Experts from Cranfield School of Management and dozens of industry practitioners came together for the second Cranfield Leadership Summit in late March.
The two-day summit was opened and closed by Professor Maury Peiperl, Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Director of School, who said: “While it’s commonly acknowledged that managers run things and leaders change things, I also strongly believe that leadership is support for learning.”
Chaired throughout by Professor Joe Nellis, the summit explored British, European and world challenges and opportunities for organisations in view of various (political, social, technological, economic and environmental) global megatrends.
Expert sessions from Professor David Denyer and Doctors John Glen, Tazeeb Rajwani, Ruth Bender and Emma Macdonald complimented distinguished speakers such as private equity advisor Simon Rowlands, Grenville Turner (non-executive director, Countrywide), Andy Baker (president and CEO for G4S Africa), entrepreneur Richard Anson (Reevoo), Debra Charles (CEO of Novacroft) and Andy Bond (Woodcliffe Associates). Cranfield’s Dr. Jutta Tobias and Royal Navy Commander Tim Neild joined forces for a fascinating and well-received session on mindfulness at the start of the second day.
After each presentation from the Cranfield faculty members, senior business leaders illustrated the practitioner view and followed with a question-and-answer session with both sides.
One attendee – Kevin Stevens (CEO/Chairman, Woodland Group) – said: “I think the mix between the academic and ‘working people’ was a great combination and having the session after that worked very well because you got two different perspectives.”