Finance: Past, Present and Future

The first lesson of academic leadership is that it takes nearly 12 months to catch up on a large backlog of research. This is my reason (excuse) for not blogging since I stepped down as Head of Queen's Management School. When I stepped down, I indicated that I would write a series of posts which reflected on my time as Head. However, I underestimated the sheer effort it would take to kickstart the various research projects which I was involved with.    If you are thinking of taking on a leadership role in a university, it will have a substantial effect on your research productivity. I went into the role knowing this. The way I coped was to see my research as a hobby - something that helped me relax and that I tinkered at on Saturdays and in my spare time. I also went each summer to Cambridge MA to get the head space and peace to work on research. If you take on a leadership role in another type of organisation, you will be managing and leading a team. Your time will n...

According to Andy Haldane, the Bank of England's chief economist, bad managers are partially to blame for the UK's poor productivity statistics. You can access his speech  here  and press coverage of the speech is available  here  and  here . I'm convinced that as the nature of companies, human capital and technology changes, there is a need for post-industrial approaches to management and leadership. On Friday past I stepped down as Head of Queen's Management School . (This means that I will be able to blog more than I have been doing over the past 3 years!) During my tenure, I've spent much time thinking about leadership and how to manage talent. I now want to share those insights in a series of three posts over the next month or so. The three areas that I will be covering are (a) Managing Talent; (b) Managing Yourself; and (c) Managing Creativity. The lessons which I have learned are applicable to those outside the university sector - any organisation wh...