Who is Bob van den Brand? Bob van den Brand is a teacher and researcher, part-time at the University of Tilburg and part-time at the TIAS School for Business and Society. I combine these two and I especially have fun in teaching people and learn them new things. I like teaching stuff that people find very difficult for example mathematics, accounting and bookkeeping. The aim of this is to bring these lessons in a funny way so that people will remember it later and that they also have something that they can use. Further, I live in southern Netherlands, Brabant, I am married and I have three children. What did you study and how does your career look like? After high school I studied teacher training at Fontys in Business Economics and Economics, which lasted for 4.5 years. Then I studied Economics here at the University of Tilburg, at first I thought overall economy was very fun, but during the study I found accounting and external reporting more interesting. After my graduation, I started at the University of Tilburg. Here they sought people who could give a good education and the dean had taken a good look at my resume and then approached me. I mostly taught accounting in bachelor years 2 and 3. Later on, other things came on my path, such as business courses for all different companies. Then, I also did research for being promoted here in Tilburg; my research was about financial reporting in the Netherlands and Belgium. After that I started teaching in Rotterdam, RSM, I have worked 7 years, at the accounting department. I set up and decorated it. When I was asked by Jan Bouwens to come back to Tilburg, at that moment the accounting course had a very bad name. I had the honor to address this. The success rate was between 20 and 30 percent. I then started with the E-learning. Later, in Tilburg I did about everything from bachelor’s to master. In Tias, I am particularly concerned with online learning. You have to imagine that you enter at a business school to learn, but everyone there has a totally different background. Trying to use all kinds of fun interactive social media design you bring in those people custom knowledge. It’s a very international school, which also makes it great fun. Why did you ever choose accounting? The teacher program gave the same amount of all subjects, micro, macro, marketing, finance, accounting and organization. Just like here at the university at the beginning of your bachelor’s degree in Business actually. I found consolidating and everything what is related to it and the laws and regulations surrounding very interesting. That is why I thought accounting was something for me. The topics just appealed to me, I did something with it. I also see it in my family; so much is also a bit towards accountancy. That would have influenced me stuck in my choice of accounting. At that time there was also a lot of work in the accounting industry, I have a job in accounting and external reporting. Perhaps, it influenced my choice, but most of all I had just fun in accounting! What does your typical week look like? There are colleges, lectures and seminars. They are scheduled in the beginning of the week, I teach financial accounting and bookkeeping. I am very busy with it. That is actually the first half of the week. Second half of the week, I do my tasks as Chair of the Examination Board at TIAS and I run a big starter module there. Furthermore I am also very busy with making weblectures; I do this both for Tilburg University as well for Tias. I especially like to make funny weblectures and that preparation takes really a huge amount of time! When I record one day, I need three days to prepare. It takes a while before you really have a nice product. If you record an hour, you have only ten minutes of good film. Often I want to create a nice background, or with a football shirt or a Burberry bag or something. I try to dress it in an attractive way and that takes time, but makes it more engaging. Accounting topics are not only about sports and football, there is also fashion included. What is the i-STAR method and why did you start this program? We started i-STAR because we only had 7 lectures and the students needed more time to understand the course. The students were motivated but we wanted to activate them as well. Therefore, in 2008 we started to make digital lectures which we call interactive weblectures. We record or broadcast the weblectures live so students can respond immediately. The S represents the Snippet Practice. This includes exercises which we try to make in a fun way. Trying Tests and Bonus Tests, do you understand the information which was discussed in class. Ask Questions, several times during the semester where you can ask questions. 60 to 70% of the registered students watch these weblectures. Results, after the examination the exam will be discussed again live. 40 to 60% of the students attend these weblectures and afterwards they are viewed more often. The weblectures consists of two parts, the part where I explain the question and the part which has a poll to rate the question. Furthermore, we want to implement more gaming activity in I-Star. For instance, if your answer is wrong, we will lead you through other questions so you will understand it eventually. This will lead to more gamification. In addition, we would like to have more open educational resources. So everything is available everywhere, for example via YouTube. How do you see the future of i-STAR? Because everything is free available at the moment, I believe that one will invent a business model for online education. I support online education but combined with traditional education. We call this combination Blended. In the beginning
‘Just Graduated’ Bastiaan van de Laar
My name is Bastiaan van de Laar and I graduated from Tilburg University with a Masters degree in Accountancy last June. After completing the Bachelor’s track of Business Economics and the master’s track in Accountancy, I now work as an auditor for one of the Big 4 accountancy firms that lead the worldwide accountancy industry. I now follow the Post-Master Accountancy course at Tilburg University in order to obtain a CPA-degree within a few years. Working in the accountancy business provides great opportunities to work for companies from various industries with a great variety of people at a great variety of locations. Since every company simply needs an accountant, you are able to visit companies from all industries in the world and to have a very close look at the financial situation of a great number of companies. Big or small, listed or unlisted, domestic-based or foreign-based companies: the demand for accountants is huge. For me, one of the advantages of working in this sector is that I have the opportunity to work in many different countries, amongst which some of the so-called ‘Emerging Market’-countries. For one of my major clients, I currently spend a lot of time working in Singapore. Singapore is known as one of the fastest growing emerging industries, amongst other South-East Asian countries like China, Indonesia, India, and Malaysia. Many American and European multinationals outsource substantial elements of their operational processes to these emerging countries, where human resources are available in large quantities and where operational processes can be performed in a relatively efficient way. Especially for Western European countries, a clear trend can be noticed; many of the operational elements of the production processes are relocated to countries with Emerging Markets, while the organizational hearts of the companies remain located in Western Europe. Directing and monitoring business activities in countries with Emerging Markets happens more and more easily and efficiently due to online technologies and company-wide targets and guidelines. However, it can be quite a challenge to work with or provide work instructions to co-workers from different cultures and with different backgrounds. As you might understand, it is hard to find a typical Dutch lunch break-conversation at the vending machines in Singapore; hierarchical structures are very important in many of the Emerging Market countries, so mouth-to-mouth communication takes place on a very different level and even written (email) communication is often used and interpreted in different ways. One of the typical aspects of companies in Emerging Market countries like Singapore, is that a crystal clear hierarchical separation exists between blue-collar operational employees on the one hand and white-collar financial and managerial staff on the other hand. Whereas Dutch organizations usually encourage a lot of vertical communication between the implemented management levels, the situation is different in countries like Singapore. Within all management levels, hierarchy and respect for people with higher functions are regarded as very important ethical values. Talking to your boss in an informal way – like you would do in the Netherlands – is not much of a much prevailing matter in Singapore. Inherent to this is a no-nonsense mindset of hard work and striving for results, which is generally wide-spread across organizations in Emerging Market countries. Typical for the situation in Emerging Market countries is the street view on Singapore’s main nightlife and shopping avenue, Orchard Road. While the local taxi drivers work 14-hour shifts with far below-average hourly salary rates, they transport the thousands of wealthy tourists and business visitors to the never-ending row of expensive Gucci, Rolex, and Armani designer stores. Although the cultural differences are unmistakably there, working with colleagues and clients from Emerging Market countries can also be a great pleasure. It is both challenging and informative to enter a work environment that is driven by different rules and values. Working in the accountancy or financial service industry can give you this great opportunity to work in different settings all over the world and understanding what emerging markets are really all about.