In her meticulous annual review of workplace trends, Jeanne Meister identifies mostly positive changes for employees in 2023 including more inclusive caring behaviour by companies and provision of schemes to support hybrid working, from collaboration to learning. On hybrid learning, Meister quotes Vincent Maurin, e-Academy lead at Arcelor Mittal, who says, “We are envisioning pop-up […]

The outlook in 2023 for the British economy and hence many British companies is grim. Stagflation, the combination of high inflation and persistent low growth, has returned to the UK. As Tony Danker, director-general of the CBI. puts it – “Britain is in stagflation—with rocketing inflation, negative growth, falling productivity and business investment.” Ian Stewart, […]

‘Given that the commercial environment is awash with risk and uncertainty, few leaders will want to trust important resourcing and investment decisions to gut instinct. Indeed, risk management may be the top priority in times of crisis, but what if business leaders could avoid the crisis in the first place?’  The contention in this piece is […]

Every so often the Telegraph lets non-subscribers like me peek inside its paywall and see a fascinating article such as this one from Jeremy Warner on why companies are reticent about investing in Britain. Sadly, they’ve locked it away again so here’s a synopsis of the message. Warner offers a number of reasons behind this reticence with […]

London Fire Brigade and the Metropolitan Police have been in the news recently for the wrong reasons . LFB has been identified as “institutionally misogynist(ic) and racist” by an independent review, but cases of discrimination, harassment and bullying are not unique to high pressure jobs such as Fire and Police. Nazir Afzal, former Chief Crown […]

Gareth Southgate embodies many of the qualities and characteristics that we would hope to find in contemporary leadership: setting stretch targets, providing support for his players and staff, an emphasis on great communication; and a healthy dose of humility and vulnerability. “As footballers we’re going to lose matches, we’re going to concede goals, but how […]

In the current state of double digit inflation and looming tax hikes for companies and their customers, it is even more important that companies retain a competitive edge. Having good products may not be enough when customers are being ever more cautious with their buying decisions. When 70% of consumers say a company is only […]

Life is lived forward but has to be understood backwards. That is to say, understanding follows action – and this is the conundrum for leaders who need an increasingly rapid understanding of ‘what’s the story here?’ (hindsight) in order to improvise plausible foresight. Using foresight rather than hindsight means leaders need to use all the […]

In a recent article, McKinsey set out the challenges facing CEOs in the current economic maelstrom – ‘Businesses need new approaches to build the resilience required in these decisive times, through a perceptive response to current challenges, foresight to anticipate the next round of disruptions, and capability for adaptation that will set the business on […]