A paper by Dr Ken Platts, from the Centre for Strategy and Performance, and Dr Rob Perrons, from Shell International BV, was the 2006 winner of the Dr Theo Williamson Outstanding Paper award for the best paper published in the Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management during 2005.

Their paper 'Outsourcing Strategies for radical innovations: does industry clockspeed make a difference?' shows that industry clockspeed does not appear to make a difference to the success or failure of outsourcing strategies. The implications of this are that findings from single industry studies, e.g. of the computer industry, which have traditionally been thought limited to these sectors, may in fact be transferable to other sectors.

Dr Theo Williamson, who died in 1992, was R&D director at Mollins plc, and subsequently Group Director at Rank Xerox. One of the great engineering innovators of his time he is best known for his work in developing the worlds first integrated flexible manufacturing system.