Jeanette Hartley

I am an Associate Lecturer at the Open University (OU) currently tutoring on B206 Understanding Customers and B207 Shaping Business Opportunities.

Prior to entering academia, I was a Management Consultant with a global firm for seventeen years, specialising in designing and delivering customer related business and technology transformation solutions in Financial Services and the Public Sector. Prior to becoming a Management Consultant I gained in depth experience of sales and customer service in retail banking where I held senior management positions in the branch network before becoming a Head Office Manager responsible for Retail channel development and the formulation of channel strategy.

During my time at the bank, I was sponsored to study for Professional banking qualifications and later a Master of Business Administration (MBA) at Loughborough university, alongside my full-time role. I can definitely empathise with OU students studying alongside work or raising a family, or both!

I completed a Master of Research and a PhD at the OU in February 2022. My thesis: Management consultants navigating competing system of engagement", drew on my practical experience as a management consultant to contribute to academic theory. I enjoyed studying at the OU and it was during this time that I became an Associate Lecturer.

Having become an “Academic” I was keen to stay in touch with my management consultancy roots. I now co-chair the “Management Consultancy Network” a special interest group of the British Academy of Management. We hold regular “coffee chats” and events on relevant topics attended by academics and practitioners with an interest in management consultancy from all over the world.