Is it time to be more optimistic about the UK?
Whoever picked D-Ream’s Things Can Only Get Better for Tony Blair’s 1997 election campaign soundtrack, deserves a medal. Even now, the early days of New Labour embody a spirit of optimism and renewal encapsulated in that song. With Barack Obama, it was a chant that captured the mood. Yes. We. Can. Keir Starmer and Rachel […]
Never Knowingly Undersold: A great way to refocus the John Lewis brand
You really appreciate good slogans when you see a bad one. Among my favourite disasters are “nothing sucks like Electrolux” (vacuum cleaners) and “cheat on your girlfriend, not on your workout” (an unsurprisingly short-lived Reebok Germany campaign in 2012). Never Knowingly Undersold was always a great slogan, classy rather than catchy, and speaking to a […]
Assessing Labour’s first two months in office
Indeed, the key early task for Keir Starmer and his Cabinet is to set the tone for what will follow, communicating through actions as well as by words. So how have they done so far? Objective 1: Being bold Governing a country, like running a business, invariably involves strategic balancing acts. For Starmer, the […]
Will D&I make a comeback?
The business response fell somewhere on a spectrum from genuine reflection and commitment to change, through to panicked bandwagoning. Some said that they couldn’t see the business benefit to justify hiring a D&I (or, if you include ‘equity’, DEI) professional, but they largely kept that to themselves. D&I boomed, particularly in large corporates. But as […]
New CEOs & the Gareth Southgate problem
He won’t be the last either. But as a headhunter, I can’t help but sympathise with the FA’s board as they look to replace him. The departing England manager resembles a great FD-turned-CEO, a stabilising force who built a great team out of a group of high performing individuals, but who lacked strategic flair or […]
Hiring a new CEO? Stop looking for a clone
But unfortunately, the tendency is to hire people just like you. It’s understandable really. Our cognitive biases generally mean we see our way of doing things as the right way of doing things, which means we instinctively hire mini-me’s without even realising that’s what we’re doing. But it’s not a good idea. Not only do […]
Companies and prioritising sales and operations over tech and marketing. It’s a wise strategy
How times have changed. Speaking with CEOs across the retail, consumer, leisure and even tech sectors, we’ve seen a distinct shift in priority towards getting core operational and commercial roles secured. Outside of high-growth companies, most simply do not have the money to invest in large data, tech or marketing projects. This may surprise some […]
Breaking America: A quick guide for British businesses
However, many UK firms have struggled to get it right. Tesco’s early-century attempt to break the American market with Fresh & Easy may be the most infamous example. Despite being at the height of its success in Britain, its American adventure ended in a multibillion dollar flop. But there are many others that failed to […]
How to get perspective (without quitting your day job)
Great leaders need vision, not only to see their business and market as they really are, but also to imagine a different and better future. As we wrote recently though, this isn’t enough. To have any chance of making their vision a reality, they also need top-notch execution. Unfortunately, vision and execution have almost opposite […]
How to get best out of headhunter when hiring for senior roles
Headhunters can be vitally helpful here in finding the best candidates, but executive search isn’t something you can just outsource, getting on with something else while you wait for them to come back with the perfect CFO, CMO, divisional head or indeed CEO. Like most services, executive search works best when you, the client, know […]
