Inside Growth with Costas Markides

Costas Markides is Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at the London Business School (LBS) where he holds the Robert P. Bauman Chair of Strategic Leadership. He is also the Faculty Director for Executive Education at LBS. He is considered one of the world’s leading experts in the areas of business strategy and strategic innovation and has appeared several times on the Thinkers50 list of the world’s top management gurus. He is the author or co-author of several best-selling business books including All the Right Moves (1999), Fast Second (2004) and Game Changing Strategies (2008).

Nordic Business Forum: What does “growth” mean to you?

Costas Markides: The growth of something such as an organization, industry or idea (such as nationalism) is its development in size and importance. On the other hand, the growth of an individual refers not necessarily to their size but their intellectual and emotional maturity as well as character. Growth in something implies increase and development.

NBForum: What has growth looked like in your profession and/or personal career?

CM: I started my career as an Assistant Professor (in 1990) and have risen through the ranks to become a full Professor with a Chair in Strategic Leadership. I have grown as a teacher, as a thinker, as a researcher, and as a writer. How I teach now is totally different from how I taught 25 years ago. Similarly, the way I do my research and the kinds of issues I explore now are very different from the issues I was researching or how I was studying them when I started my career.

NBForum: What factors do you think your industry needs to prepare for when we talk about “growth” and the future?

CM: The digital revolution has had a profound effect on how people think, how they learn, how they live their lives and what they value in life. As a result, our “customers” have changed—in what they want and how they learn. If we don’t change what we teach or how we teach it, we will soon die in this industry. At the same time, new technologies have fundamentally changed how we can deliver our teaching or how students can learn. We have to embrace these technological innovations to change the way we teach.

Get tickets to see Costas at NBForum 2019

At Nordic Business Forum 2019, his speech will focus on the growth of organizations and will make the point that the best way to achieve sustainable growth is through innovation. The issue, therefore, is how to make our organizations more innovative. He will argue that there are different types of innovations and it’s a mistake to assume that what is needed to achieve one type of innovation is what is needed to achieve another type of innovation. One size does not fit all.

See Costas at NBForum 2019