In my opinion, Des Dearlove and Stu Crainer are among the most important and yet (as yet) least appreciated knowledge leaders. If you are don’t know much about them, it’s high time that you do.
Des Dearlove is an adjunct professor at IE Business School, an associate fellow of Said Business School at Oxford University and the author of a bestselling study of the leadership style of Richard Branson. He is a former columnist to The (London) Times, contributing editor to the American magazine Strategy+Business, and co-editor of the bestselling Financial Times Handbook of Management. His books are available in more than 20 languages and include Gravy Training and Generation Entrepreneur (co-authored with Stu Crainer).
Crainer is editor of the award-winning magazine Business Strategy Review and co-founder of the Thinkers50. According to Personnel Today he is one of the most influential people in British people management. His book credits include The Management Century and a biography of the management guru Tom Peters. His work with Des Dearlove in business thought leadership led Management Today to describe them as “market makers par excellence.” Stu is also an adjunct professor at IE Business School.
I am now in the process of reading and will soon begin to review the volumes in an important new series, co-authored by Des and Stu and published by McGraw-Hill:
Thinkers 50 Leadership: Organizational Success through Leadership
Thinkers 50 Innovation: Breakthrough Thinking to Take Your Business to the Next Level
Thinkers 50 Strategy: The Art and Science of Strategy Creation and Execution
Thinkers 50 Management: Cutting Edge Thinking to Engage and Motivate Your Employees for Success
Thinkers 50: Future Thinkers: New Thinking on Leadership, Strategy and Innovation for the 21st Century
Thinkers 50: Business Thought Leaders from India: The Best Ideas on Innovation, Management, Strategy, and Leadership
They are co-founders of Thinkers50.
When it was launched in 2001, Thinkers50 was the first-ever global ranking of management thinkers. It has been published every two years since. In the intervening decade, the scope of the Thinkers50 has broadened to include a range of activities that support its mission of identifying and sharing the best management thinking in the world.
That mission is based on three core beliefs:
o Ideas have the power to change the world
o Management is essential to human affairs
o New thinking can create a better future.
The Thinkers50 Ranking remains the premier ranking of its kind, and the Thinkers50 Awards (introduced in 2011) are widely regarded as the “Oscars of management thinking”.
Today, the Thinkers50 brand is admired globally for its objectivity and market intelligence, confirming its position as the leading independent authority in management ideas.
Its core values are:
o Independence
o Integrity
o Accessibility.
The Thinkers50 also has a growing reputation for innovation in the thought-leadership world. Developing new ways to share the best thinking is at the heart of what Des, Stu, and their colleagues do. Their new Thinkers50 iPad Apps are a great example of that, and they will continue to introduce new idea-sharing technologies.
Now you know why Des Dearlove and Stu Crainer are so important.