Mark de Rond

Last updated

Mark de Rond
Mark de Rond (low res).jpg
de Rond in 2013
OccupationWriter, ethnographer, professor, researcher [1]
NationalityDutch
PeriodLate 20th – early 21st century
Genrenon-fiction
SubjectSport, war, travel, activism
Website
www.rowtheamazon.com

Mark de Rond is Professor of Organizational Ethnography at Cambridge University (Judge Business School). He studies people by living with them under similar conditions so as to better understand how they experience, and develop meaningful relations to the world around them. His fieldwork has included stints with war surgeons in Afghanistan, elite rowers in Cambridge, biochemists in Oxford, comedians in London and Edinburgh, and peace activists on a protest march from Berlin to Aleppo. It also includes an effort to row the length of the Amazon River so as to learn, first-hand, how collaboration unfolds and how problems are solved under trying conditions.

Contents

His book Strategic Alliances as Social Facts: Business, Biotechnology & Intellectual History received the 2005 George R Terry Book Award from the Academy of Management, awarded annually to the book judged to have made the most significant contribution to advancing management knowledge. His subsequent book The Last Amateurs was selected by The Financial Times as one of 12 Best Business Books of 2008, and by BBC Sport as one of 10 Best Sporting Reads of 2008. His portfolio of work was awarded the 2009 Imagination Lab Award, given to one academic each year for scholarship that is both innovative and rigorous, and the 2016 Sandra Dawson Research Impact Award. His most recent book, “Doctors at War”, was awarded the 2018 EGOS Best Book Award, and was a finalist for the 2018 George R Terry Award and 2018 Outstanding Qualitative Book Award. An article based on this fieldwork received the 2016 Best Article Award from the Academy of Management Journal.

His research has featured widely in the press, including in The Economist, TIME magazine, Forbes, The Financial Times, The Times, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, The Week, Der Spiegel, The Los Angeles Times, CNN,Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, and on the BBC. His photographs have been published in The Independent, The Daily Mail, The Daily Telegraph and on the BBC News.

In 2011 de Rond embedded with a team of surgeons in Camp Bastion, Afghanistan, to understand how they collaborate, organize and think about their work. [2] As an extension of his research into teaming in difficult environments, de Rond and a Cambridge colleague completed the first unsupported row of the entire length of the River Amazon, securing a Guinness World Record in the process. In 2017, he spent time with peace activists on a walk from Berlin to Aleppo (Civil March for Aleppo) and, for the past four years, has embedded himself with one of Britain's most active paedophile hunting teams. All of his work is tied together by an interest in how people live challenging circumstances on their own terms, in the explanations they give for why things are as they are, and in the compromises they make with life and those around them.

Career

Books

There is An I in Team [3] studied the reasons behind the success of high performing elite athletes and world-class sports teams, featuring de Rond's interviews with players and sports coaches from around the world.

The Last Amateurs: To Hell and Back with the Cambridge Boat Race Crew (foreword by Sir Steve Redgrave) is de Rond's first-hand account of living for a year with the Cambridge boat race team as they prepare for their annual sporting rivalry with Oxford University in the famous Boat Race. [4] Noted as being as 'the first ever ethnographical study of one of the most famous rowing clubs in the world' [5] and described as "de Rond's intense and deeply personal account of freezing early-morning training sessions, booze-fueled crew 'formals'; the tenderness of camaraderie, the pain of self-doubt, and the tantrums and testosterone of crew members, each set on becoming a Cambridge Blue". [6]

It was favourably reviewed by The Times'("Sports journalism of the highest order", Patrick Kidd, The Times, August 2008), [7] [8] The Guardian [9] and was named by The Financial Times in their 'Best Business Books of 2008' and by the BBC in their 'Best Sporting Reads of 2008'. [10]

Strategic Alliances as Social Facts de Rond's account, based on three in-depth case studies, emphasises the social dimension and the importance of the individuals involved inside business alliances. [11] For Strategic Alliances, de Rond became in 2005 the then youngest ever recipient of the George R. Terry Book Award from the Academy of Management. [12]

Camp Bastion

In Camp Bastion, Afghanistan, 2011 Mark de Rond, Camp Bastion.jpg
In Camp Bastion, Afghanistan, 2011

In 2011, as part of an ethnographic study, de Rond spent six weeks observing Army surgeons at work in Camp Bastion, [13] the main British military base in Afghanistan. De Rond prepared for his deployment there with UK-based training, and the deployment itself was as a result of two years' work and training with the military. [14]

De Rond described his trip as an "old fashioned attempt at trying to understand teams by living with them under similar conditions" and specifically his work at Bastion: "I wanted to see how the staff at Bastion coped with what was going on all around them, how the team functioned under all that pressure. I was there just to observe and record what was going on, but, of course, I could not help being affected myself. It is very difficult seeing a child missing a leg, or a teenage soldier who is a double amputee." [15]

During his deployment, de Rond was given permission to film and photograph the surgeons at work as they dealt with IED bomb casualties from British and American forces and also local adult and children casualties caused by IEDs and in firefights in the areas surrounding the camp.[ citation needed ]

'Row The Amazon' – first ever unsupported row of the Amazon River

Row The Amazon expedition boat with crew, Anton Wright and Mark de Rond Row The Amazon expedition boat 1.jpg
Row The Amazon expedition boat with crew, Anton Wright and Mark de Rond

In September 2013, de Rond and the Head Boatman of Clare College, Anton Wright, embarked on an attempt to be the first people ever to row unsupported the entire length of the Amazon River, starting in Nautu, Peru on 1 September 2013, and reaching the Brazilian coastal town of Macapa six weeks later. [16] [17] The specially commissioned Row The Amazon website, featuring blog updates of the pair's progress during the expedition, described the event as "2077 miles. Two men. One boat. A long way from the University of Cambridge".

The news agency Reuters referred to it is as an expedition where de Rond and Wright "will brave piranhas, bandits and disease in an attempt to be the first crew to row the length of the Amazon river." and described how "They will sleep in turns at night to keep watch for runaway logs in the water which could destroy their boat, anacondas, bull sharks, thieves, illegal logging and mining operators trying to keep their locations secret and drug traffickers in Brazil's vast rainforest." [18]

De Rond was interviewed by the BBC's Jeremy Sallis and BBC East on the dangers of an unsupported trip down the Amazon including the threats to health and the risk of kidnapping. [19] [20] Although during the journey they will be out of telephone and email contact with the world, de Rond stated that they aimed on using a Voyage Manager technology that would allow them to share their progress with people following the expedition, to communicate with the outside world during the trip and, in the event of an emergency, to provide their exact location for rescue. [21] [22]

"I do a fair amount of research about people in difficult circumstances and decided to put my money where my mouth is and do something different myself. We have both rowed for many years but we think the biggest challenge is in the mind. It is the psychology more than the physiology. We know there will be problems. There will be parasites. There is debris in the river so it would be nice not to hit anything. We will try to row about 100 km (62 mi) a day so we will sleep in the boat. We plan to sleep for two hours and keep watch for two hours alternating between us. We will just have to go with the flow."
Marc de Rond, Cambridge News, July 2013 [23]

One of the stated aims of the expedition is to raise money for Leonard Cheshire Disability, a charity supporting disabled people living independently in the UK and around the world. [24]

On 15 October, de Rond and his rowing partner, Anton Wright, completed the aim of the Row The Amazon expedition and became the first people to row unsupported the entire length of the Amazon River. [25] [26] [27] The feat was covered throughout by posts on a dedicated website, www.rowtheamazon.com, and messages on Twitter by supporters and by de Rond and Wright.

Guinness World record

The official Guinness World Record certificate acknowledging the achievement of the Amazon row expedition was presented to de Rond and Wright at the British Consulate in São Paulo on 15 October 2013. [28]

Publications

Awards

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Boat Race</span> Rowing races between Cambridge and Oxford

The Boat Race is an annual set of rowing races between the Cambridge University Boat Club and the Oxford University Boat Club, traditionally rowed between open-weight eights on the River Thames in London, England. It is also known as the University Boat Race and the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Douglas Preston</span> American journalist and author (born 1956)

Douglas Jerome Preston is an American journalist and author. Although he is best known for his thrillers in collaboration with Lincoln Child, he has also written six solo novels, including the Wyman Ford series and a novel entitled Jennie, which was made into a movie by Disney. He has authored a half-dozen nonfiction books on science and exploration and writes occasionally for The New Yorker, Smithsonian, and other magazines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Natalie Haynes</span> English writer, broadcaster, classicist, and comedian

Natalie Louise Haynes is an English writer, broadcaster, classicist, and comedian.

Vitali Vitaliev is a Ukrainian-born journalist and writer who has worked in Russia, the United Kingdom, Australia and Ireland.

Kieran Martin West is a retired English rower and Olympic champion who represented Great Britain.

David Gibbins is an underwater archaeologist and a bestselling novelist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Mayer de Rothschild</span> British adventurer and ecologist (born 1978)

David Mayer de Rothschild is a British adventurer, environmentalist, film producer, and heir to the Rothschild fortune.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colin Angus (explorer)</span> Canadian author and adventurer

Colin Angus is a Canadian author and adventurer who is the first person to make a self-propelled global circumnavigation. Due to varying definitions of the term "circumnavigation", debate has arisen as to whether or not the route travelled fulfilled the strictest criteria. As part of the circumnavigation, Angus and his then fiancé Julie Wafaei made the first rowboat crossing of the Atlantic Ocean from mainland Europe to mainland North America, and Wafaei became the first Canadian woman to row across any ocean. Colin and Julie have two sons: Leif, born September 2010, and Oliver, born June 2014.

Peter Bray became, in 2001, the third person known to cross the Atlantic Ocean alone in a kayak as well as the first one to paddle west to east and also the first one not using sails to help his paddling. He documented his expedition in the book Kayak Across the Atlantic in 2004.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dan Snow</span> British historian and television presenter (born 1978)

Daniel Robert Snow is a British popular historian and television presenter. He is an ambassador of the Electoral Reform Society (ERS).

Rupert Nigel Pendrill Hadow known as Pen Hadow, is an Arctic region explorer, advocate, adventurer and guide. He is the only person to have trekked solo, and without resupply by third parties, from Canada to the Geographic North Pole.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Beaumont (cyclist)</span> Scottish cyclist, adventurer and documentary filmmaker

Mark Ian Macleod Beaumont is a British long-distance cyclist, broadcaster and author. He holds the record for cycling round the world, completing his 18,000-mile (29,000 km) route on 18 September 2017, having taken less than 79 days. On 18 February 2010 Beaumont completed a quest to cycle the Americas, cycling from Anchorage, Alaska, US to Ushuaia in Southern Argentina, for a BBC Television series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">City of Cambridge Rowing Club</span> Rowing and sculling club in Cambridge, UK

City of Cambridge Rowing Club (CCRC) is the oldest 'town' rowing and sculling club in Cambridge, UK, and with about 300 members, it has one of the largest active rowing memberships in the region. The club's colours are dark blue, with a band of claret sandwiched between two bands of 'old gold'.

Huw Lewis-Jones is a British historian, editor, broadcaster and art director. Formerly a historian and Curator of Art at the Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, Lewis-Jones left Cambridge in June 2010 to pursue book and broadcasting projects. He is the Editorial Director of the independent publishing company Polarworld.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alex Hibbert</span>

Alexander Piers William Hibbert is a British polar expedition leader, public speaker, author and photographer. He lives in London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Debra Searle</span>

Debra Louise Searle MVO MBE, née Newbury, later Veal, is a British adventurer, businesswoman, author and keynote speaker. Searle is famous for having rowed across the Atlantic alone after her then husband and rowing partner, Andrew Veal, was rescued from their plywood rowing boat.

Mauro F. Guillén is a Spanish-American sociologist and political economist who is currently the William H. Wurster Professor of Multinational Management at the Wharton School. In March 2021, he was named Dean of the Cambridge Judge Business School, and a Fellow of Queens' College at the University of Cambridge; he returned to Wharton in 2023. Until July 2021, he directed the Penn Lauder Center for International Business Education and Research, and was the Anthony L. Davis Director of the Joseph H. Lauder Institute of Management and International Studies from 2007 to 2019. His book 2030: How Today's Biggest Trends Will Collide and Reshape the Future of Everything was a Wall Street Journal bestseller and a Financial Times Book of the Year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anton Wright</span>

Anton Wright is an adventurer, rowing coach, and—alongside Mark de Rond—holder of the Guinness World Record for the first unsupported row of the navigable length of the Amazon River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olly Hicks</span> British adventurer

Oliver "Olly" Hicks is a British ocean rower, kayaker, explorer and inspirational speaker. He holds three world records for adventure. He is best known for his solo ocean rows and extreme kayak voyages. He first made the headlines after his solo trans-Atlantic voyage in 2005 when he became the first and currently only person to row from America to England solo and the youngest person to row any ocean solo. Hicks has rowed and paddled over 7,000 miles on ocean expeditions since 2005. Over 6,000 miles and 220 days alone at sea.

Thomas J. Roulet is a French-British social scientist, management thinker and professor at the University of Cambridge where he holds the Chair of Organisational Sociology and Leadership. He has advanced the concept of negative social evaluations and is known for his research on wellbeing in the context of remote work. He is a Faculty at the Judge Business School, and a Fellow of King's College Cambridge.

References

  1. ↑ Cambridge Judge Business School
  2. ↑ University Of Cambridge: Research
  3. ↑ Google Books, 'There is An I in Team'
  4. ↑ Amazon 'The Last Amateurs book data
  5. ↑ Cambridge News review
  6. ↑ Book data WHSmiths
  7. ↑ Cambridge University – 'The Last Amateurs'
  8. ↑ The Times – Arts & Books
  9. ↑ The Guardian – review
  10. ↑ BBC Sport – review
  11. ↑ Google Books, 'Strategic Alliances as Social Facts'
  12. ↑ University Of Cambridge; news and Multimedia
  13. ↑ The Independent: UK Medics in Afghan war Zone
  14. ↑ University Of Cambridge: Welcome to bastion report
  15. ↑ The Independent: Camp Bastion report
  16. ↑ REUTERS – UK Rowing Amazon
  17. ↑ Row The Amazon website and blog
  18. ↑ REUTERS – Row The Amazon news report
  19. ↑ BBC interview
  20. ↑ BBC radio
  21. ↑ Cambridge News report on expedition
  22. ↑ University of Cambridge Judge Business School film interview
  23. ↑ Cambridge News report
  24. ↑ Leonard Cheshire Disability charity link to Row The Amazon
  25. ↑ "Home". rowtheamazon.com.
  26. ↑ University of Cambridge media news Archived 22 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  27. ↑ University of Cambridge media news
  28. ↑ University Of Cambridge, 'Guinness World Record smashed by Cambridge rowers'
  29. ↑ Cambridge Judge Business School awards
  30. ↑ "Cambridge Judge Business School awards website". Archived from the original on 19 August 2014. Retrieved 31 August 2013.
  31. ↑ BBC News
  32. ↑ Amazon book data
  33. ↑ Cambridge Judge Business School data
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.