Benjamin Laker

Background

About Benjamin Laker

I am Professor of Leadership at Henley Business School, University of Reading. I study what organisations reveal about themselves under pressure: who gets seen, whose work counts and how leaders respond when systems are strained. My research is published in FT50 journals including the Journal of Management Studies, Human Resource Management and the Journal of Consumer Research. I serve as Consulting Editor at the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, Associate Editor at the International Journal of Human Resource Management and the Journal of Business Research, and Editorial Board Member at Long Range Planning. As a contributor to Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times, I write a lot about how work is changing and what leaders often miss when they focus on structure but overlook meaning. You may be familiar with two of my best-known ideas: the Four-Day Workweek and Meeting-Free Days. The first challenged the assumption that longer hours produce better work, an argument I first proposed in “Will the 4-Day Workweek Take Hold in Europe?” published in 2019. The second examined how reclaiming uninterrupted time can strengthen focus, creativity and trust, an argument I first proposed in “The Surprising Impact of Meeting-Free Days” published in 2022. Together, these ideas earned my recognition by LinkedIn as a Top Voice. I have written three bestselling books:"Too Proud to Lead" published by Bloomsbury in 2021;"Closing the Service Gap" published by the Financial Times in 2023; and "Job Crafting" published by MIT Press in 2024. All three received endorsements from Apple, Google and Microsoft, among others. I am often asked to work with senior leaders in Fortune 500 and FTSE 100 firms on the questions defining the future of work: how to lead through uncertainty, design organisations that adapt, build cultures of trust, improve productivity, rethink hybrid work, respond to AI and strengthen organisational performance without exhausting the people who make it possible. London is home, but I often work in New York and Singapore, meaning I can quite easily accept engagements across Europe, the United States and Asia. These include keynote talks, executive education programmes, leadership development workshops, boardroom briefings, senior team retreats, strategy sessions, offsites and conference presentations. Due to the volume of enquiries I get, all engagement requests are managed through MSC Marketing Bureau: MSC Marketing Bureau +44 3300 272320 +30 6942 422 365 WhatsApp/Viber speakers[at]mscbureau.com