Events
The Levitt Group meetings are non-profit events designed to give members the maximum possible knowledge in the least possible time.
Run over Friday afternoon/Saturday morning at a convenient and conducive location, the events feature a range of thought leaders from both academia and exemplary companies.
On March the 16th we are holding a new sort of event. It is a free event held over one day aimed to save people time by going through six of the latest marketing books in a day.
The events are exclusive and informal, giving those who attend the opportunity to question and debate the speakers' ideas. Speakers are carefully chosen to cover a wide range of business sectors and topics and so to be of interest to all members, whatever their particular interests. In addition, the events provide an opportunity to mix with other senior marketers, share ideas and find common interests.
FREE - our next event: March 16, 2012
Six Great Minds: exclusively for the Levitt Group, six leading marketing authors will present synopses of their latest books at a new event in London.
The event is free, there is also a free lunch and you'll be able to take home one of the books for free!
Speakers
Donal O'Connell, Managing Director of Chawton Innovation Services and Adjunct Professor at Imperial College Business School
Donal O'Connell, Managing Director of Chawton Innovation Services and Adjunct Professor at Imperial College Business School
Title: Harvesting External Innovation.
About the book...
A fundamental change in the way organisations approach innovation is taking place. It involves cooperating and collaborating with external parties in the area of innovation and in the research and development of products and services and is driven by the simple realisation that not all the smart people work for just one organisation – it is necessary to work with smart people outside the company.
About the Author...
Donal is the Managing Director of Chawton Innovation Services, an Intellectual Property Management Consultancy Firm. He is a former VP of R&D and Director of IP at Nokia. He is Adjunct Professor at Imperial College Business School, teaching about various aspects of IP strategy and IP management. He is the author of 'Inside the Patent Factory' published by Wiley & Sons in 2008 and of 'Harvesting External Innovation' published by Gower in 2011.
Chris Mowles, Professor of Complexity and Management and Director of the Doctor of Management Programme, University of Hertfordshire.
Title: Rethinking Management: radical insights from the complexity sciences.
About the book...
In Rethinking Management, Chris Mowles argues that uncertainty is inherent in the everyday experience of organising with others. Many management courses still largely assume a linear and predictable world, when experience tells us that the opposite is the case. He questions some of the more orthodox conceptual assumptions that underpin much management education and instead encourages leaders and managers to take their everyday experience of working with others seriously. People in organisations co-operate and compete to get things done, and constrain and enable each other in relationships of power. Because of this there are always unintended consequences of our actions. The book draws on both the natural and social sciences to draw attention to the improvisational nature of managerial work and offers alternative ways of understanding the role of manager and leader than the ubiquitous grids and frameworks of much conventional management literature.
About the Author...
Chris is director of and supervisor on the Doctor of Management programme at UH, which has an international reputation for taking up insights from the sciences of uncertainty as a way of thinking about the business of organising with others. The programme has attracted senior managers, leaders and consultants from organisations based in New Zealand, South Africa, North America and Canada, Denmark, Norway, Holland, as well as in the UK and has produced 51 doctorates over the last 10 years. Chris continues to run his own management consultancy in order to stay in touch with contemporary organisational life, and has had contracts with the British, Dutch and Chinese governments, as well as with the NHS, the UN and IFAD. Previously, he co-founded a start-up marketing business where he served as finance director, and was a senior manager in the public sector. He has lectured in McMaster University in Canada, Aalborg and Sonderborg Universities in Denmark, the Copenhagen Business School, ZHAW in Zurich, and SOAS in London.
John Rayment, Principal Lecturer, Anglia Ruskin University.
Title: MisLeadership: Prevalence, Causes and Consequences.
About the book...
MisLeadership studies the ways in which followers (i.e. the vast majority of humanity) have been and are being misled by their ‘superiors’. Aspects of this include leadership which is missing, misguided, misinformed or Machiavellian, the last being the only one viewed as deliberate MisLeadership. Identified causes include the values embedded throughout our development, complexity and speed of change in requirements of successful leadership, and lack of suitable tools and experience. Initial solutions to the MisLeadership phenomenon suggested include wake up and take responsibility.
About the Author...
John’s background is accountancy but he is now programme leader for ARU’s Chelmsford based MBA programme and recently led the development of a Netherlands-based distance learning MBA. His current thrust is leadership fitness, particularly in the solution of urgent global issues, and its corollary the concept of ‘Misleadership’ as introduced in his book. John also acts as a consultant to a range of private and public sector bodies.
Niall Cook, Author of Enterprise 2.0: how social software will change the future of work and co-founder, Sociagility.
Title: How social software is changing the future of work.
About the book...
A fundamental change is occurring in how companies compete. The social web is enabling new business strategies and designs that allow firms to create differentiated value and/or lower cost structures – and therefore competitive advantage. Organisations that understand these changes can gain rapid advantages in their markets and build sustainable businesses. The opportunities lie both inside and outside corporate firewalls. Managers can exploit social networks and other tools to enable powerful new approaches to collaboration that cut across organisational silos and unleash the power of employees, leading to faster innovation, lower cost structures, greater agility, improved responsiveness to customers and more authenticity and respect in the marketplace. But only by understanding and harnessing the potential of the myriad new software tools can brands and organisations gain true competitive advantage.
About the Author...
Niall is the co-founder of consultancy Sociagility, which helps organisations build in-house social business capability. Prior to that, he was worldwide director of marketing technology for the global public relations agency, Hill & Knowlton, where he pioneered the firm’s use of social media including its blogging community, Collective Conversation. He is currently writing his second book on the topic of social business for business-to-business brands.
Andrew Holmes, non-executive director of the Institute of Continuing Professional Development.
Title: Commoditization.
About the book...
Commoditization is nothing new - we have lived with it for a long time and certainly if we look back over the last 200-300 years it should be clear to anyone that commoditization is a natural business process which started long ago on the production lines of the factories of Northern England, played its part in the broadening out of the rail and telecommunications industries and more recently has had a profound effect on both the information technology (IT) and airline industries. However, commoditization is no longer just about machinery, computers and plant. Nor is it about the odd industry or two. It is beginning to be about people, human capital, skills and expertise and it is spreading into those industries that have previously held up their margins and kept out the competition.
The implications for companies and individuals are both broad and deep as the economics of intense competition, the impacts of low cost producers of high end products and services and the intellectual competition coming from the BRIC economies begins to bite. Downward mobility, stagnating incomes, and an intense focus on cheaper, faster, better are beginning to shift the nature of work.
This presentation reviews the process of commoditization, highlights the implications and outlines the strategies that can be deployed to either exploit or minimize its impacts.
About the Author...
Andrew Holmes has been working in a variety of organizations and industries for the last 24 years. He has been a land surveyor, civil servant, IT professional, project and program manager and for the past 14 years a management consultant. He has consulted with many household names in the UK and overseas including BP, Tomkins, Linklaters, Rolls Royce, UBS, HMRC, National Express, Bank of America and Transco. He has held senior positions in two of the Big Four management consultancies (Ernst & Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers) and is currently a partner in a boutique limited liability partnership, Paricint LLP. Andrew has a BSc in Surveying Science from Newcastle University, and an MSc in information systems from the London School of Economics. He is a chartered surveyor and a non-executive director of the Institute of Continuing Professional Development. Andrew is an active author, having written 18 books on a range of topics, including IT project failure, risk management, lifelong learning, technology management and commoditization.
David Abrahams, Founding director – Brand Mediation.
Title: Brand Risk – Adding Risk Literacy to Brand Management.
About the book...
Brand risk is often narrowly defined as risk to reputation. Yet risk and uncertainty are evident in many aspects of brand performance and marketing operations. Considered and responsible risk taking is central to effective brand management. Risk literacy is the marketer’s third necessary competence, alongside strategic insight and financial understanding. Brand Risk brings together the relevant thinking and a range of accepted techniques for the evaluation of brand exposures and opportunities. Presenting the essentials of brand management and risk management side-by-side, the book offers graduated and complementary approaches to brand risk assessment, from the intuitive to the data-driven.
About the Author...
David Abrahams is founding director of Brand Mediation, an adviser on operational effectiveness in the stewardship of brands, the development of new products and enterprise risk management. An accredited commercial mediator, he has related interests in the fruitfulness of strategic alliances, brand partnerships and licensing arrangements. David graduated in law from Cambridge University and is an alumnus of the INSEAD-CEDEP General Management Programme. David has worked in an advisory capacity for 12 years, following 23 years in product management and pan-European business management with pre-eminent consumer businesses.
