I am now Professor of Retail Studies and Deputy Principal at the University of Stirling in Scotland. My Fellowship in 1989 was to look at customer service in retailing and I spent six weeks in Canada and the USA discussing the topic with leading businesses and academics.

Some of the learning was applied to specific businesses back in the UK, and spread more generally through academic and professional writing, presentations to business and other organisations, and through my teaching at the University of Stirling and to our international partners.

The relationships I made and the discussions that took place both during my Fellowship and since have informed much of the work that I have undertaken. While the exact topic of this may no longer be as specific as customer service in retailing, the underlying principles have been applied to retailing, other businesses, the university and particularly in my work on towns, town centres and high streets.