The Strategy Director in the UK; “eminence grise” or courtjester

Enterprise Ireland in collaboration with the Centre for Innovation and Structural Change invites you to the second of four talks from renowned thought leaders in the areas of innovation and management. Professor Duncan is a professor at Warwick Business School, University of Warwick and fellow of Said Business School, Oxford. He has authored many articles in leading international journals and has recently launched a provocative book, “The Strategy Pathfinder” (2006). Duncan has considerable experience of engaging with business as consultant, researcher and facilitator. He is currently a judge for the Management Consulting Association awards in London, has delivered key note speeches at Deloittes Touche`s senior partner conference and to the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales. In this talk he will argue, that despite the large volumes written on business strategy, it is only recently that researchers have begun to investigate where strategy may occur in organisations. A recent phenomena has been the rise of strategy formulation by functional officers resulting in strategic marketing, strategic IT and strategic operations in various contexts. In the focus of attention upon strategy-in-function, little attention has been paid to those senior executives specifically tasked with being “Strategy Directors” defined as senior (non-CEO) executives. A particularly pertinent issue is if everyone else is now a strategist, what distinctive role does the Strategy Director perform? Are these senior executives obsolete or do they carry out a critical and largely unsung function? This seminar aims to address these questions and will present current empirical research from the UK.

All Welcome