Newcastle University

On Wednesday 26th May World Champion, Multiple World Record Holder and Olympic Silver Medalist Steve Cram came to the Business School to share some of his experience and insights into how the lessons learnt from his discipline of being a world class athlete are transferable to skills needed in the ever changing world of business.

There were over 65 attendees at the event and everyone commented on what a great insight Steve gave to international sport and the discipline involved in the achievement of world class athlete status. There were many synergies between the world of sport and the world of Business. In particular Steve explained that truly successful people work hard for what they have achieved but they do put steps in place to achieve their goals and aspirations. ‘You won’t come across someone who hasn't worked extremely hard and who hasn't put logical, achievable steps in place to achieve their dreams’ said Steve, a point the audience whole heartedly identified with.

Steve’s talk included a hard hitting visual aid of a DVD clip, which the audience found extremely hard to watch. The point of the DVD was to highlight that to reach your goals you have to be dedicated, motivated and determined to achieve them no matter what the odds. A series of groans and winces from the audience followed but when you watch the clip (as posted on you tube) you will see why: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTn1v5TGK_w

One attendee on the evening was Suzanne Cowan who is a Newcastle Univeristy Business School Executive MBA graduate who commented: “It was so interesting to hear from Steve who is someone who has developed his career in such an exciting way. What Steve spoke about was relevant and transferable to the workplace and business issues of today. I know that I took a lot away from this event and I wanted to congratulate and thank the North East Alumni Branch in organising such a great event”.

This event was brought to the Business School and organised by the North East Alumni Branch of the Business School. This committee made up of Business School graduates is specifically interested in hosting events and workshops for the benefit of all North East based Business School graduates and forms part of a series of events aimed at this audience annually.

Carsten Staehr the Branches Chairman said: “Bringing Steve into the Business School was just one part of our commitment to our School and its graduates in delivering an opportunity to hear from such a world class athlete and speaker. We hope all of our graduates felt the benefits of attending and we look forward to welcoming them back soon. Our next major event coming up in October will be bringing a notable speaker all the way from Russia. I don't want to say too much but let’s just say our guest has been recognised by Microsoft as a leading speaker!"

Tristan Alltimes, Alumni Relations Manager for the Business School said: “The work of the North East Alumni Branch this year, in collaboration with the Business School, has been really progressive and is a real testament to hard work of the Branch in increasing the quality and quantity of opportunities for all of the Schools regionally based graduates to network and continually develop professionally. 2010 to date has been a great year for the branch and the School and we look forward to continuing and developing our relationship over the coming years”.

The Branch has been working hard to improve its offering for graduates and this event featuring Steve Cram is a fantastic development in the School’s events calendar. This special evening was also to help raise awareness and funds for the Charity Coco, which Steve founded in 1998. Watch out for future branch events where they will continue to bring top class, engaging speakers and also continue to organise their regular social meetings – the next one on the 17th June 2010 at As you Like It Jesmond.

If you're a Business School graduate please sign up by completing our BOOKING FORM if you would like to come.

Specific thanks go to Steve Cram for his impressive and engaging talk, the North East Alumni Branch Committee for their continued hard work in bringing Business School graduates back together to improve networking and professional development opportunities on behalf of the Business School and indeed the support of our range of corporate partners for this event of which the funds and support they provided went directly to Coco, a fantastic £2500 all for a very special cause! Many thanks go to:

Links

Watch the Youtube video of the Ironman Triathalon

Look at our photos on Flickr of this event

Update your Contact Details
(For graduates of Newcastle University Business School or Newcastle University graduates)

Read about COCO, the charity Steve co-founded.