Strategy guru Gerry Johnson appointed emeritus professor
Published 30 April 2009
Professor Gerry Johnson presenting at the seminar
In this seminar Gerry explored how research in the strategic management field has developed in his 25 years as an academic, and his interest in strategy as practice, a field he has helped to establish.
Following the seminar he said, “The opportunity to establish the Centre for Strategic Management at Lancaster came my way in 2006: an opportunity I very much welcomed. I have been an academic in the strategy field for some 30 years and for most of that time I have known Lancaster University Management School as a top class academic institution. It had always puzzled me, however, why research in strategy at Lancaster did not seem to figure as much as some other management fields.
“My initial discussions with academics interested in strategy at Lancaster showed that my own interests matched pretty closely with many of theirs. This commonality could be summarised as an interest in strategy processes and practice. Moreover this coincided with what has become clear to me as a major problem – or opportunity – in the wider strategy field.
“In the last two decades the subject has become largely concerned with strategy that organisations have rather than what people do to develop strategies. This concern with people at the heart of strategy development is one I have always been keen to develop and one which resonated with people at Lancaster. It provided a focus for the development of the Centre.
“It goes without saying that if the concern is to place people at the centre of the study of strategy, it is important that there is close contact with people involved in strategy development in organisations. So a good deal of my time at Lancaster has been spent seeking to build a network or organisations with whom we might cooperate to undertake research concerned with this.
“My vision for the Centre was to provide a focus for those within the School with an interest in strategy, especially in strategy development and practice, with a nucleus of dedicated staff undertaking research in the Centre on those themes. A second priority was to recruit my successor. I am delighted that Professor Julia Balogun has now joined the Centre and taken over as its Director. I know she is committed to the same vision for the Centre as myself and I look forward to being able to work with her, others in the Centre and in Lancaster more generally, and its future development in my emeritus role.”
Members of the Lancaster Centre for Strategic Management and guests at Professor Gerry Johnson's seminar
