Freek Vermeulen

I am a professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at the London Business School. My research and teaching cover topics such as strategic management, managing innovation, corporate transformation, and entrepreneurship. I have served on London Business School’s Management Board, was a member of its Board of Governors, the Chair of the Strategy and Entrepreneurship Department, and the Director of Strategy of the School.  

In addition, I am a regular keynote speaker on company and industry conferences, having worked with firms such as Bosch, BP, GE, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Lufthansa, Maersk, Novartis, Roche, Sara Lee, Toshiba, Vodafone, and many others. At the London Business School, I was the first-ever recipient of the School’s “Excellence in Teaching Award”. I also received the “Best Teacher Award”, particularly for my course on Strategies for Growth and Transformation. The Financial Times wrote about me: “The London Business School professor is a rising star, and his pithy observations are both accessible and authoritative”. Separately, the same newspaper described me as a new management guru. 

My book “Business Exposed: The naked truth about what really goes on in the world of business”, published by FT Prentice-Hall, was WHSmith’s Business Book of the Month and – to my own surprise – received much praise in the business press—for example, the Financial Times described it as “ornery and entertaining: a rigorous challenge to many business assumptions” where the Economist labeled it “punchy and readable”. Particularly in Japan, it became a best-seller and was temporarily the highest-selling business book on Kindle. My most recent book was published by the Harvard Business Review Press and is titled “Breaking Bad Habits: Defy industry norms and reinvigorate your business”. My books have been translated into various languages, including Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, and Russian.

My research has been published in various prominent academic journals in the field of Management, such as the Academy of Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, Organization Science, and the Strategic Management Journal. As a result, I received the prestigious “Academy of Management Journal Best Paper Award”, particularly for my research on international expansion, and the INFORMS/ISA Best Paper Award for my work on organizational learning. 

In addition, I enjoy communicating my views on strategic management in the popular press, including newspapers, magazines, and using online media. For example, I regularly contribute to Harvard Business Review, and I have written articles for the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, Strategy+Business, Marketing Magazine, HR Magazine, and many others. The Vienna University of Economics and Business honoured me with their inaugural “Theory-to-Practice Award”. Much to my surprise, the website Best-online-universities placed me number 1 in their global ranking of “Top 100 Web-savvy Professors”. More importantly, I won my department’s geese herding competition (after which I was elected as department chair) and the “best solo performance” at the karaoke competition during our Christmas party.