Origins
In the early 2000s, LSE had long been providing excellent management education but in a fragmented way. Guided by then Director Sir Howard Davies, four former Departments, (henceforth Groups), were merged into the new Department of Management in June 2006. The first Head of Department, Professor Saul Estrin, was appointed in 2005 and the newly established Department moved into the New Academic Building, which was opened by HM Queen Elizabeth II in November 2008.
Building today's department
The new and growing Department already had 50 academics and a further 35 had since been recruited giving us additional capabilities in research and teaching. Thus, the Department has grown to six Faculty Groups: Employment Relations and Human Resource Management, Information Systems and Innovation, Operations Management, Managerial Economics and Strategy, Marketing and Organisational Behaviour.
This specialisation and integration were mirrored in the administrative arrangements. The first Department Manager was Joanne Hay, who oversaw professional services staff and created an administration appropriate for a large, complex and service driven organisation. Joanne Hay left in 2018 to become the Deputy Chief Operating Officer of LSE and David Meech Mazumdar joined the Department to lead the professional services teams and work with colleagues to renew the Department’s strategy and relaunch the PhD programme.
Degrees for evolving student demand
The Department of Management was created to satisfy evolving student demand, notably for rigorous management courses built upon social science disciplines. Early activities focused on new one-year master’s degrees then later developed more innovative programmes that would be two years in length and incorporated an exchange with our international partners through CEMS. The Department rapidly recruited an extra 500 postgraduates to the School. A new BSc in Management was introduced in 2012 which proved to be extremely popular with a highly engaged and dynamic cohort. In more recent years, the Department has developed its offering to core management programmes alongside specialist ones. The common thread that connected all the programmes was that they were all rooted in basic social disciplines, with a strong emphasis on academic rigour, as well as being relevant to the practice of management.
Another significant success story is TRIUM, an Executive MBA (EMBA) programme offered jointly with HEC Paris and NYU Stern. This highly regarded programme which is currently celebrating its 20th anniversary has been consistently ranked in the top five Global EMBAs by the Financial Times. The innovative modular degree programme, Executive Global Masters in Management (EGMiM) was launched ten years ago with modules taking place in London, India and China. The programme has also recently secured its first scholarship in collaboration with the Hinrich Foundation. In 2018 the Department joined forces with the Marshall Institute to launch the Executive MSc in Social Business and Entrepreneurship. We continue to be involved in wider School Extended Education activities offering a growing number of management courses as part of their portfolio of Open Enrolment Executive short courses and Online Certificate courses.
Achievements and Honours
LSE was ranked fifth in the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) in 2008 in Business and Management studies (BAMs). Reflecting our outstanding faculty recruitment and research culture, LSE was ranked first in the UK in the BAMs unit of the Research Excellence Framework (REF) in 2014. LSE was also ranked second in the world for social sciences and management (QS World University Rankings by Subject 2021).
Looking ahead
Despite our numerous successes in the first 15 years, we must always address challenges; keeping up with demand and competition; and the impact of new technologies on our traditional offerings. Professor Naufel Vilcassim became Head of Department in 2017 and under his leadership the Department is again looking at updating and expanding its degree portfolio and PhD programme and widening access for all with new scholarship options. The Department will be launching a new strategy by the end of year which will be mapped against the School’s 2030 strategy. It is an exciting time, as we continue to evolve whilst seeking to create a better world where a profound understanding of management drives positive change in business and society.
In 2020, we welcomed almost 900 students onto our programmes and more than 12,000 have studied with us since our formation. The Department will continue to grow and strengthen its global alumni community and international partnerships. Our commitment to our alumni extends long after graduation as we continue to facilitate lifelong relationships and encourage engagement with the Department on campus, online and through our global networks. By sharing their experiences to successive student generations, our alumni, friends, and partners are enabling us to build our global standing for research and teaching excellence.
As we start to plan for a post pandemic world, the increased importance of analysis, modelling and evidence to inform hard choices in a world where austerity and inequality are ever present, the Department of Management will continue to provide rigorous and relevant research for current and future leaders.