Colleagues, students and alumni were all saddened to hear of the news of Nick’s death in July 2020, but the memory of his inspirational research, teaching and initiatives such as the Production Game in particular lives on.
Designed as a test of skills in strategy and organisation, Nick created the Production Game as an exercise to illustrate how teams deal with difficult, high pressure conditions.
Each team was required to formulate strategy and to design and run an organisation to execute that strategy, whilst staying cool and focused under pressure.
Unlike many other simulations, students were not playing against a computer programme; they were playing against other companies (groups of students) in the Game, who all started from exactly the same position as them.
Taking place over a period of about four weeks, the Game moved through a number of stages including strategy formulation, finance planning and system organisation; strategic plan refinement; an auction of production sites; all culminating in the final afternoon of high pressured trading, with the winning team ultimately crowned ‘Company of the Year’.
Senior Lecturer in HRM, Kristina Potočnik, worked closely with Nick on the Production Game and has fond memories of this time:
"Nick was famous for the Production Game. He brought immense passion and enthusiasm to the exercise because it was a great way to provide practical experience of the key concepts he was teaching in classes.
“Not only did it give students first-hand experience of organising a team under challenging conditions, it also let him indulge in a little theatre.
“Nick enjoyed every single element of the Production Game, even though it took a lot of time and effort to run it effectively. Everyone who was involved in the game could tell he loved every minute of it. Watching and working with him on this exercise taught me so much about student engagement, practical learning and innovative pedagogy."
Head of School
Many alumni will also remember Nick from his time as Head of School. A University of Edinburgh alumnus himself having studied an undergraduate degree in Psychology, Nick returned to Edinburgh from the University of Cambridge to lead the Business School in 2007.
During that time, he drove the transformation of both the organisational and physical infrastructure, with the refurbishment of the Business School building as we know it today, which opened in 2010.
Resilience Research
Since joining in 2007, students over the years have been inspired by Nick’s award-winning teaching and his highly-regarded research into the characteristics of resilient teams and organisations. His work examined resilience in a variety of settings, from the recovery of Japanese companies after the 2011 earthquake to how flight crew respond to unexpected emergencies, prompted by the Air France plane crash in 2009.
He was regularly approached for expert commentary by the media, for example on the subject of the emergency manufacturing of ventilators in early 2020, and during various mergers in the automotive industry in 2019.
In honour of his long career as Professor of Management, the University of Edinburgh has established The Nick Oliver Memorial Fund to support research in the field of resilience, through the support of postgraduate study opportunities.
Certainly a fitting way to remember a remarkable teacher, researcher and colleague.