Professor John Bessant of Exeter University will be presenting the next faculty lecture at Strathclyde Business School on January 18. Professor John Bessant of Exeter University will be presenting the next faculty lecture at Strathclyde Business School on January 18.
The title of his lecture is "Managing knowledge spaghetti - the new innovation game" and looks at how, with innovation, there is now a growing emphasis on knowledge flows and trading rather than simply knowledge production.
Dealing with a knowledge environment which is globally distributed, richly networked and enabled by a raft of powerful new technologies will require organisations and individuals to learn new tricks to add to their innovation management repertoire. At the same time, new mechanisms, agencies, tools and structures are emerging which offer different ways of managing the 'knowledge spaghetti' effectively.
Originally a chemical engineer, Professor Bessant has been active in research, teaching and consultancy in technology and innovation management for over 25 years. He currently holds the Chair in Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Exeter University where he is also Research Director. In 2003, he was awarded a Fellowship with the Advanced Institute for Management Research and was also elected a Fellow of the British Academy of Management. He served on the Business and Management Panel of both the 2001 and 2008 Research Assessment Exercises. He has acted as advisor to various national governments and to international bodies including the United Nations, The World Bank and the OECD.
Over his career, he has been responsible for raising over £12 million in research funds from various sources to support his work. Sponsors have included the major UK research councils, UK government departments, the Anglo-German Foundation, the National Economic Development Office, OECD, the International Labour Office, the EU and various branches of the United Nations.
Professor Bessant is the author of over 20 books and monographs and many articles on the topic and has lectured and consulted widely around the world. His most recent books include Managing Innovation (now in its 4th edition) and High Involvement Innovation (both published by John Wiley and Sons).
He is an elected Fellow of the British Academy of Management, a Fellow at the Sunningdale Institute and a Senior Fellow of the Advanced Institute of Management Research.