The prize is awarded for an outstanding recent piece of research relevant to management consultancy published in the UK, and this year was presented to Professor Sturdy; Professor Christopher Wright, University of Sydney; and Dr Nick Wylie of Oxford Brookes University, for their book Management as Consultancy: Neo-bureaucracy and the Consultant Manager.

Their research shows that increasingly managers within organisations are taking on the tools and techniques of management consultancy, with the risk that the management consultancy business will become a victim of its own success and may ultimately face substitution by internal experts.

David Peregrine-Jones, Master of the Company, said in awarding the prize: “Although we are a modern livery company, we continue the long tradition of City livery companies in supporting education. Colonel Urwick was a pioneer in the practice of management consultancy in the UK and an acclaimed writer on management. It is fitting therefore that this prize, which commemorates him, should be awarded to the authors of a book which looks at the increasing overlap between the worlds of consulting and management.”

Professor Sturdy said: “We are really pleased to have our work recognised by the award of this prestigious prize. It is vital that academic research in management consultancy is linked to practical applications in both the public and private sectors, and I applaud the efforts of the Company in supporting this.”