In 2019, just a few months before the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, Executive Dean of Macquarie Business School Professor Eric Knight arrived at Stanford University with his wife and daughters.

As an Australian-American Fulbright Senior Scholar, he was there to investigate how American universities such as Stanford were changing the research landscape and offering a new model for the modern research university.

Drawing on his scholarly expertise in organisational theory and strategic management, Professor Knight set about interviewing 21 leaders who shaped Stanford’s transformation under its 10th president, John L Hennessy. His resulting book, Voices from the Hennessy Presidency: Collected Interviews, captures the spirit of an organisation united in its resolve to serve the changing needs of the world around it.

Professor Knight says Stanford’s Hennessy years offer valuable lessons for Australian universities, particularly when it comes to collaborative leadership in an environment of diverse – and sometimes conflicting – perspectives.

“One of the most interesting aspects of universities is the dynamic that results from interweaving brilliant minds and competing agendas with a shared commitment to the public good,” Professor Knight says. “As both a university leader and a business school professor, managing this tension is research in practice.

“Leading as a united group in a complex university environment is notoriously challenging. But in spending time with John Hennessy and his colleagues, the persistence of Stanford’s entrepreneurial philosophy of leadership became increasingly evident.

“There was a strong sense of a shared mindset and understanding of the University’s strategy, and the leaders tended to have the same nuanced approach to trade-offs.

“Ultimately, their fundamental commitment to a united philosophy had tremendous resonance for me, and I consider it one of the most important insights that can be taken away from the book.”

In discussing his book with other Macquarie University leaders, Professor Knight noted that there is a great appetite to learn from other successful research institutions that share Macquarie’s dedication to discovery and engagement.

“Of course, macro contexts vary, and institutions are positioned differently within our sector. But with a similarity of purpose, the question we can ask ourselves is, “If [noted Stanford leaders] John Hennessy or Carla Schatz or Bob Joss found themselves in this situation, how might they have responded?

“In the same way that we endeavour to inspire our own students at Macquarie, so too can we be inspired by the way universities like Stanford have pushed the frontiers of discovery.”

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Watch Professor Eric Knight in conversation with Stanford leaders John Hennessy, John Etchemendy and Patricia Gumport in the Stanford Historical Society panel event Voices from the Hennessy Presidency – Reflections on University Leadership.