ISR Seminar - Organisation, Process and Function: Structuring the systems of modern business

Management

Speaker:	Simon Barnes, Nokia
Date:	Friday 9 March 2012
Time:	14.30
Location:	Matrix Lecture Theatre

Further details

Bio and Abstract Simon Barnes, MBA MSc Academically I started of studying for a Combined Study Degree at Hatfield, major in Physics with Minors in Statistics and Law. Leaving college I went into my first job as a temporary Cobol Coder at an insurance company. Here is where I started my computing career. During this period I took the British Computer Society Part 1 and Part 2 exams, which are supposed to be degree equivalent,transitioning into software development roles at Peterborough Software, writing and designing HR Systems. Moving from coding to design, I started to work as a Business Analyst consultant, mainly for local government at another software company. Through the next few years I worked for Royal Mail as a project manager running the implementation of a new General Ledger, getting my MBA from Sheffield Business School in the process. My dissertation examined the indicators and mechanisms of corporate failure, half of which was a neural network tool for predicting corporate failure from publically published statistics. After that I moved down to London and worked for DHL in a role which has become known as an Enterprise Architect. I worked all over the world, mainly in Europe but with significant time spend in Phoenix Arizona and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. For a while I was head of Architecture for Europe IS, based out of Bonn. DHL then moved my contract role to Prague and offered me redundancy. Taking the opportunity I decided to go back to school and study the brain in more detail. Over the next two years I took my MSc at the Anatomy and Physiology department of University College London. During the holidays I worked for DHL as a consultant. Since then I’ve worked again for Royal Mail as an Enterprise Architect and now at Nokia in the same role. My main interest at the moment is in the areas of designing systems such that they are flexible and cost effective. I think this can be done by treating an organisation as a virtual collection of functions that may be internal or external to the organisation. The business then focuses on those that are relevant and outsources those that are not.