Richard Pech - Staff - Graduate School of Management

Dr Pech is Director of Research at the Graduate School of Management at Melbourne 's La Trobe University. He has a background in cognitive psychology focusing on problem solving and decision-making processes within organisational contexts. His research has been published in numerous international scholarly, as well as applied journals on topics as varied as the application of military strategies for business success, reducing the incidence of mimicked acts of terrorism, strategies for developing greater levels of innovation in organisations, entrepreneurial decision-making, and the management of thought contagion. Most recently his research has ventured into the area of organisational survival strategies and stress-response behaviours. This research has identified a number of interesting parallels between organisational stress-response behaviours and the biological phenomenon of hormesis – the deliberate application of toxins for the purpose of invoking beneficial cellular stress-response behaviours.

Dr Pech has undertaken research and consulting services for a variety of organisations in the areas of leadership training, process and product innovation, strategic redirection, restructuring, and change management. Some of these client organisations have included Singapore Airlines, PNG Office of Civil Aviation, Garuda Airlines, the New Zealand Army, the Royal New Zealand Air Force, the Royal New Zealand Police, members of the Australian optometry industry, and a number of multinational as well as Australian engineering firms, including EarthTech, MWHGlobal, and Southeast Water.

Dr Pech has authored two books on business strategy and innovation. He is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board for the Handbook of Business Strategy and a reviewer for four international journals. He was awarded the 2005 Literati Club Outstanding Paper Award for his article ‘ Where the decision-makers went wrong: from capitalism to cannibalism' published in the Journal of Corporate Governance. In 2004 he received the 2004 Literati Club Highly Commended Award for his article ‘Memetics and innovation: Profit through balanced meme management', published in the European Journal of Innovation Management.

Dr Pech teaches in the areas of entrepreneurship, business improvement, strategy, business communication, and corporate venturing. He also supervises a number of PhD students in areas related to his own research interests.

INTERVIEW

Coate, P. (2006), "Interview with Richard Pech", Business Strategy Series, 8, 1, pp. 8-13.

MEMBER: EDITORIAL REVIEW BOARD

Management Decision - Emerald Journals
Business Strategy Series

MEMBER: EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD

Handbook of Business Strategy

PUBLICATIONS - BOOKS

Pech, R.J. (2002), Making waves: Innovation in business, Pearson Education/Prentice Hall, Auckland, New Zealand
Pech, R.J., Pech, R.M. and Tweed, D.M. (2002), Business manoeuvre warfare: Managerial styles and strategies for the twenty-first century, Dunmore Press, Palmerston North, New Zealand

PUBLICATIONS - JOURNAL ARTICLES

Pech, R., and Slade, B. (2007) Organisational Sociopaths: Rarely Challenged, Often Promoted, Why? Scoiety and Business Review, 2(3), pp254-269.
Pech, R. and Coate, P. (2007) Interview with Richard Pech: Interview by Patricia Coate, Business Strategy Series, 8(1), pp8-13.
Pech, R.J. (2006), "Stress response mechanisms: from single cells to multinational organizations", Dose-Response, August, 4, 3,
(e-journal) http://www.dose-response.com/
Smith, S. and Pech, R.J. (2006), “A template for commercialising science and facilitating innovation: A case study of Victoria, Australia”, European Journal of Innovation Management, 9, 3, pp. 279-299.
Pech, R.J. and Slade, B.W. (2006), “Religious fundamentalism and terrorism: Why do they do it and what do they want?” Foresight: Journal of Future Studies, Strategic Thinking and Policy, 8, 1, pp. 8-20.
Durden, C.H. and Pech, R.J. (2006), “The increasing cost of corporate governance: Decision speed-bumps for managers”, Corporate Governance: The International Journal of Business in Society, 6, 2, pp. 84-95.
Pech, R.J. and Cameron, A.F. (2006), "An entrepreneurial decision process model describing opportunity recognition". European Journal of Innovation Management, 9, 1, pp. 61-78.

* Richard's, "An Entrepreneurial decision process model describing opportunity recognition", paper was the second most downloaded article from the entire Emerald fulltext database of articles (including 152 journals) during May 2006. It had 1,688 hits during May alone.
Pech, R.J. and Oakley, K.E. (2005), " Hormesis: An evolutionary 'predict and prepare' survival mechanism", Leadership and Organization Development Journal, pp. 673-687.
Pech, R.J. and Slade, B.W. (2005), "Employee disengagement: Is there evidence of a growing problem?", 2006 Handbook of Business Strategy, 7, 1, pp. 21-25
Pech, R.J. and Slade, B.W. (2005), "Imitative terrorism: A Diagnostic framework for identifying catalysts and designing interventions", Foresight: Journal of Future Studies, Strategic Thinking and Policy, 7, 2, pp. 47-60.
Pech, R.M., Pech, R.J., Wei, D. and Shi, H. (2005), "Innovation through acquisition: The Jiangsu Little Swan Group Company in the People's Replic of China", European Journal of Innovation Management, pp. 107-119.
Pech, R.J. and Slade, B.W. (2004) Business maneuver: Exploiting speed and surprise as key elements for defense and attack, Handbook of Business Strategy 2005, 6(1), 35-42.
Pech, R.J. and Slade, B.W. (2004) Manoeuvre theory: Business mission analysis process for high intensity conflict, Management Decision, 42(8), 987-1000.
Pech, R.J. and Slade, B.W. (2004) Memetic engineering: A framework for organisational diagnosis and development, The Leadership and Organization Development Journal, 25,5, 452-465.
Pech, R.J. and Durden, G. (2004) Where the decision-makers went wrong: From capitalism to cannibalism, Corporate Governance: The International Journal of Business in Society, 4(1), 65-75.
McGregor, J., Tweed, D. and Pech, R. (2004), Human capital in the new economy: Devil's bargain? Journal of Intellectual Capital, 5(1), 153-164.
Pech, R.J. and Slade, B.W. (2003), "Asymmetric competition: Decision processes shaping the future", Management Decision, 41, 9, pp. 883-892.
Cameron, A. and Pech, R.J. (2003), "Manawatu knitting mills: A management buy-out opportunity", Journal of the Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management, 9, 2, pp 30-37.
Pech, R.J. (2003), "Memes and cognitive hardwiring: Why are some memes more successful than others?" European Journal of Innovation Management, 6, 3, pp. 173-181.
Pech, R.J. (2003), "Inhibiting imitative terrorism through memetic engineering", Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 11, 2, pp 61-66.
Pech, R.J. (2003), "Memetics and innovation: Profit through balanced meme management", European Journal of Innovation Management, 6, 2, pp. 111-117.
Pech, R.J. (2003), "Developing a leadership knowledge architecture: A cognitive approach", The Leadership and Organization Development Journal, 24, 1, pp. 32-42.
Pech, R.J. and Durden, G. (2003), "Manoeuvre warfare: A new paradigm for business decision making", Management Decision, 41, 2, pp. 168-179.
Pech, R.J. (2001), "Termites, group behaviour and the loss of innovation: Conformity rules!" Journal of Managerial Psychology, 16, 7, Nov. pp. 559-574.

AWARDS

Emerald Literati Club 2004 'Highly Commended Award' for the article "Memetics and innovation: Profit through balanced meme management", published in the European Journal of Innovation Management", 2003, Vol. 6, No. 2.

Emerald Literati Club 2005 'Outstanding Paper Award' for the article " Where the decision-makers went wrong: from capitalism to cannibalism" for the journal Corporate Governance.

Law and Management

About GSM

Information About

Research