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Society is considered as a large system and, therefore, the inevitable planning of its development as a whole must be such that the focus is on the interaction: nature — man — society. The following topics will be discussed: The participation and coordination of natural and social sciences in the formation of the future of the human society, in general, and of various given social systems in particular; the most important reasons favouring the systems approach to socio‐economic planning; the consideration of the whole planning — action feedback cycle, i.e. the simultaneous planning of both large wholes and their parts alongside the continuous coordination of interests and goals at various levels of management in the economy as well as in the whole society (the so‐called convergence planning); three levels of the development plan of any economic system (the technical, the economic and the social plan of development and their unity. Technical, economic and social proportions in the process of development); the relationship of development policy planning and the technology of planning (development policy planning as a general social activity. Optimality of the planning system).

The purpose of this paper is to present a personal view of Professor John Rose. The organisational skill of the late Professor John Rose is illustrated by reminiscences, and his choice of Thales Press as the name of his publishing house is shown to be apposite. An aspect of his “statement of mission” for World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics and Kybernetes is considered in detail.

The presentation is partly anecdotal but also serious concerns are expressed about current developments in cybernetics.

The drive and organisational skill of John Rose will be sadly missed.

Rose's insistence on soundness of approach is important though arguably slightly misdirected. Attention is drawn to an important development in psychophysics of vision.

The reminiscences and views are the author's own.

The education services sector faces ever-changing global market dynamics with creative disruptions. Building knowledge brands can push the higher education sector beyond its geographical boundaries into the global arena. This study aims to identify key constructs, their theoretical background and dimensions that aid in building a global knowledge brand. The authors' research focuses on adapting and validating scales for global knowledge and education services brands from well-established academic literature.

The authors have adopted a mixed methodology approach and a systematic literature review. Authors interviewed 18 subject matter experts as part of content and face validity to arrive at select constructs, dimensions and items. Quantitative methods with random sampling were adopted as the primary methodology. Initially, the survey was administered to 390 students to test preliminary results. The survey was also administered to 5,112 students at a later part of this study. Valid responses stood at 3,244 with a 63% response rate. Further, the authors conducted confirmatory factor analysis, exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modeling to test the reliability and validity of scales. This study analyzed composite reliability, convergent validity and discriminant validity to finalize items for scales. The authors also validated the hypotheses based on the discriminant validity assessment scores.

Authors' key research findings are that academic stimulus, campus infrastructure and student intent play a significant role in campus culture and events design and experience at campus. Authors were able to bring out 16 key constructs and 55 critical dimensions vital to global education services brand building. This study also adapted and validated 99 items that meet construct validity and composite reliability criteria. This study also highlights that constructs such as student intent, academic stimulus, campus infrastructure scalability, selection mechanism, pedagogical content knowledge, brand identity, events experience and campus culture play a vital role in global brand recognition.

The authors' work is fairly generalizable to education services and the higher education sector. However, this study must be extrapolated and empirically validated in other industry sectors. The research implications of this study are that it aided the authors in building theoretical background for student brand loyalty theory, student expectation theory and study loyalty theory. This study adds to the body of knowledge by contributing to theoretical concepts on students, knowledge culture, events, infrastructure and branding. Researchers can adopt the scales proposed in this study to build research models in higher education branding. This study acts as a catalyst for building theories in education services areas. Researchers can delve deep into proposed research aspects of campus infrastructure, knowledge infrastructure, campus knowledge culture, events design and events experience.

This study aids educators and brand managers to develop global education services and optimize their effort and budget. Administrators in the education services sector must focus on practical aspects of student perception, campus infrastructure, culture and events experience. Practically administrators can reorient their efforts based on this study to achieve global brand recognition.

This study highlights that students are not customers but are co-creators of value in the education sector. This study provides scales and dimensions needed to build co-creation frameworks and models.

Most research in higher education branding has not covered wider aspects of global brand building. Existing theories proposed in higher education and education services articles cover only narrower aspects of campus infrastructure, culture, events design and branding. This study presents a comprehensive list of critical factors that play a vital role in global knowledge brand building. This study highlights the constructs and scales integral to building a global education services brand.