Designation : Senior Global Thought Leader
Company : Institute for Strategic Thinking

Respected academic, experienced consultant and trainer, and internationally recognized expert on Business Management, Change Management, Six Sigma, Governance & Enterprise Risk Management, Organizational Excellence, Strategy, Leadership, Quality Assurance, Quality Management and Lean Operations, Tony also has an interest in public sector development and reform. He acts as liaison officer for SKEA with the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM), and in this role as well as undertaking/leading development projects, he is responsible for training SKEA personnel and overseeing the Quality Assurance of their EFQM licensed training, recognition schemes and support.

Tony is a well-known invited keynote speaker at Conferences and Events worldwide and was formerly the Rolls-Royce funded Professor of Quality & Reliability Management, at the University of Leicester UK. Previously he also held the post of East Midlands Electricity Professor of Quality. Tony has had both an outstanding academic career and an extensive professional consultancy and training role at the highest level within both private sector organizations and the public sector. He has policy development experience with various branches of UK and international Government, including being Lead Consultant for the British Department of Trade and Industry on developing the accreditation framework for the development of the national system of Business Links in England and Wales to support small and medium sized manufacturing and other businesses.

He has worked as an associate consultant of Coopers & Lybrand, and subsequently trained management consultants for Deloitte. He is a leading figure in the UK and international quality and productivity improvement and excellence, and public sector transformation, movements. He has published extensively and is principle author of the bestselling Financial Times book on Benchmarking for Competitive Advantage, which is available in 6 languages, as well as the FT book on Implementing Quality in the Public Sector. His new book on `Developing Anti-Fragile Organizations; Governance, Opportunity and Risk in Turbulent Times' was published by Gower in July 2014. This examines the shortcomings of conventional risk analysis, the impact of `black swans`, and the strategic, cultural, process and people requirements for the development of operations, systems and organizations that get stronger from being stressed.

Tony has always been at the forefront of business and public sector innovation and practice. He was a major contributor to the UK National Quality Campaign, and the Managing in the 90`s programmes. He chairs the MS6 Technical Committee of BSI, which has responsibility for process efficiency, effectiveness and improvement. This did most of the development work on the creation of the ISO13053 international Six Sigma standard and is working on a new auditable ISO Lean Management and Six Sigma standard ISO18404, due for publication this year. He also chairs the Royal Statistical Society Quality Improvement Section. He has trained Senior Civil Servants for the Cabinet Office, and lectures to postgraduate business students on subjects including Manufacturing Management, Operations and Supply Chain Management, and Enterprise Risk Management. He has Board member experience in the private and voluntary sectors, and has advised and mentored senior managers and Board members, to the highest level.