Simon Hayward

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

SKILLS

ABOUT SIMON HAYWARD

I am an author and Professor of Leadership Practice at Alliance Manchester Business School, part of the University of Manchester. I focus on leadership and culture issues associated with greater responsibility, agility and connectedness. I have non-exec director roles with the Forward Institute, Youth Federation and Forest Distillery. I am a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) and the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA). I am a regular speaker on leadership topics at conferences and in the media. I was previously Managing Director at Accenture where I established the Leadership and Culture practice, which works with clients to create agile and customer-centric organizations, and accelerate change as they navigate through massive digital and environmental disruption.I was the founder and CEO of Cirrus, where we created leadership, talent and engagement experiences that build reputation and deliver results. Cirrus was acquired by Accenture in 2021. My first book,\'Connected Leadership: how to build a more agile and customer driven business\' was published by FT Publishing and features case studies from Marks & Spencer, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, PayPal, Shop Direct, Standard Chartered and Three. I continue to research connected leadership having completed my doctorate at Manchester Business School in the field of distributed leadership. My chapter on Connected Leadership in Asia was published in 2017 in the Palgrave Macmillan Handbook on Transforming Asia. My second book,\'The Agile Leader: How to Create an Agile Business in the Digital Age\' was published by Kogan Page in 2018, with a 2nd edition published in 2021. It builds on Connected Leadership and provides a practical guide to developing a more agile leadership style to drive sustainable success in our complex, fast-moving world.My current research focus is on Responsible Leadership in support of organizations seeking to balance purpose with long term prosperity, acting in the interests of all stakeholders including shareholders, the people involved in and affected by the organization, and the planet.