Bill Brown

As well as being an Open University Business School tutor, since 2011, I have also been a student with The Open University Business School: gaining my MBA, having previously gained The Professional Certificate in Management and The Professional Diploma in Management. I have gained a Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice, and I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA). I have also gained my MEd: Master of Education degree. So, having experienced life as an Open University student as well as a tutor, I am well aware of the benefits and challenges involved in studying with the Open University.

I tutored on B122 An Introduction to Retail Management and Marketing since the module was first introduced in 2011. I also tutor on B100 An introduction to business and management, having also tutored on its predecessor B120. Additionally, I have tutored on B123 Management Practice - having also tutored on its predecessor B121, and I also tutor on B207 Shaping Business Opportunities and B329 Leadership in a changing world.

I agree with Henry Mintzberg (2004) when he tells us in Managers not MBA's that it is not possible to become an accomplished business manager from reading books alone. Mintzberg believed that to become a good manager, as well as gaining academic knowledge, you would also need to learn management skills and practice from hands-on experience of managing: effective managers need to be able to draw on a wide range of experiences. Similarly, a number of writers on leadership maintain that learning leadership requires experiential learning for creating effective leaders (of course one does sometimes encounter people who are both great managers and leaders!). Aligned with this theme, I am a believer in the value of maintaining a wide and comprehensive outlook in a world that increasingly tries to force us into ever-narrowing specialisms, See: Range by David Epstein. I've found that my own hands-on management experience provides an invaluable context in developing my thoughts on management thinking and evolution.

During a varied career in business, I have gained extensive business management experience in both the retail and food-service sectors, having directed and managed operations for a number of major retailers, including: M&S, Pret a Manger, Roadchef, British Shoe Corporation and Woolworths. Primarily, though, my career has majored on operating as a retail entrepreneur: creating and developing innovative new businesses. I have created over a dozen new start-up retail businesses, some being omni-channel operations. My start-ups include franchised retail-format operations including Hallmark Cards, Benetton and Delifrance brands. I have also created my own independent retail brands including: Rumples Hamburgers, a Fast Food operation and Armorica: an omni-channel retailer of premium cookware and kitchen electrical products.