UCC professor starts book club for business executives

Put down that Maeve Binchy and say hello to Hannah Arendt. A UCC professor has launched a book club for business executives to expand their minds and improve the way they think.

The demands of an increasingly complex world are over the heads of many leaders in Ireland, claims UCC professor Connell Fanning. As evidence he cites the very narrow thinking leading up to the bank bailout, which has been revealed almost daily at the Banking Inquiry.

Fanning, who was professor of economics at UCC and head of the School of Economics from 1988 until earlier this year, sees the same issues facing business leaders and believes that the future requires more complex minds for effective and successful leadership.

Improving how leaders think is the key issue of our time, says Fanning. Minds with the capability to handle the greater ambiguity and uncertainty of politics, business and life are needed. To address these leadership demands, Fanning recently launched a new business research facility, the Keynes Centre, at UCC, whose Reading for Change Book Club for business executives seeks to utilises the power of shared reading and productive conversation as the means for personal professional development.

Starting in October, Fanning will select a short, thought-provoking book and facilitate a discussion session to explore the wider implications of the readings for participants to think about their personal professional self. These monthly readings will introduce key ideas for levering change in leadership thinking and include some of the greatest modern minds, such as German-American thinker Arendt.

Bookings are now being taken for this eight-month programme. For further information contact 021- 4658605.