Academia

Recognised as an international thought leader, Vlatka has had an international academic career for more than 25 years. She is a Professor of Leadership and Organizational Transformation at Hult Ashridge Executive Education, Visiting Professor at Birkbeck, University of London, Visiting Faculty at Cass Business School – City University of London, Visiting Faculty at the University of the Arts London, a former Adjunct Faculty at London Business School, a consultant for Said Business School, a global faculty member of Headspring Executive Development by Financial Times and IE Business School, and a Global Thought Leader at ICG Group. She has also held academic posts at the London School of Economics, Brunel University, University of Zagreb, University of Westminster and Technical University Delft.

Vlatka received a PhD from the London School of Economics, and a BSc and an MSc from the University of Zagreb. She has multi-disciplinary interests and background. Some of her professional qualifications include a Certified Master Coach, Fellow of the Institute of Learning and Performance, Licensed Master NLP Practitioner, Psychological Kinesiology Practitioner as well as a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of the British Computer Society.

She is a renowned professional keynote speaker, presenting regularly at major conferences and worldwide and has published more than 350 academic and practitioner focused articles and four books. She has obtained numerous awards for her academic work including the Bright Idea Award for the article “To be a Better Leader, Give up Authority” published in Harvard Business Review. Her articles submitted for the Academy of Management Conference were selected among best papers for several years, and she was a finalist for the Carolyn Dexter Award for the best international paper in 2013. She was voted one of the Most Influential HR Thinkers in the world in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 by HR Magazine (ranked at position 9) and has won the Croatian Woman of Influence Award as well as an Honorary Award from the Leadership Awards in 2016. She was invited to submit evidence to the All-Party Parliamentary Commission on Management based on her research.

Vlatka is a global thought leader who understands the behavioural nature of business and economics and the economic contribution of management. Uniquely, she combines intellectual insight with a practical understanding of how breakthrough ideas can be implemented. While for many years various thinkers have shown in books and lectures the huge economic value from enlightened leadership creating a positive climate to enable employees to give of their best, Vlatka has additionally created a practical, questionnaire-based approach, known as the 6 Box Leadership Model, that enables any employer – large or small – to understand their strengths and weaknesses in much greater depth. This has been used to great effect by more than 25 employers, showing considerable social and financial returns. It is described in her landmark work “The Management Shift”, published by Palgrave Macmillan and selected by Forbes magazine as one of eight best business books of the year. She has won the CMI Management Articles of the Year Award 2015 for her article based on the 6 Box Leadership diagnostic. This research was further developed in a project where 58 global leaders were interviewed about their strategies and approaches for creating high performing organisations. The results of this research were published in Vlatka’s latest book “Humane Capital – How to create a management shift to transform performance and profit”, published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book has been chosen as one of the top 5 business books in 2018 by HR Magazine and the Foreword was written by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Her contribution is particularly significant given the gulf that has persisted between theory and practice in management. The evidence base on what has to change and why in approaches to governance and management generally is well established. Vlatka adds strong, credible material on how it is done in practice. The main outcomes of this ongoing research relate to approaches and processes required to achieve a mindset and cultural changes that result in an increase in performance, value creation, innovation, engagement and profit for organisations worldwide.

Vlatka has also obtained numerous research and knowledge transfer grants for more than 10 research projects and has successfully supervised 15 PhD students. She has also served as an Associate Editor and a member of the Editorial Board for numerous international academic journals.

As a sought-after thought leader, she has a growing media platform and her expert commentaries and interviews have appeared in the press and national TV, including The Times, Sunday Telegraph, BBC World News, Independent and Guardian as well as leading industry publications such as Edge Magazine, Dialogue Magazine, Huffington Post, Marketing Magazine, Business Executive, HR Magazine, Strategy Magazine, New Europe and the Training Journal. She writes as a regular contributor on leadership for Forbes.