Professor Benjamin Laker

Benjamin Laker is a Professor of Leadership at Henley Business School and a visionary thinker redefining the possibilities of modern work. The architect behind two of the most influential workplace concepts of the past decade—the four-day workweek and meeting-free days—Benjamin has challenged conventional wisdom on productivity, demonstrating how radical ideas can unlock extraordinary results.

Guided by a provocative question—What if leaders stopped focusing on performance altogether and instead designed workplaces so meaningful that people naturally excel?—Benjamin inspires leaders to rethink the very purpose of work. His research, featured in over fifty articles in Harvard Business Review and MIT Sloan Management Review, has sparked global movements that transformed how leaders approach workplace design. These contributions go beyond theory—they offer blueprints for a new era of leadership, where meaningful work environments take precedence over chasing metrics.

Benjamin’s latest book, Job Crafting (MIT Press, 2024), builds on the groundbreaking ideas in his earlier titles, Too Proud to Lead (Bloomsbury, 2021) and Closing The Service Gap (Financial Times, 2023)—all of which were shortlisted for The New York Times Best Sellers list. Job Crafting offers a revolutionary framework for leaders to redesign roles, relationships, and perspectives—creating workplaces where purpose, belonging, and excellence come naturally. Hailed by McKinsey & Company as “essential for the future of work,” and endorsed by firms including Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Adidas, this approach challenges leaders to think less about managing people and more about designing spaces where people thrive.

As a columnist for The Washington Post and Forbes, Benjamin reaches over 3.5 million readers with his insights into how leaders can transform workplaces into spaces of meaning and excellence. He enriches his writing with lessons drawn from his interviews with global icons like Mariah Carey, Ja Rule, Christina Milian, and Bella Thorne, uncovering how passion, creativity, and resilience fuel extraordinary achievement. These stories, combined with Benjamin’s groundbreaking research, challenge readers to rethink how they lead and inspire.

Benjamin’s concepts have not only sparked corporate innovation but also influenced

government policies worldwide. A regular guest on major media outlets such as BBC, CNN, and Bloomberg, as well as global think tanks like the World Economic Forum, his frameworks have been successfully applied across industries, showcasing their universal relevance. His global impact, combined with his dynamic and thought-provoking keynotes, has positioned him as a highly sought-after speaker and a leading voice in shaping the future of work.