Global Practitioners - bringing fresh insights to learning

Brian Mooney is a Global Practitioner – a group of business people invited by Strathclyde Business School to engage with our students on our general management programmes. Here, Brian explains what he has done in the role. 

Strathclyde Business School introduced Global Practitioners last year – inviting a number of business people from a diverse range of industries and backgrounds to join with the Business School and engage with students across its general management programmes. This was with the aim of placing practical expertise alongside academic knowledge and intellectual challenge at the heart of a high-quality student experience – very much in keeping with Strathclyde’s ethos of ‘useful learning.’ 

I was delighted to be invited to be one of the inaugural Global Practitioners and have since immersed myself in the role. 

I have a Strathclyde connection – I graduated from Strathclyde in 1992 with an MSc in Information Management. Since then, I have spent my career in the management consulting industry, beginning with Arthur Andersen, then specialising in strategy consulting with two globally influential strategists, CK Prahalad and Gary Hamel, applying their ideas about strategic intent and core competence with major companies around the world.  

I returned to Scotland and established my own practice in 2010 and have been independent since then. I do a mix of local and international strategy work, interim management as a business turnaround specialist, and consulting, across many industries. Recently my focus has been on scaling-up corporate-owned digital businesses in automotive, travel and telecoms sectors, and digital transformation in the telco sector. 

So far as a Global Practitioner I’ve been involved in designing and delivering the Leadership Challenge course as part of the MBA Strategic Leadership programme. I adapted one of my previous client projects as the basis of the case which made it very ‘real’, which the students liked.  

I think access to a wide range of current strategy challenges and leadership in companies is one of the key attributes that Global Practitioners bring to the business school. I’ve also provided case studies and client connections for other programmes and am currently developing a new executive education course on strategic thinking, in collaboration with faculty from Colombia University. Again, this will look to be based on the strategic thinking skills that I have observed and practiced on strategy projects with many clients. 

The idea of a Global Practitioner is to complement the traditional research-qualified academic faculty and enhance the student learning experience, as well as provide extended reach for the university into international business networks. I’m always looking for ways to connect my clients and contacts with the business school for mutual benefit. It’s a new kind of role, so there is plenty of scope for innovation in how Global Practitioners operate. 

Overall, I’m delighted to be back at Strathclyde at this stage of my career, being part of a leading technological and progressive university, and above all, a place of useful learning. 

About Brian Mooney

Brian has a background in management consulting, for the last 12 years as an independent consultant and before that with Arthur Andersen. He has helped to implement interim executive work such as turnarounds and post-M&A integration. His clients are both local and global and across a wide range of sectors - in Scotland, he's recently worked in professional services sector, public sector and aquaculture, doing various strategy development and operational improvement projects; and globally, with firms including Shell, Amadeus, Volvo, and Phillips.