Costas Markides

Leading business and strategy speaker Costas Markides is Professor of Strategic and International Management at the London Business School (University of London), where he also holds the Robert P. Bauman Chair of Strategic Leadership. His academic work focuses extensively on strategic innovation, business-model innovation, diversification, and international acquisitions.

Along with Paul Geroski, Markides is the co-author of the groundbreaking "Fast Second: How Smart Companies Bypass Radical Innovation to Enter & Dominate New Markets," which uses the metaphor of a landscape to describe the business world. The book was shortlisted for the Financial Times-Goldman Sachs Management Book of the Year in 2005 and examines how big, established companies can create radical new markets by acting as "colonists" or "consolidators." Drawing on examples of successful "fast-second" firms such as Microsoft, Amazon, Canon, JVC, Heinz, and others, Markides explains how new markets have the potential to be successful and provides insight on when to make a move into a new market, how to scale up a market, where to position a company in the market, and whether to be a colonist or consolidator.

Markides was named to the "Thinkers 50," a ranking of the 50 most influential living management thinkers in the world. His "All the Right Moves: A Guide to Crafting Breakthrough Strategy" was shortlisted for the Igor Ansoff Strategic Management Award 2000 and delves into why successful business strategies should focus on identifying the right customers, products, and efficient operational methods. His research and presentations cover a wide range of topics, such as institutionalizing innovation within organizations, the implications of the digital revolution on business, and strategic responses to disruption. His latest book, "Game-Changing Strategies: How to Create new Market Space in Established Industries by Breaking the Rules," further explores these themes.

A native of Cyprus, Costas Markides received his BA and MA in economics from Boston University and his MBA and DBA from the Harvard Business School. He has been a Fellow of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, from 1999 to 2003 and has served on the Editorial Boards of several academic journals, including the Strategic Management Journal and the Academy of Management Journal. Currently, he is working on a new book titled "Great oaks from little acorns grow: How ordinary people bring about social change," continuing his exploration of how innovation and strategic thinking drive organizational and societal transformations.