Speakers Bios & Abstracts

Platzhalter Speakers
Julian Birkinshaw
UK

Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship,
London Business School,
and author

Biography

Julian Birkinshaw is Professor and Chair of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at the London Business School, and the former Dean of Programmes. He has written twelve books, the most recent being “Reinventing Management” which has been called a “must read for any manager who wants to make their organisation fit for the future.” His next book, “Becoming a Better Boss” will be published later this year. He has also published more than 80 papers in such journals as Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, McKinsey Quarterly, Strategic Management Journal and Academy of Management Journal. He has PhD and MBA degrees in Business from the Richard Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario, and a BSc (Hons) from the University of Durham. He was made a Fellow of the British Academy in 2012, and awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the Stockholm School of Economics in 2009. Julian’s main area of expertise is in the strategy and management of large multinational corporations, and on such specific issues as corporate entrepreneurship, innovation, subsidiary-headquarters relationship, knowledge management, network organisations, and global customer management. In 1998 the leading British Management magazine Management Today profiled Julian as one of six of the “Next Generation of Management Gurus”. He is regularly quoted in international media outlets, including CNN, BBC, The Economist, the Wall Street Journal, and The Times. He speaks regularly at business conferences in the UK, Europe, North America and Australia. He is a consultant to many large companies, including Rio Tinto, SAP, ABN AMRO, GSK, ABB, Ericsson, Kone, Exxon, WPP, Bombardier, Sara Lee, HSBC, Akzo Nobel, Roche, Thyssen Krupp, UBS, PWC, Coloplast, BBC Unilever, Tui, Petrofac, and Novo Nordisk. Julian is co-founder with bestselling author Gary Hamel of the Management Innovation Lab (MLab), a unique partnership between academia and business that is seeking to accelerate the evolution of management.

Abstract

The Two Faces of Complexity

When managing a complex organisation, many executives are tempted to seek simplification, as a way of reducing costs and creating clarity. But often organisations are  complex by design, and are able to gain competitive advantage in the market because of their complexity, rather than in spite of it.  In this talk, Professor Birkinshaw draws on his recent research to show how executives can harness the two faces of complexity to help them achieve their objectives.