Successful Semi-

nars

Industrial Advisory Board

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Lecturers’ Exchange Pro-

gramme

Planning for Corporate So-

cial Responsibility

Follow Us on Facebook!

Academic Writing Skills

Seminar

Dr. Nikolaidou to be Inter-

viewed by the Associated

Reporters Abroad

Interview with Dragana

Krstic

Avo-Bell, Sofia

Going Back to High School

4th International Strategic

People Management Work-

shop

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9 Book Presentation

11th International Students’

Spring Symposium

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10 CITY Finance Group

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CITY Marketing Club News 11

A Farewell to Erilda

Welcome on Board Erika

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During the 2nd week of the spring semester, on 5 and 6 March, the

International Faculty of the University of Sheffield organised for the very first time student plenary meetings. All students from all depart-ments were invited to attend these meetings. It was a great opportunity to bring together students from different disciplines and programmes and share with them lots of useful infor-mation about recent developments at CITY, as well as communicate expectations and set goals for the second semester. Dr. Sotiriadou, Head of the Computer Science Department, provided an overview of University rules and regulations, absence and deadline policies, pla-giarism detection and efficient use of the Turnitin software platform. In addition, Ms. Matiaki, Director, Student Affairs and Career Plan-ning, informed students about the services that are available to them and the plans for the spring semester. The meetings were concluded by Ms. Krstic, CITY Student Union (CSU) President, who explained to students the purpose of the CSU and informed them about all sched-uled activities, including an excursion to Bansko, the graduation party, sport tournaments, parties, an art exhibition and an excursion to Myk-onos. Mr. Krstic also pointed out the importance of establishing a close relationship with the Student Union of the University of Shef-field.

Ms. Matiaki comments: “Our main goal for having such a meeting was student optimum preparation and dissemination of information. Staff and faculty at CITY strive to make sure that students get useful in-sights into what resources are available to them. What matters the most is not only academic development but also student involvement and growth, commitment to goals, accountability, peer motivation and interaction. It was a great opportunity to revisit certain areas of inter-est and we were excited to see how many students participated and we are definitely planning to establish annual plenary meetings.”

Plenary Meetings - A New Initiative Following a Student-Centered Approach

Newsletter Identity:

Published monthly by the Business

Administration and Economics

Department, CITY College.

Editor: Aimi Papanastasiou

Contributors: Eirini Anastasiou, Alex-

andros Kapoulas, Stelios Kehaghias,

Dragana Krstic, Chris Liassidis, Maria

Matiaki, Fotis Missopoulos, Dimitrios

Nikolaidis, Alexandros Psychogios, Violeta

Sfouri, Leslie Szamosi, Eleni Tsimiga

MARCH 2012—ISSUE 28

Editorial

3 FEBRUARY 2012—ISSUE 27

A Kaleidoscope of Studying


Company Visit to Babatzimopoulos

On Saturday 24 March, the MSc Management, MSc Logistics & Supply Chain Management, MSc Human Resource Management and MSc Lei-sure & Tourism Management students participated in a company visit to Babatzimopoulos winery, in the context of the Strategy Formulation unit. Mr. Anestis Babatzimopoulos, owner of the winery, was the host, who took students through a 3-hour journey in the world of wine and ouzo explaining the production process and little secrets for developing high quality organic wines and ouzo. At the last part of the visit, students had the opportunity to participate in wine tasting in the company cellars.

The visit to AB Vassilopoulos Distribution Center (DC) on 22 March was a very pleasant and informative one. The stu-dents of the MSc Logistics & Supply Chain Management group, as well as the third level students of Management and Marketing tracks, were very pleased of the specific com-pany visit. Mr. Dakos, the Logistics Manager of the DC, wel-comed the group at the Administration building and provided a lecture-type presentation of the organisation and explained the daily operations of a distribution center, while he was answering the questions of the students. The visit continued with a tour in the DC. The highlight of the visit was when the group entered a temperature-controlled section of -25 de-grees Celsius. They all returned back to CITY with a frozen smile!!!

Company Visit to AB Vassilopoulos

Company Visit to Hyatt Regency Thessaloniki On 28 March, MSc Human Resource Management and MSc Leisure and Tourism Management students visited the Hyatt Regency hotel. The group was given a tour of the premises of the hotel and explana-tions were provided regarding the various services provided to the guest. Students were exposed to the front and back ends of the ‘house’ and were given a true insider’s view of hotel operations. The visit ended with a presentation from the Human Resources Manager of the hotel Mr. Giovanni Serafini. He explained the vision and strategy of the Hyatt Regency group of hotels as well as the distinctive characteristics of the company’s offering. He also elaborated on human resource manage-ment issues and explained the company’s human resource practices. He gave many examples regarding training, recruitment and staff devel-opment. The students asked questions about whether the economic the crisis has affected the hotel in relation to staff employment termination and how this is handled by the Human Resource department.

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Industrial Advisory Board This year’s meeting of the International Industrial Advisory Board (IIAB) members took place on Wednesday 28 March at CITY premises. Following a short presentation of BAED and its under-graduate and postgraduate programmes, delivered by Dr. Niko-laidis, Head of BAED, and Mr. Efstathiadis, Director of ExMBA, the members of the board engaged in a discussion around cur-rent market trends and related requirements that graduates must meet. One of the key areas that was identified as requiring special at-tention is the use of social media and networks not only for com-munication purposes, but also as viable means for establishing

FEBRUARY 2012—ISSUE 27

One more seminar was successfully delivered on 22 March in the framework of the Business Seminar Series. The seminar, titled “Lifestyle… a Source of… Money”, was delivered in English by Mr. Chris Liassidis. The seminar discussed the im-portance of the following issues:

∗ Studying the environment

∗ Focusing on the values of today

∗ Pointing out the normative and demographic aspects of life Checklist of dimensions of lifestyle

∗ The three convergences

∗ Emphasis on “material quality of life”

Business Seminar Series - Two More Successful Seminars

On 29 March, Dr. Fotis Filippopoulos, Director of Delphi, spoke about “SuperBranding: The Principles of Neuromarketing and Multisensory Branding”. The following topics were addressed:

∗ Neuroscience marketing

∗ The cognitive process of brand choice

∗ Mapping the brain of the consumer with brain imaging

∗ Neuroscientific principles of effective brand building

∗ The role of sensorial stimuli in building powerful brands

∗ Emotional brand engineering

∗ Sensory audit

∗ It’s time to smash your brand and kill your logo

∗ Applying the rules of religion in branding

and maintaining successful businesses. In addition, graduate should have knowledge of international trade and business, while also having good presentation and communication skills. Mr. Pentzos (Federation of Industries of Northern Greece) is the Chairman of the board, and the members are (in alphabetical order) Mr. Aigyptiadis (National Bank of Greece), Mr. Konsturanov (Makedonski Telekom AD, Skopje, FYROM), Mr. Kyriakidis (Northern Greece Publishing & Management Consultant), Mrs. Lountzi (Greek International Business Association), Mr. Papakonstantinou (HELEXPO S.A.), Mr. Sel (Kuwait Turkish Participation Bank, Istanbul, Turkey) and Mrs. Tseimazidou (ATTP, Athens).


A Farewell to Erilda Erilda Ajaz, our liaison person at the American University of Tirana (UAT) in Albania has decided to move on in her professional career and seek new opportunities and fulfill her dreams. During the two years she has been coopering with us, Erilda showed dedication, hard work, and was always there whenever needed. We, as CITY College, have only good words to say about our relationship with Erilda. We will truly miss her. We wish Erilda all the success she deserves in her new job.

Academic Writing Skills Seminar In March, Dr. Kapoulas delivered two four-hour seminars on academic writing skills, one in Sofia and one in Tirana for our students at VUZF and UAT Universities. More specifically, a series of topics were addressed during this seminar ranging from Harvard referencing skills, report writing, critical and analytical skills to exam essay writing. During the presentations, which were accompanied by examples and brief activities, the majority of students appreci-ated the academic writing requirements of the British Educational System. At the end of the sessions, students stated that they found the presentations delivered interesting as they clari-fied further what are the report writing, referencing and exam essay requirements so as to successfully complete their Bachelor’s studies.

Dr. Nikolaidou to be Interviewed by the Associated Reporters Abroad

Dr. Nikolaidou has been approached by a journalist from the Associ-ated Reporters Abroad in order to give an interview on military spend-ing in the euro zone during the financial crisis, particularly in Greece, Portugal and Spain.

Erilda Ajaz

Erika Melonashi

Erika Melonashi is the person who stepped into Erilda's shoes and we strongly be-lieve that our collaboration with her will be as excellent as the collaboration was with her predecessor. We are sure that she is capable of doing a great job to main-tain the success of this partnership. We wish Erika all the best in her new duties.

Welcome on Board Erika

Planning for Corporate Social Responsibility

On 26 March, Dr. Nikolaidis delivered an interesting presentation on “Planning for Corpo-rate Social Responsibility” to 2nd level students at VUZF University. The guest lecture was organised within the framework of the Corporate Social Responsibility unit and was aimed to provide students with a valuable insight into Corporate Social Responsibility practices. Students enjoyed the presentation and engaged in a lively discussion with Dr. Nikolaidis.


Interview with Dragana Krstic What does CITY mean to you? CITY is my first step towards adulthood and mature life. It is a great experience and life lesson of how to build different relationships with people and how to ac-tually maintain them and keep them valuable. It is the greatest memory I will share further in my life. It is simply my University, it is the place where I learned, had fun and gained an enormous amount of experience. Which activities at CITY (company visits, seminars, workshops, etc.) do you find most useful?

Interview

CITY offers a unique and exceptional experience to its students. All activities organised by the University, such as company visits, seminars, workshops and other, had a great impact on my knowledge and experience as a whole. However, I strongly believe that company visits are by far the most appealing and useful tools that are used at CITY. And I can guarantee that students do enjoy them. During your studies at CITY, did you learn certain things about different cultures? While studying at CITY, I met people from different countries, with different cultural background. I believe that this is one of the most valuable things this University offers, due to the fact that knowing how to cope and work with people from a different culture only enhances our chances in our future career to be successful and ready for any challenge on an international basis. What would be the one thing that you would change in the way CITY works? When it comes to the way CITY works, there are not a lot of things I would change. Taking into consideration that CITY operates according to the British system, rules need to be applied strictly and respectfully. What is your vision as the CSU president? As the CSU president, I wanted to enhance students’ experience and fulfill their wishes and desires. Connecting students with lecturers and academic staff could improve the overall situation in the University. Being a relatively small University, this actually seemed possible. Unfortunately, one year is not enough to make the changes and meet all the needs, nevertheless a great start has been done and hopefully the tradition will continue further. Which is the most interesting experience you’ve had while living in Greece? Since I moved to Greece in 2009, I have lived through many interesting and unique experiences. I met many peo-ple, fell in love, lived the life of a student both inside the university and outside of it. I must say that all these things combined created this specific emotion I have for Thessaloniki and Greece. The past 3 years were the best years of my life and I am sure I will never forget them. However, the most interesting experience for me was during my first year of studies when one Thursday in February I woke up and the whole city was wearing different masks, grilling meat and singing. I was shocked and I had no idea what was going on. Afterwards, my friends explained to me the tradition of Tsiknopempti, which has since become my favourite Greek holiday. What are your plans after graduation? After graduating from CITY, I am planning to continue my studies to postgraduate level in London School of Eco-nomics and Political Science. However, I have not yet made up my mind concerning further plans. Hopefully, a job and a beginning of a great career will follow. What do you think will most scare you when you will decide to look for a job? The thing that scares me the most is the whole crisis situation the world is facing. I am afraid that there will not be enough positions to offer to graduates due to organisations cutting costs. Taking into consideration that there will be many valuable people out there searching for a job, the most important thing will be to be different and better from the rest.

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Going Back to High School On 9 March, Mr. Liassides delivered a seminar to a large group of high school students studding at the private school Drita in Sofia, Bulgaria. Following a request by the administration of the school, BAED decided to proceed with the seminar, within the framework of the school's initiative to acquaint its students with university level teaching. The seminar lasted two hours, during which students were briefed on business issues and current trends in marketing and had the opportunity to ask questions. The students thoroughly enjoyed the seminar, since it was their first taste of such style of teaching and learning, of university level.

Avo-Bell, Sofia Following a request by the Avo-Bell Language Examination Center in Sofia, Bulgaria, two presentations were delivered, on 16 March 2012, to students studying there on the pros-pects of studying at a British university. Mr. Liassides, accompanied by the Programme Coordinator for Bulgaria Tihomir Tihomirov, delivered both presentations stressing to stu-dents the need to study at a good UK university, such as the University of Sheffield. Career and job opportunities were analysed and the students had the opportunity to clarify certain matters regarding their future educational moves.


Lecturers’ Exchange Programme Teaching is a great experience. But what makes this experience even greater is the possibility to teach in different places, different contexts, talking to different people and trying to understand how issues can be interpreted and applied in a variety of different ways. This was the result of my experience in visiting the Univer-sity of Sheffield. I had the opportunity to teach in both undergradu-ate and postgraduate programmes in a variety of different topics including Cross-Cultural Management, Expatriate Management, Functional Flexibility, Training and Development, and Total Quality Management. All students showed a great interest in these topics, not only because of the topics, but especially for the South East-ern European perspective through which I analysed them.

Moreover, a research idea was put at the forefront of my agenda during the visit. Many meetings and discussions took place with a variety of different colleagues, not only from the Management School, but also form other de-partments and faculties. The South Eastern European region proved to be a very interesting geographical place through which a lot and useful research results can come up that can enhance our understanding and application of management practices. Overall, the University of Sheffield visit was an extremely useful experience with multi-ple positive impact for both lecturers and students.

Dr. Alexandros Psychogios Senior Lecturer

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11th International Students’ Spring Symposium

The 11th International Students’ Spring Symposium, organised by CITY College students and ACM Chapter, will

be held on the 18th -19

th of May 2012, at L. Sofou Building. Grab the opportunity to present your projects and

research ideas on topics relevant to your studies and academic interests! Students from all levels are welcome to submit an extended abstract (1-2 pages) by the 25

th of April 2012 to the

secretariat of the symposium ([email protected]) for a review. Theoretical and empirical papers are equally valued. For further information about the conference, please visit the conference website: www.city.academic.gr/s3-12

4th International Strategic People Management Workshop

The 4th International Strategic People Management Workshop has been scheduled to take place on Tuesday 4 April, 16:00-19:00, at the Auditorium “Rodoula Kehaghia”. This year’s focus is on “ Project Resilience: Understanding the Impact of the Financial Crisis on the Economic Resilience of Entrepreneurship, Work and Governance”. With the European economy under severe strain, governments are seeking to rebalance the public finances through a programme of economic reform, which involves spending cuts and reducing the size of the public sector. However, if cuts in the public sector are to be offset by private sector growth, there is a greater need to understand the nature of economic resilience in businesses. Whereas businesses have traditionally focused on being competitive, there is now increasingly a need to think about becoming more resil-ient, as businesses need to respond to the challenges of external shocks such as eco-nomic downturns. Dr. Tim Vorley and Dr. Nick Williams from the University of Sheffield will be he key note speakers of the workshop, while Dr. Psychogios and Dr. Szamosi will serve as coordina-tors.


Book Presentation Dr. Proedrou, Lecturer, Humanities and Social Sciences Divi-sion, will present his book titled “EU Energy Security in the Gas Sector”, on Wednesday 4 April, at 20:00, at Navarino Network, 3 Apelou street, Navarinou square. The presentation will be delivered in Greek and the entrance is free of charge.

Upcoming Events

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CITY FINANCE GROUP (CFG) Announces the Official Opening of the Virtual Stock Market Competition - The Winner Will Receive a ‘Surprise’ Prize!

CITY Finance Group (CFG), during its last meeting on the 29th of March,

announced the official opening of the virtual stock market competition as well as some forthcoming guest lectures and seminars by invited bankers and visits to financial institutions. If you are interested in participating in the virtual stock market competi-tion, you should register on http://www.marketwatch.com (registration is free). Once you register, you should select ‘games’, then click on ‘find a game’ and write CFG2012. Once CFG2012 appears on your screen, you simply join the game (password: finance) and you can start creating your own stock portfolio based on real US Stock Exchanges. Official starting day of the competition: Monday the 2

nd of April 2012

Official closing day of the competition: Friday 18th of May 2012

Take the opportunity to learn more about your field in a practical and in-teractive manner by participating in the competition. And who knows? You might be the winner! Also, check out the CFG Blog (www.cityfinancegroup.blogspot.com) that offers a platform to actively discuss world news in the areas of finance, economics, business, or anything you feel is relevant. For more information about the virtual stock market game, you can con-tact Mr. Alexander Necovski ([email protected]) or Dr. Eftychia Nikolaidou ([email protected]).

Via the official page of BAED on Facebook, current students, alumni, staff and many others have the op-portunity to get informed about seminars and events, keep pace with all the latest developments taking place at the department, network with academics and business people, stay in touch with lectures and former classmates. Join our new page today and become part of our growing family! https://www.facebook.com/#!/www.citybaed.gr

Follow Us on Facebook!


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CITY Marketing Club News New semester, new ideas, projects and seminars, trips and parties - this is what CMC is offering to its members. It is never the same, it is always fresh, challenging, creative, and, of course, joyful. After sev-eral weeks of hard work, the results of the marketing competition for the best T-shirt design have been announced (Andi Dervishi, Va-sileios Stamatis, Dimitris Poupouliadis and Alexandros Savvidis). All groups did a great job, gained experience, however, there is only one winner. During the award ceremony, all participants received certifi-cates of participation and appreciation from the whole team and CITY. The winner team got a special prize. It is obvious that no matter how much you know, you always need to develop and improve your skills, for instance, by participating in differ-ent seminars. The CMC members got the chance to participate in the seminar dedicated to Neuromarketing provided by Dr. Fotis Filip-popoulos, which is a very trendy topic nowadays. This is just the be-ginning; after the Easter break the members will have a chance to participate in two more seminars. The first one is titled "Country branding" delivered by Dr. Leslie Szamosi, and another one dedi-cated to “Packaging” by Mr. Sakis Papagiannis. Are you aware of the student symposium organized by CITY students for more than 10 years? This year, CMC took up the responsibility and honour of creating the event’s advertisement campaign. Different online and offline advertising tools will be used to attract numerous students and make it one of the most important events at CITY. This will give the team a chance to organise a real life project and make it a famous event. Yearbook – probably the most expected student project which will remain in our memories forever. This year, it will be prepared by stu-dents; photographers and designers from different departments of CITY will take part in creating a piece of original, artistic and memora-ble work. Let’s also not forget about fun. The first party organised this semester was held in Mini bar, where students enjoyed their drinks in a nice environment and with nice people. Combining fun, knowledge and experience, a company visit will be organized to EPSA - soft drinks and juices in Volos for 2 days. The students will have a chance to get detailed information about different departments of the company. New ideas are encouraged by CMC. Tijana Mitanovski, CMC mem-ber, suggested organising debates for students to develop their skills in public speaking, time management, etc. More information can be obtained from Tijana. Do not forget, CMC is here for you, to help you realise your ideas, provide new experiences, help you adjust in any related area, and at the same time enable you to enjoy student life in the best way.

Irina Mkrtchyan MA in Marketing, Advertising and Public Relations


Documents

E-nsights March 2012