Business strategy – Networks and Urban Systems Centre (NUSC)

Meet the Member: Steven Brown on Open Strategy, Multi-Sector Leadership, and Research with Real-World Impact

On 11 December 2025 By Natasha Lawlor-Morrison In Leadership, Meet the member, Open Strategy

Following a ten-year career in the British Army, Steven Brown’s business career took centre stage. With over 20 years of senior leadership experience in industries such as telecommunications, consumer electronics and global logistics, Steven brings a broad range of experience to his research. He completed an MBA in 2007, an experience which first got him thinking about the possibility of pursuing research further. Now, as a PhD student at the University of Greenwich, Steven is diving deep into the evolving field of Open Strategy—bringing both curiosity and humility to the process.

Leading the Change: How Corporate Leadership Drives Eco-Innovation

On 8 October 2025 By Natasha Lawlor-Morrison In Eco-Innovation, Environmental, Green, Innovation, Machine Learning, Research Spotlight, Sustainable Development, Systems Dynamics, Systems Thinking

Imagine a startup that creates edible packaging made from seaweed. You buy a takeaway coffee, and instead of a plastic lid, it’s sealed with a biodegradable, tasteless seaweed film (Product innovation). You can toss it in the compost—or eat it.

Now scale that up: this packaging replaces millions of plastic wrappers in supermarkets. It dissolves in water, leaves no microplastics, and is made from a fast-growing, carbon-sequestering marine plant (Process innovation). The company partners with coastal communities to harvest seaweed sustainably, creating jobs and restoring marine ecosystems (Social impact).

This is eco-innovation in action.

It’s not just clever—it’s transformative.