On being an administrator and being academically-minded

I used to think that the academic life wasn't for me. I used to think that hiding away in an office, reading, "researching" (whatever that meant to me), and writing would be so limiting. I wanted to be out doing stuff. Managing projects, developing policy, promoting innovation, managing people(!), and generally rationalising and putting into practice all those crazy ideas academics came up with.

I've changed my thinking a little since taking on this new role at Bond. While I still want to be on the "doing" side of the fence, I would very much like to pursue a bit of academic-style "thinking" more than I'm currently able to do. The thought of hiding away for a few weeks or months to fully develop an original and innovative idea, and then bring it out into the world to actually try it out really appeals to me. To those people who know me well, I know this will come as a shock, but I want to be able to shut out the operational and strategic world I work in and have the opportunity to really think things through.

I wonder if there's a place in higher education for administrators with academic tendencies, or are we too rare a breed to be catered for?