
Paul McManus
Master Lecturer, Strategy and Innovation
My research investigates the governance architectures, strategies, and innovations reshaping business, markets, and society within the emerging machine mediated Agent-to-Agent (A2A) economy. It focuses the investigating the structural antecedents, organizational mechanisms and causal pathways leading toward either a new era dominated by techno-feudalism and extractive colonial exclosure, or a more democratic future that augments human intelligence, amplifies human agency, and elevates truth and the common good.
To map these dynamics, my work moves beyond static observation. This epistemic research is operationalized through a custom, frontier-class platform engineered for multi-witness sensing, real-time tracking, and scenario-based digital modeling. This high-precision, fully auditable substrate allows us to continuously generate hypotheses, execute counterfactual red-team stress tests, and deploy prescriptive analytics. The result is a continuously calibrated tool for evaluating generative governance, strategy, and innovation in situ across the critical infrastructures—logistics, energy, and capital markets—currently transitioning to the AI, cyber-physical, and quantum substrate.
To ground these systemic insights in public action, I translate this architecture into the civic sphere. As a Fellow and Principal Investigator of the Issue360 project, I develop AI-enabled improvisational learning platforms designed to elevate civil discourse among Questrom students and the broader community. These systems foster the broad engagement, rigorous deliberation, and structured debate required to redefine the role of business and markets in solving global challenges.
To operationalize these models for real-world execution, my teaching embeds these insights across executive and university curricula. Focused at the cutting edge of Generative Governance, Strategy, and Innovation, my work redefines how ‘leaders in the loop’ operate within automated enterprises—ensuring that as the workplace evolves, human judgment and agency remain the definitive anchors of today’s hybrid organizations.
Education
MBA, Boston University, 1986
BS, Wentworth Institute of Technology, 1977
Publications
Becattini, N., Bossink, B., Cantamessa, M., Ibrahim, W., McManus, P., Nigra, M., Pathiraja, M. (2025). “Innovating products in the humanitarian sector: how to ensure adequate response in a challenging ecosystem”, Proceedings of the Design Society, 5 2101-2110
McManus, P. (2023). “SI849-F23-E1.- Team Project Description”,
McManus, P. (2023). “SI859-F23-D1 – Action Learning Project Description”,
McManus, P. (2023). “SI859-F23-D1 – Syllabus – Strategy Implementation (Updated 23-09-04)”,
McManus, P. (2023). “SI849-F23-E1 – Syllabus – Corporate Sustainability Strategy (Updated 2023-08-28)”,
McManus, P. (2023). “SI830-SP23-E1 – Syllabus”,
McManus, P. (2023). “SI839-SP23 – Syllabus – Design Thinking and Innovation (Updated 23-01-19)”,
McManus, P. (2023). “SI830-SP23-E1 – Team Project Instructions”,
McManus, P. (2023). “Si839-SP23-D1 – Team Project Instructions”,