Building the new ANU is expanding Marnie Hughes Warrington’s already expansive intellectual interests – into retail. As DVC over-sighting the build she is  chronicling its construction, from architecture to engineering – and now into the ideas and practise of retail fit-out. It may not check-out as scholarship, but it is, she explains knowledge, just knowledge practised outside the academy.

“When you work in a large enterprise—universities are big operations—it can be hard to get your head around what it is like to run or to work in an SME. It can be tempting to preach on the basis of familiarity with start-ups in some economic segments, or to theorise the leadership capability needed to make a business work, let alone thrive. These dispositions seem a long way away from the realities of paying rent, keeping up with the competition and regulatory requirements, and experiencing any kind of upskilling or reskilling. We have a tendency to think we know everything, and you know what? We don’t,” she writes.  No one is ever going to fault Professor Hughes Warrington for an absence of curiosity.