The Qualities of a Good Friend

https://www.wittenborg.eu/student-column-how-win-true-friends.htm

Humans are social creatures and are always in need of friends and companions.  A major part of our lives is spent in academic, business, or social interaction with others.  Befriending the right persons in our lives is a necessity which cannot be carelessly ignored. True friends are the most favourable gain in anyone’s life.  They adorn your life, support you in your misfortune and help you in acquiring good deeds.  Not having friends is like being a stranger in your own land.  One who doesn’t have any friends will not have anyone to commiserate with him or her in times of need.

A good friend and companion is one of the greatest gifts that a person could have.  However, choosing the right friends is equally important.  It is an undeniable fact that we are easily influenced by the friends that surround us.  We take on their mannerisms, values and qualities without realising it.  If those qualities are good, then it will benefit us, but if those are bad qualities, then it will only lead to our downfall and misery.  The analogy of a good friend is like that of one who sells perfume and the blacksmith.  From the first, you would either buy the perfume or enjoy its good smell, while from the blacksmith you would either get engulfed in smoke or smell a bad scent.

A true friend is one who accepts your shortcomings and at the same time guides and supports you.  He or she accommodates and tolerates your flaws but corrects them where possible.  A true friend seeks excuses for you when you make mistakes, whilst the hypocrite seeks out your faults.  Avoid those hypocrites as best as you can, even if they possess wealth, fame and glory.

Why Some Companies Outperform Others - Research from Wittenborg Lecturer

https://www.wittenborg.eu/wittenborg-lecturers-article-selected-2019-emerald-literati-award.htm

Wittenborg lecturer, Dr André de Waal, has published 25 books and hundreds of articles on the subject of why some organisations outperform others for a sustained period of time. One of his scholarly articles was recently selected as Highly Commended Article in the 2019 Emerald Literati Awards.

The article - “Success factors of High Performance Organization Transformations” - was published at the end of last year in the quarterly academic journal Measuring Business Excellence.

De Waal, who is academic director of the High Performance Organization (HPO), will lecture modules in Wittenborg's Master in Business Management programme when the new academic year commences at the end of August. De Waal is considered an expert in the field and has been studying the reasons why some organisations outperform others for years.

De Waal's research set out to answer the question: What are the main factors which theoretically and in practice best support a successful High Performance Organisation (HPO) transformation?

In short, he looks at the factors important for a successful large-scale transformation, as found in the literature available to him. This is compared with the success factors found in practice at companies. There is a brief intersection on the HPO Framework, focused on to identify transformation success factors at companies. 

People at 1,300 Organisations Worldwide Surveyed

Growing Interest from Dutch Companies in International Students

https://www.wittenborg.eu/hiring-english-speaking-students-no-problem-5-star-hotel.htm

When the owner of the 5-star De Echoput Hotel & Restaurant, Karel Klosse, hired a Ukranian student from Wittenborg University of Applied Sciences to act as host in his Apeldoorn facility, he had no problem with the fact that his new employee spoke no Dutch.

"Eyebrows were raised when I proposed it to my team. An English-speaking host? But he was very presentable and I thought, why not? Luckily it worked out well," Klosse explains. The student in question was Ilia Kupris, who this summer at the age of 19 became Wittenborg's youngest graduate ever. Kupris has in the meantime been offered a position as junior manager at De Echoput, starting 1 September.  

According to Wittenborg's Head of the School of Education and senior lecturer, Bert Meeuwsen (MBA Med), there is a growing interest from Dutch companies in students from abroad. "They have something extra in their competence set in that they have already shown great determination by choosing to study in a foreign country. For companies who trade with China, employing our Chinese students is very attractive - not only do they understand Chinese culture, but also the Western way of doing business."

While it is common for the hospitality sector in big Dutch cities like Amsterdam to hire Englis-speaking staff, it has not really caught on in smaller towns, making Klosse's decision all the more remarkable.  

Financial Services Sector at a Crossroad, Wittenborg Lecturer's Research Shows

https://www.wittenborg.eu/wittenborg-lecturer-presents-paper-cambridge-university.htm

Wittenborg lecturer, Dr Muhammad Ashfaq, was recently at Cambridge University in the UK, where he participated in the Gulf Research Meeting Conference. As one of the participants he presented a research paper on “Knowledge, Attitude and Perceptions of Financial Industry Employees Toward AI in the GCC (Gulf) Region”.  

Ashfaq said the financial services industry worldwide is at a crossroads due to successive waves of innovation from mainframes, databases, desktop, and personal computing, business software, big data, the Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). His paper highlights the knowledge, attitude and perceptions of professionals working in the financial services industry in various countries in the GCC region.  

"Many start-ups such as Financial Technology (FinTechs) providers are challenging the traditional banking system by offering faster services without compromising on compliance and risk. By the end of 2017, almost US$2 trillion worth of the total assets were held by the GCC financial institutions. However, financial institutions in the GCC region are taking a hit as costs rise and income drops. Recent unprecedented developments in big data, virtual reality, e-commerce, machine learning, and AI, offer enormous business opportunities to financial institutions.   

"I developed an online and paper-based quantitative questionnaire to obtain the responses of 157 professionals from six GCC countries. Descriptive and inferential statistical methods used to analyse the data using SPSS. The nature of this study is empirical.  

"No One Should Add Sugar to their Coffee"

https://www.wittenborg.eu/student-column-how-win-true-friends.htm

Wittenborg graduate Ilya Kupris chose such an interesting topic for his graduation assignment that the results of his research have been picked up by a regional Dutch newspaper, de Stentor.  Kupris (20) looked at how the so-called "third wave of coffee" has impacted Apeldoorn. Naturally, this meant visiting several coffee houses in the city, interviewing baristas as well as owners and drinking a whole lot of coffee.  

The third wave of coffee is a movement to produce high-quality coffee. It considers coffee an artisanal food, like wine, rather than a commodity. This involves improvements at all stages of production, from improving coffee plant growing, harvesting, and processing, to stronger relationships between coffee growers, traders, and roasters, to higher quality and fresh roasting, at times called "microroasting" (by analogy with microbrew beer), to skilled brewing.

Kupris, from Ukraine, also carries the distinction that at 19 he was the youngest graduate ever at Wittenborg University of Applied Sciences. He graduated with an IBA in Hospitality Management and received his diploma on 12 July.

As a big coffee fan, Kurpis says he was happy to discover that the Dutch typically start their day with coffee. What impressed him less was that most people seem to get their coffee from an automated machine. "That's a shame since most of the taste and quality get lost."

Be Patient when Confronted with Affliction and Trial

https://www.wittenborg.eu/student-column-when-problems-become-blessings-disguise.htm

Conquering problems in life and solving complicated issues is never easy, but they are inevitable.  No matter how much we try to avoid problems or make our lives uncomplicated, problems never fail to knock on our doors.  A few take the easy way to eliminate these problems from their lives, legally or illegally, ethically or unethically, while the rest of us learn how to cope with the problem looming over us.  It is tough to eliminate completely the issues that bedevil our lives.   

The majority of our trials and tribulations in life remain unresolved, no matter how diligently we try to work on them or avoid them.  Some of us go through many years of therapy or watch or listen to motivational videos and speeches or buy self-help books, but still the problem remains unresolved or it keeps coming back. What happens then is that normally the situation improves, or the issue doesn’t bother us anymore or we learn how to live with it.  But the best thing is that, always, always, we realise that the problem we thought was a problem actually becomes a blessing to us, in certain ways.

Chinese and Indian Students in Particular Called

https://www.wittenborg.eu/new-scam-targets-international-students.htm

The Dutch Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) has warned international students against a new scam whereby they are called and either asked to provide private information like bank details. or threatened outright into transferring money. Even Wittenborg CEO, Maggie Feng, who is of Chinese origin, was targeted recently.

According to Wittenborg's chair of the executive board, Peter Birdsall, Feng received a call on a Saturday. "She was called by someone on her mobile phone who identified himself as someone from the Chinese embassy calling to tell her an important document was expiring and that she should provide him with information. Of course Maggie was immediately suspicious, as the embassy would never work like that. She eventually hung up," Birdsall said.

In its newsletter from 29 July, the IND warned that for some time now there have been indications of possible telephonic scams whereby foreigners (mostly of east Indian origin) are called and put under pressure or threatened to transfer money to avoid being kicked out of the country.  

More recently, there have been indications of similar scams targeting Chinese students in the Netherlands. Apparently, they are contacted by people pretending to call from the Chinese embassy whereby they are asked to provide personal and bank details.  

The IND has asked institutions to warn their students against this type of fraudulent practice. "Advise them to never divulge this kind of sensitive information." If students fall prey they or the school are advised to press charges with the police.  

WUP 10/8/2019
by Anesca Smith 
©Wittenborg University Press

Related Content

https://www.wittenborg.eu/high-praise-wittenborgs-double-degree-programme-its-amsterdam-students.htm

Students from Wittenborg 's Amsterdam Campus who also graduated from Wittenborg's partner institute in the UK, the University of Brighton, had high praise for the BSc (Hons) in Business they have just completed during the graduation ceremony. 

The study trajectory combines Wittenborg’s final year programme IBA Entrepreneurship & Small Business (BBA) with the BSc (Hons) in Business programme of the University of Brighton -  which means students graduates with a double degree from both institutions. 

Of the 13 students who successfully completed the programme offered at Wittenborg's Amsterdam campus, 8 attended Brighton's 2019 Summer Graduation Ceremony. According to Wittenborg's University of Brighton Programme Coordinator, Myra Qiu, the Wittenborg graduates were highly complimentary of the double-degree programme. 

"They said it was an unforgettable memory to experience teaching methods from both the Netherlands and the UK as well as the two graduation ceremonies. Last year we had the first group of graduates from Wittenborg's Amsterdam Campus and in the coming academic year there will be a group of 18 students joining the top-up double-degree programme, offered only in Amsterdam. It comes highly recommended by our graduates. Brighton lecturers also enjoy teaching at Wittenborg's Amsterdam location very much."

10 Wittenborg Students Graduated at Brighton Ceremony

https://www.wittenborg.eu/wittenborg-students-elation-awards-ceremony-brighton-uk.htm

There was a wonderful feeling of hope and elation in the air when 10 students from Wittenborg University of Applied Sciences graduated along with about 3,000 others from the University of Brighton, UK, last weekend. Brighton is Wittenborg's main education partner, offering joint bachelor's and master's programmes to Wittenborg students. All-in-all 18 Wittenborg students graduated from Brighton this semester, but only 8 managed to attend the ceremony.

The group consisted of graduates from both Wittenborg's Amsterdam and Apeldoorn campuses. They are Nadia Zaman (MSc in Event Management), Nathaniel Ukachukwu (HBA) and 8 BSc top-up double-degree students from Amsterdam - Rosemarijn van Reenen, Brisi Dimova, Olivia Kawuma, Nichola Addo, Andrii Chaban, Angelica Shamsurova, Nahla Hmeidi and Abdoul Mounirou Ouedraogo. 

The group was supported by Wittenborg's Head of the School of Hospitality and Tourism, Esther Gitonga, and Myra Qiu, University of Brighton Programme Coordinator. The graduation ceremony was led by Brighton's Vice Chancellor, Professor Debra Humphris. She said: “I am incredibly proud of all of our students, proud of the diversity of nationalities that make up our institution and proud of our role in developing the much-needed professionals, innovators, and leaders of the future. I wish each and every student success in their chosen careers.”

Nathaniel was one of the students whose family came from afar to support him on his special day in the UK. In an emotional Facebook post he thanked them for their support, and said:  "Thank God for giving me the courage to confront my fears and conquer all the challenges."

There is no Better Time to Learn a New Skill than the Present

https://www.wittenborg.eu/why-not-use-summer-upskill.htm

Summer’s finally here!  After all those exams, research papers and group projects, it’s finally time for a well-deserved, long break.  I’m sure you have already made plans to fill up your time during this vacation.  That’s great.  Have some sun and fun travelling to interesting places and doing your favourite things.  You owe it to your body and mind to let your hair down, relax and be happy.

In the midst of all those activities, why not take up some useful hobbies?  Now is the perfect time for you to expand your horizons and learn something new.  I know, for most of us, one of our hobbies is watching movies or playing computer games.  But why not do something different? Something more enriching and beneficial that can boost your portfolio and expand the list of competencies in your curriculum vitae.  

Having hobbies is important because it brings us pleasure and enhances our lives.  It not only allows us to acquire new skills, but also opens up doors to other opportunities.  The world around us is abundant with wonderful and exhilarating activities that we can explore and be zealous about.  I can’t stress enough the importance of having hobbies.  The benefits are manifold, not only psychologically, but also emotionally, intellectually, physically, and physiologically.  Hobbies improve your knowledge, confidence and social life, help to relieve stress, teach patience and discipline, and help to prevent you from engaging in unhealthy activities like binge drinking/eating or excessive partying.   Not sure where to start?  Let’s look at some categories of hobbies that you can try out:

Upskill with New Technical Hobbies