Author of the Engineering Legitimacy theory
Why capability alone is not enough — from individuals to nations.
For more than twenty years I have watched this gap in strategy work, in running companies and in teaching. A theory grew out of those observations, and I set it out in a book.
More than 20 years
in strategy, consulting and running companies
More than 6,000 students
from 108 countries
More than 10 years
teaching strategy and innovation management
Istituto Marangoni IULM University POLIMI Graduate School of Management British Higher School of Art and Design
Capability and results are there, but they do not convince those who decide. Most often this happens at a moment of transition — to a new role, audience or territory.
Evidence that convinced in the previous context does not carry over automatically. The question is who makes the decision now and which grounds carry independent weight for that audience.
The language, image or presentation has changed, yet the audience’s attitude has stayed the same. Sometimes the new expression keeps the original claim. Sometimes the audience begins to see a different claim. These situations call for different decisions.
The results exist, but those who decide cannot connect them to the claimed role, status or right to act.
Earlier evidence loses its meaning, those who used to confirm the claim step back, and repeated actions continue out of inertia. Repairing these links creates the conditions for a new assessment. Recovery comes when the audience once again recognises the original claim in a sustained way.
We begin by setting the bounds of the question: who claims which role, whose recognition matters, where and in which decision. Then we examine what recognition rests on and where the link has broken. The result is a diagnosis: what blocks progress, where to start and what will take time.
Discuss a strategic questionCourses, workshops and programmes for universities, business schools, professional communities and executives. Topics: strategy, innovation management, recognition and legitimacy — how they arise, transfer, weaken and recover. Each programme is built for its audience.
Discuss a programmeTalks and lectures for conferences, universities, companies and institutions. Topics: why capability is not enough for recognition; what changes in the move to a new role; what authority rests on; how recognition collapses and recovers.
Invite me to speak12 November 2026
Milan
Istituto Marangoni Milano — Palazzo Turati
Day three of the conference
Talk
Engineering Legitimacy: Fashion Archives, Generative AI and Sustained Recognition
About the conference ↗Methodology
I developed a structural theory of how legitimacy is created, reinforced, normalised, lost and recovered.
Legitimacy is the sustained recognition by an audience that a subject’s claim to a defined role, status, or right to act within a given domain is justified and appropriate within a specific territory, period, and decision context.
Engineering legitimacy means a bounded ability to influence the conditions under which an audience assesses a claim. Interpretation and the decision to recognise remain with the audience.
In preparation for publication in 2026
The theory volume of the series.
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A separate book for each class of subject, with its own cases, evidence and tools.
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