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Business dealings with China are on the increase. As a result, more and more organisations and business people are realising the need of doing more than just adhering to the rules of Chinese etiquette (such as presenting business cards with both hands) or the ‘dos and don'ts’ (such not opening gifts in front of your hosts) to have successful business meetings. What is needed is the understanding of the much broader context of Chinese culture and values that permeate Chinese business contexts so as to engage in enduring business relationships.

Following current environmental trends, sustainability has become a prominent social concern for businesses, but how does this translate to the strategies of large corporations?

How do emotions affect financial decisions? Is their impact always bad, or are emotions an important part of making good financial decisions? Can a better understanding of emotion help us avert future financial crises? These are some of the questions being asked by the xDelia project: a European Commission funded research programme being conducted by The Open University and other partners. The project is using leading edge physiological sensors and computer game technologies to explore the impact of emotions on financial decision-making and to develop new approaches to learning, which can support effective choices. In this podcast Professor Mark Fenton-O'Creevy of The Open University Business School looks at the work of this research programme and explores the ways in which emotions affect how we all (from investment bankers to the wider public) think and decide about money.

xDelia is funded by the European Commission under the 7th Framework Programme.

Is creativity a mind-set or can it be developed? How much influence does organisational culture have on creativity in the workplace? And is there space for innovation within all business environments?
Managing a successful business is never simple, especially when it’s necessary to navigate a company through a changing landscape. Featuring a series of interviews on topics such as flexible working, the role of leadership and creating under constraint, this collection also takes a closer look at fear, bias and intuition and the role they play on shaping creative environments. It examines approaches used by both private and public sectors and gives an insight into how they use different aspects of creativity to run their organisations. Martin Miller of independent music label Beggars Banquet talks about managing change, while NHS Chief Exec Samantha Jones talks about managing creativity when faced with the pressures of running NHS trust. Also featuring contributions from Microsoft, Cloud Reach, Morgan Lovell, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, and Milton Keynes Dons football manager, Karl Robinson.

Do you have business acumen just waiting to be tapped? Find resources below to develop your communication and strategic skills, maybe even an apprenticeship to begin your career in business.

Explore how to use data to inform a change you would like to make within your business or organisational context. It looks at the type of evidence you can gather to inform your proposed change, and how to evaluate data
with a view to using it as part of this transformation. Specifically, you will learn about internal and external sources of secondary information and how to evaluate them. You will also examine how to negotiate access to different types of information
in a work context. Finally, you will obtain hands on experience in collecting and using secondary sources of information in the context of researching and making this organisational change.

We're going through a period where trust in leadership is at an all time low. Does science have any advice for those who would be out in front?

During a research project into Black students’ experiences on a peer mentoring scheme, we interviewed four first-year students. During these interviews, they talked broadly about the challenges they faced in balancing their lives and their study at The Open University.