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About Ade

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Here you can learn more about Ade McCormack. He has drawn on his extension life and work experience to develop his thesis on how organisations can thrive in an increasingly disruptive world.

Highlights

Providing clarity to leaders in disruptive times

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  • Trained in astrophysics and worked at the European Space Agency.

  • Former technologist.

  • Worked in over forty countries.

  • Worked in many different sectors with some of the world’s most prominent brands.

  • Over four decades of professional experience at the sharp end of business and technology.

  • Founder, The Intelligent Organisation thinktank.

  • Advisor to leaders across both public and private sectors.

  • Financial Times columnist for a decade on leadership.

  • Lectured at MIT Sloan on leadership matters

  • Works with the University of Cambridge (Moller Institute, Churchill College) on leadership education.

  • Written six books on strategic matters, including Biz 4.0: An anthropological blueprint for business in the digital age.

Background

From technology to organisational inteligence

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Chapter 1: Information technology

Primarily system development and project management

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  • Project managed and developed software for the European Space Agency’s Gamma Ray Observatory.

  • Designed and developed an avionics lifecycle costing model for the MoD.

  • Project managed the development of a maritime battlefield scenario simulator for the MoD.

  • Architected the IT infrastructure for the Royal Navy amphibious assault ship replacement.

  • Developed a system to manage the data and voice cabling for a US investment bank setting up in the UK.

  • Developed real-time software for Royal Navy command and control systems. This included electronic warfare and actor tracking.

  • Developed induction programmes for technology graduates, technical architects and project managers.

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Chapter 2: Operations and strategy

Primarily advisory, writing, education and live events

 

Set up a small consulting practice. Focused on helping business organisations lever more value from their IT investment and helping technology companies boost their strategic influence through thought leadership and client-facing activities.

This involved a significant amount of classroom engagement, ranging from graduate induction programmes through to global leadership programmes.

Sample activities:

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  • Developed a global leadership programme for one of the world’s largest banks to transition it from technology laggard to technology leader.

  • Audited the IT functions of several large professional services organisations.

  • Advised on the implementation of several large enterprise application deployments into the professional services and telecoms sector.

  • Columnist for both the Financial Times and CIO magazine on digital leadership.

  • Keynoted, chaired and moderated at a variety of events globally.

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Chapter 3: Organisational intelligence

Advisor and public speaker

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Current focus is on developing organisational models that are optimised for highly volatile conditions. Engagements typically cover public speaking, workshop facilitation and advisory.

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Sample activities:

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  • Provision of disruption themed workshops for a variety of Chinese business school MBA programmes. ​

  • Development of a disruption-focused development programme for government leaders across the island of Ireland

  • Advisor to Middle Eastern government in setting up a national school of management. 

Ade has worked with

Ade has worked with many high profile organisations, including:

  • HSBC

  • GSK

  • British Airways

  • Cisco

  • Goldman Sachs

  • Henley Business School

  • MIT Sloan School of Management

  • VMWare

  • Ford

  • HPE

  • European Space Agency

  • European Commission

  • Thomson Reuters

  • Central Bank of Egypt 

  • Co-operation Ireland

  • University of Cambrige

  • Roche

  • Manpower

  • Microsoft

  • NASSCOM

  • IBM

  • Oracle.​

Ade has also worked with both lower profile organisations including small to medium players, scale-ups and start-ups.

What they are saying..

You can scroll through the testimonials either using the arrows on the right and left hand sides or simply click on the white dots.

Global Peter Drucker Forum

“Ade was a session chair at the Drucker Forum (Digital Forum Day) in Vienna on Human Hardware, Human Software: Is There Any Potential for Upgrades? The cross-discipline composition of the panel required a good understanding - not only of technology but psychology, biology and organization behavior. This is what Ade brought to the fore and thus contributed to the success of the Global Peter Drucker Forum.”

Personal

Work imitates life

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Ade McCormack's work is informed by his life experiences and interests. Environmental sensitivity and real-time responsiveness was instilled at an early age through growing up in the chaotic world of an inner-city pub. In latter years, he has drawn insights from living in the countryside, particularly around living systems.

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He has a particular interest in movement, including ultra-distance trail running, martial arts / self-defence, dancing and parkour. These inform his perspectives on environmental awareness and more generally intelligence. His wife considers dancing his most effective martial art.

You can scroll through the images using the arrows on the right and left hand sides.

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Explore Ade's thinking

Challenges → Perspectives → Principles

The ideas on this website are organised as a journey from the challenges leaders face, through the organisational perspectives used to understand them and ultimately to the principles that enable organisations to become more viable, vital and valuable in an increasingly disruptive world.

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