Professor William Harvey awarded Urwick Prize 2017

The Prize is awarded for an outstanding recent piece of research relevant to management consultancy published in the UK, and this year was presented to Professor William Harvey, University of Exeter Business School, Professor Timothy Morris, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, and Dr Milena Mueller Santos, Kellogg College, University of Oxford, for their paper “Reputation and identity conflict in management consulting”, which is published in Human Relations, a Financial Times top 50 journal.

Their research addresses the tension between how consulting firms see themselves and how their clients see them can be successfully managed through reputation building techniques. It goes on to provide practical insights into how this might be done through high quality consultant teams, demonstrating thought leadership, and by supporting clients beyond the strict terms of the contracted work.

Noorzaman Rashid, Master of the Company, said in awarding the prize “Although we are a modern livery company, we continue the long tradition of City livery companies in supporting education. Colonel Urwick was a pioneer in the theory and practice of management consultancy and we are delighted that valuable research into the topic continues to be done, as evidenced by this excellent paper, which will be of value to all consulting businesses.”

Professor Harvey commented “We are honoured to receive this prize, which we hope will draw our research to the attention of a much wider audience and support management consultancies in the development of their businesses.”

The Urwick Prize was established to commemorate Colonel Lyndall Urwick, a pioneer in the field of management consultancy, and its award is in the gift of the Worshipful Company of Management Consultants. The Prize is awarded for an outstanding recent piece of research relevant to management consultancy, published in the UK.

An Academic Panel, consisting of the UK Academic Fellows of the International Council of Management Consulting Institutes, reviewed eligible research and submitted a shortlist of worthy contenders to the Company. From this list, the Company selected WS Harvey, T Morris, MM Santos: Reputation and identity conflict in management consulting. Human Relations, 2017.