Personality change. In the book ‘HEMP- The Highly Effective Marketing Plan’ the key point made is that if you want to change what someone does then you first need to change how they think and feel. Of course, to do that requires knowing what they currently think and feel, as well as what they currently […]

The (updated) FBI. Twenty years or more ago, we developed a concept titled: ‘The Fantastic Big Idea’ (or FBI for short). In simple terms, we noted that the best companies and organisations had an idea at their core which drove every aspect of their business. For example: Disney – Fun BBC – Authority Google – […]

A or B? In honour of Daniel Kahneman, Nobel Prize winner and author of the brilliant book: ‘Thinking Fast and Slow’ who died last week, I share an exercise I learned from him that I’ve adapted and run with hundreds of business owners and senior directors over the last two decades – the relevance of […]

Process. I was on a plane to Lisbon last week to attend a leadership conference. I hoped for and did learn a lot from the event, but the first lesson was actually on the flight. Indeed, even before takeoff there were several lessons all to do with process (or lack of).   The flight was […]

Back or forth? In your monthly board meetings (feel free to substitute your own label/timetable), what percentage of time is spent analysing the recent performance and results to date? For many companies the answer is between 80-95% – which is crazy. If your senior team spends the majority of time together looking backwards, then it’s […]

A traditional paradigm shift. “What do each of you want to be when you grow up?” my mother asked my two brothers and I one morning at breakfast. I was 9, and my brothers 7 and 5. I can’t remember how Simon (middle brother) and I replied, but Jeremy exclaimed: “I want to be King” […]

Subtractive change. For many people and businesses, the tendency is to improve by addition. Additional features, extra services, more capacity, enlarged facilities… But might subtraction work as well, or better? What if your phone had less apps, would it be easier to navigate? If people were trusted to be able to count to 25/30, would […]

Slugs, Bunnies, Tigers & Owls. I was 19 when I had my first “management” role. I was promoted from Sales Negotiator to manage a branch of Samuel Rains & Son estate agents (soon after to merge and become Reeds Rains). Was I the full article? – no way, I was far from that. But did […]

3C Leadership. Jane Fraser is an inspiration to many people, and should be to many more. Hailing from St Andrews Scotland, and graduating from both Cambridge and Harvard, today she’s the first female CEO of a major US bank (Citigroup), whose global network enables the movement of the equivalent of Germany’s GDP each day across borders, currencies […]

Growth. For the past five years or so, many businesses have had one agenda item at their meetings – ‘Survival’. Now however, with improved conditions and renewed confidence, ‘Growth’ is the key focus. Whilst this is most welcome, and exciting, and above all a relief from the short term thinking of the past half decade, […]