I believe that political ‘leaders’ around the world are focusing too much time on point scoring instead of working collectively on the rapidly emerging crisis we need to address. The IMF's Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said that urgent action was needed in the form of restructuring debts because global debt levels were predicted to reach 100% of global GDP in 2021. This is a severe prediction that must be addressed during this pandemic. Global LEADERS must stop posturing and come together to beat Covid-19 otherwise, the poorer countries around the world will be decimated in 2021. The IMF warned that most economies will ‘suffer lasting damage, and that extreme poverty is likely to rise for the first time in more than 20 years.’ It is therefore everyone’s responsibility to work together to defeat the pandemic and to focus on the bigger picture of rising poverty and injustice. This is a leadership challenge which is about standing on the ‘gallery’, looking at that big picture, understanding the connected implications and making relevant decisions. It is also about collaboration, sharing responsibility and...Read More
I would like to start this post with a quote from John Maxwell, an American author: "The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails.” In the first televised debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, we were presented with a fairly incoherent, divisive spectacle of two people neither listening to each other, showing respect, or informing the US people / the world, what their plans would be. If leadership is (at least in part) about helping people look to the future and find inspiration as well as the path forward, this 'debate' may not provide the best case study. #leadership #CEO #Covid-19 #change #coo #leadershipdevelopment#culture #future #people #respect #success #leader #alignment #hrd#strategyRead More
I think for many businesses the Chancellor’s announcement yesterday of the Job Support Scheme was probably seen as a positive initiative, but it has once again prompted a flurry of concern about interpretation, this time about ‘what is a viable job’. ITV's political editor Robert Peston, interpreted this to mean: "Businesses facing depressed revenues can choose to keep people on books so long as they work a third of normal hours, as alternative to redundancy, with government topping up wages significantly...’’ The Liverpool Echo has consequently interpreted a viable job as ‘’…one where an employee is still working in a sector that is struggling due to the pandemic’’ so ‘’…a non-viable job could be a sector of employment that has remained closed since March.’’ UK business leaders I am sure will still be doing everything they can to re-generate revenue flows and be innovative in their response to the Covd-19 crisis. Taking advantage of the Job Support Scheme is therefore an essential part of this goal, as is a review of strategic alignment. Leaders need to make sure that their organisations...Read More
Interesting discussion hosted by BBC’s Zeinab Badawi: https://lnkd.in/guesfsq Addressing the question: ‘What will be Covid-19’s long term global impact’, it seems there is a growing desire to domesticate supply chains for many countries and to find ways of becoming more self-reliant. India, where 45% of consumer goods are imported from China, wants to build a more industrialised domestic infrastructure. It was also suggested that the many current geo-political tensions that exist have now been accelerated as a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic, forcing countries to look more inwards. Will globalisation stop? Probably not, however it was agreed that international trading partners will change, having an impact on supply chains and the way in which businesses work. To quote a commonly used cliché, ‘every crisis leads to opportunities’ and now is the opportunity to ‘build back better’. But what will better look like? Organisations need to be aligned to their strategies.Read More
Some say that if employees can spend at least 1 day a week working from home, then productivity can increase by up to 13%. Professor Lynda Grattan points out that in non-repetitive roles, e.g. with knowledge workers, productivity is more difficult to predict. She also points out that where remote workers don’t have great facilities at home, it is likely to be harder to be productive. My daughter came home for 102 days during the pandemic and regularly worked from 09.00 until 19.00 without a break moving from one Zoom call to the next. Was this a productive time for her? Maybe. However, she is now back in her office in London for 2 days a week and very happy to be able to interact with others. In the last 70,000 years as the human race has evolved, we have (on the whole) developed a desire to be with other humans and also established a sophisticated human communication system which thrives on personal contact. Leaders must seek to understand what is best for their people and their businesses. Getting this...Read More
The Leadership Gallery is delighted to welcome Alex Adamo of The Commercialiser® joining as Director of Commercial Development. Alex will help us continue to refine our value proposition and bring to market our Align+® Suite – aimed at executives that need to pressure test their strategy and ensure that their teams are aligned towards effective execution. “I am happy to join The Leadership Gallery and help the team spearhead their commercial expansion to the UK’s corporations and worldwide. I joined the business because I believe in the founders and the clear-cut value their deceptively simple Align+® Suite offers to C-Level executives and I am excited to bring the product to market and build a Business Development function with the support of our team at The Commercialiser®” Alex AdamoRead More
If even a small number of your key strategic assumptions don’t materialise, your strategy could become unsustainable. Does what looked feasible and achievable at the beginning of 2020, now seem dead in the water? Are you in shape to emerge from the crisis ready to beat off the competition and handle the adverse movement in costs? The combined effect of a 1% shortfall in market share (eg 19% vs 20%) and a 1% shortfall in gross margin (eg 44% vs 45%) would lead to a 5% reduction in revenue and 21% reduction in profits (based on a FTSE 250 5-year operating margin of 12%). It’s time to ‘stress-test’ your strategy to determine where are the gaps and weaknesses and what actions are needed to address themRead More
Imagine a time when everything starts to return to normal; how well placed are you to maximise upon the opportunities that “the new normal” will bring? The new normal requires a new mindset. How willing will leaders and their executive teams be to stray from their comfort zone and challenge their traditional ways. History shows others to have been successful in far-more-challenging times. During Great Depression, companies such as DuPont, General Electric, IBM and Procter & Gamble defied the odds, churning out profits, whilst many others went under. Exceptional times are rarely factored into strategic planning explicitly. Those who respond decisively to the challenge, differentiate themselves, and take the risk out of strategic execution, can still expect to grow. Imagine - “the new normal”. Its new realities present a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.Read More
A Harvard Business Review survey conducted with more than 400 global CEOs found that executional excellence was the number one challenge heading a list of 80 issues which included innovation, geopolitical instability and top-line growth. The effect of a 5% shortfall in forecasted revenue would translate to an 18% shortfall in operating profits (based on a FTSE 250 5-year operating margin of 12%). Ambitious or clever strategies are not enough, successful execution depends on asking the difficult questions that challenge you and those around you.Read More
If your strategy and plans are well thought through, making sure that you have the right capabilities in place and the most appropriate structure, systems and processes, may seem like an easy next step. However, to get this right, perhaps some help would be useful? The answer/s are already in your organisation – so don’t let any benevolent management consultants convince you that only they have the answers. However, it may be useful for you to ask the right questions as you go through your ‘re-mobilisation’ planning, in the run up to post Covid-19. You have the answers, we have the questions.Read More
The success of strategies is dependent on three main factors – robustness, resilience and readiness. As the world emerges from the Covid-19 pandemic, how will your strategy fare? Robust – how good are the assumptions you’ve made about markets, competitors, capabilities, costs, regulations and technology? Resilient – are the assumptions you made when the strategy was developed, still viable in a post-COVID-19 world? Ready – are your structures, processes, decision-making mechanisms, metrics and reward systems future-facing?Read More
Most companies have a strategy. Sometimes it’s formal and well documented, other times it’s informal, but well understood. So why do a lot a strategies fail in execution? Often it’s because companies take their strategies for granted and don’t always ask the tough questions before taking the plunge. These questions are particularly important at times when there is a major change of direction or when an unforeseen incident occurs. Now is the time to re-evaluate your strategy. How will it fare in a post-COVID-19 world?Read More
Under normal circumstances ensuring a strategy delivers as you hoped, planned and expected is tough enough; however when the world’s been turned upside down things just got a whole lot harder. Ensuring success in a post-COVID-19 world is dependent upon your leaders having the capabilities required for your strategy to be successful. As the competitive environment changes and the ‘new normal’ emerges, the capabilities required for success will also change. What are the skills, knowledge and expertise required of your leaders going forward, and what help is needed to make the transition?Read More
Does your strategy now require a major change in direction? The Covid-19 global pandemic has probably forced you to look at your current strategy and evaluate all of your previous assumptions. There are key components of your plans that will now need to change when you re-emerge from ‘lockdown’ and begin your ‘re-mobilisation’ plans. In the past, some of the best paid companies have failed, especially where their strategy requires a major change in direction. Most of the time this has happened because there wasn’t the right alignment in the business. Now is the time to review structures, processes, reward systems, culture and behaviours to ensure that you can execute your new strategy effectively.Read More
If even a small number of your key strategic assumptions don’t materialise, your strategy could become unsustainable. Does what looked feasible and achievable at the beginning of 2020, now seem dead in the water? Are you in shape to emerge from the crisis ready to beat off the competition and handle the adverse movement in costs? The combined effect of a 1% shortfall in market share (eg 19% vs 20%) and a 1% shortfall in gross margin (eg 44% vs 45%) would lead to a 5% reduction in revenue and 21% reduction in profits (based on a FTSE 250 5-year operating margin of 12%). It’s time to ‘stress-test’ your strategy to determine where are the gaps and weaknesses and what actions are needed to address themRead More