Glenn Parry

Glenn Parry is a professor of Digital Transformation and Head of the Department of Digital Economy Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Surrey. Prof. Glenn Parry is also CoDirector DECaDE: EPSRC Centre for the Decentralised Digital Economy. Professor Parry is formerly a Professor of strategy and operations management at Bristol Business School, UWE, and a senior visiting fellow with the University of Bath, UK. 

He authored and edited the textbook titled Service Design and Delivery published by Springer and published in international publications.

Professor Glenn Parry received his B.Sc and M.Phil degrees from the University of Wales, Swansea in 1995 and 1997. In 2003, he obtained a Certificate in Counselling and Psychotherapy from Coventry University, and Certificate in Teaching Higher Education and a Diploma in Rogerian Counselling and Psychotherapy from the University of Warwick in 2005. He completed his PhD at the University of Cambridge in 2000.

Professor Glenn Parry is a Professor of Digital Transformation; Head, of the Department of Digital Economy Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Surrey. He is currently involved in understanding value in digital markets, business models, application of Blockchain for good, and helping companies move from product to service provision. His research is characterised by a focus on practical application, looking at the process and leading practice which moves companies forward.

Prof Parry is also CoDirector of DECaDE: Centre for the Decentralised Digital Economy, a UK research centre exploring the potential for decentralized platforms to disrupt the Digital Economy and represents £4M of UKRI/EPSRC investment plus over £6M of industrial contribution.

Glenn is CoI of the £1.5M Optimising Me Manufacturing System [OMMS] EPSRC project developing healthcare micro factors that provide on-the-body manufacturing of therapeutics. Prof Parry is CoI of the £1.75m EPSRC project to develop the next generation of “Trans-Disciplinary Design-Engineers” who have the skills to realise the potential of current and future manufacturing processes and techniques.

He is CoI on the £1.2m EPSRC Hub of All things [hubofallthings.com] a personal virtual computer and data store for individuals. He is working on a British Academy project examining Blockchain for Good, was PI on an RCUK grant to explore Cryptocurrencies and distributed ledger, and was CoI on “The Uber Disruption”, a project examining which variables can be used to describe digital technology disruption. Glenn has worked in the creative industries [music, books, TV], exploring the impact of the move from physical to digital.

Prof Parry was PI for the British Academy project to examine how ex-offenders achieve better outcomes when supported by businesses to use their own resources. Case studies detailed effective rehabilitation business models in the UK and USA.

As a CoI on the AHRC grant Bristol and Bath by Design (BBD) Glenn examined the business models and enterprises that create design value propositions. Work captures the history of design in the region and the value that working as a designer in Bristol and Bath brings. Prof Parry was part of the £2 million BAE Systems/EPRSC S4T programme that informed the continuing transformation of the UK economy towards increasing value generation from product-related services. Glenn is an Editor for the resultant project book “Complex Engineering Service”, by Springer.

Prof Parry is an editor for the textbook “Service Design and Delivery” published by Springer. The book is aimed at Masters's level students and has been adopted by universities around the world.

Prof Parry was a Theme Leader and Director for the €16M EU Intelligent Logistics for Innovative Product Technologies (ILIPT) project, a European consortium of 30 companies from across the automotive supply chain. The work demonstrated how automotive companies can produce and deliver a customer bespoke car only 5 days after receiving an order. Findings were published in the book, ‘Build to Order; The Road to the 5-day Car’, available from Springer.com. 

Areas of research
Prof. Glen Barry’s current work is in the following areas:

• finding the balance between personalisation, privacy and value in digital business models (EPSRC DECaDE, DEAS & DROPS projects);
• visibility in the supply chain (DECaDE); 
• delivering individualised gene therapy cancer treatment at scale (EPSRC OMMS project);
• and developing transdisciplinary thinking and working (EPSRC TREND project).

Illustrative Publications

• The Threat to Core Competence Posed by Developing Closer Supply Chain Relationships, International Journal of Logistics: Research and its Applications. 2006
• Requirement for a Sea-change in Car Production in New Technologies for the Intelligent Design and Operation of Manufacturing Networks, (eds) Fraunhofer IRB Verlag. 2007
• Outsourcing engineering commodity procurement, Supply Chain Management. 2008
• Lean New Product Introduction: the UK in Lean Product Development – Concept & Models, (eds) Icfai www.books.iupindia.org. 2008
• The importance of knowledge management for ERP systems, International Journal of Logistics Research and Applications Volume 11 Issue 6. 2008
• Build To Order: The Road to the 5-day Car, Springer. 2008
• Lean Competence: integration of theories in operations management practice, Supply Chain Management Volume 15 Issue 3. 2010
• Strategic outsourcing of core competencies in the automotive industry: threat or opportunity? International Journal of Automotive Technology and Management 9 (1). 2009
• Goods, products and services, with G Parry, L Newnes, X Huang, Service design and delivery, 19-29. 2011
• Music business models and piracy, with OF Bustinza, F Vendrell?Herrero, G Parry, V Myrthianos, Industrial Management & Data Systems. 2013
• A through-life costing methodology for use in the product–service-systems, E Settanni, LB Newnes, NE Thenent, G Parry, YM Goh, International Journal of Production Economics 153, 161-177. 2014
• Towards digital transformation: Lessons learned from traditional organizations, with J Loonam, S Eaves, V Kumar, G Parry, Strategic Change 27 (2), 101-109. 2018
• Blockchain for good?, with B Kewell, R Adams, G Parry, Strategic Change 26 (5), 429-437. 2018

Professor Glenn Barry is interested in the digital economy and particularly how that changes business models. His work is based on asking what value is and what ‘Good’ means for an organisation as really understanding organisational goals helps us better define what good looks like in a given context. Professor Parry’s work is characterised by an approach of partnering with organisations to develop creative solutions to challenges. He works with organisations to help them with business models, value capture, servitization, and supply chains. He says about his vision: “More money, more customers, better products and services tend to be the focus when talking about value creation and capture. What are we measuring, what is our process and does it create what we perceive to be ‘good’? Value is itself a measurement – the measure of ‘goodness’.”

He has managed research consortia within the automotive, aerospace, media and construction industries.