Brian Bloch (BCom 1979, BCom Hons 1980, MCom 1982) (DCom, 1988, UNISA)

After completing his Honours degree at Wits, Brian started his career lecturing Economics in the same department. On receiving his doctorate on the subject of Interdepartmental Conflict, he moved to New Zealand where he taught International Business at the University of Auckland. He began learning German at Wits and continued with the language as a mixture of serious hobby and work, which prompted him to move to M?er, Germany in 1999. After a spell in the Marketing department there, Brian continued to be based at the University of M?er, but moved out of conventional academia and more into both journalism and the language-for-business area. He has written many general management articles for the National Business Review in New Zealand as well as the Daily Telegraph and the Guardian in London, and on personal finance for various magazines and newspapers in the UK and for Investopedia.com in Canada.

The general management articles often refer to German research projects that are relevant to the English speaking business world. There is much valuable work being published in foreign languages that never reaches the global English-speaking world. Brian?s aim is to make at least some of this material available to a wider audience. Articles have covered such issues as the danger of producing ?standardised? managers, customer confusion and the use of philosophy in management. A particular favourite was a piece on ?heroic failure?, about rewarding people who instigate noble projects which do not succeed.

For his financial journalism, Brian specialises in applying marketing and other management concepts to the area of investment. Accordingly, he has, for example, adapted the concept of customer confusion to the financial markets. Likewise, he has warned of the dangers of path dependency in the field of investment and considered investments in the light of conventional service characteristics. Other articles have dealt with such issues as what constitute ?suitable? investments for private investors and various other aspects of good (and bad!) investment practice. A recent paralegal piece in The Barrister (London) dealt with the use and abuse of motives and rationality in the investment process.

Over the years, Brian has translated many business articles from German to English, and a book on International Marketing. He now focuses more on a combination of linguistic and academic editing of manuscripts written in English by academics from Germany, elsewhere in Europe and as far afield as Asia. The ever-increasing need for academics to publish in English has created a large demand for people who have both a sound understanding of business theory and who understand how journal articles should be written.

In terms of language coaching and instruction, Brian has carved out a niche giving courses to doctoral students of Economics, Marketing and Psychology. He also offers an undergraduate course on Presentation and Communication, entailing a combination of English and general presentation training. In this context too, what appeals to the Germans is having a native-speaking instructor with academic experience in the management and economic fields.

In a similar vein, Brian does some consulting for German firms, again as a business and language specialist. This entails ensuring that the English in presentations, PowerPoint slides and other correspondence convey the right stuff in terms of content, structure and the Queen?s English.

Brian and his Kiwi wife, Deborah, try to make it back to Johannesburg once a year to see family, friends and of course, former colleagues from Wits.