Costas Markides

Why organisations work with Costas Markides

• His “Fast Second” argument runs directly counter to first-mover advantage orthodoxy: established firms should let small entrepreneurial companies take the risk of discovering new markets, then move in as consolidators once a market has been validated. That counter-intuitive thesis – developed with Paul Geroski and shortlisted for the FT/Goldman Sachs Management Book of the Year – changes how organisations think about where to place innovation investment.
• His framework for “playing two business models at the same time” addresses a structural problem that most strategy advice sidesteps: how a firm competes in its existing market while also contesting the model that is disrupting it. He identifies specific conditions under which this works, and the organisational reasons why it usually fails.
• A UK Research Excellence Framework impact case study credits his work as the first to identify the “business model” as a concept distinct from product innovation – a distinction that gives organisations a more precise lens for analysing competitive threats and deciding which type of response a given disruption actually demands.
• His ideas on business model innovation have been formally adopted by Nestlé, Roche, and If Insurance as the basis for executive transformation programmes – documented in the REF 2014 public record, not claimed from a speaker circuit.
• He has appeared on the Thinkers50 list of the world’s top management thinkers every year since 2005, and was ranked 31st in 2011 – a sustained peer recognition that reflects a body of work rather than a single book cycle.

Biography highlights

• Robert P. Bauman Chair of Strategic Leadership; Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, London Business School (since 1990)
• MBA and DBA, Harvard Business School; BA (Distinction) and MA in Economics, Boston University
• Thinkers50 listing every year since 2005; ranked 31st in 2011; named in Forbes.com “Most Influential Management Gurus” 2009
• Author of six books including Fast Second (shortlisted FT/Goldman Sachs Management Book of the Year 2005) and All the Right Moves (shortlisted Igor Ansoff Strategic Management Award 2000)
• Published in Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, Strategic Management Journal, and Academy of Management Journal
• Board of Directors, Strategic Management Society; World Economic Forum participant, Davos

Biography

The hardest question for an established company facing disruption is not whether to respond – it is which response will not destroy the model that made it successful. Costas Markides has spent three decades at London Business School studying exactly that problem, building a body of research that challenges the accepted wisdom on disruption at almost every point.

His most counter-intuitive contribution is the “Fast Second” thesis, developed with Paul Geroski: large established companies are structurally poor at discovering radical new markets and should not try to be first. Their role is to move in once a market has been validated – as consolidators, not pioneers. That argument, shortlisted for the Financial Times/Goldman Sachs Management Book of the Year, reframes how organisations think about where innovation investment belongs.

His subsequent research sharpened the strategic question further. Game-Changing Strategies (2008) and Business Model Innovation (2023) identify the conditions under which an established firm can disrupt its own disruptor – and the structural reasons most firms fail when they try. A UK Research Excellence Framework impact assessment credits his work as the first to distinguish “business model innovation” from product innovation as a separate strategic concept – a distinction now embedded in how companies like Nestlé and Roche have approached their own transformation programmes.

Markides holds the Robert P. Bauman Chair of Strategic Leadership and has held a faculty position at LBS since 1990. His appearance on the Thinkers50 list every year since 2005 reflects continuity of contribution rather than a single publication; his most recent book, Diversification in the World of Data and AI (2025), extends his long-running framework into the context of AI-driven market change.

Key speaking topics

• Business model innovation for established firms
• Strategic response to disruption
• Corporate entrepreneurship and innovation culture
• Strategic innovation and new market creation
• Growth strategy for incumbents
• Managing two business models simultaneously
• Diversification strategy in the age of AI

Ideal for

• Chief Strategy Officers and strategy leadership teams at large established companies facing competitive disruption
• Boards and senior executive teams evaluating major decisions about business model change or market entry
• Executive education cohorts focused on corporate strategy, innovation leadership, and competitive positioning
• Transformation leads and heads of innovation at organisations initiating enterprise-wide strategic renewal

Audience outcomes

• A framework for categorising the type of disruption the organisation faces and the range of available responses
• Understanding of why the most commonly reached-for responses to disruption tend to fail, based on documented research rather than case-study selection bias
• A practical structure for assessing when and how to pursue two business models simultaneously without fracturing the existing one
• Clearer distinction between business model innovation and product innovation as strategic challenges requiring different organisational approaches
• A more accurate mental model of when large established firms can realistically pioneer new markets – and when they should not try