BOURNEMOUTH UNIVERSITY
For BU, the secret lies in the operational glue that binds disparate teams: a shared performance framework. The university is embedding Objectives and Key Results( OKRs) deeply across the institution, requiring every team’ s goals to tie explicitly back to overarching institutional priorities.
However, Gerry expresses that the real magic happens when IT, estates, student services and academic faculties visibly serve the same outcomes; suddenly, interdepartmental collaboration“ stops being goodwill and becomes how the work gets done”.
Gerry believes that what really drives people to cross boundaries is the culture set by leadership.
“ I am fortunate to work with a Vice Chancellor and within a leadership team that is genuinely aligned in direction – and that alignment is non-negotiable, because teams quickly sense when their leaders aren’ t pulling together,” he says.
“ Our focus, though, is leadership capability at every level, not just the top table. A strategy this ambitious has to be owned by managers throughout the organisation, so we are building real financial literacy and confidence at every tier – creating distributed ownership rather than top-down mandate. Our middle leaders either translate strategy into delivery or quietly absorb it, so developing their skills is some of the highest-leverage work we can do.”
90 August 2026