I am a lecturer at the University of Auckland, where I research and teach strategy and strategy-related topics. My particular area of interest is strategizing in knowledge-intensive firms and professional service firms.
I first became interested in Strategy as practice back in 2002. I was looking for a research topic when I came across an EGOS paper by Paula Jarzabkowski entitled “Strategy as practice: Recursiveness, adaptation and strategic practices-in-use”. The concept of practice presented spoke to me. The paper referred to a missing figure, so I emailed Paula, and the rest is history.
My interest in strategy-as-practice was the basis of my PhD on “Strategising in professional service firms”.
That interest and involvement in the early days with EGOS, also led to me being the bibliographer for five years for Paula Jarzabkowski’s and David Seidl’s early interest group on the topic.
Since then, my passion for strategy as practice continued. In terms of my approach to practice, using Orlikowski’s notion of practice as a phenomenon, perspective, or philosophy, I am at the philosophical end of the spectrum.
I have worked on many strategy-related topics: internationalization, innovation, sensemaking, and, more recently, open strategy (which saw me spend four months of my 2023 sabbatical at the University of Zurich with David Seidl’s chair). I have also spent sabbaticals with Anne Langley at HEC Montreal and Richard Whittington at Oxford.
In my ‘spare time’, I consult to high-tech firms in the area of strategy.
Prior to becoming an academic, I worked in Europe and New Zealand for Philips Data Systesm (as it was) and for Ricoh (New Zealand) in the area of technology service. This led to me serving for several years, as the chair of the New Zealand chapter of AFMSI, the Association for Field Service Managers International.
Additionally, I have been a board member and the chair of a moderately sized charitable organization here in New Zealand.