Yousef Essali tells you why lack of experience should not limit your ambition

In the 2nd year of my BSc at Salford I applied for a lot of placements. Not even once did I get to the interview stage! What was I doing wrong? That was during my undergraduate degree where everyone was fairly similar in age and experience. But, when you think about  the postgrad level it gets even tougher. Suddenly you find yourself competing with peers with wider levels of experience and talent.

Why did I return straight away after graduation to start MSc International Business? One reason was the opportunity to do an internship or placement as part of my course. However, after the rejection fiasco in my Undergraduate degree I knew I needed a new approach! How could I change the playing field to my advantage, bypass the traditional recruitment process and get face-to-face with potential employers?

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Ian McHale, Professor of Sports Analytics

Now that SAM’s predictions for Premier League matches are on the BBC website every week, I am getting asked three questions a lot:

1. What is SAM?
2. How does SAM work?
3. Is SAM any good?

In this blog I hope to give pretty simple answers to these questions, and point the interested reader in the right direction to get more information.

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Professor David Spicer

Salford Business School Academics show innovation and insight in business thinking.

I am delighted to be able to introduce you to the second issue of the Salford Business School (#SalfordBSchool) magazine Ignited. Having recently joined the School I had done my research before I joined as Dean. I knew that Salford has a great reputation for innovation in applied, industry focused programmes and research. When I arrived, I was delighted to find out just how much great work was being done here at Salford that I wasn’t yet aware of. This magazine showcases some of the best in thinking and research here at Salford. I’ll highlight just some of the articles below.

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Alex Fenton, Producer of the Creative Entrepreneur event

How can a business school teach entrepreneurship? Can you learn how to develop a business model or a marketing plan from a book? Meeting and hearing from successful international entrepreneurs sharing their real life stories, gaining feedback on ideas and establishing new links are all great ways to learn about entrepreneurship and grow your network.

At Salford we recognise the importance of strong links with industry. They help us keep our teaching relevant to the real world and mean we can offer great opportunities to help our students to get employment-ready.

Our Creative Entrepreneur event is a key example of this in practice. At the event, held annually at our state of the art campus at MediaCityUK, individuals from partner organisations volunteer their time and share their experience with students at the University of Salford.

At the latest event, on 25th of November 2015, we welcomed over 40 guest speakers who delivered an exciting programme of master-classes, panel sessions and installations to inspire, inform and entertain over 460 attendees. These were a combination of local businesses, University staff, students and local colleges. Several of our courses and modules were present, creating great opportunities for our students. Read on to find out more about key points from the event and what happened.

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Alex Fenton

Salford Business School is once again opening its doors to our cutting edge campus at MediaCityUK to you, your friends and colleagues! We are bringing together our centres of Digital Business, Sports Business and Social Business to provide inspiration and education for all, thinking about global opportunity in a connected world.

Whether you are a student, young entrepreneur, graduate or a seasoned professional you will find great opportunities to inspire your entrepreneurial business thinking at our Creative Entrepreneur 2015 event.

Meet young entrepreneurs amongst our students, members of staff or many other businesses from near and far. Join us at this open innovation space at MediaCityUK on Wednesday 25 November from 9.00am to 5.00pm.

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Alex Fenton

Manchester United supporters lucky enough to see high-profile signings Radamel Falcao and Angel di Maria in action for the first time at Old Trafford at the weekend may have done well to remember we look with our eyes and not our hands. Or fingertips, to be specific. In an age where no experience is complete until we’ve recorded and uploaded it onto social media, fans may have been frustrated not to share their joy online. And the club’s first win of the season provided them with many a photo opportunity.

But that reminds us, United have added tablets to their list of items banned from being brought into the stadium. The club is keen to emphasise that the measure is to ensure the “safety and security of all spectators”. But the ban makes shrewd business sense and it’s likely that other clubs will follow suit.

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Dr Ian McHale

Since the foundation of the Football League in 1888, 23 clubs have been champions of the top division in English football. Some were single-season wonders, while others enjoyed more sustained success.

As the Director of the Centre for Sports Business at Salford Business School, and Chair of the Royal Statistical Society’s sports section, I have developed a mathematical method for comparing the performance of every English Football League team, taking into account their varying prowess from season to season and the standard of opposition faced.

As the Football League celebrates its 125^th anniversary, and after inputting the results of more than 200,000 matches into a highly sophisticated computer model I believe we have the answer. So, which team is the most dominant of all time?

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Professor Chris Brady

Patience at Manchester United has run out. David Moyes has been sacked possibly sooner than was expected, but entirely predictably given the huge financial pressures that were looming if the team continued to under-perform.

As Old Trafford veteran, Ryan Giggs, steps temporarily into the hot seat, it is important not to lose sight of the fact that the business model of any sports club is mostly driven by what happens on the pitch. On-field success enhances each of the three revenue streams – match day, broadcasting and commercial.

In United’s most recent financial statement published on February 12, the projected revenue for the next financial year was around £420m. But this was predicated on the fact that the team would finish at least third in the Premier League and reach the quarter finals of both the FA Cup and the Champions’ League, only one of which happened.

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Sports Business

Have you ever thought about your favourite sports team as a “business”? This Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) takes you through some of the key issues of a sports business. In particular, we will focus on:

• Social implications of sports business
• Sports business marketing
• Social Media in sports business

Do you know how marketing and social media assists sports businesses?

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Australian cyclist Robbie McEwen, Photo by Gsl

Sports Business is big business. Through the sponsoring of sports teams and events, the world’s biggest brands are demonstrating the power of globally-reaching sports in the business world.

The IBM logo will be one of many that you will see prominently displayed during the Wimbledon tournament, Shell’s presence on Ferrari’s 2014 Formula 1 cars is difficult to miss and the English Premier League is the “Barclays Premier League”.

In this Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), prepared by Business Information Technology students, we look at the legal, financial, and marketing aspects of sports business to understand some of the world’s biggest sports teams, events, and brands from a business perspective.

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