Pippa Murray is a foodie at heart with a particular love for nut butters, which in the early 2010s were her favourite pre- and post-marathon snack. But many of her favourite products at the time were “pretty processed”, often containing palm oil which is high in saturated fats and environmentally destructive to procure. 

Simultaneously, the protein trend was in its infancy and the wellness industry was championing ‘healthy fats’. Despite these market shifts, existing brands had failed to fully leverage these emerging developments.

Spotting a gap in the market, Murray went on a journey to grow and scale her own nut butter brand while working at The Science Museum, eventually launching Pip & Nut in 2015. The brand has been growing strength to strength and is now the UK’s number one nut butter brand. 

On this week's episode, Murray discusses the early days of product development - including the three months she spent living in a shed - aligning the values of people, planet and profit, and using business as a force for good.

Credits:

Presenter: Éilis Cronin

Producer: Inga Marsden

Artwork: Jenny Hardy

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How do we solve population pressure and climate crisis in space? How has GPS allowed us to provide 12% more food globally? How did the UK become a global leader in small satellite manufacture after the British Government said, “there’s no future for the UK satellite industry”? How did Elon Musk turn reusable rockets from science fiction to science fact in less than 20 years? What else are “Elon and Jeff” going to allow us to do? And why is SpaceX still “the elephant in the room”?

Join Alice as she talks to Will Whitehorn, chair of giant space tech investor Seraphim and former president of Virgin Galactic, and they discuss the implications of “The Elon Musk show” and its legacy, “the beginnings of a competitive space industry of scale”.

Contributors:

Alice Bunn, President of UKspace 

Dr Alice Bunn OBE FIMechE FRAeS CEng | LinkedIn

UKspace: Overview | LinkedIn

Will Whitehorn OBE, Seraphim Space Investment Trust

Will Whitehorn OBE | LinkedIn

Key topics covered:

• UK satellite manufacture
• UK universities
• SpaceX valuation
• Reuseable rockets
• Agricultural management
• Population pressure
• Climate crisis
• Solar power
• Data centres in space
• Industrialising in space

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

New ideas are the engine of corporate growth, but all too often established businesses find innovation too cumbersome and too distracting from the day job – which means it’s the preserve of nimbler start-ups.

Daniel Aminetzah is a McKinsey consultant on a mission to change that. The global co-leader of McKinsey Business Building wants companies to pursue new revenue streams and act more like start-ups, even in deeply traditional industries. 

As he puts it: “We can allow ourselves to unleash our entrepreneurial muscle in many more contexts, including traditional corporates or professional firms. You don’t have to go to a garage and do it with another founder.”

On the latest episode of MT’s Leadership Lessons podcast, Aminetzah explained how he helps firms upgrade their business building capacity. And despite the current macroeconomic uncertainty, he said many are ready to take the plunge.

Credits:

Presenter: Antonia Garrett Peel

Producer: Inga Marsden

Artwork: Jenny Hardy

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Rupal Patel, the author of From CIA to CEO, speaks to MT about her learnings from more than half a decade in the intelligence service and what she thinks other leaders can learn from this “CIA-inspired toolkit”.

Presenters Antonia Garrett Peel and Éilis Cronin also discuss whether we have unrealistic expectations of CEOs and consider how one leader's Naval training equipped him to stay cool and navigate high-stakes situations in the business world.

Links

https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/sack-race-treat-ceos-football-managers/long-reads/article/1829982

https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/dont-prisoner-things-cant-control-lessons-sinking-submarine/interviews/article/1833257

https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/zero-gravity-founder-everyones-space-race-diverse-talent/interviews/article/1833065

Credits

Presenters: Éilis Cronin and Antonia Garrett Peel

Production: Nav Pal

Artwork: David Robinson

#management #leadership #CIA #business

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, André Lacroix, CEO of the FTSE 100 quality assurance company Intertek, speaks to MT about the UK's productivity slump and how it's being fuelled by bad management, offering his advice for leaders who want to get the most out of their employees. 

Presenters Kate Magee, Éilis Cronin and Antonia Garrett Peel also discuss whether rivalry is ever a good thing and when it goes too far, and consider new research suggesting that organisations are barking up the wrong tree when it comes to female talent retention.

Links

https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/manage-business-rivalry/indepth/article/1832879

https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/mts-biggest-business-leader-rivalries/food-for-thought/article/1833151

https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/its-not-me-its-you-why-organisations-need-fix-themselves-not-female-staff/indepth/article/1832108

Credits

Presenters: Kate Magee, Éilis Cronin and Antonia Garrett Peel

Production: Nav Pal

Artwork: David Robinson

#management #leadership #productivity #economy 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Michele Bareggi was a senior executive at Lehman Brothers in London on 15 September 2008, the day the investment bank became the largest company to file for bankruptcy in US history, and the catalyst for the global financial crash. 

Now president and founder of Athora, a pensions and insurance business, he talks to MT about the art of risk management, his Lehman Brothers experience and why leaders are there to fix problems.

Presenters Kate and Éilis also discuss the 'lazy girl jobs' phenomenon, How DocuSign's CEO Allan Thygesen is leading a pandemic darling after the pandemic and David Attenborough's secret managerial genius,

Links

https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/docusign-ceo-lead-pandemic-darling-pandemic/interviews/article/1831619

https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/lazy-girl-jobs-answer-workplace-burnout/hybrid-working/article/1831166

https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/secret-managerial-genius-david-attenborough/indepth/article/1830010

Credits

Presenters: Kate Magee and Éilis Cronin

Production: Nav Pal

Artwork: Tim Scott

#management #leadership #banking #finance #economy

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, we speak to Paul Mills-Hicks, ex-commercial director at Sainsbury's, chairman of Sense Marketing and business consultant, on the "death of the high street", the popularity of own-brand products and advice on how not to fail at retail.

Also on the show, MT's Kate Magee and Éilis Cronin discuss a recent interview with the CEO of JD Sports, Régis Schultz, and comment on a recent story about a CEO who replaced 90% of his staff with an AI chatbot.

Credits

Presenters: Kate Magee and Éilis Cronin

Production: Nav Pal

Artwork: David Robinson

#management #leadership #retail #costoflivingcrisis #economy #finance

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, we host our very first round table episode with three members of our 35 Women Under 35 list, which champions senior female leaders across the business world. They discuss the future challenges businesses will face, the characteristics of a successful leader and give their take on whether we will ever achieve a more equitable workforce.

Also on the show, MT's Kate Magee and Éilis Cronin reminisce about the 35 Women Under 35 photoshoot, including discussions around shared parental leave. Kate also talks about MT's ransomware project, The Big Hack.

Credits

Presenters: Kate Magee and Éilis Cronin

Production: Nav Pal

Artwork: David Robinson

#management #leadership #womeninbusiness #technology #equality

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, we speak to Tim Hassett, chief executive of marketing agency Unlimited, who consolidated the business from 23 agencies down to nine while only losing a fraction of his staff. He takes us on the highs and lows of the restructuring journey, including changing the hearts and minds of his change-averse colleges, and his experience moving from the client side to agency side.

Also on the show, MT's Kate Magee and Éilis Cronin discuss whether a "right to disconnect" law would work for British businesses and the do's and don'ts of a successful LinkedIn profile.

Credits

Presenters: Kate Magee and Éilis Cronin

Production: Nav Pal

Artwork: David Robinson

#management #leadership #consolidation #marketing

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode we meet Durreen Shahnaz, chief executive of Impact Invest Exchange, the world's first stock exchange for social enterprises.

She opens up about her time on Wall Street, the problem with greenwashing and the importance of inclusivity in business. She also talks about the inspiration behind her latest book The Defiant Optimist: Daring to Fight Global Inequality, Reinvent Finance, and Invest in Women.

MT's Kate Magee and Éilis Cronin also discuss:

• The growing number of people who dismiss the importance of line management and the value that soft skills have on leadership
• In light of the CBI scandal, are we seeing a #MeToo movement for business?

#leadership #finance #globalbusiness #management #sustainability #culture #WallStreet #MeToo #womeninbusiness

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Jennifer Moss, the author of The Burnout Epidemic: The Rise of Chronic Stress and How To Fix It, offers powerful advice to leaders about how to recognise and reduce chronic stress in their organisations before people "hit the wall."

She also gives a candid account of her personal experience with burnout, which forced her to quit the tech start-up she founded. She urges others in a similar position to act early, take it seriously and focus on small wins to recover.

Her biggest leadership lesson is: "You can have anything, but not everything." 

Also on the show, MT's Kate Magee and Éilis Cronin discuss:

• In what circumstances a CEO should waive their annual bonus? Spoiler alert - dumping sewage into rivers seems like a solid reason.
• How to survive a leadership vote of confidence, a situation Dame Sharon White at the John Lewis Partnership found herself in last week.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dr Charmaine Griffiths, the CEO of the British Heart Foundation, has always known what she does is personal. But when a family crisis happened during the pandemic, it made it even more acute.

In this latest episode of Management Today's Leadership Lessons, Griffiths discusses what it was like to step in to the CEO role just weeks before the Covid pandemic hit, how she steered the organisation through the crisis including dealing with a loss of £10m a month due to its 730 forced shop closures, and how being a trained scientist has impacted her leadership career.

MT's Kate Magee and Éilis Cronin also discuss the supposed death of the subscription economy, the CBI scandal, the banking sector's woes and the CEO who spent £200k on commuting by private jet.

#management #leadership #careers #lifesciences #health #non-profit #

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Michael Queenan, chief executive of Nephos Technology, was diagnosed with autism and ADHD at the age of 41. He then embarked on a journey of self-reflection as he grappled with his new identity and what that means for him as a CEO.

He is now writing a book about his own experiences as a neurodiverse leader and advice for others on how to better understand and interact with neurodiverse people.

Also in the show: How to be a business prepper and the latest whistleblowing data.

Credits

Presenters: Kate Magee and Éilis Cronin

Production: Nav Pal

Art: David Robinson

Read more about Michael Queenan and his journey on Management Today.

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American author F. Scott Fitzgerald famously wrote that: “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.”

This is also, according to dean of Ivey Business School Julian Birkinshaw and ex-Pearson CEO John Fallon, who have co-authored a new book on established companies in an age of digital change, a good definition of the mindset needed to navigate this kind of disruption. You can think of it, Birkinshaw told MT’s Leadership Lessons, as “being paranoid and pragmatic at the same time”.

“So you have to have a certain level of paranoia that any new technology could be something that will make your life very difficult, that will be a threat. The pragmatic bit says, ‘we've lived through many, many rounds of digital changes…Most of our big organisations are still with us’.”

To be more precise, as of 2020, only 35 of the Fortune 500 cohort from 1995 - when the internet revolution was really getting underway - had gone bankrupt. Today, its constituents that didn’t exist in 1995 number only 27.

The prevailing narrative about established firms, Birkinshaw says, casts them as “relics of a bygone era” - dinosaurs pitted against the unicorns and other fleet-footed disruptors of the digital era. But this narrative, he and Fallon argue in Resurgent: How established organisations can fight back and thrive in an age of digital transformation, ignores many of the inherent strengths that have made these companies market leaders.

For many organisations, haunted by the fear of falling victim to their own ‘Kodak moment’, the temptation when faced with a new technology might be to react quickly to counter the perceived threat. Not only, however, are the firms that fail to adapt to digital disruption “the absolute exception” that proves the general rule (namely that “big companies are way more resilient than people give them credit for”), but it’s important to recognise that people tend to overestimate the speed of change and executives therefore often have more time than they might think to work out whether, when and how much to invest in a new technology.

Credits:

Presenter: Antonia Garrett Peel

Producer: Inga Marsden

Artwork: Jenny Hardy

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

'Deliverologist' Sir Michael Barber knows how to get things done. He is most famous for setting up then Prime Minister Tony Blair’s ‘delivery unit’ and has advised seven of the past eight British Prime Ministers (Liz Truss is the exception). He is currently advising the Government on its skills reform plan. He has also worked at McKinsey, Pearson and has advised Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Team Sky and England Football.

In this episode, he discusses the best advice for leaders from his book "Accomplishment: How to Achieve Ambitious and Challenging Things". His points include why you should embrace monotony, learn to love trajectories, and why you should never delay an action twice.

As he says: “It won’t appear often, if at all, in the history books, but I like to think my fight to build monotony into the way the Prime Minister used his time was one of the most important contributions I made to British government.” 

Also on the show: How CEOs received the Spring Budget 2023.

Credits

Presenters: Kate Magee and Éilis Cronin

Production: Nav Pal

Art: David Robinson

Read the interview with Sir Michael Barber and enjoy his 12 tricks to achieving ambitious things on Management Today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Have you ever found yourself ruminating over a difficult conversation at work? Our guest on this episode is here to help. Amy Gallo is an expert on human conflict. She is Harvard Business Review’s contributing editor, co-host of the Women at Work podcast and author of two books on conflict. The latest is called Getting Along, How To Work With Anyone, (Even Difficult People). 

In her book, she identifies eight types of difficult people which will probably be all too familiar to listeners, including the insecure boss, the passive-aggressive peer, the know-it-all and the tormentor. She offers practical strategies to deal with each type of person, as well as advice on how you cope personally with the fall out, from understanding why these battles can be so troubling and how to let them bother you less.

MT's Kate Magee and Éilis Cronin also discuss whether Chaos Monkey theory is a good way to run a business and look at new research, which says most people are too frightened to take the top job.

You can read MT's interview with Amy Gallo here: XX

Credits

Presenters: Kate Magee and Éilis Cronin

Production: Nav Pal

Artwork: David Robinson

Special thanks to Amy Gallo for joining us.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In today's episode, MT's Kate and Éilis discuss Shell's profits, the rise of AI and Nicola Sturgeon's resignation. Éilis also speaks to Sam White, founder of Stella Insurance, who watched her mother succumb to alcoholism. She takes us on her journey to sobriety and how it's made her a more confident leader.

Credits:

Presenters - Kate Magee and Éilis Cronin

Production - Nav Pal

Artwork - David Robinson

Special thanks to Sam White, founder and chief executive of Stella Insurance.

Check out the story on Management Today - https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/one-ceo-learnt-going-sober/leadership-lessons/article/1814168

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Management Today's new Leadership Lessons podcast. In our first episode, MT’s editor Kate Magee and staff writer Éilis Cronin discuss the key trends that will affect leaders in 2023, before we hear the powerful story of Glow London’s CEO Emma Harris.

Harris had a stress-related cardiac arrest on a work trip, but against frightening odds, survived unharmed. After writing a post on LinkedIn from her bed in the ICU urging leaders to slow down. It went viral, with 9,000 comment and 90,000 "likes".

She talks to MT about what she learned from the experience, the changes she’s made in her leadership role and the advice she has for other leaders veering dangerously close to burnout. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week’s episode, MT’s editorial team discusses the impact of AI on professional services and the role of psychological safety in business transformation.

Is AI coming for your job? If you’re a consultant that question might have been hard to shake in recent months, after a slew of headlines warned of the impact on the profession and data showed that the Big 4 scaled back their entry-level hiring programmes last year – by as much as 33% in KPMG’s case (compared with 2023). It’s clear that AI is squeezing employment in professional services firms, London Business School professor Michael Jacobides wrote in a recent piece for MT. He suggests, however, that “the death of the firm is greatly exaggerated”. We consider his argument.

Humans, famously, are uncomfortable with change - but transformation, by definition, requires us to disrupt what’s familiar. That tension is at the heart of many large-scale organisational change projects, and could be one reason why the success rate for such initiatives remains dismally low. In a recent piece for MT, Lesley Cooper outlines the role of company culture in driving innovation, engagement, and in helping employees to get comfortable with the unfamiliar. We discuss how leaders can create a psychologically safe environment.

Credits:

Presenters: Éilis Cronin and Antonia Garrett Peel

Producer: Inga Marsden

Artwork: Jenny Hardy

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 2023, the CBI became embroiled in a well-documented sexual misconduct crisis, which saw the exodus of a number of its member companies. Two years on, and with its former chief economist Rain Newton-Smith at the helm, the organisation is once again a trusted voice for businesses and is actively working with the UK government to boost business optimism and confidence.

On this week's episode, Rain sat down with myself and MT's senior staff writer Antonia Garrett Peel to discuss what can be done to unlock business growth, how the government can support UK businesses in navigating new trade relationships, and her advice for stepping into a new and difficult role.

Credits:

Presenter: Antonia Garrett Peel and Éilis Cronin

Producer: Nav Pal

Artwork: Jenny Hardy

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this week’s episode, we discuss how to elevate your business transformation abilities and the obstacles to women’s career progression in professional services.

Ever heard of a ‘wicked problem’? Identified by two social scientists, Horst Rittel and Melvin Webber, in the 1970s, these are problems that are difficult or impossible to solve because of the numerous interlinked challenges they present, which are often in flux, may be contradictory, and involve multiple decision-makers. In a recent piece, MT columnist Chris Dalton argues that ‘wicked problems’ are one reason why business transformation is seldom straightforward. With the failure rate for such projects notoriously high, we bring you Dalton’s advice to support leaders in their organisational change endeavours. 

It may be 2025, but the number of women in M&A and professional services who feel their path to the C-suite has been hindered by sexist bias and discrimination is startlingly high (as many as one in three in the US). That’s the sobering picture revealed by a survey by CIL Management Consultants, which also cited imposter syndrome as a hindrance to career progression for women working in professional services. Éilis Cronin discusses her interview with CIL partner Tabitha Elwes, who offered her thoughts on how companies within the industry can support women as they climb the corporate ladder.

Credits:

Presenters: Antonia Garrett Peel and Éilis Cronin

Producer: Inga Marsden

Artwork: David Robinson

Links:

https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/five-personal-practices-art-business-transformation/mt-columnist/article/1927141

https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/imposter-syndrome-lack-role-models-shape-womens-careers-professional-services/interviews/article/1926495

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Bloom & Wild's tagline is ‘care wildly’ - a message that could also be an apt description of the leadership ethos conveyed by CFO Dominique Highfield, who became the letterbox flower brand’s first finance chief when she was appointed in the autumn.

In the two decades since she started out as an auditor at PwC, however, Highfield has also learnt that sometimes you have to “reframe kindness”.

She draws an analogy between the difficult conversations you might occasionally have to have with an underperformer at work and the awkwardness when someone has something stuck in their teeth.

“You could be loosely kind and not tell them and make it awkward - or you could tell them. It's that [idea of] radical candour…It might be slightly awkward at the time, but you've done it for their own best interest.”

This week’s guest on Leadership Lessons, Highfield tells MT about how the company is driving top- and bottom-line growth through a combination of new categories, market expansion and technology. “We use AI in our customer contact team, we use it in our marketing…[for] creating scripts and…converting into different languages. I'm even using it in finance to help speed up our financial close so that my team can spend more time on value-added tasks.”

The finance executive joined Bloom & Wild from online estate agents Purplebricks, where it quickly became clear that the task at hand was quite different from that on the job description. “Within the first 100 days I had issued a profit warning, put the business up for sale, found new owners and narrowly escaped administration.”

While Bloom & Wild hasn’t required Highfield to summon the same reserves of resilience - the company’s positive growth trajectory was in fact part of what drew her to the role - she says that she is still learning in her latest position.

The data-centric nature of the business, combined with the high level of financial literacy among employees, has meant that her traditional leadership style of “cheerleading, bringing everyone on the journey and giving them the story and…reasons why actually often isn't enough”. Instead, the unique company context also demands greater specificity and for ‘the story’ to be rooted in data points. “So I think being able to…understand the culture and then how your communication style and negotiation style or delivery style has to flex in light of that culture is really important.”

Credits:

Presenter: Antonia Garrett Peel

Producer: Nav Pal

Artwork: Jenny Hardy

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week’s episode of The Debrief, MT’s editorial team discusses what can be done to boost business optimism and how groupthink can sabotage your transformation agenda.

If the first quarter’s GDP figures briefly put a spring in Rachel Reeves’ step, this boost would have been short-lived, while we can only assume she had regained the standard-issue world-weary tread of a put-upon chancellor by the time the ONS’s latest monthly estimate rolled around. The 0.7% increase in GDP that raised spirits early in the year gave way to projections of virtually flat growth in the second quarter, while the most recent data for May showed a surprise – if small – contraction of 0.1% (let’s not even mention the latest inflation figures). But Downing Street aren’t the only ones feeling under siege. With sentiment among businesses faring scarcely better, we asked our community of CEOs what’s needed to boost optimism.

It’s common to strive towards consensus, but at what point do organisations become echo chambers, where new ideas quickly lose steam under the collective weight of conformity - if they ever even see the light of day? And as businesses face the need to rapidly evolve to meet new realities, what implications does it have for transformations if teams are governed by common assumptions, shared notions of ‘best practice’ and attachment to what’s come before? Data Impact author Ritavan’s own view is clear: groupthink is the “silent killer of transformation”. We discuss his argument.

Credits:

Presenters: Antonia Garrett Peel and Éilis Cronin

Producer: Inga Marsden

Artwork: David Robinson

Links:

https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/mt-asks-against-backdrop-economic-headwinds-boost-business-optimism/opinion-and-analysis/article/1925050

https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/groupthink-enemy-transformation/opinion-and-analysis/article/1924413

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Samsung is putting people at the very heart of its new company proposition. Under the direction of its first-ever chief customer officer, Deborah Honig, the company is evolving from creating standalone products to leveraging AI to give busy customers back time “in a world that reduces to slow down”.

In this week's episode, Honig discusses Samsung's shift towards a "customer-first" strategy, focusing on integrating technology to provide meaningful solutions to everyday problems, such as reducing energy consumption. It's collaboration with British Gas directly supports customers looking to reduce their consumption and their energy bills.

Credits:

Producer: Inga Marsden

Presenter: Éilis Cronin

Artwork: David Robinson

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week’s episode, MT’s editorial team discusses what chatbots think of your brand and how humans and AI agents might work together in the future.

The traditional customer journey largely consisted of touchpoints that businesses could control, such as website content or paid advertising. The rise of social media and proliferation of influencers has upended this – a challenge for brands that is amplified when these sources feed the chatbots that have become a consumer and business go-to for product and service recommendations. BCG’s chief marketing officer Jessica Apotheker recently spoke to MT about the evolution of reputation management in the gen AI era. We discuss what she had to say.

Continuing the AI theme, in a recent article for MT, Salesforce UK&I’s CEO Zahra Bahrololoumi argued that today’s cohort of business leaders will be the last to oversee ‘all-human teams’. As the technology advances, she predicts that AI agents will become increasingly integrated into the workforce, taking on repetitive tasks so humans can focus on driving innovation. We unpack her argument.

Links:

https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/5-mins-with%E2%80%A6-jessica-apotheker/interviews/article/1922694

https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/todays-ceos-will-last-manage-all-human-workforces-heres-why-thats-good-thing-growth/opinion-and-analysis/article/1923090

Credits:

Producer: Jude Owen

Presenters: Éilis Cronin and Antonia Garrett Peel

Artwork: David Robinson

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s 5pm on a Friday and you’re still in the office. In just two short hours, the CEO is scheduled to have dinner with a major supplier. This meeting is not merely a social occasion, but a strategic briefing. Preparations for events such as this are typically protracted processes, however you possess a unique advantage. By submitting a prompt to an AI program, you have effectively completed 90% of the work needed to prepare, thereby reducing the need for additional office hours and ensuring CEO satisfaction.

This transformative approach, leveraging the expansive integration of AI across all departments, represents a shift in how BT Sourced manages its procurement operations. This isn’t purely about incremental improvements; it’s a fundamental reimagining of the entire large-scale procurement process.

Cyril Pourrat, the company's CEO, discusses the inspiration behind this ambitious project, which cuts sourcing cycles from around a week to just one day and, in some cases, just a few minutes.

Credits:

Producer: Inga Marsden

Presenter: Éilis Cronin

Artwork: David Robinson

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What did the Space-Comm Expo conference and exhibition tell us about connecting space and wider business? How does this manifest as tech connectivity in telecoms and why do farmers care about that? What did we learn about the benefits of extreme cold in manufacturing laboratories and why do pharmas care about that? How vulnerable are global logistics to the spoofing of navigation signals? And why is the UK government centralising space strategy in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology?

Join Alice and Jonners as they reflect on the UK space sector’s largest trade event and the “energy, diversity and …sheer scope of what this industry has to offer”.

Contributors:

Alice Bunn, President of UKspace 

Dr Alice Bunn OBE FIMechE FRAeS CEng | LinkedIn

UKspace: Overview | LinkedIn

Jonathan Daves, The Karman Line

Jonathan Daves | LinkedIn

Subscribe to The Karman Line

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-k%C3%A1rm%C3%A1n-line/id1876605462

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3qED4CgdRDxfKKzYNKZCIH?si=lZ-I4a19SPGLAJL-dHi4DQ

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheKármánLineUK

Key topics covered:

Space-Comm Expo, London, March 2026

Conference overview

Sector integration

Insurance

Customer utility

Government role

Future outlook

Technological advancements

· Telecoms

· Manufacturing

Defence and security

· Satellite capabilities

· Current threats

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week’s episode of The Debrief, MT’s editorial team discusses how to get employees behind your AI transformation and the six steps you need to nail when selling a business. 

When orchestrating a transformation it can be tempting to focus on the strategic, operational and financial dimensions of the change – the why, the what and the how – at the expense of the who. Objectives can be neatly mapped, and budgets and KPIs clearly delineated, while winning over employee sentiment presents a somewhat hazier and more slippery goal. But this task becomes even more important when standard-issue resistance to change meets ‘FOBO’ (fear of becoming obsolete) in the AI integration era. We consider Immediate Media people director David Reay’s pointers for getting it right.

Selling a business, as Heligan partner Simon Heath recently wrote for MT, is often described as ‘part marathon, part chess game’ – and for good reason. Parting with something you’ve poured years into building can feel simultaneously like a test of endurance and strategy, but there are pointers you can follow to smooth the process. Heath has broken down a sale into six steps – we bring you his tips for nailing each one.

Links:

https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/avoid-one-error-wreck-ai-strategy/opinion-and-analysis/article/1920705

https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/selling-business-six-steps-need-nail/down-to-business/article/1921941

Credits:

Presenters: Antonia Garrett Peel and Éilis Cronin

Producer: Inga Marsden

Artwork: David Robinson

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2025 has so far been a year of high profile M&A deals, But Trump’s trade war, armed conflicts in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, and, on a more local scale, the UK’s various trade agreements with the US, EU, and India, have all contributed to business leaders delaying investments, according to the latest EY-Parthenon CEO Outlook survey.

Chief executives are always looking for ways to increase financial value for their customers, clients, and shareholders, says Gonzalo Brujo, chief executive of consultancy Interbrand. Their focus is always on “expanding, gaining different capabilities, bringing in different partners, gaining customers from around the world, and bringing new ideas to the table”. 

In his view, leaders must always have a pipeline of acquisitions or new mergers to ensure their company survives and thrives. In this week's episode, He provides CEOs with a checklist to help them elevate their brands throughout the M&A process.

Credits:

Producer: Inga Marsden

Presenter: Éilis Cronin

Artwork: David Robinson

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week’s episode, MT’s editorial team discusses the pros and cons of AI avatars and whether our consumption habits are hurting British business.

Swiss-based bank UBS is using AI to create avatars of its experts that will appear in video content for clients, in a move it claims will be a win for productivity. The technology, while not a new phenomenon, raises significant questions about AI’s potential impact on human connection and relationships in business. We discuss the pros and cons of using digital clones.

If the other outcomes of Trump’s manoeuvrings on US-China trade are still unclear, one thing he has achieved has been to thrust the issue of “de minimus” exemptions firmly into the spotlight. In April, the UK government announced it would be reviewing its own rule, which permits packages worth less than £135 to enter the country duty-free – a loophole that many credit with fuelling the rise of Chinese retailers such as Shein and Temu. As one Telegraph commentator wrote that UK homes have become “temporary staging posts for goods on their way to the landfill”, MT asked its readers: is the UK bingeing on cheap imports at the expense of British business? We bring you a flavour of the responses.

Links:

https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/ai-avatars-future-business-communication/long-reads/article/1920337

https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/bingeing-cheap-imports-expense-british-business/opinion-and-analysis/article/1918842

Credits:

Presenters: Antonia Garrett Peel and Éilis Cronin

Producer: Inga Marsden

Artwork: David Robinson

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“Any idea you can think of for a new product, I guarantee you that somewhere in the world there’s six other people thinking of the same thing.”

If those words from L.E.K. Consulting vice chair Stuart Jackson come as something of a reality check, consider also the challenges involved in achieving superior functionality to existing offerings, defining a market, and gaining those consumers’ trust. And that’s not to mention the incumbent channels, suppliers and even parts of your own organisation that will be “trying to find ways to preserve the current order of things”.

It’s little wonder then that the failure rate for new products is so high. Fortunately, however, there are steps you can take, as Jackson and co-author Ilya Trakhtenberg write in their new book Predictable Winners, to “systematically identify and retire risk at each step of the innovation journey”.

This week's guest on Leadership Lessons, Jackson offers listeners advice on doing just that. He also talks about the pitfalls of sticking to incremental innovation, the role of leadership mindset, and where to find the 'low-cost signals' that can offer clues as to what would-be customers really want.

*This episode was recorded on 22nd April.

Credits:

Producer: Inga Marsden

Presenter: Antonia Garrett Peel

Artwork: David Robinson

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week’s episode, MT’s editorial team discusses whether businesses are burying their heads in the sand when it comes to cybercrime and some common traps that risk undermining your international expansion efforts.

It’s been a torrid time for Marks & Spencer as it continues to battle a cyberattack that according to one estimate is costing the retailer £43m a week. And it’s not the only one to fall victim. The Co-op has said it is now in the “recovery phase” after an attack forced it to take crucial systems offline, while the same group has also claimed responsibility for an attempted hack of high-end department store Harrods. Their plight is hardly unique, but are businesses facing up to the threat to their operations? We asked our audience.

Expanding overseas can require leaders to revert to a “start-up mentality” – at least that’s the argument of Tipalti president Rob Israch, who authored our second piece for this week. We bring you his tips for avoiding common pitfalls of international expansion, including what leaders typically get wrong about localisation and how to ensure your product, service and culture resonate with local customers and employees.

Links:

https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/mt-asks-businesses-burying-heads-sand-cyber-crime/opinion-and-analysis/article/1916933

https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/m-s-lessons-retailers-approach-crisis-communications/opinion-and-analysis/article/1917341

https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/leaders-wrong-localisation/opinion-and-analysis/article/1916615

Credits:

Presenters: Antonia Garrett Peel and Éilis Cronin

Producer: Inga Marsden

Artwork: David Robinson

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 2019, the Center for Aging Better predicted that by 2025 there will be one million more people aged 50 and over, and 300,000 fewer people aged 30 and under, in the workplace, with one in three of the working age population aged 50 and over.

But as we creep towards to halfway point of 2025, was this prediction correct?

Lyndsey Simpson, founder of 55/Redefined, certainly thinks so. In fact, she says we've exceeded those levels.

In this week's episode, we discuss the UK's ageing population and its affect on the workplace. Simpson argues that many employees who reach retirement age don't feel ready to stop working - but modern workplaces still impose a mid-60s retirement age. Through her work at 55/Redefined, she has seen an influx of people over the retirement age return to the workplace - and believes business leaders who are quick to dismiss older workers are missing out on critical return on experience.

Credits:

Presenter: Éilis Cronin

Producer: Inga Marsden

Artwork: David Robinson

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On today’s episode, we discuss whether businesses are backtracking on their environmental commitments and Boston Consulting Group’s tips for cutting supply chain costs. 

Despite media reports of corporate backtracking on sustainability, the news on the ground is more complex. We discuss a piece by Paul Simpson, who argues that many companies are quietly advancing their environmental goals – not just because it’s the right thing for the planet, but because it’s good for business too.

Chief operating officers (COOs) are under increasing pressure to proactively manage supply chain costs amid global disruptions, but reactive strategies won’t deliver lasting value. We discuss a piece written by consultants from Boston Consulting Group, who put forward five ways in which COOs should approach cost-cutting initiatives to deliver sustainable efficiency. 

Links:

https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/whats-next-corporate-environmental-agenda/indepth/article/1915218

https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/five-ways-coos-reduce-supply-chain-costs/opinion-and-analysis/article/1915092

Credits:

Presenters: Éilis Cronin and Antonia Garrett Peel

Producer: Inga Marsden

Artwork: David Robinson

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“We as humans can remember three things,” says Sheila Rohra, CEO of Hitachi Vantara. It is this rule of three, then, that is central to her formula for “staying focused”, as well as her approach to devising a strategy the whole company can “rally around”.

Rohra was appointed to her role in November 2023 after joining the data storage systems firm earlier in the year as chief strategy officer. As this week’s guest on Leadership Lessons, Rohra talks about how Hitachi Vantara is transforming its business, and the three-pronged strategy that is driving the company forward.

Maintaining focus is also a key imperative in the age of rapid AI adoption.

It’s crucial to keep a keen eye on the problem you were trying to solve with AI, says Rohra - and on whether you’re getting the ROI you were seeking. Otherwise, at a time when research suggests many organisations’ adoption of the tech is still being driven by short-term experimentation rather than long-term strategic planning, you risk overinvesting in the technology and causing “massive confusion, not to mention massive power consumption”.

From her first foothold in the high-tech industry, working on a production line assembling computers, Rohra has diversified her CV with roles spanning strategy, business operations and transformation.

Her first “significant” job focused on the latter was as chief transformation officer at data infrastructure company NetApp. This role taught her how much spearheading major organisational change initiatives is about “working with people, influencing”. With only five people on her direct team, the need to get wider employee buy-in and bring staff “along the journey” was immediately clear. “So that means listening, learning, providing a safe zone for conversations.” 

This recognition of the integral role others play in achieving your objectives is also central to Rohra’s belief in the importance of staying “humble”. “It’s not because of my accomplishments alone [that I’m CEO],” she says. “It took support from my team, friends and family for me to get here. I did not accomplish this alone.”

Credits:

Producer: Inga Marsden

Presenter: Antonia Garrett Peel

Artwork: David Robinson

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week’s episode of The Debrief, MT’s editorial team discusses Unilever’s recent CEO change and how to keep driving your business forward even in unfavourable market conditions.

The ousting of Hein Schumacher after little more than a year and a half in Unilever’s top job seemed to many to come as a bolt from the blue. “We are gobsmacked,” was how one analyst at RBC Capital summed up the reaction among colleagues. But even in the announcement the company put out about the change there were clues as to the frustrations that had precipitated such a move. We explore the board’s rationale, what the company’s new chief Fernando Fernandez brings to the table, and his priorities in the short and long term.

Companies that thrive, even when times are tough, “build resilience within their own internal economy”. That’s the contention at the heart of business scaling strategist John Mackin’s new piece for MT. We explain what this means and, against a backdrop of heightened economic uncertainty, bring you three tips on how to nonetheless continuously grow your business.

Credits:

Presenters: Éilis Cronin and Antonia Garrett Peel

Producer: Inga Marsden

Artwork: David Robinson

Links:

https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/unilever-brought-new-boss-fast-track-its-turnaround-strategy-deliver-goods/indepth/article/1914508

https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/sluggish-economy-doesnt-mean-cant-continuously-grow-business-heres-how/opinion-and-analysis/article/1912440

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Business wins and losses are part of life for a media agency, but sometimes the losses can start to outpace the wins and – for whatever reason – negative momentum takes hold.

This was the difficult backdrop against which Kelly Parker and Katie Lee were appointed as Wavemaker UK CEO and COO respectively in 2022. In Parker’s words, the agency had had a “really bad year” in 2021, losing a “large number” of its top 10 clients. “I think it just lost its way as a business,” she says.

Three years on and Parker and Lee have steered the business back to double-digit growth, a turnaround they credit in part to their unconventional working relationship, which they conceptualise as ‘dual leadership’. 

Recalling the challenging early days of that effort, Lee says: “I think because there were the two of us, it meant we could be making difficult decisions while at the same time building momentum and energy in the agency. I think if there had been one person, it would have had to feel negative…whereas having the two of us, we could both build and break at the same time.”

This week’s guests on Leadership Lessons, Parker and Lee explain why their ‘dual leadership’ approach continues to pay dividends, helping them to get the best out of their teams, make the most of their respective talents and elevate the work they produce for clients.

This episode was recorded in January 2025.

Credits:

Presenter: Antonia Garrett Peel

Producer: Inga Marsden

Artwork: David Robinson

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

David Craig is a man who knows a thing or two about leading major organisational change projects, from his background as a partner at McKinsey advising companies on strategy to turning around Thomson Reuters’ largest – but “unloved” – financial and risk division, and spearheading its subsequent separation and reincarnation as Refinitiv.

In his new book, Bluebook: How bold leadership unlocked a $27bn success story, Craig shares lessons from this practical education in transformation, including the importance of taking tough calls early on.

“I wasn't brave enough and certainly not confident enough,” he says, reflecting on his early days at Thomson Reuters where he was charged with heading up the integration of the two companies. “I was still that new McKinsey guy.”

Perhaps it was this reflection that provided the rocket fuel to his plans with Refinitiv. The company launched in October 2018 under the new majority ownership of private equity firm Blackstone.

Ten months later – and a year and a half after the $20bn carveout deal was first struck – Refinitiv’s owners agreed its acquisition by the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) for $27bn, marking a $7bn exercise in value creation. LSEG’s purchase closed in January 2021, by which point the financial data and technology platform had been overhauled and its Tradeweb electronic marketplaces business IPOed.

“Something that frustrates me with many organisations is they haven't realised the value of time. It's important to make decisions properly, but it's also important to make them quickly. I see too many organisations bogged down in ponderous decision-making, bureaucracy, and lack of accountability. [With Refinitiv] we really saw the benefit of speeding things up.”

Credits:

Presenter: Antonia Garrett Peel

Producer: Inga Marsden

Artwork: Jenny Hardy

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week’s episode of The Debrief, MT’s editorial team dissects the Spring Statement and takes a look at some of the AI-driven innovations that are disrupting industries. 

It’s the economy, stupid. James Carville’s immortal (and loosely quoted) words must echo in the ears of every Chancellor, charged with the most knotty and important brief of them all. Last week, we asked leaders how well Labour was doing on the economy; this week, Rachel Reeves got the chance to update us on her plans for achieving Labour’s much-vaunted, but so far elusive, growth objectives. We bring you some of the key announcements from the Spring Statement and reactions from business leaders. 

If that all feels a bit heavy, we’re here to bring you some light relief with a look at some of the more unusual AI applications that nonetheless hold the potential to revolutionise parts of everyday life. You may not have heard of low-adhesion railway track conditions, but you’ve almost certainly been impacted by them – while the crisis in UK care will sadly be a familiar topic to us all. We explain how AI can help.

Credits:

Presenters: Éilis Cronin and Antonia Garrett Peel

Producer: Inga Marsden

Artwork: David Robinson

Links:

https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/business-leaders-labours-first-spring-statement/opinion-and-analysis/article/1911810

https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/little-known-ai-innovations-transforming-live/indepth/article/1910875

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

UK businesses are failing to adapt the skillsets of their teams in response to the rapid advancements in the technology sector, contributing to a nationwide digital skills gap.

This is the view of Sarah Walker, UK & Ireland CEO of the digital communications conglomerate Cisco, who believes that it is crucial to engage individuals at the outset of their careers, as well as normalise reskilling throughout all stages of career development.

In this week's episode, she discusses Cisco’s strategies for addressing this gap, and provides insights into its approach to integrating AI technologies.

Credits:

Presenters: Éilis Cronin

Producers: Inga Marsden

Artwork: David Robinson

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this week’s episode, the team discusses whether British businesses are becoming too reliant on the US, the link between more women on boards and higher returns, and the elephant in the room during conversations around AI adoption.

A key concern that is often left out of conversations around AI is its impact on the environment, particularly its energy and water consumption. Claire Warren and Éilis Cronin discuss a piece from Antonia Garrett Peel which explains that, while awareness of the sustainability issues remains low, some companies, such as Salesforce, are pushing for greater transparency around AI’s energy use. 

The UK and US have cultivated a ‘special relationship’ for the past 80 years, but concerns have arisen that British businesses have become increasingly reliant on the US for investment, technology, and talent. Éilis Cronin posed this topic to the wider business community and the team considers their opinions, including how the UK struggles with a domestic investment gap, while US venture capital offers more risk-tolerant funding encouraging British companies to seek American backing.

New research from MSCI has found a correlation between the number of female board directors and higher returns. The team discusses the findings of the finance company’s Women on Boards and Beyond 2024 Progress Report, which additionally brought to light the challenge of retaining female directors.

Links:

https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/when-comes-adoption-ai-theres-huge-elephant-room/long-reads/article/1908559

https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/british-business-become-reliant-us/indepth/article/1909287

https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/companies-female-directors-higher-returns-report-finds/indepth/article/1908694

Credits:

Presenters: Claire Warren and Éilis Cronin

Producer: Inga Marsden

Artwork: David Robinson

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Timing, as the saying goes, is everything – and for Kimberly-Clark UK&I MD Dan Howell this principle is central to the art of business transformation.

In Howell’s view, the companies that exceed the standards of good performance to make it into the ranks of the great, and stay there, are those that “have this knack of knowing when to transform”. 

A so far two decade-long career working at CGP behemoths including AB InBev and Müller has also taught Howell a lot about the challenges that can stifle growth and innovation in large companies. “As organisations, we tend to still typically operate to annual targets and quarterly shareholder reports, and quite often that can limit your appetite to take risks…And so in my experience, the thing that tends to really hold businesses back…is that appetite for risk and the willingness to really push boundaries when innovating.”

Getting ahead of the curve on transformation, and overcoming this kind of risk aversion, are two of the ways in which Howell is seeking to drive Kimberly-Clark’s business forward this year. The third, on the face of it, might seem counterintuitive: “We’re starting to put some real tangible actions into place to get us to sort of operate below our maximum capacity.”

But for Howell, it’s precisely this that will be key to maintaining a competitive advantage. “We think the way we’re going to win and solve the problems our consumers have and innovate…is by being more creative than our competition. And I think the only way we’re going to be more creative is if we give ourselves more space to think.”

This episode was recorded in January 2025.

Credits:

Presenter: Antonia Garrett Peel

Producer: Inga Marsden

Artwork: David Robinson

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this week’s episode, MT’s editorial team discusses some common traps in M&A deals and whether consultancies should be held accountable for the actions of their clients.

This week a mega-deal was unveiled in the food delivery market when we heard that tech investor Prosus had agreed to acquire Just Eat Takeaway. While at €20.30 per share the offer represents a 22% premium to the company’s recent three-month stock price high, it still comes in at less than a fifth of the share’s peak in 2020, after a tumultuous few years for the company. The deal comes as Warwick Business School professor John Colley reflects on a previous M&A involving Just Eat Takeaway – its acquisition of Grubhub in 2021 – which he considers as an example of when acquisitions go wrong. We discuss some of the common M&A traps Colley outlines.

Consulting firm McKinsey has become the latest target of the environmental movement Extinction Rebellion. Last Monday, the firm’s London HQ was occupied by activists who vandalised its exterior, scaled the entrance, and hung a banner condemning the firm’s continued work with the fossil fuel industry. Éilis asked industry experts whether consultancies should be held accountable for the actions of their clients (where their advice was not a factor). We consider their responses.

Links:

https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/six-traps-look-mergers-acquisitions/opinion-and-analysis/article/1907107

https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/consultancies-held-accountable-actions-clients/opinion-and-analysis/article/1907520

Credits:

Presenters: Éilis Cronin and Antonia Garrett Peel

Producer: Inga Marsden

Artwork: David Robinson

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The entrepreneurial journey is famously a bumpy one and Planet Organic founder Renée Elliott’s story is testament to that.

For her, seeing the vision for the business she founded interpreted (she prefers “eroded”) through other people’s priorities over the years has been “excruciating, infuriating…and exhausting”. But in 2023, Elliott returned to Planet, more than a decade after she and her husband stepped away from the company.

This unlikely “business fairytale” had an inauspicious start: a phone call informing her that Planet would be giving notice of administration in 30 minutes’ time.

In this week’s episode of Leadership Lessons, Elliott revisits that moment, the scramble to rescue the company, and the collective effort since to pull Planet “out of the mud back into the light”.

“There’s no magic bullet in retail, as any retailer will tell you,” she says. Instead there are “50 or 100 things” you need to do to achieve a given goal (for Planet this is returning to profit this year).

It’s lucky, then, that the 30 years since the company's first store opened in Westbourne Grove, London, have taught Elliott a lot about resilience, which in her view starts with “care of self”.

Just as important is to “trust yourself”. If you’re having a tough time, Elliott says, there are many different ways in which you can respond. “But if you go into fear, panic about the future, or any kind of what I call contracted state, you go into stress and then you're not thinking your best; you're not accessing the knowledge, answers and intuition that you have inside of you.”

If, on the other hand, you can trust yourself, “that stress falls away and you're in a much better place to manage through difficult situations”.

*This interview with Renée Elliott was recorded in December 2024.

Credits:

Presenter: Antonia Garrett Peel

Producer: Inga Marsden

Artwork: David Robinson

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this week’s episode of The Debrief, MT’s editorial team discusses whether Elon Musk is jeopardising the Tesla brand and what’s in store for the M&A market in 2025.

It’s official: the richest man on the planet is now the United States’ – and possibly the world’s – most powerful unelected bureaucrat. Twenty twenty-four was a key year in the ongoing metamorphosis of Elon Musk, as he threw his support behind Donald Trump and embraced populist politicians around the globe, while courting controversy at (nearly) every turn. But what does this all mean for the businesses he controls? We put Tesla sales under the spotlight and bring you some expert views on what the future holds for the EV maker.

Is the M&A market poised for an upturn? Bain & Company certainly thinks so. Its latest Global M&A Report explains why it has hopes for a rebound, and how businesses can set themselves up to harness positive momentum in the market. What’s for certain is that any good news couldn’t come soon enough, after last year saw deal value reach a historically low level as a percentage of global GDP, according to Bain. We bring you its reasons to be optimistic. 

Links:

https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/elon-musk-jeopardising-tesla-brand/leadership-lessons/article/1905320

https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/m-a-market-poised-comeback-2025-headwinds-ease/indepth/article/1905223

Credits:

Presenters: Éilis Cronin and Antonia Garrett Peel

Producer: Inga Marsden

Artwork: David Robinson

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Negative feedback is a gift; it provides the “gems that make sure you improve what you're doing and take it to the next level”, says Zurich Insurance’s Conny Kalcher. 

The chief customer officer of the more than 150-year-old company should know, having spent the last few years focusing on driving customer-centric business transformation at Zurich and, before that, at Lego, where she was instrumental in helping the brand to redefine its purpose, transforming it from a toy factory into a company that ‘tells stories’. 

“It's important to embrace what customers are telling us, not try to explain it away or rationalise it, but really look it in the eye,” she says.

Customer expectations of the insurance industry have changed dramatically in recent years, partly because of the disruptive impact of insurtechs but also because of the impact of digital-first companies more generally. 

“We could lean back and think we’re different, we’re insurance, but that’s a false truism because today it’s companies like Amazon and Netflix that set the standards,” says Kalcher. After all, if Amazon can deliver a parcel overnight why should you, as a customer of a legacy business, struggle to get your address changed or to get through to a human being on the phone?

For Kalcher, the solution to increasing customer expectations has been to help move Zurich away from being a transactional company to one that connects with customers on both a functional and emotional level. 

This isn’t an easy ask for an insurance firm, which aren’t usually associated by consumers with being warm and fuzzy, but that’s part of the point for Kalcher, who claims that in this way the company is able to “surprise and delight, which is really the space we want to be in”.

And it’s a strategy that seems to be paying dividends. The company is growing faster than the market, product density is up (in other words people buy more products), and, perhaps most importantly, says Kalcher, customers are happier.

Credits:

Presenter: Claire Warren

Producer: Inga Marsden

Artwork: David Robinson

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week’s episode, MT’s editorial team discusses which Big Four firms are on course to miss UK female partner goals, what CIOs want from consultants in 2025, and how a once-powerful name in consulting is making a comeback.

We kick off this bumper consultancy episode with discussion of a story originally covered by the FT, which found that of the Big Four accounting firms, both EY and PwC are on track to miss their 2025 UK female partner targets. We also consider how gender imbalances might be impacting consulting firms’ progress on pay parity, with an analysis of pay gap data collected as part of the process of compiling MT’s inaugural Top 100 Management Consultancies list last year.

What do chief information officers want from consultants? That’s the question explored by Jon Bance in a recent piece for MT. He argues that CIOs increasingly demand more from external advisors, whom they expect to become fully immersed in their business, becoming a part of its culture and driving teams forward from within, while leveraging soft skills to build meaningful long-term relationships.

Anyone who follows the consultancy sector will probably have heard the news by now: Andersen Consulting is making a comeback. The once-powerful name in the business will return to the sector after 25 years of dormancy. We discuss a piece by Paul Simpson that explores how the brand, once part of collapsed accounting firm Arthur Andersen, might navigate the considerable challenges in the market. 

Credits:

Presenters: Éilis Cronin and Antonia Garrett Peel

Producer: Inga Marsden

Artwork: David Robinson

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Despite continuing to saturate the technology sector, AI investments remain a small percentage of overall IT spending, according to CGI's UK president Tara McGeehan, but gen AI adoption is helping businesses achieve faster and smoother transformations.

On this week's episode, she speaks to MT how traditional AI, like machine learning, continues to grow alongside generative AI, how gen AI is accelerating transformations by enabling businesses to take greater control of the pace of change, and why leaders must encourage employees to educate themselves on AI's benefits to help alleviate resistance to change.

Credits:

Presenters: Éilis Cronin

Producers: Inga Marsden

Artwork: David Robinson

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As of 2026, the UK space industry is a significant and strategic driver of the national economy, contributing over £19 billion in revenue and supporting tens of thousands of high-skilled jobs. Satellite-based services and data underpin roughly 18% of UK GDP, equivalent to approximately £454 billion of the wider economy. And the sector is growing exponentially.

But this is just the tip of the iceberg. For the space industry to fully realise its potential it needs more of the right people to understand what’s happening and get involved. People like policy makers, investors, regulators, planners, communicators, lawyers and consultants.

Dr Alice Bunn, the president of UK Space, and her panel of guests, Sam Alden co-CEO of Space Solar, Nick Shave managing director of Astroscale and Anushka Sharma founder of Naaut, discuss the surprising, awe inspiring business of space and make the compelling case for why more companies and investors should get involved. 

Contributors:

Host:

Alice Bunn, President of UKspace 

Dr Alice Bunn OBE FIMechE FRAeS CEng | LinkedIn

UKspace: Overview | LinkedIn

Guests:

Nick Shave, Managing Director of Astroscale

Nick Shave FRAeS | LinkedIn

Astroscale: Overview | LinkedIn

Sam Adlen, CEO of Space Solar

Sam Adlen | LinkedIn

Space Solar: Overview | LinkedIn

Anushka Sharma, founder of Naaut

Anushka Sharma | LinkedIn

Naaut: About | LinkedIn

Key topics covered:

Impact of Space on Everyday Life

• Practical Applications
• Environmental Monitoring
• Global Security

Sustainability and Innovation in Orbit

• Space Debris
• Manufacturing in Microgravity
• Space-Based Solar Power

Economic and Regulatory Landscape

• Cost Reduction
• Investment and Finance
• Regulation and Policy

The Future of Space Exploration

• New Platforms
• Academic Contribution

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.