Favourite Quotes

Here is a collection of some of my favourite quotes from academics and from practising managers and a few other sources ...


"What [research] does is to deepen and make the issue more complicated and draw more people in. There is a really interesting paradox there. You know, they [practitioners] might say ‘oh yes, you might be able to help us solve this’ but in fact once you start getting into it, it starts getting more complex." UK Academic

"like when I’m reading [academic work] for example, the phrase comes to mind 'no s**t Sherlock.' That’s totally obvious, why have you been researching that?" PLC Director


"I don't subscribe to the 'let's just let it happen' school of change. That might happen in a web-design set up in San Francisco but it doesn't work in Stoke-on-Trent on a wet Monday morning" Senior Partner in Blue Chip Consultancy Firm


"I began to make progress as a writer once I began to take my own lack of talent seriously" John Irving, Novelist and Oscar Winning Screen Writer

"A firm's strategy is its theory of how that firm will gain competitive advantage in its marketplace" Jay Barney

"You know you've been working on your PhD for too long when you refer to the fairytale Snow White et al." Former Doctoral Programme Director