London Business School is mourning the loss of Charles Handy CBE, the influential management thinker, author and former professor whose ideas helped shape modern understanding of organisations, leadership and the future of work. A towering figure in business education and a much-admired colleague, Handy’s association with the School spanned decades, during which he inspired generations of students and executives with his insights into purpose, culture and the changing nature of careers. As the School reflects on his life and legacy,faculty,alumni and staff are paying tribute to a man whose intellectual curiosity,warmth and humanity left an indelible mark on the institution and the wider world of management.
Celebrating the enduring legacy of Charles Handy CBE at London Business School
Few figures have shaped the intellectual character of London Business School as profoundly as Charles Handy. A pioneering thinker on organisational culture, the future of work and the moral purpose of business, he challenged generations of students and executives to see companies not merely as engines of profit, but as communities of meaning and duty. His lectures filled lecture theatres, yet frequently enough felt like conversations: reflective, questioning, occasionally provocative, always humane. Colleagues recall a scholar who moved effortlessly between theory and lived experience, folding stories from his early corporate career and personal life into frameworks that would later become essential reading in business schools worldwide.
His influence reaches far beyond the classroom, embedded in the way the School engages with leaders, alumni and global partners. Concepts he championed – from portfolio careers to the “shamrock organisation” – continue to inform how the School explores modern management challenges in a volatile world. His legacy also lives in the everyday rhythms of campus life, visible in the values that underpin research, teaching and community engagement:
- Curiosity – questioning orthodoxies and seeking fresh perspectives on work and society.
- Humanity – placing people, purpose and ethics at the core of management thinking.
- Courage – inviting challenging conversations about power, responsibility and change.
- Connection – building bridges between academia, business and the communities they serve.
| Role at LBS | Professor of Management & Social Philosophy |
| Signature Themes | Future of work, organisational culture, purpose in business |
| Influence | Global management thinking, LBS curriculum and values |
How Charles Handy transformed management thinking and leadership education
From his earliest lectures in Regent’s Park, Handy invited students to see organisations not as machines to be optimised but as communities of meaning, choice and responsibility. He challenged the orthodoxy of rigid hierarchies,coining ideas that would become management touchstones: the “portfolio career“,the “shamrock organisation” and the “age of unreason”. In classrooms that felt more like laboratories than lecture halls, he blended philosophy, economics and lived experience, urging future leaders to ask not only whether a decision was efficient, but whether it was humane. His teaching style-part storyteller, part provocateur-recast leadership education as an exploration of values rather than a narrow pursuit of profit.
Handy’s presence shaped the School’s curriculum and culture long after his formal teaching ended. Programmes across degree and executive education strands were redesigned to reflect his conviction that leadership is a moral as well as managerial act. Faculty and students alike drew on his frameworks to interrogate the future of work, corporate purpose and the social contract between employers and employees. Key strands of his influence included:
- Human‑centred leadership that foregrounded dignity, trust and autonomy.
- Critical reflection on power, inequality and the responsibilities of global business.
- Experimental learning through discussion, debate and real-world dilemmas rather than case-study consensus.
- Long-term outlook on careers, encouraging individuals to design lives, not just jobs.
| Idea | What it Changed |
|---|---|
| Portfolio career | From single-path jobs to plural, evolving roles |
| Shamrock organisation | From fixed staff to blended, flexible workforces |
| Purpose-led leadership | From shareholder focus to wider stakeholder impact |
Personal reflections from colleagues and students on a life of purpose and impact
Former students recall how a single tutorial with Handy could redirect an entire career. One MBA alumnus described entering his office “intent on a life in investment banking” and leaving with a notebook full of questions about community, responsibility and the meaning of success.Colleagues speak of a scholar who arrived to faculty meetings with the same battered briefcase and an ever-expanding collection of handwritten notes, challenging them not with volume, but with quiet, insistent inquiry: Who benefits? What end are we serving? They remember how he treated every case discussion as a rehearsal for real life, urging executives to see profit as a outcome of purpose rather than its substitute, and how his lectures left halls hushed, not by rhetoric, but by the unsettling clarity of his questions.
In countless conversations over coffee, corridors and late-night seminars, Handy modelled a style of leadership that was as personal as it was rigorous. Colleagues recall three constant themes in those exchanges:
- Curiosity without judgement — he listened longer than he spoke, then offered a single, piercing observation.
- Purpose over position — he guided rising leaders to define their worth beyond job titles and balance sheets.
- Impact measured in people — he asked former students not what they had built, but whom they had helped.
| Voice | What they remember most |
|---|---|
| Former student | “He made my career plan feel too small for my own values.” |
| Junior colleague | “He treated my first article as if it might change the field.” |
| Executive participant | “He forced me to justify every decision in human terms.” |
Continuing Handy’s vision with practical steps for business schools and leaders today
Applying his ideas now demands more than respectful citation; it calls for redesigning how we teach, lead and measure success. Business schools can embed Handy’s blend of purpose, profit and people by rethinking curricula and campus culture: integrating cross-disciplinary modules on ethics and inequality into core finance and strategy courses; inviting practitioners who have built stakeholder-led organisations into the classroom; and aligning careers services with paths in social enterprise, impact investing and public service as strongly as with conventional corporate roles.Faculty can model “portfolio lives” through collaboration with NGOs, startups and communities, making visible the plural careers they encourage students to pursue.
- Curriculum: Case studies that foreground social impact alongside shareholder returns.
- Leadership practice: Coaching and reflection built into executive education, not treated as add-ons.
- Governance: Advisory boards that include community voices, alumni activists and impact investors.
- Metrics: Dashboards that track graduate wellbeing, societal contribution and environmental outcomes.
| Handy Principle | Action for Schools | Action for Leaders |
|---|---|---|
| Work as a calling | Embed purpose-led projects with real organisations | Co-create roles around strengths and meaning |
| Portfolio life | Normalise mixed careers in teaching and alumni stories | Support side ventures, volunteering and learning sabbaticals |
| Beyond profit | Teach multi-capital accounting, not just EPS | Adopt KPIs on climate, equity and community impact |
| Human-scale organisations | Use small cohort learning and peer circles | Flatten hierarchies and devolve real decision rights |
For organisations, the continuation of his legacy lies in treating the firm as a moral community rather than merely a production system. Boards can revisit their mandates to explicitly balance fiduciary duty with societal stewardship, while executives translate that balance into choices on pay equity, automation, supply chains and climate strategy. Internal governance can be redesigned so that dissent is not a risk to be managed but a resource for foresight: employee assemblies, citizen-style panels, reverse mentoring and transparent town halls all give real teeth to the “soft” values Handy championed. When senior teams link advancement to how managers grow people and safeguard long-term value-not only quarterly results-they turn his philosophy into daily practice, ensuring that his influence shapes the next generation of decision-makers as tangibly as it did the last.
To Wrap It Up
As the School community reflects on Handy’s remarkable life and work, his influence continues to shape the thinking of students, scholars and business leaders across the globe.In lecture halls, boardrooms and social enterprises alike, his questions about purpose, responsibility and the human side of capitalism remain as urgent as ever.London Business School will honor his legacy not only in words, but in its ongoing commitment to the values he championed: intellectual curiosity, moral courage and a deep belief in business as a force for good. For those who studied with him, worked alongside him or were simply inspired by his books, Charles Handy’s voice endures-in the ideas he advanced, the lives he touched and the institution he helped define.
