Change is dramatic, pervasive and relentless. The challenges are numerous. The opportunities are greater.
Incredible technologies and geopolitical shifts, complex markets and stagnating growth, demanding customers and disruptive entrepreneurs, environmental crisis and social distrust, unexpected shocks and uncertain futures.
The old codes that got us here don’t work anymore. Moving forwards needs a new mindset.
“Business Recoded” is for business leaders who seek to progress in today’s rapidly changing world, and to create the organisations that will thrive in tomorrow’s world.
The book explores how to lead a better future, to reimagine your business, to reinvent markets, to energise your people. It describes how to combine profit with more purpose, intelligent technologies with creative people, radical innovation with sustainable impact.
It dives deep into the minds of some of today’s most inspiring business leaders – people like Anne Wojcicki and Jeff Bezos, Emily Weiss and Devi Shetty, Daniel Ek and Tan Le, Mary Barra and Masayoshi Son, Satya Nadella and Zhang Ruimin.
And learns from the innovative strategies of incredible companies – Alibaba and Amazon, Babylon and BlackRock, Meituan Dianping and Microsoft, Narayana Health and Netflix, Patagonia and PingAn, Spotify and Supercell, and many more.
The book is built on 7 seismic shifts driving a more enlightened future of business, unlocking 49 codes that collectively define a new DNA for organisations and their leadership.
It’s about you – realising your future potential – by developing your own codes for more enlightened progress, personal and business success.
Do you have the courage to create a better future, for you and your business?
Change is dramatic, pervasive and relentless. The challenges are numerous. The opportunities are greater.
Incredible technologies and geopolitical shifts, complex markets and stagnating growth, demanding customers and disruptive entrepreneurs, environmental crisis and social distrust, unexpected shocks and uncertain futures.
The old codes that got us here don’t work anymore. Moving forwards needs a new mindset.
“Business Recoded” is for business leaders who seek to progress in today’s rapidly changing world, and to create the organisations that will thrive in tomorrow’s world.
The book explores how to lead a better future, to reimagine your business, to reinvent markets, to energise your people. It describes how to combine profit with more purpose, intelligent technologies with creative people, radical innovation with sustainable impact.
It dives deep into the minds of some of today’s most inspiring business leaders – people like Anne Wojcicki and Jeff Bezos, Emily Weiss and Devi Shetty, Daniel Ek and Tan Le, Mary Barra and Masayoshi Son, Satya Nadella and Zhang Ruimin.
And learns from the innovative strategies of incredible companies – Alibaba and Amazon, Babylon and BlackRock, Meituan Dianping and Microsoft, Narayana Health and Netflix, Patagonia and PingAn, Spotify and Supercell, and many more.
The book is built on 7 seismic shifts driving a more enlightened future of business, unlocking 49 codes that collectively define a new DNA for organisations and their leadership.
It’s about you – realising your future potential – by developing your own codes for more enlightened progress, personal and business success.
Do you have the courage to create a better future, for you and your business?
The Global Advanced Management Program (Global AMP) is IE Business School’s flagship program for executives stepping up to lead the future of business.
It’s time for leaders to step up, to create a better future
It’s for leaders who are stepping up to become the next CEO, or maybe to join the C-suite, to run a business unit, or getting ready to do so. It’s for leaders who seek to be re-inspired, re-energised ready for an incredible future – to drive business-wide transformation, to reimagine their industry, to change the way their entire business and market works.
If you can see yourself leading your business into the future … if you can start to imagine a business of the future, beyond that currently imagined by your leaders and peers. … then this is for you.
New ideas for leaders to accelerate business recovery
The Global AMP is more relevant than ever, as the global Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted every market and business, demanding that leaders step up to think and act in new ways. As people around the world have shifted to digital technologies at home and work, we are likely to see an acceleration in new business models, new ways of working, and new lifestyles.
The pandemic has acting as a catalyst for innovation, not just to survive through crisis and uncertainty, but to adapt to a rapidly changing world. Indeed it is no surprise that 57% of companies are founded in a downturn, and most innovations are born out of crisis too. Now, more than ever is the time when business needs leaders with new mindsets, new skills, and who can combine advanced learning with simultaneous business transformation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu_5Vxufidg&feature=emb_logo
With a more liquid learning style, more accessible and convenient
To make the Global AMP program even more accessible, practical, and applied to the changing needs of you and your business, we have enhanced the format. It will now take on a much more liquid learning structure, so that you can continue to work, and accelerate your leadership development, during these uncertain yet important times. The program will combine online and physical formats over a longer period, enabling you to learn more, apply more, and get more practical value from the experience.
The content is entirely updated, anticipating the changing needs of business and its people as we emerge from crisis, and through the next decade – from the megatrends that drive global markets and intelligent technologies, to the convergence of markets and emergence of new business models, new ways of working and the challenges of leading for today, and tomorrow. The program takes on a more dynamic learning style, helping your to explore how to transform yourself and your business, for a world of rapid and continuous change.
Delivered by top business leaders, thinkers and experts
I will be joined by some of the world’s most inspiring and thoughtful faculty. This year it includes
- Jim Snabe, chairman of Siemens and Maersk, former CEO of SAP, one of the world’s top leaders
- Tendayi Viki, a psychologist-based innovator, partner of Strategyzer
- Antonio Rodriguez Nieto, the world’s top project manager, and senior leader in GSK
- Christian Rangen, energy expert and expert in business transformation
- Terence Mauri, leading thinker on 3D leadership, bold and brave
- Verónica Reyero, anthropologist of a more human future.
They add to the existing IE team that includes
- Mark Esposito, leading futurist and AI pioneer
- Terence Tse, expert on the future of finance and healthcare
- Juan Carlos Pastor, leading on authentic leadership; media expert
- Lola Martinez, media expert, on storytelling and presenting
- Marcos Cajina, on the neuroscience of emotional engagement
- Steven MacGregor, on executive fitness, and many more
In addition to exploring the very latest business ideas and theories, the program is highly personalised in two ways – a personal leadership coaching program helps you to make sense of your own strengths and style, and coaches work with you to develop this, to respond to the new needs, and to prepare to step up to business leadership – and a personal “Gamechanger” project in which we work with you over the entire duration of the program to help you develop your own blueprint for transforming the future of your business, or industry.
Starting in April 2021
Modules 1 and 3 will be online, built around a 4 hour session each Friday for 10 weeks. During these sessions we will bring together the best ideas from around the business world, with expert faculty, and also take you on “deep dives” into what is happening right now in some of the world’s leading businesses.
Modules 2 and 4 will be residential, one week in Segovia, a world heritage site in Spain, and one week in the capital, Madrid. These weeks will also feature leading faculty brought together from around the world, and also enable more time for group networking and collaboration with colleagues who typically come from many different industries and every part of the world. Module 4 concludes with your graduation at IE Business School.
Module 1 (Online, half-day Fridays): April-May 2021
Module 2 (Residential- Segovia Campus): June-July 2021
Module 3 (Online, half-day Fridays): Sep-Oct 2021
Module 4 (Residential- Madrid Campus): Oct-Nov 2021
We are really excited by this new format, and also by all the enhanced content for the program. There never has been a more urgent or important time for leaders to step up, to make sense of a changing world, and prepare to create a better future.
Download a summary of the masterclass and program launch
Find out more about the Global AMP at IE Business School
The program has been designed specifically to prepare current and future leaders, and their businesses, for the challenges which they face now and in the coming years. Focusing on leadership in a world of disruptive change, the Global AMP will help you understand the underlying trends driving the future which are already shaking up your industry, explore the threats and opportunities these bring, and respond accordingly.
Divided into 5 core academic modules, each designed and orchestrated by expert faculty, the program will lead you through the challenge of understanding mega-trends such as technological change, our role in a world where AI and robotics make many traditional jobs irrelevant, scarce physical resources and changing demographics.
How will you shape the new markets formed by these trends to the advantage of your business? Where will you focus, and how will you compete? How will you engage with the future customers – Asian, millennial, female – and those in markets that do not even exist today? What are your new business models to drive speed, agility and profitable growth?
Be the disrupter, not the disrupted.
The program focuses on devising new solutions, delivered by the right organisations and strategies, to succeed in such a brave new world. Energising and aligning the business to the strategic needs of the future will require that it becomes faster and more agile and we will learn how to use areas such as finance and operations, partnerships and networks, as levers for growth.
Most significantly, we will help you develop yourself as a leader of this dynamic world – to build a leadership platform, and exploit it skilfully to implement change that builds organisations that are themselves a source of competitive strength.
Alongside these academic modules, the program also includes practical application, with each participant developing a Gamechanger Project from they will create a blueprint for the future of their industry, a plan for how their business can reinvent itself, and define their own role in leading their company or division towards this future successfully.
Finally, the Leadership Development Plan helps each participant, along with an individual advisor, focus on their own specific strengths and weaknesses and actions that they can take to become an effective leader, and to sustain high personal and business performance.
World Changing: Making sense of change, exploring megatrends and their medium and longer-term implications, and choosing your future direction. The rise of emerging markets, new technologies and next generation audiences, is matched by the increasing scarcity of resources, social fragmentation and climate impact. The “fourth industrial revolution” heralds a new era for business and society, from digitalisation and automation, to 3D printing and machine learning, artificial intelligence and robotics. Philosophically, we will also look back to the age of genius, and the lessons for the future.
- Power shifts: Economic, political and economic power shifts across continents, generations and businesses.
- Technology futures: Harnessing the potential of new capabilities, from digital and big data, biotech and nanotech, to AI and robotics.
- Resource scarcity: Changing sources of energy, the peak of rare metals, talent and creativity, high-tech components and patented technologies.
- Human impacts: Rethinking work, education and employment, ageing and healthcare, urbanization and belonging, wealth and happiness.
- Future shaping: Making sense of change, and making better choices. Harnessing value drivers and scenario planning to shape the future that you want.
Market Shaping: Competitive landscapes have become increasingly complex, competition can now appear from seemingly unrelated industries, new markets emerge and old ones disappear. Digital markets have no boundaries, allowing the smallest business to have huge impact, and accelerating the convergence of sectors and businesses. In this context, the market-shaping module will guide you in engaging with future customers, shaping markets to your advantage and ultimately developing a market map that can help focus your business to win in future markets.
- Market spaces: How well do you really know your market? Framing markets and how they work, value drivers and emerging practices, challenges and opportunities.
- Future markets: Finding and creating new market spaces, based on new customers, new geographies and new solutions.
- Customer thinking: Understanding new and existing customers based on aspirations and behaviours, finding new insights and ideas, new needs and niches.
- Engaging propositions: Rethinking value, how it created and captured, and then delivered in terms of engagement and experiences.
- Markets as movements: Rethinking how to build brands and loyalty where customers trust each other, and seek personalisation, collaboration and community
Disruptive Innovation: Disruption comes from all angles – entrepreneurial start-ups challenging established giants, new technologies replacing inefficient processes, simplicity outperforming complexity, and customers challenging businesses to do better. The impact can be dramatic, reputations can be made and destroyed in days, whilst long admired companies are wiped off the map. The aim of this module is to learn how to turn the tables and become the disrupter by quickly developing insights and ideas, driving innovative strategies and business models, that can be delivered in fast and efficient ways.
- Market Disruption: Transforming value equations by rethinking the way markets work, the sources of advantage, pain points and profit pools.
- Design thinking: Gaining deeper insights into what really drives customers, to find the real problem, and solutions that are more relevant and valuable.
- Fast Innovation: Turning ideas into impact faster through fast and lean innovation, from incremental to breakthough, managing portfolios to create the future
- Business models: Rethinking how organisations work to deliver innovative propositions, from licensing to subscription, low cost to luxury.
- Accelerating impact: Harnessing the power of multipliers, the network effect of social media to business ecosystems, spreading innovation faster, accelerating growth.
Energizing Organizations: Business thrives on an inspiring purpose, an alignment for action, and priorities and incentives that engage people to high performance. Organisations also need the agility to continually adapt and respond to changing markets, to develop new capabilities and partnerships, and reach new markets. The objective of this module is to help you energize your organization, develop a strategy, along with the metrics to constantly measure its implementation, and align financial and operational resources to deliver results effectively.
- Winning strategy: Defining the right direction and priorities, guided by an inspiring purpose, and harnessing the drivers of value.
- Smarter choices: Making better decisions, strategically and every day, matched by the right metrics and rewards that ensure performance.
- Aligning organisations: Shaping organisations and processes to be agile and efficient, leveraging strengths and addressing weakness, inside and outside.
- Energising people: Mobilising your employees to think and deliver the strategy in innovative and profitable ways, harnessing the power of teams and humanity.
- Sustaining impact: Ensuring that the organization has the ongoing renewal and adaptability to deliver share value, short term and into the future.
Amplified Leadership: The best leaders amplify the impact of their people and their business. Developing a leadership that is relevant to them and their people, they inspire and engage, connect and support the business to deliver against long-term directions and short-term priorities. Leaders of the future, will need to be adept at leading and managing change in a way that unlocks talent and performance. The outcome of this module will be to a help participants lead themselves, their teams and their business. For this reason, the module works through all the other modules to connect ideas and future action.
- Leadership matters: Business is obsessed with leadership, but how do leaders really add value, engage people effectively, and deliver better results?
- Knowledge economy: Organisational hierarchies are a legacy of old economies. In today’s ideas-based organisations, leaders add value in different ways.
- Authentic organisations: From corporate to personal reputations, how do you build trust and authenticity inside and outside the business?
- Talent beacons: In an ideas-driven world, the best companies have the best people. So how do you ensure that you attract, motivate and retain the best talent?
- Why should anyone be led by you? Fundamentally, why should you be the leader of the business. What do you have, and what will you give, to be successful?
Leaders are, of course, much more than functional managers. They see a bigger picture, work across the organization, and connect activities for more impact. The 5 Global AMP modules, rather than addressed in isolation will be carefully knitted together throughout the duration of the program, to demonstrate the opportunities and implications of every decision and action across the business.
Gamechanger Projects: Participants will work on an individual, evaluated project throughout the program. This “Gamechanger Project” is designed to draw on all of the materials covered in each module and will be applied directly to the challenges and opportunities of the participants’ business. It will deliver five specific outcomes, in the form of maps, that will be of value to you and to your company. Together they form a blueprint for the future.
- Future Map: Developing a vision of the future of your industry. Define how you will shape it to your business’ advantage, to seize the best opportunities for growth.
- Market Map: Shaping your markets, how you work, and your customer propositions to engage current and future customers.
- Innovation Map: Reinventing your business model to deliver the future propositions in practical, efficient and profitable ways.
- Organisation Map: Aligning your direction and strategy, your processes and people, metrics and performance to deliver results.
- Impact Map: Defining your role in leading your company or division towards a bright, inspiring and successful future.
Progress on the project will be checked in peer to peer presentations and participants will have access to tutors to guide their work. This will be underpinned by the Leadership Development Plan which supports the individual in how they will develop themselves to deliver this effectively.
Download a summary of the masterclass and program launch
Find out more about the Global AMP at IE Business School
Which are the world’s most innovative organisations, and what exactly makes them innovative?
We live in a time of great promise but also great uncertainty.
Markets are more crowded, competition is intense, customer aspirations are constantly fuelled by new innovations and dreams. Technology disrupts every industry, from banking to construction, entertainment to healthcare. It drives new possibilities and solutions, but also speed and complexity, uncertainty and fear.
As digital and physical worlds fuse to augment how we live and work, AI and robotics enhance but also challenge our capabilities, whilst ubiquitous supercomputing, genetic editing and self-driving cars take us further.
Technologies with the power to help us leap forwards in unimaginable ways. To transform business, to solve our big problems, to drive radical innovation, to accelerate growth and achieve progress socially and environmentally too.
We are likely to see more change in the next 10 years than the last 250 years.
- Markets accelerate, 4 times faster than 20 years ago, based on the accelerating speed of innovation and diminishing lifecycles of products.
- People are more capable, 825 times more connected than 20 years ago, with access to education, unlimited knowledge, tools to create anything.
- Consumer attitudes change, 78% of young people choose brands that do good, they reject corporate jobs, and see the world with the lens of gamers.
However, change goes far beyond the technology.
Markets will transform, converge and evolve faster. From old town Ann Arbor to the rejuvenated Bilbao, today’s megacities like Chennai and the future Saudi tech city of Neom, economic power will continue to shift. China has risen to the top of the new global business order, whilst India and eventually Africa will follow.
Industrialisation challenges the natural equilibrium of our planet’s resources. Today’s climate crisis is the result of our progress, and our problem to solve. Globalisation challenges our old notions of nationhood and locality. Migration changes where we call home. Religious values compete with social values, economic priorities conflict with social priorities. Living standards improve but inequality grows.
Agenda
Part 1: Innovation in Business
- Entrepreneurs and Gamechangers: Who are the world’s most innovative companies?
- Inspired by Apple and Bytedance, Cemex and DBS, Google and Lucky Iron Fish, Netflix and Tesla
- What do we think they do? (Discussion)
- Case 1: Microsoft … the purpose, mindset and collaboration to reinvent the trillion-dollar business
- Case 2: Haier … using the power of Rendanheyi to reimagine the future of home appliances
- Case 3: Amazon … creating a relentless drive for better, and how every day is day one
- What can we learn from each of these companies?
Part 2: Innovation in Government
- Governments and Services: Who are the world’s most innovative governments?
- Inspired by Dutch Doughnut, Belgian Badges, Canadian Carrots, Korean Encore, UAE Futures
- How different is public versus private sector innovation?
- Case 4: Singapore … the innovative approach to deliver a Smart Nation
- Case 5: Estonia … creating a digital nation of integrated services and citizens beyond borders
- Case 6: UAE … from the Ministry of Possibilities to Area2071, Museum of the Future to Possibilities 2025
- What can we learn from each of these companies?
Part 3: The Innovation Driven Organisation
- Having the courage to create a better future: How do leaders create innovative organisations?
- Inspired by Tan Le and Devi Shetty, Elon Musk and Pat Brown, Ilkka Paananen and Jessica Tan
- Creating a “smorgasbord” of innovation practices
- Innovation Culture: Purpose Centric, Growth Mindset, Extreme Teams, Open Systems, Gamechanger Ambitions
- Innovation Process: Future Back, Outside In, Integrated Innovation, Agile Strategies, Impact Portfolio
- Which would work in your organisation and how?
- What are the essentials, the differentiators, and the accelerators?
Now, as companies look beyond the pandemic, many are deciding whether to bring employees back to offices or allow them to stay at home. But it’s not just about where to work.
A year of working from home, juggling childcare when schools were closed, avoiding the stress of commutes, and the cost of inner city real estate, has prompted many businesses to look again at the traditional working week, and some to fundamentally reimagine how they work.
- Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg predicted 50% of his people could be working remotely within 5-10 years, but added “people living outside major cities may be asked to take a pay cut”.
- Twitter’s Jack Dorsey made headlines when he announced his employees “can now work from home forever” … and then added “if they are doing work suitable to do at home”.
- Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, however, said the lack of division between private life and work life meant “it sometimes feels like you are sleeping at work”.
The pandemic has highlighted many advantages to working from home, the time and expense saved commuting, the efficiency of remote meetings, particularly when connecting with people who are located far away, the new online work tools like Miro, the ability to be more flexible in your personal time, including spending more time with the children.
The disruption, and experiment, has allowed companies and individuals to explore working in new ways – and to live in new ways – so, perhaps it also a time to reimagine how we work.
Brynn Harrington, who is Facebook’s vice president of People Growth, says some workers have been “really thriving” at home and will be keen to continue doing so. “For example, parents who are closer to their children and are happy to cut their commute time and optimise their work day, they’re thrilled to work from home,” she said.
But home working is not great for everyone. “We also have people juggling care giving responsibilities, we have people living in small apartments with roommates, those people desperately want to get back into offices, and we’re working really hard to do that, as soon as it’s safe to open our offices.”
Starting with the bigger changes
However we should also see these challenges, and choices, in the context of a bigger picture. “The future of work” was already a huge question before Covid ever hit. Digitally-enabled transformation of every market and organisation demands that business thinks, adds value and works in new ways. Fast and connected, automated or augmented, collaborative ecosystems and empowered teams, gig workers and multi careers, more flexible, more hybrid, more human.
The World Economic Forum’s Future of Work agenda, updated annually, creates a strong vision of a rapidly changing world of work, most significantly driven by the fourth industrial revolution, the challenge of technology, but also the imperative for human ingenuity. My new book Business Recoded builds on this, connecting it with other ideas such as Laloux’s reimagined organisations, Haier’s “rendanheyi” devolved structure, and Google Aristotle’s safe and extreme teaming:
- Future-proofed organisations – simple, flat and agile structures – connecting people and partners
- Align new technologies and skills – augmenting and enabling people to add more beyond process and machine
- Work portfolios – everyone is a project worker, internally or gig-working, lifelong learning and evolving
- Doing meaningful work – more purposeful, more responsible, more valued outcomes, particularly for GenZ
- Human-centric leadership – organisations as platforms to enable people to achieve their potential
The pandemic’s disruption has accelerated this shift. Without choice, we all found ourselves experimenting with new environments, new tools, new ways of working. Some of it we loved, some of it we didn’t. But it gave us a glimpse of what’s possible, and some of it will inevitably stick.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQ-3JrWLwwU
Deloitte’s Global Human Capital Trends report for 2021 focuses on the shrift from surviving to thriving, both in the sense of surviving the pandemic and thriving as we emerge, but also a more general complacency in business, to choose stability over change. It highlights 5 big trends:
- Designing work for wellbeing (and the end of the work/life balance or separation)
- Unleashing human potential (beyond skills, enabling new mindsets and freedoms)
- Building superteams (power of teams, and using tech to augment the humanity)
- Adaptive strategies (embracing uncertainty, to make better decisions, with agility)
- Rearchitecting organisations (enterprise-wide mindset, more fluid, connected and human)
One of the most insightful analysis of what is happening comes from Microsoft, and while they clearly have a Teams-centred tech view of of the digital workspace, they are also an organisation of 166,000 people across the world. Over the last two years I have seen at first hand how they are rapidly embracing a new work style, physical and virtual, not just where, but why and how their people approach work.
Microsoft’s Hybrid Work report has key messages including “leaders are out of touch … productivity masks exhaustion … GenZ most at risk … authenticity drives well-being … innovation in danger … talent is everywhere”.
- The Next Great Disruption is Hybrid Work by Microsoft
- McKinsey’s The Future of Work after Covid-19
- Resetting the future of work agenda by World Economic Forum
- Workbook for work strategies for post-Covid recovery by Deloitte
- Reimagining the office and worklife after Covid by McKinsey
- In Australia the post-pandemic office is already here, says WSJ
- Human Capital Trends 2021 report by Deloitte
- What Is Your Organization’s Long-Term Remote Work Strategy? in HBR
- Employee attitudes to remote working from McKinsey
Creating the hybrid post-pandemic workspace
Different organisations are responding differently – partly because they have different types of tasks and cultures – but qually depending on how enlightened they are, or at least their leaders. NTT’s workplace intelligence report found that 31% of companies are implementing additional creative thinking spaces, while 30% will provide more meeting places and 27% will reduce individual desk space.
Turning the office into a digitally enabled, collaboration-first environment will be critical to enabling a hybrid workforce. As companies seek to create a safe, collaborative, and efficient space for their employees, we have observed a few common practices:
- Smart meeting rooms: spaces that enable employees to easily collaborate with their remote colleagues, often include video-conferencing capabilities, smart whiteboards (eg Miro), mobile-friendly office management applications, and virtual collaboration hardware such as 360-degree cameras.
- Portable work kit: network technology will need to evolve to support employees constantly on the move between the home and office and third spaces (clients, coffee shops, virtual hubs), meaning a new focus on what tools are needed to support a mobile, connected and productive workforce.
- Touchdown space: beyond hot desk, a shared space to plug in and work, eg second monitors widely accessible in those desk spaces can enable employees to move to and from the office while maintaining equal levels of productivity, to work open plan on large tables to encourage informal collaboration and socialising.
- Activity zones: huddle rooms for one-on-one meetings, phone booths for calls, larger conference spaces and separate, project enclaves to build virtual teams, movable desks and even walls, to create more activity-based spaces while balancing the need for privacy.
- Cowork spaces: rethinking real estate, some companies are choosing to invest in smaller co-working spaces that are closer to employees, local Regus hubs etc. Done strategically, this setup can generate sizable cost reductions while fostering a strong sense of community and providing employees with the option to work in different settings.
As companies begin to formulate and test hybrid operating models, continued investment and careful strategic planning are necessary to maintain effectiveness and resilience.
So what are companies actually doing so far?
Microsoft with 160,000 employees is fully embracing a hybrid working future, giving employees personal choice in where, when and how to work. However Satya Nadella said physical workspaces still matter, even for the most tech-enabled business: “We believe in the value of bringing people together in the workplace. Having facilities around the globe enriches our culture with new ideas, fresh perspectives and unique local viewpoints that help us continue learning from each other. From innovation labs to briefing centers, being near our customers and having more touchpoints helps us better understand customer and partner needs, adding value to the great work we’re doing together.”
Facebook is planning to start its return to in-person work in May, after over a year of working remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Bloomberg. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced remote work plans near the start of the pandemic that promised around half of his employees could work remotely in the next five to 10 years, but until then, in-person work, at least in a limited capacity, is in the company’s immediate future.
Uber is hoping to get back to in-person work even sooner. The ride-sharing company announced that it’ll reopen its Mission Bay, San Francisco headquarters on March 29th, with a limited 20 percent capacity, according to Reuters. Uber plans to follow similar COVID-19 restrictions as Facebook, requiring face coverings, regular cleanings, and asking employees with sick family members to stay home. Prior to this reopening plan, Uber was letting its office employees work from home until mid-September 2021.
Twitter took a big step and made working from home indefinitely an option for all employees at the start of the pandemic. The company doesn’t have a set date for when it will reopen its offices, however, but “it will be gradual, office-by-office, and at a 20 percent capacity to start,” a Twitter spokesperson tells The Verge.
Google’s plans are less certain, and the company didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from The Verge, but in 2020, it said employees would be able to work from home until September 2021 and that it would explore requiring employees only to work three days a week in-person.
Spotify starts by describing the principles for working, and then how they plan to change:
- Work isn’t something you come to the office for, it’s something you do
- Effectiveness can’t be measured by the number of hours people spend in an office – instead, giving people the freedom to choose where they work will boost effectiveness
- Giving our people more flexibility will support better work-life balance and help tap into new talent pools while keeping our existing band members
- Operating as a distributed organisation will produce better and more efficient ways of working through more intentional use of communication and collaboration practices, processes and tools.
Spotify defines its new hybrid work model:
- My Work Mode – employees will be able to work full time from home, from the office, or a combination of the two. The exact mix of home and office work mode is a decision each employee and their manager make together.
- Location choices – more flexibility when it comes to what country and city each employee works from (with some limitations to address time zone difficulties, and regional entity laws in the initial rollout of this program). Here, our employees have the same “My Work Mode” flexibility, and if someone chooses a location that is not near a Spotify office, we will support them with a co-working space membership if they want to work from an office.
IBM was a pioneer in the work-from-home revolution before it largely abandoned the policy in 2017, but the company is pivoting again with a new system of remote working, with 80% of the workforce working at least three days a week in the office. “I would imagine that we will get rid of tens of millions,” CEO Arvind Krishna told Bloomberg, referring to square feet of office space. “Are we going to go toward zero, absolutely not. Will we have over half of what we had, most likely.”
IBM employees took it upon themselves to define good ways of working remotely during the pandemic. They created a “work-from-home pledge” that specified company norms such as how to communicate and treat each other while working remotely. This grassroots initiative was ultimately supported by Krishna, which provided a strong signal to the rest of the organization about accepted remote-work norms.
However “When people are remote, I worry about what their career trajectory is going to be,” says Krishna. “If they want to become a people manager, if they want to get increasing responsibilities, or if they want to build a culture within their teams, how are we going to do that remotely?” he asked.
Goldman Sachs’ chief executive made clear he saw working from home during the pandemic as an “aberration” saying young employees at the investment bank needed direct contact and mentorship that you could only get in the office.
PwC say employees will be able to work from home a couple of days a week and start as early or late as you like. This summer you can knock off early on Fridays too. Following the pandemic the accountancy giant is offering its staff much more control over their working pattern. PwC chairman Kevin Ellis said he hoped this would make flexible working “the norm rather than the exception”. “We want our people to feel trusted and empowered,” Mr Ellis said. PwC call their approach “The Deal“, built on two-way flexibility, to meet the needs of clients and employees and the company, and to achieve climate goals. It includes:
- an ‘Empowered day’ – which gives our workforce more freedom to decide the most effective working pattern on any given day – for example, an earlier start and finish time
- flexibility to continue working from home as part of blended working, with an expectation that people will spend an average of 40-60% of their time co-located with colleagues, either in offices or at client sites
- a reduced working day on a Friday, with the assumption the majority of our people will finish at lunchtime having condensed their working week
Siemens, the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe, announced that its employees may work from wherever they want for two or three days a week. Siemens has around 385,000 employees in more than 200 countries. The work-anywhere— several days a week—decision was due to a global staff survey, in which employees desired greater flexibility in their approach to work. Roland Busch, the deputy CEO and labor director of Siemens, wrote in a tweet, “#Covid19 gives us a chance to reshape our world and reimagine work. To empower @Siemens employees to perform their best, our #newnormal working model will offer 2-3 days mobile working.” The press release highlights
- Mobile working two to three days a week as worldwide standard
- Managing Board approves new model for working independently of fixed locations
- Model based on transformation of leadership and corporate culture
- Siemens among first large companies to adjust working models permanently
Amazon issued a statement to employees saying: “Our plan is to return to an office-centric culture as our baseline. We believe it enables us to invent, collaborate, and learn together most effectively.” Not exactly a ringing endorsement of the new work-from-home age, then. Part of the hesitancy is that although many employees want more flexibility, it’s still not at all clear what kind of model works for the companies.
Download Peter Fisk’s keynote: Business Recoded
Circklo was created to bring a solution for start-up founders that do not want to change their vision to adapt to the mindsets or impositions of investors.
In our Business Configurator Academy, it is the founders who choose their investors and not the other way round. Our Academy is solely dedicated to the mavericks, misfits, innovators, and ceiling breakers of the 21st century technology and science: it is a safe space for those start-up and SMEs founders who know they have more than just potential, they have the mindset to succeed.
The Configurator programme is highly personalised and practical, and it is not for the faint-hearted: it is not a race to the finish line, it is a marathon. While we cater for many businesses and industries, we are only open to very few: those who are fearless, who are not afraid to change the status quo, who push the boundaries of what is possible and acceptable, and those who understand that science and technology are the foundation of progress and business success.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFVZARhfjZI
Circklo’s Configurator Academy is a fixed term, mentorship-driven programme dedicated to start ups aiming to succeed in sustainable digital innovation.
We are looking to accelerate start ups for profit and impact in the areas of:
- Sustainable Food and Beverage companies;
- Sustainable Fashion companies;
- Recycling and reuse of resources (i.e. plastic, metals etc.);
- Non-financial metrics calculators and track and trace platforms;
- Financial technology (Fintech).
We work intensively with individual teams for 12 weeks, ensuring we help them create a refined business plan. Each 12-week cycle culminates in a Dragons’ Guild Day, when the teams which have attended the programme will be presenting their business plan to a carefully selected, invite-only audience of investors and industry experts, the ultimate goal being that of seeking investment funding for their business idea, and/or a way to validate their idea with a real case scenario.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZYxmVC29hI
Peter Fisk explores the big themes from his new book Business Recoded, and what it means for marketing leaders.
Business needs a new code for success.
Change is dramatic, pervasive and relentless. The challenges are numerous. The opportunities are greater.
Incredible technologies and geopolitical shifts, complex markets and stagnating growth, demanding customers and disruptive entrepreneurs, environmental crisis and social distrust, unexpected shocks and uncertain futures.
The old codes that got us here don’t work anymore. Moving forwards needs a new mindset.
“Business Recoded” is for business leaders who seek to progress in today’s rapidly changing world, and to create the organisations that will thrive in tomorrow’s world.
The book explores how to lead a better future, to reimagine your business, to reinvent markets, to energise your people. It describes how to combine profit with more purpose, intelligent technologies with creative people, radical innovation with sustainable impact.
It dives deep into the minds of some of today’s most inspiring business leaders – people like Anne Wojcicki and Jeff Bezos, Emily Weiss and Devi Shetty, Daniel Ek and Tan Le, Mary Barra and Masayoshi Son, Satya Nadella and Zhang Ruimin.
And learns from the innovative strategies of incredible companies – Alibaba and Amazon, Babylon and BlackRock, Meituan Dianping and Microsoft, Narayana Health and Netflix, Patagonia and PingAn, Spotify and Supercell, and many more.
The book is built on 7 seismic shifts driving a more enlightened future of business, unlocking 49 codes that collectively define a new DNA for organisations and their leadership.
It’s about you – realising your future potential – by developing your own codes for more enlightened progress, personal and business success.
Do you have the courage to create a better future, for you and your business?
“A brilliant collection of practical guidelines intended to refresh and reinvent our mindsets, from a global thoughtful leader with vast experience in management development” Santiago Iniguez, President of IE University.
“Business Recoded is a great source of inspiration for leaders who want to position themselves for the future.” Alex Osterwalder, author of Business Model Generation and The Invincible Company.
Contents
Introduction
Business needs a new code for success
- Why do we need to recode?
- What are the new codes?
- The new DNA of business
- The new DNA of leadership
- Have the courage to lead the future
- Inspiration 1: Eliud Kipchoge
- Inspiration 2: DeepMind
- Inspiration 3: Tan Le
- Inspiration 4: Satya Nadella
- Inspiration 5: Mary Barra
- Inspiration 6: Jack Ma
- Inspiration 7: JK Rowling
Part 1: Aurora … Recode your future
How will you reinvent your business for a better future?
- Code 1: Explore your future potential
- Code 2: Have a future mindset
- Code 3: Imagine a better business
- Code 4: Find your inspiring purpose
- Code 5: Create your future story
- Code 6: Deliver more positive impact
- Code 7: Be the radical optimist
- Leader 1: Anne Wojcicki, 23andMe
- Leader 2: Elon Musk, SpaceX
- Leader 3: Patrick Brown, Impossible Foods
- Leader 4: Larry Fink, BlackRock
- Leader 5: Yves Chouinard, Patagonia
Part 2: Komorebi … Recode your growth
Where are the best opportunities to grow further and faster?
- Code 8: Ride with the megatrends
- Code 9: Find new sources of growth
- Code 10: Embrace the Asian century
- Code 11: Harness technology and humanity
- Code 12: Start from the future back
- Code 13: Accelerate through networks
- Code 14: Build a growth portfolio
- Leader 6: Masayoshi Son, Softbank
- Leader 7: Emily Weiss, Glossier
- Leader 8: Wang Xing, Meituan Dianping
- Leader 9: Danae Ringelmann, Indiegogo
- Leader 10: Mukesh Ambani, Reliance
Part 3: Transcendent … Recode your market
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=part+3+business+recoded
How will you reshape your market to your advantage?
- Code 15: Explore the market matrix
- Code 16: Disrupt the disruptors
- Code 17: Capture the customer agenda
- Code 18: Create new market spaces
- Code 19: Build trust with authenticity
- Code 20: Develop brands with purpose
- Code 21: Enable people to achieve more
- Leader 11: Bernard Arnault, LVMH
- Leader 12: Maria Raga, Depop
- Leader 13: Ali Parsa, Babylon Health
- Leader 14: Hooi Ling Tan, Grab
- Leader 15: Mikkel Bjergso, Mikkeller
Part 4: Ingenuity … Recode your innovation
What does it take to drive more radical innovation?
- Code 22: Be ingenious
- Code 23: Search for better ideas
- Code 24: Embrace a designer mindset
- Code 25: Create unusual connections
- Code 26: Develop new business models
- Code 27: Experiment with speed and agility
- Code 28: Dream crazy
- Leader 16: Rene Renzepi, Noma
- Leader 17: James Watt, BrewDog
- Leader 18: Jensen Huang, Nvidia
- Leader 19: Devi Shetty, Narayana Health
- Leader 20: Katrina Lake, Stitch Fix
Part 5: Ubuntu … Recode your organisation
How can people achieve more together?
- Code 29: Build a butterfly ecosystem
- Code 30: Work as a living organisation
- Code 31: Collaborate in fast projects
- Code 32: Do human, inspiring work
- Code 33: Align individuals and organisations
- Code 34: Create energy and rhythm
- Code 35: Be an extreme team
- Leader 21: Reed Hastings, Netflix
- Leader 22: Zhang Ruimin, Haier
- Leader 23: Cristina Junqueira, Nubank
- Leader 24: Jos de Blok, Buurtzorg
- Leader 25: Ari Weinzweig, Zingerman’s
Part 6: Syzygy … Recode your transformation
What does it take to transform your business effectively?
- Code 36: Transform your business
- Code 37: Exploit the core, explore the edge
- Code 38: Start outside in, and inside out
- Code 39: Engage people in change
- Code 40: Build rocket ships to the future
- Code 41: Create a circular ecosystem
- Code 42: Have the strategic agility to never stop
- Leader 26: Jeff Bezos, Amazon
- Leader 27: Bob Iger, Disney
- Leader 28: Jessica Tan, Ping An
- Leader 29: Piyush Gupta, DBS
- Leader 30: Javier Goyeneche, Ecoalf
Part 7: Awestruck … Recode your leadership
Do you have the courage to create a better future?
- Code 43: Step up to lead the future
- Code 44: Have the courage to do more
- Code 45: Develop your own leadership style
- Code 46: Achieve your peak performance
- Code 47: Stay resilient, stay strong
- Code 48: Create a better legacy
- Code 49: Be extraordinary
- Leader 31: Jim Snabe, Maersk
- Leader 32: Daniel Ek, Spotify
- Leader 33: Hamdi Ulukaya, Chobani
- Leader 34: Zhang Xin, Soho China
- Leader 35: Ilkka Paananen, Supercell
Business Recoded is about having the courage to create a better future. This can take many different forms.
Peter Fisk explores the big themes from his new book Business Recoded, and what it means for marketing leaders.
Business needs a new code for success.
Change is dramatic, pervasive and relentless. The challenges are numerous. The opportunities are greater.
Incredible technologies and geopolitical shifts, complex markets and stagnating growth, demanding customers and disruptive entrepreneurs, environmental crisis and social distrust, unexpected shocks and uncertain futures.
The old codes that got us here don’t work anymore. Moving forwards needs a new mindset.
“Business Recoded” is for business leaders who seek to progress in today’s rapidly changing world, and to create the organisations that will thrive in tomorrow’s world.
The book explores how to lead a better future, to reimagine your business, to reinvent markets, to energise your people. It describes how to combine profit with more purpose, intelligent technologies with creative people, radical innovation with sustainable impact.
It dives deep into the minds of some of today’s most inspiring business leaders – people like Anne Wojcicki and Jeff Bezos, Emily Weiss and Devi Shetty, Daniel Ek and Tan Le, Mary Barra and Masayoshi Son, Satya Nadella and Zhang Ruimin.
And learns from the innovative strategies of incredible companies – Alibaba and Amazon, Babylon and BlackRock, Meituan Dianping and Microsoft, Narayana Health and Netflix, Patagonia and PingAn, Spotify and Supercell, and many more.
The book is built on 7 seismic shifts driving a more enlightened future of business, unlocking 49 codes that collectively define a new DNA for organisations and their leadership.
It’s about you – realising your future potential – by developing your own codes for more enlightened progress, personal and business success.
Do you have the courage to create a better future, for you and your business?
“A brilliant collection of practical guidelines intended to refresh and reinvent our mindsets, from a global thoughtful leader with vast experience in management development” Santiago Iniguez, President of IE University.
“Business Recoded is a great source of inspiration for leaders who want to position themselves for the future.” Alex Osterwalder, author of Business Model Generation and The Invincible Company.
Contents
Introduction
Business needs a new code for success
- Why do we need to recode?
- What are the new codes?
- The new DNA of business
- The new DNA of leadership
- Have the courage to lead the future
- Inspiration 1: Eliud Kipchoge
- Inspiration 2: DeepMind
- Inspiration 3: Tan Le
- Inspiration 4: Satya Nadella
- Inspiration 5: Mary Barra
- Inspiration 6: Jack Ma
- Inspiration 7: JK Rowling
Part 1: Aurora … Recode your future
How will you reinvent your business for a better future?
- Code 1: Explore your future potential
- Code 2: Have a future mindset
- Code 3: Imagine a better business
- Code 4: Find your inspiring purpose
- Code 5: Create your future story
- Code 6: Deliver more positive impact
- Code 7: Be the radical optimist
- Leader 1: Anne Wojcicki, 23andMe
- Leader 2: Elon Musk, SpaceX
- Leader 3: Patrick Brown, Impossible Foods
- Leader 4: Larry Fink, BlackRock
- Leader 5: Yves Chouinard, Patagonia
Part 2: Komorebi … Recode your growth
Where are the best opportunities to grow further and faster?
- Code 8: Ride with the megatrends
- Code 9: Find new sources of growth
- Code 10: Embrace the Asian century
- Code 11: Harness technology and humanity
- Code 12: Start from the future back
- Code 13: Accelerate through networks
- Code 14: Build a growth portfolio
- Leader 6: Masayoshi Son, Softbank
- Leader 7: Emily Weiss, Glossier
- Leader 8: Wang Xing, Meituan Dianping
- Leader 9: Danae Ringelmann, Indiegogo
- Leader 10: Mukesh Ambani, Reliance
Part 3: Transcendent … Recode your market
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=part+3+business+recoded
How will you reshape your market to your advantage?
- Code 15: Explore the market matrix
- Code 16: Disrupt the disruptors
- Code 17: Capture the customer agenda
- Code 18: Create new market spaces
- Code 19: Build trust with authenticity
- Code 20: Develop brands with purpose
- Code 21: Enable people to achieve more
- Leader 11: Bernard Arnault, LVMH
- Leader 12: Maria Raga, Depop
- Leader 13: Ali Parsa, Babylon Health
- Leader 14: Hooi Ling Tan, Grab
- Leader 15: Mikkel Bjergso, Mikkeller
Part 4: Ingenuity … Recode your innovation
What does it take to drive more radical innovation?
- Code 22: Be ingenious
- Code 23: Search for better ideas
- Code 24: Embrace a designer mindset
- Code 25: Create unusual connections
- Code 26: Develop new business models
- Code 27: Experiment with speed and agility
- Code 28: Dream crazy
- Leader 16: Rene Renzepi, Noma
- Leader 17: James Watt, BrewDog
- Leader 18: Jensen Huang, Nvidia
- Leader 19: Devi Shetty, Narayana Health
- Leader 20: Katrina Lake, Stitch Fix
Part 5: Ubuntu … Recode your organisation
How can people achieve more together?
- Code 29: Build a butterfly ecosystem
- Code 30: Work as a living organisation
- Code 31: Collaborate in fast projects
- Code 32: Do human, inspiring work
- Code 33: Align individuals and organisations
- Code 34: Create energy and rhythm
- Code 35: Be an extreme team
- Leader 21: Reed Hastings, Netflix
- Leader 22: Zhang Ruimin, Haier
- Leader 23: Cristina Junqueira, Nubank
- Leader 24: Jos de Blok, Buurtzorg
- Leader 25: Ari Weinzweig, Zingerman’s
Part 6: Syzygy … Recode your transformation
What does it take to transform your business effectively?
- Code 36: Transform your business
- Code 37: Exploit the core, explore the edge
- Code 38: Start outside in, and inside out
- Code 39: Engage people in change
- Code 40: Build rocket ships to the future
- Code 41: Create a circular ecosystem
- Code 42: Have the strategic agility to never stop
- Leader 26: Jeff Bezos, Amazon
- Leader 27: Bob Iger, Disney
- Leader 28: Jessica Tan, Ping An
- Leader 29: Piyush Gupta, DBS
- Leader 30: Javier Goyeneche, Ecoalf
Part 7: Awestruck … Recode your leadership
Do you have the courage to create a better future?
- Code 43: Step up to lead the future
- Code 44: Have the courage to do more
- Code 45: Develop your own leadership style
- Code 46: Achieve your peak performance
- Code 47: Stay resilient, stay strong
- Code 48: Create a better legacy
- Code 49: Be extraordinary
- Leader 31: Jim Snabe, Maersk
- Leader 32: Daniel Ek, Spotify
- Leader 33: Hamdi Ulukaya, Chobani
- Leader 34: Zhang Xin, Soho China
- Leader 35: Ilkka Paananen, Supercell
Business Recoded is about having the courage to create a better future. This can take many different forms.
The book starts with 7 short stories from very different people, in very different worlds, from business and beyond. The stories are all about mindset, about the courage to do better, to achieve more, to break barriers, to be extraordinary.
Inspiration 1: Eliud Kipchoge
The humble Kenyan says that “no human is limited” and, despite his Olympic gold medals and world records, set himself a much more audacious goal.
“I don’t know where the limits are, but I would like to go there” said Eliud Kipchoge as dawn broke over the Danube river in Vienna.
Two hours later he stood in the middle of the tree lined Hauptallee, having just sprinted to the finish of the Ineos 1:59 Challenge, the first human to break two hours for the marathon. “That was the best moment of my life” he said, standing exhausted but still smiling at the finish line. The clock above him stopped at 1 hour 59 minutes and 40 seconds.
Having followed the Kenyan runner throughout his 20-year career, I watched his iconic record attempt in awe. Around him, some of the world’s greatest athletes, from Olympic 1500m Champion Matt Centrowitz to rising star Jacob Ingebrigtsen and the highly experienced Bernard Lagat, cheered and took selfies with the record breaker, pacemakers to the great man, happy to be part of history.
“Today we went to the Moon and came back to Earth” he said.
Back at home in Kenya, people were crowded round televisions, cheering for their runner. But Kipchoge lives a humble life, with the greatest clarity of purpose.
Every morning, just before 5am, in the small village of Kaptagat in western Kenya. He rolls out of bed, wipes the sleep from his eyes and gets ready to run. By the time the sun rises over the ochre red, dusty roads of the Rift Valley, he is well into his stride. Joined by dozens of ambitious young local runners, he strides past farmers heading for their fields, children waiting for their school buses.
This is just his first 20km, his first run of the day. Every day.
On returning to his training camp, it might be Kipchoge’s turn to make breakfast. Most likely it will be a simple bowl of ugali, a Kenyan staple made each day in a big pan from maize flour and water, plus whatever fruits are in season. Afterwards, he will probably hand-wash his running kit, ready for the afternoon session, and then take a nap. On other days, it might be his turn to head to the local farm for provisions, or to clean the communal toilets.
It is a frugal existence, particularly for a global champion, and self-made millionaire.
Yet for Kipchoge, the Olympic champion and world record holder, it is the only way of life that he has known. His wife and young children live in a much more spacious house in the town of Eldoret 40km away, but during his most important training periods, he prefers the simplicity of his spartan camp.
For 15 years, Kipchoge has been chasing a dream. I remember first seeing him run as a teenager, his bulging eyes fixed on the path ahead, always with a smile on his face. He showed early promise, beating world record holders Kenenisa Bekele and Hicham El Guerrouj to become the 1983 5000m world champion whilst only 18 years old. Over the next decade he won many medals but couldn’t call himself the best. As he reached his 30th birthday, he decided to move up to the marathon. To astonishing effect.
In the marathon, he became unbeatable.
In 2017, his sponsors Nike created a project to see if it would be possible to break 2 hours for the marathon. At the heart of their project was the Olympic champion, Kipchoge. They searched the world for the perfect location, choosing Monza’s Formula 1 motor racing circuit in Italy, the perfect conditions, the perfect pace set automatically by a Tesla car, and the perfect shoe. In the cool dark morning he set off, slipstreaming in behind a squadron of world-class pacemakers.
As his colleagues succumbed to the brutal and relentless pace, one man continued alone against the clock, although missing the historic barrier by 25 seconds. Kipchoge was unphased, delighted but determined to do better. He went back to Kenya and set about improving himself.
Listening to him, dressed in a dark suit and tie, as he addressed the Oxford Union later that year, it struck me that he is perhaps one of the most thoughtful, intelligent athletes you will ever meet. Constantly seeking to challenge himself as a way to progress. Always curious, always listening, wanting to read more and learn from others.
He is even a fan of motivational business books. In particular he regularly rereads Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People saying it taught him the importance of working hard, treating your profession as seriously as you can, and how to live alongside other people. He also likes John Maxwell’s 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth.
Why does he think he has become the best? Because of his mental toughness, he says. “Many of my peers train just as hard as I do. But success is more about having the right attitude”. Maybe unexpectedly for an African marathoner, he likes to quote Aristotle. “In any profession, you should think positively. That’s the driver of your mind. If your mind is really thinking positive, then you are on the right track. ‘Pleasure in what you’re doing puts perfection in your work.’”
Kipchoge is sometimes called the philosopher, sometimes even the Buddha. “No human is limited” says the rubber band that he wears around his wrist. “The mind is what drives a human being,” he says “If you have that belief – that you want to be successful – then you can talk to your mind. My mind is always free. My mind is flexible. I want to show the world that you can go beyond your thoughts, you can break more than you think you can break.”
What keeps him motivated, having achieved Olympic titles and world records? It was actually when he visited Iffley Road, the small Oxford running track where Roger Bannister had broken his 4 minutes for one mile, back in 1954, that Kipchoge became truly fixated by 2 hours, as a challenge and a legacy. He says “The world is full of challenges and we need to challenge ourselves. For me it is to run faster than anybody else in history.”
You might assume that once he found a winning formula, he would keep doing what he does. Not Kipchoge. A surprising supplement to his training schedule before Vienna was the introduction of aerobics and pilates. Seeing the highly tuned athletes working out to Pharrell Williams’ Happy soundtrack seemed almost surreal. “Constantly seek and embrace change” he says. “I know it is not really comfortable to adopt change but change in life of a human being or life of any profession is really important.”
He constantly asks himself what he could have done better, and what can he do in the future. He describes a tree planted near where he lives. “There is a sign next to it saying that the best time to plant a tree is 25 years ago. The second-best time is today.”
At the end of his 2-hour barrier-breaking run in Vienna, Kipchoge talked selflessly about how he hoped his moment would inspire others, not just to also beat the 2 hour barrier, but also for people to believe in the spirit of humanity, to rise above conflict and doubt. “We can make this world a beautiful world, a peaceful world, a running world”.
Inspiration 2: DeepMind
Whilst we marvel at extreme feats of human performance, we also know that technology has the potential to outperform humanity.
The ability to process huge amounts of data at incredible speeds, to learn through repetitive process, and to harness the strength and agility of robotics challenge many of the ways in which humans used to excel.
The game of chess has long served as a benchmark for AI researchers. John McCarthy, who coined the term “artificial intelligence” in the early 1950s, once compared it to the way in which the fruit fly is used to understand genetics.
In 1996, IBM’s Deep Blue supercomputer embarked upon a series of chess games against Garry Kasparov, the world champion. Deep Blue eventually beat Kasparov, marking the first time a machine had defeated a world champion.
Within a few years computing technology was consistently beating chess grandmasters.
However, AI developers knew that they needed greater challenges, searching for more complex games to test their increasingly sophisticated algorithms. They turned their attention to the ancient Chinese strategy game of Go, which is both deceptively simple to play, yet extraordinarily complex to master.
The game was invented in China more than 2,500 years ago and is believed to be the oldest board game continuously played to the present day. It was considered one of the four essential arts of the cultured aristocratic Chinese. Go has a larger board than chess, a 19×19 grid of lines containing 361 points, and therefore with many more alternatives to consider per move.
It took another decade of machine learning development until scientists were able to create a truly competitive AI-based Go player.
In 2014, a team at London-based DeepMind Technologies started working on a deep learning neural network called AlphaGo. Two years later a mysterious online Go player named “Master” appeared on the popular Asian game platform Tygem. The mysterious player dominated games against many world champions.
Eventually it was confirmed that the “master” was in fact created by DeepMind, since acquired by Google, and now a subsidiary of Alphabet.
The master was replaced by a grandmaster in 2017. AlphaZero, an enhanced version of the original system, embraced an even more sophisticated algorithm designed to learn as it progressed through games. The system simply plays against itself, over and over, and learns how to master whatever game it has been programmed to work with. Searching through 80,000 positions, a fraction of what other predictive software had used, it had perfected the game in 24 hours using an AI-type of intuition.
AlphaZero achieved two things: autonomy from humans, and superhuman ability. Scientist and futurist James Lovelock calls this “the novacene”, translated as “the new new” in Latin and Greek, where a new form of intelligent life emerges from a human-initiated AI-based machine into one which no longer requires human intervention.
He calls AlphaZero, and other such beings, cyborgs.
In his book “Novacene: The Coming Age of Hyperintelligence”, Lovelock suggests that AI-based entities can think and act 10,000 times faster than humans (and to put that in perspective, that humans can think and act 10,000 times faster than plants). He then reflects that maybe AI-based life would be rather boring, considering that a flight to Australia using physical transport would currently take 3000 AI-based years.
The real point of a cyborg, a term first coined by Austria’s Manfred Clynes to describe an organism as self-sufficient as a human but made of engineered materials, is that it is able to improve and replicate itself.
Which quickly takes us to a future beyond what Hungarian John Van Neumann called “the singularity”, the point at which intelligent technological growth becomes uncontrollable and irreversible. Both physicist Stephen Hawking and entrepreneur Elon Musk have warned of the profound implication of autonomous AI.
Of course, we already have many devices that learn and improve continually. Take Google Maps, for example, which constantly learns from all its users about realtime traffic situations, and the more users it has the better the information becomes. Or consider Google Nest, an intelligent thermostat which takes control of the temperature in our homes. For now, they are useful tools, to help us live better.
Inspiration 3: Tan Le
The Vietnamese boat refugee who found a new beginning in Australia, qualifying as a lawyer, then creating Emotiv, a world-leading neurotechnology company.
Tan Le was only 4 years old when she fled Vietnam with her mother and sister, crowded on board a fishing boat with 162 other people, in search of a better life. It was a difficult choice, leaving her father behind and heading out to the uncertain seas.
For 5 days they sailed, and then after losing power, drifted across the South China Sea. She remembers the long dark nights and rough seas, and everyone becoming desperate once food and water ran out.
Fortune came in the shape of a British oil tanker, which offered to rescue them. After 3 months in a refugee camp, the family were offered a flight to Australia. As the plane flew across the unknown country, she was struck by the huge emptiness of the land, and later reflected on it as symbolising the new opportunities which she could never have imagined. On landing, her mother told her to kiss the ground, as this was a special place.
At 8 years old, her mum says she was a dreamer, and particularly liked to pretend she had the power of telepathy, as inspired by a movie she had seen. In reality, she called herself a curious nerd, desperate to work hard and seize her opportunity. At the same time, she was very conscious about being different – her looks, her accent, her background.
Then, when she was 20, she won Young Australian of the Year for her work in helping other immigrants to settle locally, to learn the English language, and to find jobs. She was astonished that somebody like her could win such an award. It was the moment that really opened her mind.
She started to look beyond her mum’s dream of her becoming a doctor or lawyer. With a degree from Monash University she qualified as a lawyer, but quickly turned her attention to software engineering, exploring how brainwaves can control digital devices.
It was all about understanding the brain in context, and how it could be directed to do more productive work, to engage consumers more deeply with brands, to help people with disabilities. Her early work included the development of EEG (electroencephalography) headsets by which you can control a car, or drone, or game, with your mind.
“When the neurons in your brain interact, they emit electrical impulses, which we can then translate into patterns that become commands, by using machine learning” she explained in a recent interview with CNBC.
She founded Emotiv, a bio-informatics company. It was all about understanding the brain in context, and how it could be directed to do more productive work, to engage consumers more deeply with brands, to help people with disabilities.
Chosen to be part of the World Economic Forum’s Young Business Leaders in 2009, she sat at a dinner held in Buenos Aires with fellow participants. Opposite her sat a wheelchair-bound Brazilian called Rodrigo Hübner Mendes. He introduced himself as a Formula One racing car driver, who used a specially developed brain interface to control the vehicle.
Mendes explained how he would turn left by imagining eating tasty food, turn right by imagining he was riding a bike, and accelerate by imagining he had just scored a World Cup goal for Brazil. He explained how the technology for the car was developed by a small innovative company called Emotiv. She smiled, deeply moved by his story.
Today Emotiv is a world-leading in brain interface software, with technology that is cheaper than a gaming console, but has the ability to fundamentally disrupt and improve our lives. With offices around the world, Le spends much of her time in Hanoi, where her ground-breaking technology is being developed by young Vietnamese technologists.
Le reflects on her personal journey saying, “Like my mum, I took a leap of faith into the world of technology, and particularly into a completely new area for which I had no qualifications or experience.”
She freely admits that she doesn’t have all the answers, with “I try to make the right choices, but you never know exactly where you are going, or if doing your best” but is also an infectious optimism “The future is not hear yet. We have the chance to create it, to co-create it.”
As for Mendes, he recently found himself at a conference in Dubai listening to world champion F1 driver Lewis Hamilton. When it came to questions at the end, Mendes’ hand immediately sprung up. He challenged the world champion to a race, using brainwave-controlled cars. Hamilton, a lover of new technologies, accepted. The race awaits.
Inspiration 4: Satya Nadella
The Indian-born CEO says he doesn’t want to be cool, but to make other people cool, inspiring Microsoft to become the world’s most valuable business, again.
Technology’s impact on our lives is still in its infancy. From mobile phones to social networks that bring new connections and instant gratification, to the reinvention of every industry. This is where Microsoft sees its future.
After 15 years of Bill Gates’s visionary leadership in the emergent technological world, “putting a computer on every desk”, Microsoft declined under the heavy-handed control of Steve Ballmer. Until in 2014 when Satya Nadella took over, and in his words, “hit refresh”.
His first speech as CEO did not even mention the word “Windows”, the company’s proprietary operating system, and cash cow. Instead he said “the world is about cloud first, mobile first” setting out his new priorities for growth.
Within five years he had more than quadrupled the company’s value, and with a focus on how a new generation of technologies, most significantly AI, can enable other companies to transform themselves, with the help of Microsoft.
“We don’t want to be the cool company in the tech sector,” Nadella says, “We want to be the company that makes other people cool.” By which he means that his mission is to build Microsoft as the enabling force behind today’s business world. Whilst his predecessors burnt their fingers trying to create branded hardware, most notably acquiring Nokia’s mobile business, Nadella is happier to create the smart insides of other people’s solutions.
To be the partner, the enabler, to empower others to be great.
At Microsoft’s huge Redmond campus, just outside Seattle, there is a revolution in attitude and practice. Gone is the ego-driven, insular thinking of old. Boardroom strategies are replaced by hackathons where anyone can shine. Elitist developers are usurped by ideas that can come from anywhere. Collaboration with partners, even Apple and Amazon, is the new normal. And big human and ethical dilemmas are top of the company’s agenda, how to control intelligent machines, how to address global healthcare and inequality.
But this is not a cult of leadership, or a hierarchy of command. Nadella is a very modern leader, recognising that his role is not to be the expert, or the hero, or the decision-maker – but to be the facilitator, the connector, the enabler. Behind that behaviour is his belief in the idea of a “growth mindset. Nowhere will you find this approach to leadership more clear, applied and powerful than in today’s Microsoft.
“Growth mindset” is a simple but powerful concept that I use constantly in my work with business leaders. One of the biggest problems companies run into, and the successful ones even more so, is that they keep trying to perfect their existing world. Instead, it’s probably time to let go. As the world changes, ever more dramatically, leaders need to change too – looking forwards not back, experimenting with new ideas, rather than seek to optimise the old. Efficiency savings won’t create your future, but ideas and imagination just might. Move from diminishing returns to exponential opportunities.
“Don’t be a know-it-all, be a learn-it-all” Nadella loves to say. “In 2014, we cancelled our company meeting where our leaders would tell employees what was important, in favour of having a hackathon that lets our employees tell our leaders what’s important,” recalls Jeff Ramos, head of the Microsoft Garage, where employees with a bright idea can come and experiment, build, hack, and see if there ideas have potential.
I recently watched Nadella take to the stage at Microsoft Envision, a huge event where the company brings together many of the world’s leading CEOs to explore the future, there was a real energy in the room. From him – a great beaming smile, an uplifting speech, an entirely positive demeanour – but also from his team too. He believes in a new business world – one where teams beat hierarchy, where collaboration beats competition, where humanity is always superior to technology, and where dreams outperform numbers.
In November 2018, Microsoft became the world’s most valuable company again, after a gap of 16 years. 7 months later the business soared through the trillion dollar market cap mark. At the end of 2019, Nadella was named Financial Times’ Person of the Year, saying that “Microsoft was at risk of technological irrelevance but Nadella has presided over an era of stunning wealth creation.”
Inspiration 5: Mary Barra
She challenged the traditional culture of GM in dramatic style, rejecting complacency and embracing new tech, on a mission to reinvent her industry.
Car making is far from a luxury business, particularly in the decimated heartlands of the American car industry. The arrival of better, cheaper brands like Toyota from Japan, and more recently others from China and South Korea, fundamentally challenged local makers. Globalisation was killing the local industry.
Mary Barra grew up just outside Detroit, at a time when the city and car making was booming. Her father Ray Makela worked as a dye maker for 39 years at the Pontiac car factory, whilst Mary started working in the industry at the age of 18, checking fender panels and inspecting hoods to pay for her college education.
“My parents were both born and raised in the Depression. They instilled great values about integrity and the importance of hard work, and I’ve taken that with me to every job” she says.
When studying at the General Motors Institute, her tutor recalled how he taught her many aspects of car design, including how to make windscreen wipers work. He said she was always the leader, taking charge of mostly-male groups, balancing her strong technical knowledge with her easy-going communication skills.
She joined GM full time and worked through the ranks, becoming VP of Global Manufacturing in 2008, and then of Human Resources. In 2014, with the business increasingly struggling to survive, and uncertain about a future that looked electric and driverless, she became CEO.
Today she is a woman on a mission, to save GM and to reinvent her industry.
In her first year as leader, GM was forced to recall 30 million cars due to safety issues that resulted in 124 deaths. She was called before Senate to explain the problems, and brand reputation plummeted to an all-time low. The recalls, however, also demanded significant change in work practices. She introduced new policies for employees to report problems, and a new culture of openness and determination to fight back was born.
Over the next five years Barra pushed GM to transform itself, to embrace innovation and new ways of working, both operationally and strategically. In particular she wanted to seize the leadership in new technologies such as hybrid engines and automated driving.
Asked by CNN what it takes to transform a traditional business she said “It takes a lot! You need the right people, the right culture and the right strategy. To be truly great, your team must have diversity of thought and be willing to collaborate constructively.”
“Your company culture should empower and inspire people to relentlessly pursue the company’s vision, always with integrity. A strong strategy is the roadmap to achieve your vision, but you need strategies for this year, as well as the next five, 10, and 20 years — and they all may need to work in tandem. Our vision at GM is a world with zero crashes, zero emissions and zero congestion, and everyone on the team knows we are committed to putting the customer at the centre of everything we do.”
“At GM we live and work by a set of seven behaviours, one of which we call Innovate Now. This means ‘I see things not how they are but how they should be.’ So, we empower our teams to innovate and create, while also understanding macro trends.”
In 2016 Barra splashed out over $1billion to invest in Cruise, a software business for driverless cars. She put it at the heart of her revolution. Her acquisition gave the old business an injection of new capabilities, but also new courage and creativity too.
“My definition of ‘innovative’ is providing value to the customer” she adds.
Her move was worth $20 billion of market value in investor confidence alone. Soon revenues started to grow back, employees and customers both believed in a new future. The Chevy Bolt, a car with no steering wheel, suddenly made autonomous dreams real, and the GM brands started to become desirable again.
Inspiration 6: Jack Ma
The Hangzhou teacher on $12 a month built Alibaba into a $400 billion global technology leader over 20 years, before retiring to become a teacher again.
Technology, of course, is not everything. Whilst machines might eclipse 30% of the human jobs of today, there will still be a need to achieve more than speed and efficiency. This demands that humans rise up to harness their more distinctive assets, to be creative and intuitive. To go beyond the technology.
Ma began studying English at a young age, spending time talking to English-speaking visitors at the Hangzhou international hotel near his home. He would then ride 70 miles on his bicycle to give tourists guided tours of the area to practice his English. Foreigners nicknamed him “Jack” because they found his Chinese name too difficult to pronounce.
In 1988 he became an English teacher earning just $12 a month, and describing it years later whilst speaking at the 2018 World Economic Forum, as “the best life I had”.
From teaching, he soon had ambitions to do more. He applied for 30 different jobs and got rejected by all. He wanted to be a policeman but was told he was too small. He tried his luck at KFC, the first one to arrive in China. Famously he retells the tale “24 people went for the job. 23 were accepted. I was the only guy who wasn’t.” He applied to Harvard Business School, but was rejected 10 times.
He persevered, seeing every step as a learning experience. In 1994, Ma heard about the Internet. One day, when searching online for the different beers of the world, he was surprised to find none from China. The world’s most consumed beer brand, Snow beer, is of course Chinese. So he and a friend launched a simple Chinese language website called China Pages. Within hours investors were on the phone, and within three years he was generating over 5,000,000 Chinese Yuan.
“My dream was to set up my own e-commerce company. In 1999, I gathered 18 people in my apartment and spoke to them for two hours about my vision. Everyone put their money on the table, and that got us $60,000 to start Alibaba. I wanted to have a global company, so I chose a global name.”
Interviewed at the World Economic Forum he said “I call Alibaba 1001 mistakes. We expanded too fast, and then in the dot-com bubble, we had to have layoffs. By 2002, we had only enough cash to survive for 18 months. We had a lot of free members using our site, and we didn’t know how we’d make money. So we developed a product for China exporters to meet U.S. buyers online. This model saved us.”
Over the next two decades he built Alibaba into a $400 billion organisation. In 2017, to celebrate the internet giant’s 18th birthday, Ma appeared on stage dressed like Michael Jackson, turning the event into a “Thriller” performance. His passion for his company, and for his audience of employees, shone through.
Looking back he reflected “The lessons I learned from the dark days at Alibaba are that you’ve got to make your team have value, innovation, and vision. Also, if you don’t give up, you still have a chance. And, when you are small, you have to be very focused and rely on your brain, not your strength.
And about himself, often quoted as a supporter of the “996” work mindset (working from 9am until 9pm, 6 days a week), he adds “I don’t think I’m a workaholic. Every weekend, I invite my colleagues and friends to my home to play cards. And people, my neighbours, are always surprised because I live on the second floor apartment, and there are usually 40 pairs of shoes in front of my gate. We have a lot of fun.”
On Alibaba’s 20th birthday, himself now 54 years old, and worth over $40 billion, he decided to retire saying “teachers always want their students to exceed them, so the responsible thing to do for me and the company to do is to let younger, more talented people take over in leadership roles so that they inherit our mission ‘to make it easy to do business anywhere’.”
“Having been trained as a teacher, I feel extremely proud of what I have achieved,” he wrote to his colleagues and shareholders” before adding “I still have lots of dreams to pursue. I want to return to education, which excites me with so much blessing because this is what I love to do. This is something I want to devote most of my time to when I retire.”
He spoke passionately about the challenges for the future of education in Davos saying: “A teacher should learn all the time; a teacher should share all the time. Education is a big challenge now – if we do not change the way we teach 30 years later we will be in trouble. We cannot teach our kids to compete with the machines who are smarter – we have to teach our kids something unique. In this way, 30 years later, kids will have a chance.”
Inspiration 7: JK Rowling
Harry Potter was the culmination of her own story from poverty and rebellion to fame and fortune. “It matters not what you are born, but what you grow to be.”
The power of our imagination, to drive creativity and innovation, to engage people with empathy, and to inspire their dreams, was the theme of Joanne Rowling’s speech to graduating students at Harvard University in 2008.
The bestselling author, better known as JK Rowling, told how she used her experiences of working as researcher and bilingual secretary for Amnesty International to imagine the stories that became her much loved books.
She conceived the idea for her “Harry Potter” books while on a delayed train from Manchester to London in 1990, and started imagining a story of a young wizard who went to wizard school. Without anything to note down her ideas, she rapidly set out an entire plot in her head, then tried to write it down on arriving home.
The next 7 years were tough, with the death of her mother, birth of her first child, and divorce from her first husband. Having lost her job, because she sat dreaming about her plots, she decide to move to Porto where she briefly married a local TV journalist, before heading to Edinburgh to be with her sister.
In 1995 she sent her manuscript off to every publisher she could fund, but was rejected by all, being told that her story was too long, too elitist, and too complicated. Eventually the CEO’s daughter at Bloomsbury, a children’s imprint, read that story and couldn’t put it down. Her influence on her father resulted in a £4000 advance to Rowling. The only catch was that they felt her pen name needed more style, so she borrowed a middle initial from her grandmother, Kathleen.
“Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” was published in 1997 to rave reviews. What really changed her life, was when the publishing firm Scholastic came in to buy the American rights to the book for a sensational $105,000. The book sold 80,000 copies in the first year, and hit the top of the New York Times bestseller list. Over the years since it has become the most financially successful novel in history with 400 million readers, and generating $10 billion of sales.
Her own story, a little like Jack Ma’s, was one of rags to riches, as she progressed from living on state benefits to being the world’s first billionaire author. She lost her billionaire status after giving away much of her earnings to charity, but remains one of the wealthiest people in the world.
She wrote her first book “Rabbit” when she was six years old, about a rabbit who lived in her village of Tutshill in Gloucestershire, who got sick and was cared for by a bumble bee called Miss Bee. She was convinced she could be a writer, even though she lacked confidence otherwise.
When Rowling was at school her parents didn’t want her to pursue her dream of being a writer because they worried it wouldn’t pay a mortgage. She ignored them, saying listen to your friends, family, and those who care about you, but remember it is your life. “If you have a gift, talent, dream, then pursue it. There’s no way anybody knows how it will turn out, but if you love it and you put all your energy into it, your chances of success are great.”
Her editor at Bloomsbury, the publisher who took a huge gamble on the unknown author, says that Rowling’s great strength is that she has “a microscopic and macroscopic view of the world” which enabled her to tell such imaginative tales in such engaging detail.
Passing exams, she said to the new Harvard graduates, does not determine your success. Whilst she admitted to having a knack for taking tests and passing exams, she also said that it was her failures that had taken her further. “It is impossible to live without failing at something unless you live so cautiously, you might as well not have lived at all– in which case, you fail by default.” Rather than seeking to avoid failure, we must be willing to accept that it is going to come and be ready to build our lives off it.
“To get through life without failing,” she said, “would not be a life worth living.”
“Imagination is the power that enables us to empathise with humans whose experiences we have never shared” says Rowling, proclaiming that imagination is crucial for life. Without it, we ignore the one truly unique quality that differentiates us from all other species, effectively claiming that we are human.
Perhaps we should also remember the words of the Rowling’s great wizard Dumbledore, headmaster at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, who said “It matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be.”
© Peter Fisk 2020.
Extracts from “Business Recoded” by Peter Fisk:
“Two characteristics that make Peter Fisk one of my favorites thought leaders in the strategy field are his ability to make complex matters simple and his positive views about the future, focusing, through real case studies, on the opportunities laid ahead, rather than the hurdles. His new book, Business Recoded, is definitely a must-read for leaders that want to succeed with their organizations in our fast-changing world”. Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez, author of “The Project Revolution” and “The Focused Organization”.
“It is not often that we have moments of magic in any business. What Peter has given us is more than just ideas and inspiration, but a whole way of thinking about how we could reinvent our future, and start making it happen tomorrow” Alberto Uncini-Manganelli, GM and SVP, Adidas.
© Peter Fisk 2020
“Business Recoded” by Peter Fisk is available now from Amazon and other retailers.
Join me to explore an incredible, fast changing world of business, and what it takes to be a transformational leader, and get a taste of the fabulous Global AMP from IE Business School:
- Babylon and Bytedance, Meituan and Mikkeller, Shopify and StockX, Zuul and Zwift … every industry, and every organisation, has been shaken up by the disruptions of a rapidly changing world.
- Markets are 4x faster, people are 825x more capable, and technologies enable us to solve some of the world’s biggest challenges … yet growth is much harder, and companies don’t live for long.
- The best leaders of the future will have more vision and foresight, they will be innovators and transformers … so do you have the courage to create a better world, for you and your business?
The Global Advanced Management Program (Global AMP) is IE Business School’s flagship program for executives stepping up to lead the future of business.
It’s time for leaders to step up, to create a better future
It’s for leaders who are stepping up to become the next CEO, or maybe to join the C-suite, to run a business unit, or getting ready to do so. It’s for leaders who seek to be re-inspired, re-energised ready for an incredible future – to drive business-wide transformation, to reimagine their industry, to change the way their entire business and market works.
If you can see yourself leading your business into the future … if you can start to imagine a business of the future, beyond that currently imagined by your leaders and peers. … then this is for you.
New ideas for leaders to accelerate business recovery
The Global AMP is more relevant than ever, as the global Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted every market and business, demanding that leaders step up to think and act in new ways. As people around the world have shifted to digital technologies at home and work, we are likely to see an acceleration in new business models, new ways of working, and new lifestyles.
The pandemic has acting as a catalyst for innovation, not just to survive through crisis and uncertainty, but to adapt to a rapidly changing world. Indeed it is no surprise that 57% of companies are founded in a downturn, and most innovations are born out of crisis too. Now, more than ever is the time when business needs leaders with new mindsets, new skills, and who can combine advanced learning with simultaneous business transformation.
With a more liquid learning style, more accessible and convenient
To make the Global AMP program even more accessible, practical, and applied to the changing needs of you and your business, we have enhanced the format. It will now take on a much more liquid learning structure, so that you can continue to work, and accelerate your leadership development, during these uncertain yet important times. The program will combine online and physical formats over a longer period, enabling you to learn more, apply more, and get more practical value from the experience.
The content is entirely updated, anticipating the changing needs of business and its people as we emerge from crisis, and through the next decade – from the megatrends that drive global markets and intelligent technologies, to the convergence of markets and emergence of new business models, new ways of working and the challenges of leading for today, and tomorrow. The program takes on a more dynamic learning style, helping your to explore how to transform yourself and your business, for a world of rapid and continuous change.
Delivered by top business leaders, thinkers and experts
I will be joined by some of the world’s most inspiring and thoughtful faculty. This year it includes
- Jim Snabe, chairman of Siemens and Maersk, one of the world’s top leaders
- Tendayi Viki, a psychologist-based innovator, partner of Strategyzer
- Antonio Rodriguez Nieto, the world’s top project manager
- Chris Rangen, strategist and business transformation leader
- Terence Mauri, defining what is bold and brave leadership
- Verónica Reyero, anthropologist of a more human future.
They add to the existing IE team that includes
- Mark Esposito, leading futurist and AI pioneer
- Terence Tse, expert on the future of finance and healthcare
- Juan Carlos Pastor, leading on authentic leadership; media expert
- Lola Martinez, media expert, on storytelling and presenting
- Marcos Cajina, on the neuroscience of emotional engagement
- Steven MacGregor, on executive fitness, and many more
In addition to exploring the very latest business ideas and theories, the program is highly personalised in two ways – a personal leadership coaching program helps you to make sense of your own strengths and style, and coaches work with you to develop this, to respond to the new needs, and to prepare to step up to business leadership – and a personal “Gamechanger” project in which we work with you over the entire duration of the program to help you develop your own blueprint for transforming the future of your business, or industry.
Fashion is at a cross roads. Covid-19 has challenged the industry in many ways, but also accelerated many trends. No longer can manufacturers, like many in Turkey, sustain ever diminishing returns as they seek to support traditional retailers who battle in the old shopping malls and high streets of the world.
A new generation of designers and manufacturers, brands and retailers have emerged who are not just interesting start-ups, but fundamentally transforming what and how consumers buy.
Asos to Zalando are just examples of online platforms that have subverted young shoppers and now adding value in new ways, but it is new business models like Stitch Fix and Zozo that are really reshaping the industry. Fabrics are transformed too, sustainable and advanced, from Bolt Threads to DSM. Then add the rapid growth of resale and upcycling models, from Depop to DressX, and you have fundamental change in mindset, and marketspace.
The future is not like it used to be. We can no longer move forwards by doing what we’ve always done faster, cheaper or better. It’s time to think different.
I will be kicking off this year’s Istanbul Apparel Conference with my keynote live on Bloomberg TV, in which I will explore:
Part 1: FutureX …The future starts here
- Every market has been shaken up by a fast-changing world of technological disruption and rapidly shifting market economics. Covid-19 was just the accelerator of change.
- Consumers have new agendas – ethics to environment, social and shared – while businesses have new ambitions too – more purposeful, profitable and progressive.
- Now is the time to innovate, to create a better future – crisis is the moment of shake-up, when new business, new markets and new ideas take off.
Part 2: ChangeX … Defining the new codes of fashion
- Sustainability from Bolt Threads to DressX … the future of fashion is natural, simple and shared … How can less be more?
- Technology from Stitch Fix to Zozo … the future of fashion is intelligent, direct and personal … What does digital really mean for fashion?
- Ecosystems inspired by Portugal and Platforms … the future of fashion is premium and connected … How can we all create more value together?
Part 3: FashionX … Proposing a new manifesto for Turkish apparel business
- Building on a great heritage of creativity and commerce … unlocking the legacy of reputation and relationships, by focusing on how we work with customers and consumers.
- Adding more value in a digital world … unlocking the power of data and design, by embracing new markets and business models, working with existing and new partners to reach new audiences in new ways.
- Stop being the order takers, and reimagine a better future of fashion … having the courage to be our best selves, to reinvent ourselves, to create a better future together.
Interview with Peter Fisk, Milleyet Newspaper
What is your comment on the current impact of the pandemic on the business world in the world?
Now is the time to dare. Now is the time for leaders to have courage to reimagine their businesses. Now is the time to create the future of retail. Which is not just about digital technologies. Or social media. Or super speedy delivery. But fundamentally harnessing the power of the present to create a better future.
18 months of global health crisis has created a huge opportunity. Every market is being shaken up. In financial services, Visa and Paypal are more valuable than any bank. In automotive, Tesla outperforms Toyota despite selling 10 times less cars. In energy, carbon giants are displaced by Orsted and Schneider. Even in food and drink, Kweichow Moutai is twice as valuable as Coca Cola, or Unilever, or Diageo.
Of course, the pandemic has also been a difficult time, but like “wei-je” (the Chinese word for crisis) when translated means both danger and opportunity.
My new book “Business Recoded” argues that the old codes of business don’t work. The maelstrom of change, driven by disruptive technologies, by economic power shifts, by new agendas like sustainability, and by consumer attitude change, have all been accelerated by Covid-19. We now need to reimagine, reinvent, recode our businesses for a better future.
I talked to 50 business leaders across the world. I particularly focused on those companies that are shaking up markets, exploring new possibilities, and creating the future. I wanted to understand what these companies were doing, how they were changing, and what they thought were the old codes – and new codes – of business success. Many of the companies are featured in the book.
The 7 shifts emerged out of categorizing the many different changes that are happening – and started with the highest level of “why” do companies exist. The shift was from the “old” mindset of achieving market share leadership and optimising profitability to shareholders, to a “new” mindset of achieving a higher purpose has positive impact for the world, and then understanding how all stakeholders can benefit. That doesn’t necessarily mean less profit, it could actually mean more. By doing more for society, by doing more for employees and customers, companies often find that they can be more profitable and valuable over the longer term.
The other shifts then followed, from old to new mindset:
• Recode your future … from profit machine to enlightened progress
• Recode your growth … from uncertain survival to futuristic growth
• Recode your market … from marginal competition to market creating
• Recode your innovation … From technology obsession to human ingenuity
• Recode your organisation … From passive hierarchies to dynamic ecosystems
• Recode your transformation … From incremental change to sustained transformation • Recode your leadership … From good managers to extraordinary leaders
Together these 7 shifts begin to shape a better future for your business, delivered through the 49 codes. The 49 codes make up the chapters of the book, each with specific examples, and practical tools and approaches for change.
How has the pandemic affected innovation and industrial growth? In which ways have innovations been affected?
The pandemic has been has been an incredible time for innovation. Remember, 57% of Fortune 500 companies were created in a downturn, 90% of patents are filed in or just after a downturn. And many retailers describe how 10 years of transformation happened, in just a few months of lockdown.
While, on average, industrial growth has declined, and many companies have struggled to survive with reduced demand and disrupted supply chains – other companies have thrived. In fact there has been a massive shake-up in almost every market.
We all recognise how Tesla has shaken up the automotive market – from $75 billion to $750 billion in 12 months, making it twice as valuable as Toyota despite selling 10 times less cars. Not far behind, companies like Nio, the Chinese premium EV brand, is now more valuable than BMW.
In financial services, Visa is now more valuable than the world’s largest banks. Paypal, which we used to think of as a start-up is 3 times more valuable than HSBC. In energy, clean energy companies like Next Era and Orsted outperform Exxon and Shell. Even in food and drink, companies like Kweichow Moutai, the Chinese drinks brand, is more valuable than Coca Cola.
Covid-19 has had huge impact on markets. Most significantly is the shift to digital platforms in work and life, from working and learning, to shopping and entertaining. Many retailers say we have seen a decade of change in one year.
However this is not simply about developing an online platform, it is about fundamentally different business models, that embrace a wide range of technologies. Big data and AI enable consumer experiences to be more personal and predictive. Robotics and 3D printing are rapidly transforming supply chains and manufacturing. This transforms sectors like retail and finance, but also transport and mining.
A great example of this would be Rappi from Colombia – the accelerated growth of the online delivery service, which is rapidly becoming a source for everything – not just grocery or restaurant deliveries. Other “super-apps” across the world, like Grab or Jio, have shown that once they embrace a financial engine, they become essential for everything to everyone. Mercado Libre is now starting to follow this model too.
Other examples would include PingAn, China’s largest financial services company, which extended into healthcare. It’s Good Doctor business now has a billion subscribers, offering AI-based patient diagnostics, video-streamed consultations, automated prescriptions and services, linked to physical clinics and hospitals. It is now the world’s largest online healthcare platform.
Where should the companies look for growth?
Finding growth is not simply about looking for new audiences, new geographies, or seeking to develop more products and services in the same sector. Real growth comes through reimagining your markets, and your business models.
As described above, companies like PingAn or Reliance Jio have seen huge growth by looking beyond their traditional business – understanding how they can use their assets in new ways, embracing digital technologies to revolutionise how they do business, looking to adjacent sectors to solve broader customer problems.
We should also remember what is “good” growth. Just selling more, increasing revenues, increasing market shares, even profits, is not necessarily “good’ growth. In fast changing markets, companies should be looking for long-term sustainable streams of future profits, and therefore looking for value-based growth.
Selling more feels like success. But if it is not in the areas of long-term future potential, then it can even be damaging to the business – either because it ultimately becomes unprofitable growth, or because investors will recognise it as a business stuck in the past.
If we look at the really successful companies of the last 18 months, they are clearly the companies who are thinking differently – they are embracing new agendas like sustainability to fundamentally reinvent their business, they are changing business models for example to subscription focus, they are reaching out to new markets, in particular Asia.
Can you inform us about the new trends in the business world?
I have done a lot of research, in partnership with investment banks, on the future “megatrends” that are shaping business. I describe these in detail in my new book.
There are 5 megatrends, relevant to every type of business. They are the most significant pathways to the future, and a useful checklist for any business leader exploring their future strategy. How are you tapping into these seismic changes?
All five megatrends have been accelerated by Covid-19. The shift from young to old, particularly in providing healthcare. The shift from west to east, particularly in the rise of Asian businesses like Alibaba and PingAn. The shift from towns to cities, particularly in emerging markets in search of jobs and support.
However most significant have been the huge acceleration in shift to technologies – the digitalization of our lives, from education to work, from retail to entertainment. Many online retailers say they saw 10 years of change in 3 months. However this has not just been in shopping online, but also the convergence of shopping and entertainment. Look at Sea in Singapore, or Pinduoduo in China, the gamification and socialization of retail.
The other shift, towards a huge awareness of the fragility of our planet and society, has also been hugely increased by Covid-19. We have seen the impacts of extreme weather on the environment, but we have also seen the impacts of pandemic on society. Inequality of wealth, inequality of access to services. This is why we have seen such as growth in interest in companies having a greater purpose, and stakeholder capitalism.
What kind of mistakes are done by the managers? What kind of alteration has taken place in marketing?
The biggest mistake by managers today is the belief that the ways in which theuy succeeded in the past will succeed in the future … yet, increasingly, what got us here, is unlikely to take us further. For businesses, and for individual managers and leaders.
Too many businesses keep trying to use the old models of success – what made them successful in the past – and are reluctant, or afraid, to let go of these for the future. Look at companies like GE, or Ford, or Boeing. These used to be the world’s “hero” companies, but no longer, because they didn’t change.
In a world of constant, dramatic change – few businesses can rely upon stability, or “continuous improvement” (small changes to the old ways), in order to succeed.
Business leaders need a “growth mindset” (to explore, to experiment, to try new ideas, to learn from failures, to let go of the past), rather than a “fixed mindset” (to optimise, to seek perfection, to continuously seek to tweak and evolve the old ways of working).
Every aspect of business needs to embrace change – from sourcing, to production, to HR, to financial management, to sales and marketing.
Take marketing as an example. Mass-market advertising just doesn’t work today. Yet too many marketers are still obsessed about the beauty of their TV ad, or the fun creative ideas of their agencies. Yet we know that people are more different, more individual, and dont respond to mass-market communication. We also know that they dont trust organisations, but instead trust their friends and others like them. This is why socially influenced marketing, building brand communities, and peer to peer business models, are so much more successful today.
What are your opinions on E-commerce, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Augmented Reality, and Working Remotely during the COVID-19 Pandemic?
Every business today is a digital business. No physical business can afford not to have a website, e-commerce, or home delivery. But equally, a virtual business needs to be human, physical too. Therefore “liquid” business models which combine the best of physical and virtual experiences are winning in every sector.
The use of data becomes essential, to recognise and serve people as individuals, to customise solutions, and to manage increasingly complex supply chains and business models. AI is simply the application of data to be more predictive, automated, and to deal with data “at scale”.
Augmented reality in some ways is overhyped. Too many companies get excited by AR goggles! It’s fun, but it’s a fad. At the same time, what is important is to understand how to connect with audiences. Young people are increasingly found in virtual environments – listening to music on Spotify, or playing games like Fortnite. These become the new “social spaces” where brands – even the most physical brands like food and drink, energy and automotive, can connect with GenZ.
Working remotely is here to stay too – or “liquid working”. The point is not really where you work, but how you work. Come to the office to connect with people, for creative collaboration – or to the factory, for physical processes. But for other things, you could just as easily – maybe more effectively work from home, or a coffee shop, or a flexible meeting place.
Have you got any pieces of information about Turkish Business World? What can you say about its strong and weak points?
I have worked with Turkish companies for the last 20 years – working on strategic and innovation projects with companies like Abdi Ibrahim to Arcelik, Akbank and Garanti BBVA, Eczcasibasi and Turkcell, Ulker and Yildiz. For much of the last two decades, Turkish economic growth was a great success. In recent times, that has slowed – and we all recognise the challenges involved.
Turkey has some great companies, and great people. What really matters is to respond to a changing world – to engage with the rapidly growing markets and businesses of Asia, but also of the Middle East and Africa – to embrace the new technologies, not just in what we make but also how we work – to transform organisations, more creative, more diverse, more empowered.
I also do a lot of work in countries like KSA and Kuwait, UAE and Qatar. In these countries, managers have a very different outlook. They see themselves at the heart of global economies, connecting east and West. They jump to the future, building partnerships with leading technological and healthcare companies. They experiment with many new business models.
What would your advice be for the Turkish Business Persons?
Turkish business needs to redicover its entrpreneurship – but in global, modern, and technological ways. Imagination, partnerships, and courage are the keys.
I’m a big fan of Nazim Salur’s Getir business, for example. “Super speedy delivery” really took off in Asia first. The growth of “super-apps” like Grab in Singapore, Jio in India, and GoJek in Malaysia, shows how business can revolutionise markets incredibly quickly. Getir is doing this both in Turkey, but also across Europe where such new thinking has not yet arrived.
For the larger Turkish companies – like Koc and Sabanci – they need to move beyond the old idea of “holding” companies, and to consider how they can use their portfolios more effectively. Simply owning the local franchises to other companies is not a long-term strategy for growth.
I work with many holding company boards, and the big challenge is to move beyond “owning lots of business” to thinking much more like a private equity company – how can investments grow through innovation, how to unlock assets and capabilities in new ways, how to leverage the portfolio as a whole. Companies like Sea and PingAn are great examples. It also means, not being afraid to develop new international brands, that inspire audiences, and tell a new story about the future of the business, rather than just remembering its past.
What topics will you highlight in the Istanbul Apparel Conference that you are going to take part in?
Turkey has a great history in textile manufacturing. However the world of fashion is changing incredibly rapidly. Turkey needs to change with it.
Fashion retailers from Asos to Zalando are transforming how people buy clothes. But its not really about the lowest price. Or about mass production. It’s about being consumer-driven, engaging with brand partners, understanding context, using data to personalise both marketing and products. Yes, the old retailers like H&M and Zara are struggling, revenues decline, and margins are small.
The big challenge for Turkish companies is not to get drawn into ever-diminishing price battles. Instead they need to work with existing and new retailers in true forms of partnership. For example, by developing more sustainable ranges that meet changing priorities, by helping retailers to offer personalisation, or showcase products which are then made on-demand. Equally, there is no reason why textile makers cannot become fashion brands themselves, develop new direct channels to market, to engage with specific communities, and niche audiences.
Look at some of the most successful fashion business models of recent years – for example, Stitch Fix, developed by Katrina Lake, which is an online subscription service, where the consumer receives a monthly box of clothes and sends back what they don’t want. Using data analytics and AI to predict what each consumer would loves, means that within 3-6 months there are no returns.
Some Turkish textile businesses which I have worked with – such as Aster Textile and Sanko – are responding to these challenges. Aster, for example, has invested in more sustainable sourcing and manufacturing processes, building their creative capabilities as a design house, and reaching out to new kinds of customers. Sanko has tried to create Isko as an ingredient brand that is associated with premium fabrics, and Works alongside customer brands.
Perhaps it would be worth looking at the way in which the Portuguese textile manufacturers have worked together to transform their reputation and relationships over recent years. Their first step was to recognise that, regardless of fabric quality, seeking to compete on volüme and price was a recipe for irrelevance. They then started to transform the reputation of Portuguese by developing new fabrics, embracing new technologies, and transforming business models.
In the same way that Tesla is transforming the auto industry, Paypal in financial services, PingAn in healthcare, then the textile industry is being fundamentally shaken up too. For Turkish businesses, this means having imagination and ingeniuty, tos hake up the market on your own terms, to shape the future in your own vision.
Time for business leaders to step up, to create a new vision, with creativity, and courage.