The Middle
The Middle is a podcast series exploring the challenges of improving middle management since that is widely acknowledged as having the biggest impact on organisational performance. Each podcast will feature an interview with a prominent executive from a wide range of contexts including public, private and charitable sectors. The host is associate professor Stephen Willson from Birmingham City University Business School.
Episodes
34 episodes
Jim Hamilton, Roche
Jim Hamilton has played a leading role for over 30 years in the Life Sciences, Health and Nutrition industries, including as a CEO and Board Director in the Dietary Supplement, Food, Animal-feed and Personal-Care product sectors.He join...
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Season 4
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Episode 4
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29:33
Robert Kirby, People-People
Robert Kirby is the director of People-People, architects and engineers of behavioural, attitudinal and cultural transformation in the workplace.He joins Stephen Willson to explore the negotiating, conselling and conflict-resolution ski...
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Season 4
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Episode 3
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29:05
Tom Clarke-Forrest, Sport4Life
Tom Clarke-Forrest is the founder and CEO of the youth-focused charity Sport4Life. He joins Stephen Willson to explore the middle management challenges for a founder developing a business from start-up to thirty employees, ba...
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Season 4
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Episode 2
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29:05
Andy, NHS hospital doctor
Andy is a junior doctor in an NHS trust hospital sharing his observations in five NHS trusts. He joins Stephen Willson to explore the middle management challenges in hospitals in the national health system. The episode focuses on n...
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Season 4
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Episode 1
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28:10
Shakti Singh, Ramboll Group
Shakti Singh is the senior finance director at Ramboll Group A/S an international engineering consultancy based in Copenhagen, Denmark. She joins Stephen Willson to explore the middle management challenges in bringing about success...
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Season 3
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Episode 10
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29:04
David Spencer, Greene King
David Spencer is the head of marketing for Old Speckled Hen at Greene King, Britain's leading pub retailer and brewer. He joins Stephen Willson to explore how marketing philosophy and practices inform middle management action.<...
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Season 3
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Episode 9
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27:38
Richard Morgan, LKQ Euro Car Parts
Richard Morgan is the chief operating officer of LKQ Euro Car Parts, a national supplier to independent garages. He joins Stephen Willson to explore the issues of managing over 250 branches in order to be able to deliver the most c...
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Season 3
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Episode 8
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29:37
Liz Herridge, National Highways
Liz Herridge is the Director of Network Claims and Transformation at National Highways, the public sector organisation responsible for the strategic road network. She joins Stephen Willson to explore the middle management issues wi...
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Season 3
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Episode 7
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30:12
Managing Across Boundaries
In this episode Stephen Willson questions the intuitive presumption that achieving the best overall outcome is attained by maximising results within boundaries. The executive contributions illustrate unintended damaging behaviours that can occu...
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Season 3
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Episode 6
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26:13
Jim DeWaele, Keller Group
Jim DeWaele is the European president of the Keller Group, a global geotechnical specialist building contractor. He joins Stephen Willson to explore the middle management issues of working in the high risk arena of building foundat...
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Season 3
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Episode 5
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35:00
Justin King's turnaround of Sainsbury's
Justin King CBE was the chief executive of Sainsbury's plc, the UK's second largest grocery chain. He joined the organisation and engineered the corporate turnaround from 14 years of losing market share to 9 successive years of profit gro...
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Season 3
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Episode 4
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19:43
Tony Taylor, Gibbs and Dandy
Tony Taylor is the managing director of Gibbs and Dandy, a unit of Saint-Gobain, the French multi-national building materials organisation. He joins Stephen Willson to explore the issues of working on two fronts in a distribution b...
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Season 3
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Episode 3
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27:44
Developing Middle Managers
Stephen Willson brings together contributions from 20 executive interviews that support a three stage process that underpins the evolving role of middle managers.He then investigates the challenges for individuals making the transition ...
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Season 3
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Episode 2
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23:42
Asha Devi, Ove Arup
Asha Devi is associate director at Ove Arup the company most famous for being the architect of the Sydney Opera House. She joins Stephen Willson to explore the issues of designing customers' office space for collaboration and the satisfaction o...
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Season 3
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Episode 1
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31:00
Gavin Card, Calor Gas
Gavin Card is the Director of Global Operational Excellence at SHV Energy, the parent company of Calor in the UK. He joins Stephen Willson to explore the middle management challenges of aligning supply with demand that is regional and weather d...
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Season 2
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Episode 10
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30:08
Jason Smith, Artex
Jason Smith is the Managing Director of Artex, a leading distributor of construction products. He joins Stephen Willson to explore the development challenges faced by middle managers in different phases of their career progression.
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Season 2
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Episode 9
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30:13
Nigel Riglar, South Gloucestershire Council
Nigel Riglar is the Director of Environment & Community Services at South Gloucestershire Council. He joins Stephen Willson to explore the challenges for middle management precipitated by the Covid crisis. These include the shift to facilit...
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Season 2
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Episode 8
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30:29
Anthony Tattum, Big Cat Agency
Anthony Tattum is the Chief Executive of Big Cat creative agency. He joins Stephen Willson and discusses how Big Cat works with organisations to align their customer-facing and delivery-focused middle management tiers in an environment where cu...
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Season 2
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Episode 7
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30:59
Nick Walkley, Homes England
Nick Walkley is the Chief Executive Officer of Homes England, the government's housing accelerator. He joins Stephen Willson to explore the challenges of configuring middle management to achieve public sector and political objectives through pr...
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Season 2
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Episode 6
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30:58
Ruth Cooke, GreenSquare Group
Ruth Cooke is the chief executive of housing association GreenSquare Group. She joins Stephen Willson to explore the middle management challenges of working with a wide range of customers and stakeholders with diverse priorities.
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Season 2
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Episode 5
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30:27
Frank Bandura, chief financial officer
Frank Bandura was the chief financial officer for casual dining chain Carluccio's. He joins Stephen Willson to explore the ways in which the finance director can add value to their organisation through close co-ordination with the operations di...
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Season 2
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Episode 4
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30:09
Saleh Saeed, Disasters Emergency Committee
Saleh Saeed OBE is the chief executive of the Disasters Emergency Committee. He joins Stephen Willson to explore how member charitable organisations prepare to be able to make a coordinated response when international disasters arise.
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Season 2
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Episode 3
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31:21
Deborah Cadman, West Midlands Combined Authority
Deborah Cadman is the chief executive of the West Midlands Combined Authority. She joins Stephen Willson to explore developing regional growth through the devolution of centralised government powers and the inter-working of numerous local counc...
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Season 2
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Episode 2
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35:44
Ananda Roy, leader and strategist
Ananda Roy has been a senior strategy, data analytics and insights director and has over 20 years of commercial and operational responsibility. He joins host Stephen Willson to explore how organisations in a number of sectors are encouraging an...
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Season 2
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Episode 1
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25:36
