Business Power Player gives public lecture

The lecture, entitled 'Purple Cows, Stagnation and Innovation', will take place on Thursday 14 March from 4-5pm at the University's Rose Bowl Lecture Theatre F, followed by refreshments and networking.

Simon has been listed alongside the Prime Minister and other senior politicians and industry leaders in Travel Weekly's Top 40 Power Players. A former Direct Insurance Director at Lloyds TSB and Accenture partner, Simon now heads up the largest independent travel network in Europe. He also sits on the Advisory Board for the International Centre for Research in Events, Tourism & Hospitality (ICRETH) at Leeds Met.

Simon's lecture will address the ways that consulting, outsourcing and the Internet have all made it easier for one business to copy another, resulting in the products and services of competitors becoming very similar. Whilst we are simultaneously bombarded by pressure to innovate, Simon finds the coverage of innovation stagnant and removed from what a typical business might and ought to do. Although it is important to innovate, he disagrees with what it currently looks like within business. He will use the lecture to describe a few every day innovations that he has been involved with to provide a more realistic view of what we all might do to innovate in a business sense.

Simon commented: "It has taken about 20 years of working to get to the point where I can talk about 'every-day innovation'. Hopefully I can help others get there far quicker than I have. I am looking forward to meeting and discussing this with lecturers and students at the university. I have no doubt that my thinking on innovation will move forward as a result of the discussion."

Professor Rhodri Thomas, Head of the ICRETH, added: "An important part of our mission is to maximise the impact of our research. In part we do this by strengthening our engagement with industry leaders and learning from them. We greatly value Simon's support for the work of our Centre and are delighted that he will be delivering this important lecture in Leeds."

The Learning from Leaders public lecture series is designed to put Leeds Metropolitan at the leading edge of the fields of events, tourism and hospitality and to provide students, academics and the region's businesses access to the industry's key players.

To book a place at the lecture, please email icreth@leedsmet.ac.uk or call 0113 812 9020.