Rate My Professor Julian Birkinshaw

Julian Birkinshaw is Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at London Business School, currently on leave while serving as Dean and Professor at Ivey Business School since August 2024. He earned a BSc in Geology from Durham University, an MBA in 1991, and a PhD in 1995 from Ivey Business School at Western University. During his 25-year tenure at London Business School, he held several senior leadership positions, including Vice Dean from 2022 to 2024, Deputy Dean of Executive Education, Head of Learning Innovation, Director of the Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and Deputy Dean of Programs. He taught MBA courses such as Innovation and Technology Strategy, Managing the Digital Organization, Achieving Strategic Agility, and Developing Entrepreneurial Opportunities, and led executive education programs on Building Organizational Resilience, Innovating in the Digital World, and Managing the Company of the Future. Birkinshaw was instrumental in launching new graduate programs, pioneering online asynchronous programs, and expanding executive education offerings at LBS.

His research specializes in innovation, digital transformation, agility and resilience of large multinational firms, strategic agility, and the impact of digital technology on business. Birkinshaw is a Fellow of the British Academy, the Academy of Management, the Strategic Management Society, and the Academy of International Business, with honorary doctorates from Copenhagen Business School and Stockholm School of Economics. He has been recognized on the Thinkers50 list of influential management thinkers and received the 2022 Harvard Business Review Prize for his article 'How Incumbents Survive and Thrive.' He has authored 16 books, including Fast/Forward, Becoming a Better Boss, Reinventing Management, Giant Steps in Management, Entrepreneurship in the Global Firm (2000), Strategic Management (2004), and Resurgent: How established companies can fight back and thrive in an age of digital transformation (2025, with John Fallon). His over 100 academic articles include highly cited works such as 'The antecedents, consequences, and mediating role of organizational ambidexterity' (Academy of Management Journal, 2004), 'Organizational ambidexterity: Antecedents, outcomes, and moderators' (Journal of Management, 2008), and 'Management innovation' (Academy of Management Review, 2008). With approximately 68,000 citations and an h-index of 92, his work has significant impact. He consults for organizations including Pepsico, RBC, Ericsson, and Bayer, speaks at global conferences, and is frequently quoted in media outlets such as CNN, BBC, The Economist, Wall Street Journal, and MIT Sloan Management Review.