How to get out of a leadership rut
Indeed, our ability to lead, to spot opportunities and add the greatest value to our businesses depends on it. You might think that leaders are the last people to need motivating, but that’s not entirely true. Don’t get me wrong. I love running my own business, and I see exactly the same fire in the […]
Why fertility is a work issue
We try to bring our whole selves to work, to be authentic and to encourage that authenticity in others. Yet for many that can be easier said than done. One common and too-often-unspoken-about issue is fertility and how a fertility struggle can impact people’s day-to-day lives – particularly women. Smashing the taboo around infertility and […]
How to find entrepreneurial CEOs
It’s vanishingly rare for someone to have the multitudinous aptitudes required to start a business, as well as those required to scale it, as well as those required to lead a mature organisation in all its complexity. Unlike Amazon’s now ex-CEO, most founders of high-growth businesses learn the hard way that radically different situations generally […]
Culture is one of a leader’s greatest responsibilities
When there’s just you and two employees, it’s probably an accurate statement, but as the business grows, the culture inevitably develops a life of its own, beyond the personality and beliefs of the founder. How your culture develops has deep consequences for the company’s future. People are your only source of long-term competitive advantage, but […]
Avoiding the success trap
Indeed, they very often declined or failed to pursue the very same strategies that were responsible for their success in the first place. From Kodak in the face of the digital camera to countless department stores in the face of convenience retail, they kept doing what used to work for them – until it didn’t. […]
Q&A: Georgina Whalley, Interim CEO (UK) and Global CMO, Openpay
Late last year, Georgina pivoted again when she became interim CEO of Openpay’s UK operations, adding general management on top of her ongoing CMO responsibilities. She took some time out of her understandably busy schedule to talk to ORESA about leadership, careers and the state of fintech. What does it take to be successful as […]
Market Trend Report: Does purpose improve financial results?
It’s almost an article of faith today that the purpose of a business is more than just profit maximisation – and further that having greater purpose will lead to better financial performance. But is that actually true? Before we review the evidence, let’s be clear what we mean by purpose, which is sadly all too […]
What great chairs do – and what they don’t
The comparison with the chief executive is particularly apt given that by some estimates 85% of chairs used to be a CEO at some point, often at the same company. It can be problematic for them and for the business if they don’t know the difference, or the particular ways in which a chair adds […]
Why achieving strategic clarity isn’t as easy as it sounds
Because it’s clear in your mind, you are able to communicate it to people in a way that they too can understand. Through all the complexity that your business contains, all those moving parts, everyone is able to link back to that clear vision, purpose and strategy, and align what they are doing accordingly. You […]
Are you structured for growth?
Strategic growth has at least as much to do with execution as it does with ideas, however, and so often strong execution follows from a robust structure. There are generally three ways that structure can support – or stifle – strategic growth. 1. Structure frees ideas The larger an organisation gets, the harder it is […]
