Bio
I am Professor of Strategy, Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the London Business School. I hope this site will give you a taste of my research, teaching, executive development work and more.
I passionately believe that research and engagement in strategy and policy should go hand in hand.I look at how firms should navigate the increasingly complex and digitised environment: where and why value migrates, how firms can best capture it and how they should respond to the dramatic growth of business ecosystems.
My main areas of interest are digital platforms and ecosystems, financial services and turnarounds. Read more about my research here.
I am involved in several research projects and initiatives. I'm a co-editor of Industrial and Corporate Change and publish in top strategy and innovation journals such as SMJ, Organization Science, AMJ, AMR and Research Policy.
To share my views with a broader audience than academics, I have penned OpEds for Kathimerini, the Financial Times, El Pais and Huffington Post, and blogged for HBR.org and Forbes.com.
During the Greek sovereign crisis I made regular appearances on CNN and other media; in recent years I have focused more on blogs, interviews and webinars, and the odd BBC appearance.
I have recently been recognized by Thinkers50 as one of the world’s top 50 management thinkers, and a finalist for their Strategy Award. I am a regular speaker at events such as the Global Drucker Forum and meetings organized by the WEF.
I enjoy working on real-life problems. I am the Lead Advisor of Evolution Ltd, a consulting pop-up, with a great group of specialists who join forces for cutting-edge projects advising top corporates in Europe and Asia. I’m also Academic Advisor to Boston Consulting Group, working with the leadership of the Global Advantage Practice and the BCG Henderson Institute on their thought leadership. I’ve collaborated with McKinsey & Co, but also IDEO, Keystone Strategy, The European Centre for Strategic Innovation, and PwC and Accenture.
I sit on the Ventures Board of Founders Lane. I also sit on the advisory board of exciting new businesses such as Traipse in Washington, Velocia in Toronto and Wappier in Athens, and have worked with iconic CEOs such as Haier’s Zhang Ruimin. I have facilitated senior meetings for firms including Helvetia, Burberry, DeBeers, EnelX, MasMovil, YLE and MerckSerono, in settings from Helsinki to Dubai.
I’m also the Chief Expert Advisor on the Digital Economy for the Hellenic Competition Commission, and a Visiting Scholar at the New York Fed, as I think research should not only help businesses, but also regulators and society at large.
Yet life is more than work- so if you’re curious for more, there are links to some of the causes I support – anywhere from the Hellenic Society for the Preservation of Culture and the Environment (where I serve as a Strategy Advisor), to the Network for Children’s Rights, to KEOS Culture, an NGO focusing on my adoptive island of Kea, to a museum in a small village in the refugee-hosting island of Lesvos (which, parochially enough, celebrates my great-grandfather, painter Georgios Jakobides). Am also a big fan of my wife’s work through WonderWorldScience – as Beth works to instil a sense of excitement and discovery, but also a foundation for science in young kids.