LondonMet and Cuba
Prof. Chris Branford-White (left) with staff at the Cuban Centre for Plant and Animal Health shortly after signing the agreement. The statement behind them, written by Fidel Castro reads: "The future of our homeland is necessarily going to be one of people of science."
There is more information on the London Met website:
Here we report on the activities on the island of other departments.
Cuba science link could be world beater
3 March, 2009:A LondonMet research institute has formed an alliance with one Cuba’s leading biomedical research bodies to create a Centre of Excellence aimed at producing world beating medicines and products for animal health.
The project could earn millions of pounds in royalties for both institutions if successful, but more importantly result in ground-breaking and innovative products that will improve animal health and farming output worldwide.
The agreement signed in December,2008, by Professor Christopher Branford-White head of Londonmet’s Institute for Health Research and Policy (IHRP) and Cuba’s Centro Nacional de Sanidad Agropecuaria (CENSA -national centre for plant and animal health) plans to do active research into animal health, crop rotation, crop protection, food products and biotechnology using natural products and patents uniquely developed in Cuba.
The plan will see a multidisciplinary team of some 80 postdoctoral researchers and more than 40 other masters, PhD students and technicians working on developing and testing products that will be brought to market under a shared patent agreement.
CENSA, has already established the laboratory and postgraduate areas where the work will take place.
Says project leaders Professors Branford-White and Ondina Leon (Deputy Director/CENSA): "CENSA has a number of ground-breaking products that with LondonMet’s help will be able to be marketed in the UK and Western Europe. The idea is to put Cuban science and our marketing know-how together in order to synergise solutions that will benefit not only the University and CENSA but the entire world community."
Studying obesity in Cuba
In September 2008, Dr Pedro Ordúñez, Director of the University Hospital Cienfuegos and Associate Professor at the National School of Public Health in Havana, visited the university for meetings including at the Nutrition Policy Unit and the International Institute for the Study of Cuba, to organise future co-operation.
He is the author of recent papers on the decline of obesity and the improvement in mortality rates in Cuba following food rationing during the Special Period.
See the Obesity section of the Nutrition Policy Unit Website for details.
The WOW factor! Tourism Master Class Workshops courtesy of London Met Business School
London Metropolitan Business School (LMBS) was commissioned by the Cuban Ministry of Tourism (Mintiur) , to orgnaise two masterclasses in tourism and hospitality in two venues, Havana and Varadero in June 2007.
The workshops were specifically to identify, analyse and evaluate the needs of the UK visitor in Cuba. The UK market has developed in the last 5 years from 7th to 2nd position in visitor statistics.
The team was led by Pat Wood, Academic Leader LMBS with Diana Luck, PhD and Gregory Tugendhat a master’s student, all with a substantial operational and managerial background in the Hospitality, Leisure, Travel and Tourism industry.
The delegates were selected by Formatur and represented a cross section of hotels, restaurants and Hospitality and Tourism lecturers, age groups and backgrounds.
The master classes were devised in close partnership with Mintur and Formatur the Cuban tourism taff training agency. This was a pilot and the first international programme that had been delivered by an external international consultancy so substantial planning was essential to ensure that delivery and content produced effective outcomes.
English and Spanish were the delivery languages. An introductory questionnaire elicited the backgrounds and interests of the participants. An evaluation questionnaire encouraged feedback to build the product. Finally action plans were designed by small teams for implementation back in the work environment which are being followed up by the master class leader and the results of the best practice to be followed up by Mintur to be built into the tourism strategy.
Final detailed reports were delivered in debriefing sessions to the ministries. Professional and impressive certificates, designed by the Formatur IT dept, were presented in ceremonial rounds of applause.
The participants were really excellent in their contribution and a real pleasure to be with. By the time we reached Varadero the news of the programme had spread and w were shocked to discover double the number of participants. So as the Cubans are masters of emergency planning we had some quick thinking to do to reassess our teaching and learning methods to accommodate this large group.
Feedback revealed they wanted more……
The WOW factor What we encouraged was the WOW factor, less imitation of perceived ‘international’ bland menus and more invention using local, seasonal ingredients. So if an ingredient is missing from a traditionally recognised dish devise a new name and coin a new local creation. London does it all the time….An example of this is baked Alaska, very prominent in UK in the 60’s with a recent fashionable resurgence along with prawn cocktail et al……We were served baked Alaska minus the flaming meringue and two items there is no shortage of in Cuba are eggs and sugar…and a central part of the baked Alaska dish to give that all important WOW factor
Action Plans SMART no/lo cost objectives Small groups, using the buddy system, devised action plans that were encouraged to use SMART objectives and add value to individual outlets in a no/lo cost framework.
SMART objectives
1. Specific - Objectives should specify what they want to achieve.
3. Achievable - Are the objectives you set, achievable and attainable?
4. Realistic - Can you realistically achieve the objectives with the resources you have?
5. Time - When do you want to achieve the set objectives?
Three clear areas for action were defined using the KIS (Keep it simple) and WOW principles
1. Food
Local, seasonal, fresh, flavours, simple cooking and presentation methods
Use the WOW factor - Add the sparkle by attention to detail, sparkling table settings, buffet food labelling
3. Diversity
Daily décor change with emphasis on fresh, live designs - swop dried flower displays for fresh displays of local fruits and vegetables.Three examples of action plans
The Forager concept
Think Global - Go Local,
Seasonal and fresh
The WOW factor
What we discovered was the plethora of wonderful fruits and vegetables. In the case of Cuba everything was massive and absolutely delicious. Too often the hotels neglect to serve the wonderful local commodities. Why because of the problem connected to consistent supply and demand so we introduced the ‘forager concept’ whereby the chef and local farmer consult the day before on what is available and devise local, limited, fresh menus to reflect local products thereby saving money on imported foods, delighting the UK visitor and incorporating the whole community in the tourism cycle - a win-win.
Conclusion
