When the old leadership playbook isn’t enough

Alliance Manchester Business School launches Leadership Applied, a new executive programme designed around the complex organisational challenges facing senior leaders today.

Leadership has rarely been more visible, or more complex.

Senior leaders are navigating a combination of pressures that rarely come with straightforward answers: rapid advances in AI and digital transformation, economic uncertainty, regulatory change, shifting workforce expectations and increasing scrutiny of organisational reputation.

Research commissioned by Alliance Manchester Business School earlier this year found that 73% of UK senior decision-makers say their roles have become more complex since 2020. More than half said attracting and retaining talent has become more difficult, while 59% said navigating regulation has become harder.

Against this backdrop, Alliance Manchester Business School has launched Leadership Applied, a new executive education programme for experienced senior leaders.

Rather than focusing solely on traditional leadership development, Leadership Applied takes an applied approach. Participants bring a live organisational challenge into the programme and explore it through expert insight, practical frameworks, peer discussion and reflection, with the aim of developing practical ways forward that can be taken back into their organisations.

The programme explores issues including productivity, innovation, AI, organisational design, strategy, reputation, risk and leadership culture,

Professor Chris Bones, Programme Director for Leadership Applied, brings extensive experience across leadership, strategy and organisational transformation. He said:

“The environment in which leaders are operating has changed fundamentally. The challenges organisations face are increasingly interconnected, and leaders can’t always rely on established playbooks or straightforward answers.

“Leadership Applied was developed to give experienced leaders the space to step back, challenge their assumptions and work through the real organisational challenges they are facing, alongside people bringing different perspectives and experiences.”

Sara Russell, Deputy Programme Director for Leadership Applied, has been closely involved in translating that thinking into the participant experience. She said:

“What people don’t always see is just how much sits behind the design of a new programme. There has been an enormous amount of research and discussion about the challenges leaders are facing, and what they genuinely need from executive education.

“One of the most rewarding parts has been helping turn all of that research and expertise into an experience that works in practice for the people in the room.”

Participants will work alongside senior leaders from different sectors, bringing together a diversity of perspectives and experiences that can challenge assumptions and open up new ways of thinking.

The programme also draws on the character of its home city. Manchester has a long history of challenging convention, creating new possibilities and turning ideas into action, a spirit reflected in Leadership Applied.

Based at Alliance Manchester Business School, the programme combines academic expertise with the practical realities of organisational leadershipgiving experienced leaders the time and perspective to explore difficult questions and identify new ways forward.

Leadership Applied begins in November 2026 and is designed for senior leaders with responsibility for organisational performance, transformation, growth, strategy and complex stakeholder environments.

Find out more about Leadership Applied at Alliance Manchester Business School: ambs.ac.uk/lam