Workshop on Islamic Financial Management and Marketing Principles for SMEs

Helping create some buzz about a workshop:

Application of Islamic Financial Management and Marketing Principles: Preparing SMEs for International Business  Two-day programme for start-up owners, venture capitalists, prospective entrepreneurs from both services and manufacturing sectors. The primary focus of this training is to provide you with a comprehensive synopsis of the tools needed to manage financial functions efficiently, and to develop halal marketing strategies that are necessary for an internationally diversified small and medium enterprise (SME). The course will be delivered using presentations, discussions, case studies and role plays that will help the participants in fulfilling the financial and marketing objectives of their SMEs in a shari’ah compliant way.  Financial management and marketing strategy to prepare SMEs for International Business  Small businesses are essential ingredients of the high-growth Asian markets. Growth of SMEs, particularly that operate based on shari’ah, in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and in South Asia has been astonishing. As the local market is becoming too competitive, local SMEs are in need to expand their operation across border. Financial management deals with two major aspects: collecting funds and investing funds. A good financial manager should know the alternative methods of low cost shari’ah compliant fund collection in foreign lands. Similarly, one must know the criteria that make their investment shari’ah compliant. A good Islamic market strategy will help local SMEs in targeting their foreign customers and marketing their products in foreign lands in a halal way.  Key financial and marketing management questions from an Islamic perspective:   How to collect money for SMEs?  Where to invest money?  How to write a financial plan for loan application?  How to do halal marketing? How it is different from conventional marketing?  How to manage marketing challenge in foreign land?  How to manage typical Islamic marketing challenge for SMEs?  Learning outcomes After completing the training, you will be able: To develop an understanding of Islamic financial management for SMEs that includes an overview of the industy, opportunities and challenges. To learn how to prepare a financial plan to apply for bank/venture capital loans.  To learn how to prepare a halal branding strategy for your company/product.  To analyse the opportunities and challenges for Islamic SMEs in other countries.  Methods of training and assessment Powerpoint presentations  Case exercises  Flipchart presentations for brainstorming Presentation from participants  Programme outline Day One Module one – Financial management of Islamic business  Element of a financial plan Forecasting financial variables Applying for Islamic bank loans Understanding shari'ah compliant investments Module two – Alternative financing, operational management, and sustainability  Understanding alternative financing available Preparing cash budget and determining funds needs  Influence of taxation (GST) and the way forward Micro-equity funds and Micro-takaful insurance   Day Two Module three – Essentials of halal marketing     Elements of a halal branding strategy Target markets and customer satisfaction in Islamic business  Module four – Advertisement, branding and distribution of halal products   Social image of shari'ah compliant advertising Branding of Islamic business Creating a sustainable brand value Supply chain management of halal products  Costing and profitability of the halal product    Programme fee Early bird price: RM2,500/person + GST of 6% Normal price: RM2,600/person + GST of 6% Group of three and above: RM2,200/person + GST of 6% (for more than three delegates attending from the same company/institution) The programme fee covers tuition, case materials and tea breaks.  About the programme leaders Dr Mamunur Rashid is an Assistant Professor of Finance at Nottingham University Business School Malaysia. He has been teaching and conducting training on financial management and Islamic entrepreneurship for the last ten years. His area of expertise includes financial management, financing of small firms, Islamic business, and Islamic ethics. He worked on the “Malaysian Workforce Quality” (a Malaysian Human Resource Development Ministry project) and he trained senior officials of PVH Corp., on advance computer application in business in Bangladesh. Dr Mamunur is also the Deputy Director of the Centre for Islamic Business and Finance Research (CIBFR) at the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus. He has published on Islamic finance and business, business ethics and Islamic services marketing. Dr Mamunur is a Malaysian Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF) certified trainer. Dr Dilip Mutum is an Associate Professor of Marketing at Nottingham University Business School Malaysia. Prior to this, he was attached with the Coventry Business School, Coventry University, as a Lecturer in Marketing and Advertising. He has also taught at the Warwick Business School, University of Warwick and Universiti Utara Malaysia. Before joining academia, Dilip has worked with various organisations in different capacities. This includes a short stint as a sub-editor of a magazine and as the Communications Officer for Consumers International - Asia Pacific office. Dilip has published widely in journals and books, as well as presented at national and international conferences. His research interests include digital consumption, social networking, customer relationship management, and social marketing. His Twitter profile (@admutum) has over 8000 followers.    To register, download the registration form.  For more information, contact Nottingham University Business School Malaysia Executive Education at +6(03) 8924 8303 (Ms Judy Wong; email: Judy.Wong@nottingham.edu.my) or by email NUBS.EDP@nottingham.edu.my  or visit our website at Executive Education.

Introduction to SEM using AMOS 20.0 - Workshop at University of Malaya

Just helping to create some buzz for a workshop on structural equation modelling(SEM) using AMOS 20.0. The workshop is run by Dr. Mohd Awang Idris, a Senior Lecturer in Work Psychology, Department of Anthropology and Sociology, University of Malaya and is organised by CCISUM (Communication and Cultural Innovation and Support, University of Malaya). This is part of their series of Super Sessions.

More information about the workshop:

Date: 21-22, August 2014
Time: 9:00 - 5:00pm
Venue: Computer Lab, Faculty of Science, University Malaya

Click the link below for more information:

AMOS workshop

NVIVO 10 training

Last week, I attended the basic and advanced NVIVO 10 training sessions (2.5 hours each) on the 3rd and 6th. Some of my friends were quite surprised as I am a "quantitative" guy and one even joked "You are moving to the other camp". This actually underlines the philosophical divide that exists in academia (especially in the social sciences) between the positivists and the interpretivists in particular.

My research philosophy is grounded in positivism and my PhD Thesis was based upon extensive quantitative research, using structural equation modelling. Previously, I did not have the inclination (nor the time) to learn more about the various qualitative methods (and tools like NVIVO). However, after teaching research methods and the fact that a number of my dissertation students were using qualitative methods forced me to move outside my comfort zone. There also seems to be an increasing move towards research involving mixed methods which I feel is a good development. I am really into netnography, the process and term coined by Professor Robert V. Kozinets, Professor of Marketing, Schulich School of Business, York University.

Anyway, the session were led by Dr. Laura Venn, Co-founder and Director of Research, Innovative Futures Research, a company based in Warwick. I found the two session really useful and wish I had taken them much earlier. I have used qualitative methods to analyse discussions forums on the net (paper submitted for presentation at a Conference recently) and it would have made my life much easier. I had to download hundreds of webpages and code them the old fashioned way with a lot of cut and pasting. The ability to visualize connections by generating tag clouds, tree maps and cluster analysis are what attracted me in the first place. However a new amazing feature of NVIVO 10 is that it allows you to to actually capture all the information from the discussion forums and social media including Facebook and Twitter straightaway.

Laura did provide some examples and I know the time was quite limited but I wish we had more hands on training using actual exercises. I did learn a lot but will definitely need to play around more before I am really fluent with it. Fortunately QSR (the company which owns NVIVO) offers a number of free online webminars and I am attending one tomorrow.

You can download trial copies of the software (lasts for 30 days) here: http://www.qsrinternational.com/products_nvivo_free-trial-software.aspx

Structural Equation Modelling workshop

My colleague  Dr. Sanjit Roy Kumar, will be running a Structural Equation Modelling Course. The course will run from September 4 – 6, 2013 at Coventry University, Coventry, UK.

This course is a three-day programme on structural equation modelling (SEM) using the software package AMOS. The main objective of the course is to enable participants to develop a good understanding of the SEM applications in the field of social and behavioural sciences.

Course outline

Day 1: Begin the course with an introduction  to SEM with some emphasis on the applications of Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS)

Day 2: An introduction to higher-order confirmatory factor analysis and structural path analysis

Day 3: Finally, learn how to deal with the multi-group analysis for both measurement and structural models

For more information on the course, please visit the webpage:
www.coventry.ac.uk/structuralequationmodelling

For any further inquiries, you may email Ms. Katherine McHugh at Katherine.Mchugh@coventry.ac.uk.

Online Data Protection training

Attending the mandatory online Data Protection training. This training takes about 1 hours and staff can take the training at their own convenience and unlike actual training sessions, you can pause, go and get a drink, come back and continue from where you left off. It's more like a slideshow but with tests at the end.

I guess the disadvantage is that there is no interaction and you cannot ask questions when you are not clear.

Despite this drawback, there are so many advantages besides the convenience mentioned earlier. For the organisation, I guess it is cheaper for them to organise - there is no need to hire a trainer, book a room, etc. I guess we will be getting invitations to more of such training sessions in the future.

DPR reviewee workshop

DPR AC - Reviewee workshop

DPR is the acronym for Development and Performance Review and it's something that all employees have to face in most organisations.

This workshop was Run by the Learning and Development Team of Coventry University.
On the 27th of July 2012 from 09:30 am - 12:30 pm at the TechoCentre, room: CC2.1

The session was run by Anna Chapman, HR Learning and Development Adviser.

As this is going to be my first DPR at Coventry University, I thought it might be useful to understand the key areas to consider in completing my DPR form. I have been evaluated before but I guess each organisation has it's own unique way to review the performance of their employees.

I was not disappointed and learnt that my objective would need to be SMART:

•S: Specific
•M: Measurable
•A: Achievable (and Agreed)
•R: Relevant (or Resourced, or Realistic!)
•T: Time-linked

There were some examples of not so "SMART" objectives. However, I would have liked some good examples of good objectives.

I also found out that if we get an "Outstanding" in the DPR, we get to jump 2 levels on the payscale - a really good motivation.