February 20, 2008
Freek-ishly accessible
Business school professors are often chided for being out of touch with the real world of management. They churn out unreadable research that is only of interest to a narrow community of academic peers - or so the argument runs - instead of addressing the day-to-day problems arising in the workplace. (For a summary of the prosecution case, see Michael Skapinker’s recent FT column on the matter, mildly entitled “Why business ignores the business schools“.)
There is a much truth in these criticisms but not all b-school profs have difficulty being accessible. Freek Vermeulen, a Dutch associate professor at London Business School (pictured left), is a case in point. Dr Vermeulen - whose first name, rather disappointingly, is pronounced “Frake” rather than “Freak” - has been blogging enthusiastically since the start of the year on his site, “Random Rantings“. It is lively and engaging stuff. Highlights have included lessons in innovation derived from an Asian contemporary dance troupe (if you want to be be innovative, forget about what you think the customer wants) and a homily about a plumber who spotted a niche in the market for artistically-shaped radiators (the moral being that it is not enough to get lucky - you also have to recognise and exploit what fate throws up). His research into how bad management ideas spread also fuelled a rant against management consultants (he describes them as pin-striped pigeons that transmit dodgy ideas like avian flu).
News of any other illuminating professorial blogs shall be gratefully received.
Congratulations for the blog. Like champions of the Visible Hand, managers and management students are a bit like D. Quijotes charging against windmills.
For the “happy few” who can manage Portuguese.
At my own academic alma mater:
sobreotempoquepassa.blogspot.com, authored by Professor Maltez at Lisbon Technical University on current issues relating with public management, maybe bit too political.
From Minho University
empreender.blogspot.com by Prof. Vasco Eiriz on mainly on entrepreneurship and innovation.
Posted by: Nelson Mendes | February 21st, 2008 at 11:38 am | Report this commentThanks for the blog. A management ideas blog is a top priority requirement now.
However, could the blog be edited for racier reading ?
Time allotted by me to scan and read contents is awfully short personally, what with so many goodies available on ft.com and on the newspaper. Doing away with “speedbreakers” like long-winded sentences separated by too many commas and bracketed asides may be a good idea, I think.
But still, keep it coming folks ! Great job!
Posted by: Ganesh Melatur | February 21st, 2008 at 4:17 pm | Report this commentNelson - thanks for the links. My Portugese is non-existent but feel free to flag up any posts you deem worthy of translation.
Ganesh - thanks for feedback and point taken about time pressure. We’ll try to keep things as tight as possible (but can’t promise that this will be a bracket-free zone).
Posted by: Adam Jones | February 21st, 2008 at 4:55 pm | Report this commentGreat to see a management blog. Any chance we could be allowed to start topics ourselves?
Posted by: Ciaran Fenton | February 21st, 2008 at 7:13 pm | Report this comment