Strategy in Today's Complex Global Market Event
- Time:
- 18:00 - 20:00
- Date:
- 15 March 2011
- Venue:
- School of Management Executive Education Centre (Building 58a), Highfield Campus, Southampton
For more information regarding this event, please telephone Tarsha Jonas on 023 8059 9340 or email busdev@soton.ac.uk .
Event details
Karen Paterson will be looking at competitive strategy, comparing a range of approaches and how these apply to businesses in a world recovering from financial crisis world and faced with rapid technological change and the emergence of new and disruptive technologies.
She will consider how this context can drive organisations to consider either vertical or horizontal integration as approaches to deal with such a volatile context. In doing this Karen will examine a specific case examining how such integration has been applied to the supply chain industry and how it can apply to other businesses including those in the IT sector.
Finally she will explore the commercial aspects of "buy and build" or "build and buy" strategies as means of responding to a changing context and how the options are dependent on the market conditions facing each business.
Speaker information
Karen Paterson,Described by Real Business Magazine as a ‘Mover. Shaker. Innovator’; Ms Paterson is considered to be a smart, brave and ambitious entrepreneur who is creating the industries of Britain’s future. Karen began her career in retail banking and then moved to BDO running a financial services and corporate finance department. In 1996 she set up Patersons, which she grew to a $14.6m turnover company trading in 5 countries worldwide. She designed and developed the first true international payroll multi tenant SaaS application. She is an associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers (ACIB), an Associate of the Taxation Technician Institute (ATT), has a post graduate diploma in business administration and an MBA from Southampton University. She is currently studying for a Doctorate in Business Administration at Southampton University. Since the beginning her business has been recognised for its innovation and has gone on to be widely commended by the industry. In 2009 the CBI Growing Business Awards saw her pick up the coveted award for Entrepreneur of the Year and her company the award for Global Outlook and Expansion. In 2010 she won the Fast Growth Business Award for Entrepreneur of the Year, and the company won International Business of the Year and the T-Mobile Fast Growth Business of the Year Award. The US Stevie Awards for Women in Business named Ms. Paterson Best European Entrepreneur, and the company’s Click4HR offering was a finalist in Best New Product of the Year. Karen was also a finalist in the European Women of Achievement awards in 2002. Ms. Paterson was recently named an HRO Superstar by HRO Today for both 2009 and 2010 and was nominated in the Payroll World top 50 people in payroll. Securing Virgin Interactive Entertainment as her first client, the company’s HR Director posed the challenge of designing and implementing an international payroll system, she seized the opportunity and started on the journey to what is today known as Patersons HR and Payroll Solutions. Free from legacy computing baggage, Paterson designed a system meant specifically for the internet from the start. Her technology and business acumen served her well and – despite tremendous odds and being up against large competitors – she has been the driving force behind the company’s global expansion. Karen has also been at the forefront of the development of an online community that is considered the “one stop shop” for international HR and finance executives around the world. Ms. Paterson is widely recognised as an industry thought leader and pioneer. She regularly shares her fresh perspectives as a radio guest and presenter at major business conferences, encouraging her peers to strive for success and look for opportunity during the turbulent economic times.