The Leading Speakers Bureau

We have the pleasure to present to you Larry Hochman – Voted European Business Speaker of the Year 2001 and most requested key note for 2009 is Retaining Customers in an Economic Crisis.

Larry spent 10 years as a Director of British Airways and the loyalty management company, Air Miles, in both New York and London. His roles included Director of Customer Service and Director of People and Culture (he being the first person in Britain to hold this title). He is not just a theorist, but has turned his ideas into tangible business triumphs on both sides of the Atlantic.

1. You were selected as “The European Business Speaker of the Year“ and your portfolio counts nearly 400 speeches. What is the source of your inspiration for all these speeches: could it be the experience of the ten years you spent at British Airways, where you held the position of Director of Customer Service?

My inspiration for speeches everywhere in the world (in 2006 I did speeches on every continent) is a deeply held belief in a future that is positive. Even though I am often identified as a futurist, I never try to predict the future. What I try to do is to prepare people for the future by identifying trends already underway that I believe will impact both their businesses and their careers. Individuals can then decide what personal actions are necessary to build the foundations for success. We live in truly remarkable times of unlimited opportunity for many. People must open their eyes and minds and as Leonardo Da Vinci once said, “Know How To See”. I hope that my speeches help people better understand the world they live in and therefore are better able to take advantage of every opportunity in the unique globalised world where we all now reside.

2. How could companies build strong customer relationships that last a lifetime? How could an organization create a long-term relationship with his customers? Is there a special recipe to achieve success or does it depend on the company or a top management team?

In the kind of world we live in today, commercial success is indeed impossible without the building of customer relationships to last a lifetime. This, in fact, is more important now than ever before. Customers, everywhere, have more information and more choice which gives them more power and more control than anyone ever imagined would ever be possible. This is the most profound commercial reality of the so called “Information Age”. The key element that must be present in order to build a strong relationship of any kind is TRUST. This is true in both personal and professional relationships. Perhaps the single most important question to be asked of the very best customers of all businesses, when conducting research of any kind, is the following one: “Do you trust us and if not, why not?”. Having this information, feeding it back into the organisation and responding accordingly, will give you a true picture of what must be done to better retain your most important customers and therefore be a profitable enterprise in the future..

3. We are living in times of radical change all around the world due to the innovations in technology, due to new talented people organizations are struggling to attract. Could you develop a little bit the concept of “global leadership“ in the context of the globalization process that many have been discussing for some time now?

We live in world where all the rules are changing, with the key features being globalisation driven by new technologies. Boundaries, barriers and bureaucracies are falling everywhere and things are on the move like never before; people are on the move, goods and service are on the move, ideas are on the move and of course capital is on the move. A successful global leader in today’s world must have, more than anything else, the vision to see and the courage to act. It is impossible to lead successfully without a vision of what it is you are trying to inspire people to accomplish, and what are the issues and trends that must be contended with along the way. Vision alone, however, is not enough. The courage to take concrete action, and the ability to inspire confidence in others to take actions of their own, is of equal importance. Every leader should ask themselves occasionally the following question: What is the last courageous decision I have made? Leaders must also be responsible for helping to create an environment where people can realise their full potential, with more individuals therefore contributing fully to the success and growth of the organisation.

4. Once a leader, how can you protect yourself from falling into the trap of conceit, and not really being able to see the way anymore, or on the contrary, of becoming so close to the people you lead, and not being able to guide them on the right track?

Having been the Personal Mentor to many Chief Executives and Directors all over the world, I have contemplated for several years the challenge for leaders to not fall into the trap of complacency. In order for anyone to continue to adapt and change, they must be free of three things: denial, nostalgia and arrogance. Leaders must be open enough to allow colleagues to confront them as often as possible, and challenge their behaviour when these traits appear. Surfacing and discussing these issues in an open manner helps you to identify when they exist. You must first acknowledge the existence of denial, nostalgia and arrogance and how they manifest as personal behaviour, in order to move beyond them. Often you need other people to help you do that. And move beyond them you must. Otherwise, ego and vanity will certainly destroy your career and perhaps your company as well. Of course corruption, lies and ethical lapses can even more quickly destroy the career of any leader. We thankfully live in a world of increasing transparency (and instant communication!), which will dictate the swift exit of any leader who fails to meet the highest possible ethical standards.

5. From your personal experience of 10 years at director level in multi-national companies British Airways and Air Miles, what were the most challenging/delicate situations you were faced with and how did you manage to overcome them? Could you give us a couple of concrete examples?

The biggest challenge in any global organisation is how to build a corporate culture with a common purpose. This is even more important today, with staff and customers spread all over the world. To me, the only common purpose that should exist is to put your customers at the heart of everything that is done, said, promised and delivered. This must be the organising principle of any company that wishes to succeed and grow in the years ahead. The single biggest mistake to make in any business, big or small, is to fail to deliver on the promises made to customers. This is the responsibility of every single person in every single company in the world, regardless of where in the organisation they may work. At British Airways, Air Miles and every business I have ever been associated with, building a common purpose around meeting the demands of customers, and helping people understand their individual responsibility in doing so, has always been the biggest challenge.

6. In this competition for talent, what is the near future of HR, in your opinion? What are the most productive and up-to-date recruitment techniques at the moment of speaking?

The biggest challenge for HR departments anywhere in the world is first to make themselves relevant, and second to be certain everything that they do is seen to be linked to the commercial success of the business. Their most important and most relevant focus, by far, is assuring that the company becomes a “magnet for talent“. There is never a shortage of talent, just a shortage of great companies that the best people want to work for. Once they have helped to attract the most talented people possible, they must then manage that pool of talent and reward and retain the right people for the right amount of time. HR must also manage the sharing of intellectual capital in the organisation, a vital process in order to succeed and grow in the kind of world we live in today. Finally, HR must keep the leaders of the company honest in regard to that well used phrase that “people are the most important asset in the business”. This is said by many if not most leaders, but these words are seldom matched by their actions, in particular when the business hits a few bumps. HR must help to make certain that there is always investment being made in the people of the company and their continued growth. If not HR, then who will do this??

Contact Larry Hochman:

To enquire about Larry Hochman’s availability to speak at your corporate event, please fill in the enquiry form here

To view full speaker’s profile click here

Some other interviews with our speakers:
Bruce Sewell
John Thackara
Ray Hammond
Mark Fritz
Shaun Smith
Nicola Horlick
Dr. Jonas Ridderstrale

 
To view the full speaker’s profile click here
 
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Fund Management Guru

Nicola Horlick is a senior fund manager and the CEO of Bramdean Asset Management LLP. Nicola has worked in the fund management industry for over twenty-five years and has participated in the growth of some of the UK’s premier asset management businesses.

“A leading fund management guru”

In detail

Nicola joined SG Warburg as a graduate trainee in 1983, which became Mercury Asset Management. In 1991, she joined Morgan Grenfell Asset Management as Director and became Managing Director of the fund management division of the UK business in 1992. Over the next four years, funds under her management rose from £4 billion to £22 billion. After leaving Morgan Grenfell, Nicola took six weeks out to write her autobiographical account of her daughter’s traumatic treatment for leukaemia, revealing the real woman behind the headlines. The book was called ‘Can You Have It All?’ and the proceeds went to Great Ormond Street Hospital. In 1997, Nicola co-founded the UK arm of Société Générale Asset Management (SGAM), pulled in £7 billion worth of investments for SGAM and also took time off to have her sixth child.
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We have the pleasure to present to you John Thackara – Design Expert. And we are going to discuss with him the international conference and design futures network Success .

John Thackara is a former design journalist and publisher, tireless educator and event producer. He is in the business of driving social change with design. A self-described “symposiarch” – someone who designs collaborative events, projects and organizations, John founded the international conference and design futures network Doors of Perception, which now has offices in Amsterdam and Bangalore. He is also program director of Dott 07, an ambitious, year-long genuine collaboration and invention initiative to establish a sustainable region in cities throughout the northeast of England.

1. Could you please explain in more detail which businesses are or could become a subject for design? In what way?

Many of the troubling situations in our world are the result of design decisions. Too many of them were bad design decisions, it is true—but we are not the victims of blind chance.
The parlous condition of the planet, our only home, is a good example. Eighty percent of the environmental impact of the products, services, and infrastructures around us is determined at the design stage.
Design decisions shape the processes behind the products we use, the materials and energy required to make them, the ways we operate them on a daily basis, and what happens to them when we no longer need them.
We may not have meant to do so, and we may regret the way things have turned out, but we designed our way into the situations that face us today.
Many businesses are experts on the “how” of their market – for example with a technology or distribution asset. But few companies are any good at asking the “why?” questions. Design is a “why are we doing this?” process.

2. What are the principles/laws you provide to business groups you come in contact with? Do they only listen to your ideas or do they also apply them? Could you give us a couple of examples when one of your ideas/principles applied by a business group transformed itself into reality?

I try not to tell business what to do, or think. My objective, like any teacher, is to start conversations around certain key questions that all of us face.
For example: What is the best way for a company to consider material and energy flows in all the products systems it designs?
Or: what would it mean for a company to focus on services, not on things, and refrain from flooding the world with pointless devices?
I do not have easy answers to such questions – but if we do not address them collectively, now, we will pay a high price later.

3. What is your vision about “quality time” and good time management in an organization? Do you believe today’s companies succeed in using their time in a useful and productive way?

Many business leaders believe that efficiency and productivity are key measures of success. That may be true of production – but it is not a good way to organise creativity and innovation.
Quality time, for me, is empty time! – Time that is not organised in advance, and is not pre-programmed. We should design chunks of empty time into the working day – time that contains no content, at all.
People will fill up some of that that empty time with original ideas, which all businesses need.

4. As I have read in a summary of your book “In the Bubble: Designing for a Complex World” you put your belief in people’s power for design and creativity, at the heart of all things, even before technology. But is not technology invented by people? Is there any risk that technology could “take its revenge” on people?

Throughout the modern age we have subordinated the interests of people to those of technology. This approach has led to the unthinking destruction of traditional cultures, and the undermining of forms of life that we judged, once, to be backward.
These days, innovation can mean respect for ways of life that already exist – but helping do things in a better way.
Being sceptical about technology does not mean rejecting it. For one thing, we don’t have an either/or choice: Broadband, smart materials, wearables, pervasive computing, connected appliances, and other stuff we don’t know about yet will continue to transform the ways we live.
The question is, how?
Means and ends have lived apart too long in discussions of innovation. Understanding why things need to change—and reflecting on how they should change—are not separate issues.
The business that confronts the “why” question, as well as the “how” question, will be the one that does best in the future.

5. What do you believe about the fast growing technology? How could it impact on people’s jobs and lives in a positive and/or negative way in the near future?

I am convinced that in the next phase of development we will design a world in which we rely less on “tech” – and more on people.
We’re filling up the world with amazing devices and systems—on top of the natural and human ones that were already here—only to discover that these complex systems seem to be out of control: too complex to understand, let alone to shape, or redirect.

6. What advice you would give today’s business owners or top managers in order to get the best out of their employees and to benefit to the fullest extent from their employees’ talents and skills?

Give your people an interesting and meaningful challenge. For example, give your people one or two days a month of work time to go into their community to improve some aspect of daily life in practical ways. Every community has issues to deal with on health issues, food, school, energy, tourism, and travel. The challenge should involve creative solutions to practical challenges – not just “doing good”. For example, look for ways of making homes more energy efficient, cutting their carbon emissions.
Many staff will respond positively if given the chance to work outside their day-to-day “silo”.

7. Is there a lack of, or a search for talented people in today’s companies, all around the world? How could a HR manager or head-hunter find talented people who will stay long enough in the organization in order to help the growth of that company?

There are no easy answers to this one. The most talented people, by definition, are curious and restless people – and are therefore the most likely to head off to seek new challenges.
The trick is to confront people with meaningful and exciting questions. If a question turns them on, you won’t have to manage them or look for ways to keep them – they’ll be too busy!
This, by the way, is why I sometimes call myself a “question designer”. But I seldom design questions on my own: the best and most motivating questions emerge from a co-design process with the owners and staff.

Contact John Thackara:

To enquire about John Thackara’s availability to speak at your corporate event, please fill in the enquiry form here

To view full speaker’s profile click here

To view John Thackara video presentation click here

Some other interviews with our speakers:
Bruce Sewell
Ray Hammond
Mark Fritz
Shaun Smith
Nicola Horlick
Dr. Jonas Ridderstrale

We have the pleasure to present to you Shaun Smith – One of the World’s Leading Business Speakers on Customer Experience. And we are going to discuss with him the brand differentiations and long-term customer loyalty through the customer experience.

Shaun Smith runs his own customer experience consultancy, Shaunsmith and Co, which is firmly routed in the ‘keep it simple’ ethos. He has developed some of the latest thinking and practice around this subject, focusing in particular on how organizations can achieve brand differentiations and long-term customer loyalty through the customer experience.

1. How could the top management of a company inspire and motivate its employees in order to deliver the company’s brand? Could you give us some examples on this regard?

The key to this is a concept that I call ‘loose/tight’. Most organisations exercise a very tight control over what employees should do but a very loose control over why they should do it. In other words they have strict procedures and regulations that employees must abide by even when these do not make sense for the customer. I believe that organisations should reverse this and very be tight in communicating to employees who the target customers are, what they value, what the brand promise is and the kind of experience that they wish customers to have but then to be somewhatt looser about how to deliver this so that employees can use their judgement. One of the most successful fast food brands in the UK is called Pret a Manger. They employee students from all over Europe to work in their sandwich shops for a season. Whilst they have high employee turnover they also have a fabulous reputation for service. They achieve this by having a very clear brand promise ‘ Passionate about food’, employing staff for their personality and fit with the culture – I call this hiring for ‘DNA’ – training them well in the technical aspects of the job but then empowering them to deliver the brand. For example, staff are taught to “say something as the customer approaches, say something when you serve them and say something when you bid them goodbye” It is left up to the good sense of the employee about what to say.

2. In today’s globalization process, how do you think a HR department could hire and retain good – not necessarily talented – employees as long as possible?

See answer to 3 below

3. In order to attract good employees, do you really need to market your company to prospective employees like one markets its products?

Absolutely. The problem is that most recruitment is done by HR people who don’t understand how to use branding or marketing to differentiate in the employment market place. I think recruitment ads should be given to your marketing department or ad agency to design. Some years ago I was working with the fashion retailer Topshop who are famous for their brand and strong marketing. They were experiencing high turnover of employees and were having problems in attracting new ones. When we looked at their recruitment ads we found them to be boring so they simply got lost in the mass of advertisements in the job market. The experience they created for employees was just the same as any other retailer despite the brand being one of the most exciting fashion retailers in the world. We suggested that Topshop use a branded approach to recruitment and focus a lot more on their employee experience. The result was better quality people with a better fit for the culture who stay much longer and give much better service as well because they understand what the brand stands for and want to be part of it.

4. How could companies improve their customer experience in the long run? Should they work more on their people?

In my book ‘Uncommon Practice – People who deliver a great brand experience’ we identified seven practices that characterise the best brands but I will mention one here in answer to your question. Richer Sounds is a UK based HI-Fi retailer which achieves the highest sales per square foot of any retailer in the world. Why? Because Julian Richer the Chairman believes that the customer and the employee experience are inextricably linked and so he uses uncommon ways to create a great employee experience and reward them for creating an exceptional customer experience. He creates a distinctive employment experience for his best performing “colleagues” by providing these employees with the loan of company Bentleys for the weekend and trips on the company jet. Yet any other retailer attempting to copy these very unusual employee practices is likely to fail because they would not be linked to the customer experience strategy. The fact is that unless your customer experience and employee experience are carefully aligned with the strategy for your brand you are unlikely to stand out from the crowd. In a sea of sameness those organisations that create and deliver distinctive customer experience are those that win.

People make the difference. If you concentrate on creating a great environment for your employees, they will focus on creating a great experience for your customers. Research by Forum Corporation found that contact with people usually has a greater impact on customer loyalty than does advertising. Forum asked consumers to rate the extent to which a number of different attributes contribute to creating a customer experience that drives loyalty. “People” was ranked first. 1

While this realisation is not revolutionary, making it work remains unusual. Not many companies successfully manage to harness the full potential of people power day in and day out. The trouble is that they need to. Organisations that deliver their brand promise through their people reap benefits that directly impact customer loyalty, market share, and profitability.

So, how can you energise the people in your organisation? Five things are essential if you are to harness people power:

• Hire people with competencies to satisfy customer expectations
• Train employees to deliver experiences that uniquely fit your brand promise
• Reward employees for the right behaviours
• Drive the behaviours from the very top of the organisation
• Measure the employee experience

5. How can an organization plan a change strategy in order to bring its brand to life, if there is this RTC phenomenon (Resistance To Change) in many companies today?

The problem for many organisations is that they are constantly changing direction and so their employees get change fatigue.”Oh, not another new initiative” is the cry we hear in many organisations hence the resistance that comes from the news that yet another one is about to start. So I recommend that organisations focus on their long term strategy for winning rather than their strategy for change’ For example, I was speaking at a large Customer Service Management conference. Senior executives from Disney, Southwest Airlines and Ritz-Carlton gave presentations and the audience were clearly enthralled with how these organisations operate. I am sure many of the delegates went back to their organisations with the intention to adopt some of these best practices. Yet this is dangerous. One of the first principles of business strategy is to differentiate rather than be “me too”. Professor Michael Porter, probably the most famous strategist alive today, says that strategy is about making a choice; of what to do, but even more importantly, what not to do. To attempt to copy other organisations runs the risk of your being second rate, at best and totally inappropriate at worst. Instead what we must do is to focus on our customers and stay true to our strategy for delighting them.

For example, Sir Terry Leahy, CEO of Tesco the global supermarket chain, told me that the key to Tesco’s success was “The day we stopped following Sainsbury (the market leader at that time) and started following our customers”. In other words they focused on differentiation and meeting the needs of their target customers rather than simply copying competitors in a knee-jerk reaction. Since then the brand has focused on creating value for customers to earn their life-time loyalty. Tesco’s slogan of “every little helps” describes the enormous attention to detail that enables them to ensure that processes, people and products operate seamlessly to deliver value. Today Tesco is the market leader and has declared a 2billion pound profit for the last year has entered the US market. Tesco has stayed true to its strategy over a number of years so that it becomes part of the culture. When your people understand that they are being asked to deliver what customers want and that management are fully committed to sustaining the effort over the long term then the resistance will fade away.

6. What is your advice regarding the retention process in any company? What strategy they should apply in order to keep their employees longer in the organization (by working more on establishing customer loyalty programs perhaps…)?

Some organisations like Pret a Manger use a model that accepts high turnover of employees. But if your business is more complex, like investment banking for example, you want to keep your best people for as long as possible. I think that loyalty is a misused term. Most organisations think that it is about employees or customers being loyal to them. I think it should be the other way round. The firm should be loyal to their best customers and employees by offering value that is not generally available to the mass market. True loyalty happens when there is an emotional engagement with the organisation. This engagement comes from experiencing the brand or organisation in a way that creates true value for the customer or employee. This may not be financial but is more likely to be because the customer or employee believes that the organisation truly cares about their experience and seeks to act in ways which build trust and mutual benefit.

Contact Shaun Smith:

To enquire about Shaun Smith’s availability to speak at your corporate event, please fill in the enquiry form here

To view full speaker’s profile click here

To view Shaun Smith video presentation click here

Some other interviews with our speakers:
Bruce Sewell
John Thackara
Ray Hammond
Mark Fritz
Nicola Horlick
Dr. Jonas Ridderstrale

We have the pleasure to present to you Dr. Jonas Ridderstrale – International Business Consultant, Author & Lecturer. And we are going to discuss with him he new generation of European-based business Success .

Dr Jonas Ridderstråle is at the forefront of the new generation of European-based business gurus. He cuts through the madness and hyperbole surrounding the global economy and his appeal is truly global. Jonas has attained tremendous media coverage throughout the world. The 2005 Thinkers 50, the bi-annual global ranking of management thinkers, ranked him (and his colleague Nordström) at number nine internationally and as the leading European business guru.

1. You are ranked as number 9 among management thinkers of the world and number 1 in Europe together with your co-author Kjell A. Nordström. As you are the number ones in Europe the question is quite obvious: are there only a few real thinkers in this continent or are you that good at management to be ranked on the first place?

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. There are many great European management thinkers – from Charles Handy to Fons Trompenhaars. I think I’ve been successful, because the ideas that I present are solid enough to stand the test of time, but also because my books and gigs provide people not only with intellectual content. In all probability, that stuff is necessary but not sufficient if you want to make it in my industry. I also give people hope, confidence and optimism. Boosting the psychological capital of people is at least as important as adding to their intellectual capital.

2. What do you think what is the problem with the European management thinkers?

I don’t have a problem with them – at least not all of them.

3. In world’s economy Europe as a producer does not have a big role nowadays everything is moving to Asia. Based on your experiences how could Europe compete and stay alive? Is there a problem with the management skills here, in Europe or it is just a new era when China, India are getting bigger roles?

In our deregulated world, there are two basic options. Either you design a strategy that’s as fit as the great white shark – well adapted to a world of markets, or you focus on being sexy like the peacock with his amazing tail – attractive to people with more or less endless choice. Most people are familiar with Charles Darwin’s idea of survival of the fittest. As an effect of the deregulated business life and our journey into an info jungle where markets rule and reign also organizations must adapt. Right now, they are outsourcing and off-shoring to become the fittest business on the block.

Just farming out stuff won’t do the trick, however. Being fit requires that you find and exploit a market imperfection. For economists (and politicians) perfect markets are those where marginal cost equals marginal revenue and companies make just enough money to stay in business. In a perfect market, profits don’t exist. It’s therefore the duty of executives to pursue imperfections.

Dell created a transactional advantage with its direct to the customer business model, eliminating several parts of the traditional value chain. eBay has designed its Internet platform, where you can sell and buy just about everything, in such a way that relationships and reputation evolve and result in mutual trust. Finally, there are those companies, mainly professional service firms such as Ernst & Young or Accenture, which focus their attention on creating and defending a talent monopoly.

But also Darwin later came to realize there’s another way. The trick lies in shifting perspective from a survival-oriented to a courtship-based view of success. Consider the peacock’s tail? From a fitness perspective, this “psychedelic feather duster” actually provides a competitive disadvantage. He can’t run. He can’t fly. So, why did the peacock end up with such a ridiculous costume?

In order to understand his look, we must consider the peahen, because in nature as in life and in business it’s always the “customer” who takes the ultimate decision; go – no go. With the tail, the peacock is actually telling the female that he is so incredibly fit that he can afford to carry around this awkward adornment and still be alive and have a good life. He has a credible handicap. This is survival of the sexiest. The guy is attractive as hell.

Since we’ve deregulated life and moved into a split society in which at least some people now have more or less endless choice, being good is often no longer enough. Today, in the business world we find an abundance of firms that supply a surplus of products and services with similar quality, price and performance. For Generation Choice – sameness sucks. So, corporations must attract the attention of people by appealing to their feelings.

In business, credible handicaps largely fall into two separate categories: ethics and aesthetics. If you refuse to bribe and cheat, you’ll be handicapped. Corporate social responsibility costs = handicap. Also corporations that spend a lot of money on being environmentally friendly develop a handicap – a cost disadvantage. Is this handicap credible? Increasingly so, I believe, after the UN report on our climate and Al Gore’s documentary An Inconvenient Truth. No wonder that the percentage of global venture capital that’s invested in so called clean technology is up from 1 per cent in 2000 to 14 per cent in 2006. But ethics isn’t for everyone, everywhere. All handicaps are subjective, and their exchange rates vary over time and space. As a supplier you also need to be authentic. Transparency works both ways.

As for aesthetical handicaps, consider BMW. We’ve been told that the company employs close to 30 highly trained engineers who work only on the sound of the door, and almost half as many who focus on the smell of the car. Look at the cost structure of that company. BMW shouldn’t exist – not in one of the most competitive industries in the world; not when it spends an enormous amount of time and money on completely “meaningless” things such as design and branding. Yet, it does. In a perfectly normal and rational world we would all be driving Toyota Corollas. We don’t. BMW is hugely successful – not despite the handicap but thanks to it. The company knows how to profit from the peacock principle.

4. Asian companies are just on the rise and not entered fully in the global market yet. Are there huge differences between the management techniques they use and the ones you offer to be successful?

There is no Asian management style. We find great differences even between Japanese companies. I think it is fair to say that as individualism and freedom of choice conquer also this part of the world, leaders will have to become less of traditional bosses – power with rather than power over. As the companies mature and move further up the value chain, many of them will also have to become global not only in output terms, but also when it come to input and throughput. This will require a somewhat different organizational and managerial approach.

5. You have updated Funky Business and remastered it for the new business reality. What are the main things that have been changed since the book was published?

We have given the book a 60 degree wash to make it more independent of space and time. We also include an entirely new chapter with some of the most important developments over the last 8-10 years.

6. Based on the fact that Funky Business has been updated can a manager still use and learn from the old book or from Karaoke Capitalism or can we say that time has been changed?

Some truths are eternal. I still believe strongly in 99.9% of the stuff that we have written about in the books. If anything, we probably underestimated the power of the forces of change. Our books provide people with questions and a way of looking at the world – structuring mechanisms and principles – that makes them less likely to become irrelevant than books that try to sell you answers in the form of 10 bankable propositions.

Contact Dr. Jonas Ridderstrale:

To enquire about Dr. Jonas Ridderstrale’s availability to speak at your corporate event, please fill in the enquiry form here

To view full speaker’s profile click here

To view Dr. Jonas Ridderstrale video presentation click here

Some other interviews with our speakers:
Bruce Sewell
John Thackara
Ray Hammond
Mark Fritz
Shaun Smith
Nicola Horlick

We have the pleasure to present to you Nicola Horlick – A leading fund management guru. And we are going to discuss with her the challenges concerning Fund Management Success .

Nicola Horlick is a senior fund manager and the CEO of Bramdean Asset Management LLP. Nicola has worked in the fund management industry for over twenty-five years and has participated in the growth of some of the UK’s premier asset management businesses.

1.What small things do you think make a big difference to organizational success?

Leadership is absolutely key to organizational success. In my view, strong leadership is the only thing that matters. A good leader must have a vision for the organization and he or she must make sure that the key people in the organization share that vision.

2.How do you define professional behaviour and what, if anything has evolved in your definition?

I started my career in an extremely professional organization. By that I mean that there was a high degree of discipline in terms of the way that the organization related to the outside world and the way that things were documented. I strongly believe that this type of discipline is essential if a business is going to succeed. It is also important to have a strong culture and to be able to say to new recruits that this is ‘our’ way of doing things.

3.What do you consider to be the key global business issues of the moment?

The key thing that is preoccupying everyone in business at the moment is what is happening in the US. It seems that a recession is inevitable and everyone is trying to work out what the impact will be on the global economy. It is hoped that the smaller Far Eastern economies have developed a momentum of their own which will allow continued growth even if the US slips into recession. However, we will not really know for a couple of years what the outcome was.

4.What’s your approach to talent management in particular succession planning?

I only want talented people to work in my business. Managing talented people is tough as they are generally rather difficult people. The important thing is to be prepared to listen to people’s hopes and aspirations and to hear their views on how the business should evolve. As far as succession planning is concerned, this is vital for any business. The CEO could disappear at any moment and so it is incumbent upon him or her to plan for that eventuality. It is more difficult for small businesses as there is not always an obvious person to succeed the CEO. Nonetheless, even in smaller businesses, this is something that should be carefully considered.

5.What are your thoughts on the relationship between a business leader’s media profile and organizational success?

I believe that there is no relationship between a business leader’s media profile and organizational success. The latter is entirely dependent upon having a clear vision and strategy for the organization and then implementing it effectively.

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Some other interviews with our speakers:
Bruce Sewell
John Thackara
Ray Hammond
Mark Fritz
Shaun Smith
Dr. Jonas Ridderstrale

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We have the pleasure to present to you Mark Fritz – Expert on Virtual Leadership and Leading People at a Distance. And we are going to discuss with him what are the key character skills of a successful leader .

Mark Fritz is the MD and Founder of Procedor Limited, a company focused on enabling leaders to become even more successful. He is an associate of Ashridge College in the UK, co-teaching Leading Complex Teams; and leads an MBA Seminar on Virtual Leadership at HEC in France. He also leads MBA Workshops on Virtual Leadership at the Instituto de Empresa Business School in Spain.

1. In your vast international experience in leadership roles with Kodak and now mentoring business leaders across the world, what have you discovered to be the one common trend in virtual organisations?

The trend we are seeing that it is constantly growing. We now have a global economy, and large companies are now placing their operations and resources where it makes sense both financially and for the longer-term. Many of these companies have established their virtual organisations, and have basically leveraged existing long-term relationships that they had across the countries in their organisations. However, when people retire or move on, they are finding it difficult to maintain the operations with the new people who don’t have those key relationships in place. These companies have been using these relationships to compensate for the lack of strong processes in place.

To make virtual organisations successful year after year, it is important to always be working on building and growing both the key relationships across organisation and the key processes. Any weaknesses in processes need to be supported by stronger relationships, and vice versa.

2. What are the key character skills of a successful leader who leads people from a distance?

I often do a talk on Professionalism, and use the equation that Character + Skills = Professionalism. You could really replace the word “Professionalism” with “Success”, and you have the key character traits and skills for a successful virtual leader. I cover six character and six skills traits in my talk. However, I will share the two key traits for each here.

The two key character traits are attitude and discipline. The leader is the role model for the behaviours in their people, and the collection of the behaviours create the culture. A great attitude that’s visible in all the meetings/calls can encourage the right behaviours in others. People with great attitudes will work with each other better, and thus will share more information across the organisation. Discipline is key, as it drives the behaviour that everyone needs to do what’s “necessary” (keeping commitments), especially when the work is for someone that’s at a distance.

The two key skills traits are Focus and Follow-up. One of the key problems in all virtual organisations is keeping people working on the “right” things. The leader doesn’t see them every day, and making sure they are working on the right things is all about how the organisation’s focus is communicated (and regularly). Follow-up is also key, and especially for a virtual organisation. Remember, to the people in a virtual organisation, Follow-up = “This is important”.

3. Are the factors underpinning success in a virtual leadership environment different from those in a traditional one?

You could say that the key factors underpinning the success in a virtual leadership environment are the same for a traditional one. However, in a virtual leadership environment, the leader doesn’t have the ability to compensate for a lack of leadership/manager skills. He or she cannot control the environment and fire-fight their way to success when people are not close around them.

The key is getting people to take “ownership” for their responsibilities. A successful virtual leader needs to drive an outcomes based leadership style and constantly discuss and delegate outcomes to their people. You cannot really control activities from a distance. However, you can create ownership for the key outcomes, and follow-up/coach your people in delivering them. Therefore, the key success factor is having an “outcomes” versus an activities focus.

4. How do you ensure effective communication, given that the people in a virtual team never or rarely meet in person?

Communications technology now allows us to communicate and share information easily with people located anywhere in the world. The capability is there. However, the important thing is to get everyone to “use” it. Successful virtual leaders understand this well, and work on establishing key communications behaviours and processes.

First, it is about getting people to know each other. Key face-to-face meetings are always helpful if they can be done, but there are also many other ways for people (who will never meet) to learn more about each other. For example, I have had project teams who would never meet, invest their first call together in just sharing information about each other (both work and outside work).

Second, it is important to drive the right behaviours to share information. There are too many people in today’s companies who still believe that “information is power”, and keep holding it to themselves. Information flow drives a successful virtual organisation.

5. What stops virtual leaders from delegating more than what they do today?

Many leaders today don’t delegate as much as they could due to a need for control. If a leader keeps the ownership with them, then they feel more in control. When leading a virtual organisation, this style might get things done in the short-term, but does nothing to grow the people, and thus the organisation.

Successful virtual leaders understand that delegating is the fastest way to grow their people. They focus on delegating outcomes that their people can “own”, and then follow-up/coach them to successfully deliver those outcomes.

You could say that a leader who delegates is in more control, as he or she is getting their people to take more “ownership” for the key deliverables of the organisation.

6. How do you assess performance in a virtual team organisation?

First, the most important thing is to make the performance of the organisation very visible to everyone. The greatest pressure to get things done is not the leader/employee pressure, but “peer” pressure. The more visible the performance metrics and information is available, the more “peer” pressure you drive for results, as well as the more information sharing you encourage across the organisation.

The performance measurements need to cover the results the organisation is committed to deliver. However, every organisation needs to be successful year after year, and the best virtual leaders also measure their leaders on improvement projects as well. These projects are always focused on building the key relationships and processes that enable the organisation to constantly improve the operations.

7. What companies can you give as examples of “best practice” in terms of virtual leadership?

There are many companies that have established a “best practice” in the different aspects of leading virtual organisations. However, most still struggle with getting both the leadership and the relationships/processes in place. I think one of the best enablers a company created for virtual leadership is from GE. Jack Welch drove the “boundaryless” focus that encouraged the sharing of ideas and best practices. All successful virtual leaders know, knowledge or information only gathers power when shared.

Contact Mark Fritz:

To enquire about Mark Fritz’s availability to speak at your corporate event, please fill in the enquiry form here

To view full speaker’s profile click here

Some other interviews with our speakers:
Bruce Sewell
John Thackara
Ray Hammond
Shaun Smith
Nicola Horlick
Dr. Jonas Ridderstrale

We have the pleasure to present to you Bruce Sewell – Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Intel Corporation. And we are going to discuss with him the challenges concerning soft-ware piracy and Intellectual property corporations are facing today.

Bruce Sewell is senior vice president and general counsel of Intel Corporation. His management responsibilities include legal, corporate affairs, and Intel’s corporate social responsibility programs. As general counsel, he supervises a team of roughly 600 attorneys and policy professionals located in over 30 countries around the world. Sewell also represents Intel on several professional, legislative and policy boards in the United States and abroad. He was recently profiled in Fortune and is also a regular contributor for the Wall Street Journal.

1. As the senior vice president and general counsel of Intel Corporation, how do you effectively promote a safe and legal digital world? Is this really possible in today’s continuous fight against software piracy?

There are many dimensions to this question. Part of promoting a safe and legal digital world for a company such as Intel involves role modeling the behavior that we would like to see others follow. For this reason we have a certification program to insure that all code used in our products is either original to Intel (i.e., we wrote it), or that we have the appropriate intellectual property rights needed to incorporate that code into our products. Externally, Intel works closely with many international organizations and governments to promote anti-piracy programs and increased respect for intellectual property rights.

2. Without piracy, how much could a company increase its revenue – could you give us a concrete example, in percentages? Does the lack or removal of software piracy have a positive influence on employment process?

The impact of software piracy will vary greatly from one company to another, so there isn’t a one size fits all answer to this question. However, in general what we see is that large established companies can adapt to the impact of IP theft more easily than very small or start-up companies can. This does not mean that the larger companies like piracy, quite the contrary, but in terms of who is most damaged by the practice, unfortunately that burden often falls most heavily on smaller local software entrepenuers.

3. As Intel’s general counsel, you are responsible for legal and government affairs worldwide. What was or is, at the present moment, the most difficult threat or issue you were/are confronting regarding Intellectual Property?

Today in the United States we are experiencing a crisis in the way a small number of companies are exploiting our current patent and litigation systems. The impact of this activity is to levy a tax on successful companies that does not help consumers or produce any positive social benefit, but instead creates extreme wealth for a very small number of lawyers and business executives. We need to fix the problems that allow this behavior to flourish. There are two bills presently before the US Congress which will go a long way to improving this situation. My most important focus today is to assist in getting those bills enacted into law.

4. Software companies, all around the world, are quite fragile when it comes to breaking copyright and IP laws. How could they protect themselves against piracy attacks, internal (their own employees), as well as external ones? What are the most efficient practical pieces of advice you would give them?

At Intel we are very concerned about the issues of piracy and security. We strive to develop technologies that increase the general safety of the platform as a whole by enhancing the protection of transactions and data. In our experience true security relies on ‘peer review’ and not ‘security secrecy’. Creating incentives to have the best and brightest minds applied in productive ways to enhancing the security of IT products is the best way to promote software innovation and establish a safe and trusted IT infrastructure.

5. What are Intel’s employee policies? Could you give us some examples? Are they restrictive or relaxed? Do you promote or encourage employee diversity and why?

This is a very broad question. Intel has approximately 90,000 employees located in offices and facilities all around the world. Intel also derives more than 50% of its revenue from commercial activity outside of the United States. For these reasons diversity among our employees is not just an option for us, it is a necessary part of who we are as a company. At Intel we hire the most outstanding employees we can find regardless of where they are from or where they are located. Then we try to provide those employees with challenging work, on-going training, and exciting career opportunities.

6. Could you please tell us what are Intel’s investments or plans for future investments in support centers/call centers and help desks in Eastern and Central Europe, in countries like Romania, for instance, where the Call Center phenomenon has registered a very quick development in the last 5 years?

Unlike a consumer products company, Intel does not require an extensive network of support/call centers. Intel’s products are generally purchased by other high-tech companies who then use our goods to build technology products that are sold to end-users. In general, however, we are always on the look out for investment opportunities anywhere in the world that will compliment our business and help our customers grow their businesses.

Contact Bruce Sewell:

To enquire about Bruce Sewell’s availability to speak at your corporate event, please fill in the enquiry form here

To view full speaker’s profile click here

Some other interviews with our speakers:
John Thackara
Ray Hammond
Mark Fritz
Shaun Smith
Nicola Horlick
Dr. Jonas Ridderstrale