Contact Details

NOTE: if copying this email you will need to re-insert the '@' symbol

Position

Senior Research Associate

Affiliation

John Mills

Research Areas

• The formation and maintenance of strategy in manufacturing companies.
• The design of performance measurement systems that encourage strategy implementation
• Competence and resource based strategy making

Background

John Mills spent 20 years with Shell International and Philips Electronics prior to joining the University of Cambridge in 1992. He holds degrees in Control Engineering, Neurocommunications and Business Administration.

His industrial experience ranges from operations research within the oil exploration, production and distribution fields to factory, development and business management in consumer electronics, white goods and mobile communications.

He is a Senior Industrial Research Fellow at the Institute for Manufacturing and teaches resource-based strategy-making on the Manufacturing Engineering Tripos and the post-experience Manufacturing Leaders Programme. He is a member of the Centre for Strategy and Performance.

He is a reviewer for the International Journal of Operations and Production Management, the International Journal of Production Economics and Integrated Manufacturing Systems and a member of the European Operations Management Association and the Production and Operations Management Society.

He is the main contact within the Engineering Department for Government funded Knowledge Transfer Partnerships - KTPs

Research Interests

His research concentrates on the development of practical processes for the formation and implementation of manufacturing and R&D strategies and the design of coherent performance measurement systems.

Recent research focused on helping managers to conduct more objective strengths and weaknesses analysis by drawing on competence and resource-based theory. This work has led to novel methods for recognising and assessing the resources that underlie a firm's strategic competences and invitations to conduct management workshops in the U.S, Brazil and South Africa.

Current research concentrates on resource co-ordination and the achievement of outstanding, suistainable performance

Recent Publications

Books

• Mills, J.F., Platts, K.W., Bourne, M.C.S.B,., & Richards, H. (2002): Competing through Competences, Cambridge University Press.
• Mills, J.F., Platts, K.W., Neely, A.D., Gregory, M.J., Richards, H. and Bourne, M.C.S. 2002: Creating a Winning Business Formula (update), Cambridge University Press.
• Neely, A.D., Bourne M.C.S., Mills, J.F., Richards, H., Platts, K.W. and Gregory, M.J., 2002: Getting the Measure of Your Business (update), Cambridge University Press.

Refereed publications

• Mills, J.F. & Camek, V. (2004). The Risks and Opportunities of Disintermediaton: A Distributor's View, International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management, Vol. 34, No. 9, 714-727.
• Mills, J.F. , Schmitz, J., & Frizelle, G.D.M. (2004). A Strategic Review of Supply Networks, International Journal of Operations and Production Management, Vol. 24, No. 10, 1012-1036
• Mills, J.F., Platts, K.W., Bourne, M.C.S (2003). Competence and Resource-based Architectures, International Journal of Operations and Production Management, Vol 23, No. 9, pp977-994.
• Bourne, M.C., Neely, A.D., Mills, J.F. & Platts, K.W., (2003). Why some performance measurement initiatives fail, lessons from the change management literature, International Journal of Business Performance Measurement, 5, 2/3, 245-269.
• Bourne, M.C., Neely, A.D., Mills, J.F. & Platts, K.W., (2003). Implementing performance measurement systems: a literature review, International Journal of Business Performance Measurement, 5, 1, 1-24.
• Mills, J.F. & Platts, K.W. (2003) Applying Resource-Based Theory: Methods, Outcomes And Utility For Managers, International Journal of Operations and Production Management, 23, 3,148-166.
• Bourne, M.C., Neely, A.D. Platts, K.W & Mills, J.F., (2002). The success and failure of performance measurement initiatives: perceptions of participating managers, International journal of Operations and Production Management, 22, 11, 1288-1310.
• Neely, A.D., Mills, J.F., Bourne, M.C.S., Kennerley, M., Platts, K.W., Richards, H., and Gregory, M.J. (2000). Performance Measurement System Design: developing and testing a process based approach, International Journal of Operations and Production Management, 20, 10, 1131-1152.
• Bourne, M.C., Mills, J.F., Wilcox, M., Neely, A.D. & Platts, K.W., (2000). Designing, Implementing and Updating Performance Measurement Systems, International Journal of Operations and Production Management, 20, 7, 754-771.
• Bourne, M.C., Mills, J.F., Bicheno, J., Hamblin, D.J., Wilcox, M., Neely, A.D. & Platts, K.W., (1999). Performance Measurement System Design: Testing a Process Approach in Manufacturing Companies, International Journal of Business Performance Measurement, 1, 2, 154-170.
• Mills, J.F., Neely, A.D., Platts, K.W., and Gregory, M.J. (1998) Manufacturing Strategy: A Pictorial Representation, International journal of Operations and Production Management, 18, 11, 1067-1085.
• Platts, K.W., Mills, J.F., Bourne, M.C., Neely, A.D., Richards, A. H. & Gregory, M.J (forthcoming) Testing Manufacturing Strategy Formulation Processes, International journal of Production Economics
• Mills, J.F., Neely, A.D., Platts, K.W. and Gregory, M.J. (1998) The Manufacturing Strategy Process: Incorporating a learning perspective, Integrated Manufacturing Systems, 3, 9, 148-155.

Refereed conference contributions

• Mills, J.F., (2003). Determinants of Supply Network Architecture: A role for Transaction Characteristics. In the proceedings of the 10th International EurOMA Conference, Operations Management and the New Economy, June 15-18, Como.
• Mills, J.F., & Platts, K.W. (2002). A Competence and Resource-Based Architecture for Operations Strategy. In the proceedings of the 9th International EurOMA Conference, Operations Management and the New Economy, June 2-4, Copenhagen.
• Mills, J.F., Platts, K.W. & Bourne, M.C.S., (2001). Applying Resource-Based Theory: Methods, Outcomes and Utility for Managers, in Blackmon, K., Brown, S., Cousins, P., Graves, A., Harland, C., Lamming, R. & Maylor, H. (Eds): What Really Matters in Operations Management, Proceedings of the 8th International European Operations Management Association Conference, University of Bath, UK, 177 - 190.
• Bourne, M.C.S, Neely, A.D., Mills, J.F., and Platts, K.W (2001). Why Performance Measurement Initiatives Succeed and Fail, the Perceptions of Participating Managers, in Blackmon, K., Brown, S., Cousins, P., Graves, A., Harland, C., Lamming, R. & Maylor, H. (Eds): What Really Matters in Operations Management, Proceedings of the 8th International European Operations Management Association Conference, University of Bath, UK, 1174 - 1184.
• Erlich, M. & Mills, J.F., (2001), A critical review of new product development performance research, International Working Conference on Strategic Manufacturing
• 26-29 August 2001, Aalborg, Denmark
• Mills, J.F., Platts, K.W. & Bourne, M.C.S., (2001). Resource-Based Strategizing: The Analysis of a Service Strength, presented to the EIASM Workshop on Micro Strategy and Strategising, Brussels, Belgium, Feb 1-3, 910-930.
• Mills, J.F., Bourne, M.C.S., & Platts, K.W. (2000). A competence and resource-based framework for operations strategy, presented to the 11th Production and Operations Management Society Conference, San Antonio, New Mexico, April 1-4.
• Mills, J.F., Bourne, M.C.S., Platts, K.W. & Gregory, M.J. (2000). Applying Resource-Based Theory: Strategy in a Service Network, in Machuca, J.A.D. & Mandakovic, T. (Eds): POM Facing the New Millenium, Proceedings of the First World Conference on Production and Operations Management, University of Sevilla, Spain, 1099.PDF.
• Erlich, M. & Mills, J.F., (2000). A Framework for Technological Innovation Risk Assessment (TIRA), in Van Dierdonck,, R. & Vereecke, A. (Eds). Crossing Borders and Boundaries: The Changing Role of Operations Management, Proceedings of the 7th International European Operations Management Association Conference, Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School, Universiteit Gent, June 4-7, 198-205.
• Mills, J.F., Bourne, M.C.S.B., Platts, K.W., and Gregory, M.J. (1999) Pragmatic Methods for Evaluating Company Resources and Competences, in Proceedings of PICMET 99 Vol 2, 18_01.PDF, 1-7.