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The ‘Both/And’ Manifesto
Happy New Year, everyone, and here’s wishing you and yours a very happy, healthy and prosperous 2014! If you’re short of a New Year’s resolution, permit me to suggest a quick jaunt over to the...
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Paul Polman: 21st century leader
“If you want to change consumer habits – if you want to connect for change in society – we have to use our brands. And the most challenging thing is to give all your brands a social purpose. I don’t...
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Getting under the skin of ‘engagement’
What does it say about a concept when there’s little or no consensus on what it means – even among the folks who are supposedly at the forefront of fostering it? So it is with ‘engagement’… For some,...
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Africa’s Century: Defining African Leadership
Are you interested in the future of leadership in Africa? Given the opportunity to pose questions to an expert panel — including former South African president, F.W. de Klerk, and Dr Nkosana Moyo,...
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On leadership: the importance of conviction, authenticity and luck
It was a massive privilege to hear former South African president, F.W. de Klerk, speak at an Ashridge event yesterday. While I can’t faithfully recreate the entire conversation that took place with...
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EY: Joining the battle on youth unemployment
You may remember I posted some time ago on the accession of Mark Weinberger as Chairman and CEO of EY, accompanied by a new brand identity and a clearly articulated purpose of ‘building a better...
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SOLAR FREAKIN’ ROADWAYS!
You know how I’m always yacking on about the need to make sustainability desirable and fun – less about the language of limits and more about the language of possibilities? Well, check out this video....
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Sustainable growth: an oxymoron?
If you haven’t come across Mike Townsend (CEO of Earthshine), before, then look him up (@mike_earthshine on Twitter). Recently, I’ve read a couple of great pieces by him, which have inspired me to...
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Building a better working world: Unilever style
As regular readers will know by now, I have a massive man-crush on Unilever CEO, Paul Polman (and not just because he was kind enough to say something nice about my book!). Here’s a leader who really...
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Generation Jobless: How do you make a dent on youth unemployment?
Add together not only those officially classed as ‘unemployed’, but also those who have simply given up looking for work and those who are part of the ‘working poor’ (i.e. earning less than $2/day),...
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Are people tiring of ‘sustainability’ (and, if so, what should we do about it)?
Some time ago, I received a tentative approach from Kogan Page about turning my 55-minute guide to building sustainable brands into a more substantive tome. A few weeks of enthusiastic discussion was...
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Yet more evidence that sustainability pays
For anyone who’s ever questioned the business value of sustainability, a new study published by Oxford University and Arabesque Partners (as reported in Forbes on Monday) should make for...
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On speech writing: Salmond shows true colours?
Beware the significance of every single word you write… Listening to various leaders, in the wake of Scotland’s verdict in the independence referendum this morning, I couldn’t help but latch onto the...
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The Ryder Cup: It’s about people, Phil, not process
Wow. That American press conference after the Ryder Cup was some car crash, wasn’t it?! While the first words off every European’s lips was to praise Paul McGinley to the hilt for his exemplary...
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Sustainability-inspired disruption: LYF Shoes
Traditional shoe-making is a nasty business, explains a video from LYF Shoes. Cheap raw materials, exploitation of foreign labour, toxic adhesives and mega-heat ovens used in assembly, wasteful...
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Holonomics: the antidote to reductionism?
Come across a word like ‘holonomics’ (evocative as it is of systems thinking) and one might be forgiven for feeling a slight sense of scepticism. Fortunately, Simon and Maria Robinson, authors of...
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Screw AppleWatch. Give me LYF!
Lordy, is it really 4 months since I last posted? Shame on me! Well, it’s only fitting that I should break such a prolonged period of radio silence with news from my favourite discovery of 2014: the...
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What’s your purpose?
Here’s a little thought experiment, teed up by an extract from Aaron Hurst’s excellent book, The Purpose Economy: Purpose is a verb Like so many people, I always thought that gaining purpose in life...
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Mindset matters
Just over a year ago now, I wrote about the vital importance of ‘metaskills’ as an (possibly even the most?) important avenue of intervention if we are to equip young people with the chops to succeed...
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Does culture really eat strategy for breakfast?
As a self-styled purpose-led strategist, you’d probably expect me to agree with the maxim that culture eats strategy for breakfast and, by and large, you’d be right. Any organisation is, at heart, a...
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