Philip Sadler - British business educator - Profiles in Executive Education

Business Horizons, July-August, 1996 by Harper W. Moulton

This is the third in a series on executive education "gurus" of the 20th century. The first installment, featured in the January-February 1995 issue, profiled the contributions of Harry Levinson. The second, published in September-October, featured Ken Andrews.

For those who wish to visit Ashridge Management College, perhaps the easiest and best way to get there is by train from London's Euston station to Berkhamsted. This is where William the Conqueror, because of his mistrust of Londoners, maintained his court in 1066. Ashridge itself sits on land that held a monastic college as early as the thirteenth century. A Gothic-style mansion was built on the site in the early 1800s. However, there remain a few ancient buildings that would have been known to Mary I and Edward VI in 1543. Ashridge was bequeathed to Queen Elizabeth I by her father, Henry VIII. It was here that she was arrested by the command of Mary and escorted to the Tower of London.

It is appropriate, then, that in continuing the royal connection, Philip Sadler, our host and then Principal of Ashridge Management College, was absent for a day from an annual conference of University Program Directors in March 1986. Held for the first time overseas, the conference was attended by more than 100 academic and corporate executive attendees. Apologies were tendered for Sadler's absence, but no explanation was given until somewhat later, when the group learned that the Queen had awarded Sadler the CBE--Commander of the British Empire--at Buckingham Palace that day. Typically, Sadler himself made no mention of this great honor during the remainder of the conference.

Ashridge Management College has become one of the leading management educational institutions in Europe, largely due to the efforts of Philip Sadler. According to one member of the faculty, "Ashridge is, to a large extent, seen as Sadler's personal creation. He has been a strong leader who has kept a firm hand on what has been going on."

EXPERIENCE AND PERSPECTIVE

Prior to his Ashridge experience, Philip Sadler, who was born in 1930, had an early involvement in executive education. In 1954, he joined the U.K. Ministry of Defense, working with Royal Air Force senior officers on a social science research project. Over the next several years, he was asked to lecture on such subjects as leadership and motivation. This led to the design of a one-week management training course for noncommissioned officers, which is still in existence nearly 40 years later.

Further interest in management training led Sadler to the U.K. National Economic Development Office, where he dealt with the issue of the lack of investment in management education as it related to Britain's poor economic performance. It was to obtain a more active involvement in management education that he joined Ashridge as Director of Research in 1964. At that time, management studies in Great Britain were still, of not in their infancy, barely in the toddler stage. There were just two business schools: Henley, established 15 years earlier, and Ashridge, which was just five years old. Known starchily as the Administrative Staff College, Henley dominated the market with its long, 12-week course designed for highfliers in banks, civil service, and similar institutions. Ashridge, on the other hand, had a different view. As Sadler explains, it focused on "short, sharp courses with a strong commercial bias and much more emphasis in marketing." Henley produced administrators, while Ashridge turned out competitive, market-oriented executives.

After his appointment as principal in 1969, Sadler set about developing a strategy with his new management team. Consistently pursued over the next two decades, it resulted in Ashridge moving from a position of relative obscurity in Britain to an acknowledged status as one of Europe's leading centers for management education and development. Elements of the strategy were:

1. Positioning: midway between the academic and theoretical approach to business education and the "nuts and bolts" of consultants, stressing the practical application of theory and the value of applied research.

2. Financial independence: to be free from external financial sources and develop its own ability to generate cash--a goal that has since been accomplished.

3. Development of distinctive competencies: the integration of disciplines at all four management levels: organizational behavior, human resource management, marketing competence, and financial knowledge.

4. Learning environment: physical and social.

5. Team building/open management style: forging a strong sense of identity among the support and professional staff.

6. Research base: important contributions to management knowledge.

In 1989, his last full year at Ashridge, Sadler's staff worked with 1,200 client organizations. More than 6,000 managers attended its programs, and the Centre had a total income of over B-lb 12.5 million. Today it is one of the most well-equipped business schools in the world. With a residential capacity of 175 course members at the Berkhamsted campus, it includes such distinctive features as The Learning Resource Centre, completed in 1988 and seen as the benchmark facility of its kind in the U.K. Ashridge also has a London presence, a prestigious building located near the BBC that was designed by the brothers Adam in the eighteenth century. It houses the Ashridge Strategic Management Centre, the research findings of which have been featured in several articles in Harvard Business Review.