Prof John Bessant

John is Professor of Innovation and Technology Management at the Tanaka Business School, Imperial College London. John is also a director of the EPSRC/ AIM which is a collaborative research programme with Cambridge, Cranfield, Loughborough and Liverpool Universities: the Innovation and Productivity Grand Challenge. He will be leading a series of 4 workshops on Innovation between January & September 2007.

 Professor Bessant is a prolific author and researcher, most recently in the area of discontinuous innovation but also into strategies for developing high involvement innovation and the use of learning networks to facilitate the diffusion of innovation. John has authored 15 books and many articles on the topic and has lectured and consulted widely around the world.

His book ‘Managing Innovation’ was chosen as one of the best innovation books at the European Academy of Management meeting in 2005.

John began his career in as a chemical engineer and after some time in industry he took up full-time research teaching in the field of technology and innovation management at Aston’s Technology Policy Unit, the Science Policy Research Unit at Sussex University and at Brighton University where he directed the Centre for Research in Innovation Management (CENTRIM).

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 has acted as advisor to a number of companies, various national governments and to international bodies including the United Nations, The World Bank and the OECD.

Read John's recent article in The Irish Times

Innovative ways to survive in a difficult climate - Managers on Management by Peter Cluskey, Irish Times Business Supplement, Friday, February 6th 2009. The above link will open up irishtimes.com/The Irish Times in a new window.