‘The basic failure of strategy work is a failure to define the challenge that you’re trying to meet.’ Richard Rumelt is one of the world’s leading authorities on strategy. He’s also a keen rock-climber, and it was climbing that gave him the inspiration for his new book: The Crux. In…
‘Accountability is… probably the most empowering concept you have to live the life you want to live, when you understand it.’ When we speak about accountability in business, very often the context is negative. It’s about consequences and blame. But if we see accountability as ownership, it’s a radically different,…
‘I came to writing really late. I was told I couldn’t write… I had no first degree. I came to learning at 40 plus with an idea that I couldn’t write, but I still loved learning. So it’s been a total joy. It’s like, wow, you can do that too,…
‘Why would you write 28 books? To get good at some of the stuff that you’re writing about.’ As well as writing those 28 books, Jeremy Kourdi has experience of senior leadership at The Economist, Duke University and the CMI. It’s fair to say he has an all-round perspective on…
‘They need to be able to ‘get’ the concepts that I’m trying to convey in whatever space they have available on the top of their phone screen.’ Used to writing for an academic audience, Dr Jen O’Ryan quickly realised that she needed take a very different approach for her business…
‘Author-speakers… are often people who are true thought leaders, on a mission to share their knowledge. And yes, there are people who blog and there are people who post on social media and there are people who do podcasts. But… to really achieve that thought leadership, visionary status, there’s got…
Penny Pullan was talking about virtual leadership and running virtual events long before it was fashionable – now that the rest of the world has caught up, she’s leading the way in making virtual and hybrid events (which are surely the future) not just possible, but powerful. Most people at…
‘Taking an all-seeing, all-knowing, conquering, dictatorial approach to managing people is going to land you in a world of pain.’ Philip Levinson always dreamed of becoming a CEO, and thought he was ready. But when he got there he realised the truth: nothing can prepare you for this. In Three…
‘What elements of your imperfection are you going to bring to the table?’ That’s the powerful question that strategist and storyteller Minter Dial poses about writing, but it could equally well be applied to leadership. Having all the answers is no longer what we need from our leaders: in a…
‘This experience has taught me, like a lot of the work I do in life, that where you start isn’t necessarily where you’ll end up… the book we’ve written is much more practical and purposeful for our readers as a result of us really listening to [their feedback] and not…
