Versatile Amphibian

Yesterday’s news cycle brought with it the announcement that Debenhams, a staple of the UK high street, was now in the control of its lenders . This kind of news is sad for the employees of Debenhams and certainly for its shareholders, but it is also a good opportunity for reflection. A business that can trace its history back to 1778 may be about to cease trading forever. For leaders in the retail and associated consumer industries, now is a good time to consider what lessons can be learnt from Debenhams and what could be done to seize the opportunity presented by its passing. I’m thinking about the topic of strategic responses to emerging events at the moment because of the seeming inevitability of a recession this year or next, which will doubtless bring with it many similar situations. Before I get started, a disclaimer. I have no inside knowledge of Debenhams, I have never consulted for them, pitched to them or even met anyone in their management team. This post uses Debenham...

I'm on a bit of a journey right now, the objective of which is to systematise my process for devising strategic concepts to suit all of the situations my clients find them in. To that end, I'm going to share one of the ideas in the book : that we can classify concepts using a matrix of purpose/ intent against nature of response. Like so: Purpose (or intent) is the principal axis of this matrix because it articulates the sentiment behind the organisation’s goals Defensive purpose is most common in that it represents a defence of the oligarchy in order to continue to extract increasing profits from falling utility Offensive purpose is more attractive but also riskier because it represents the taking of value from other sources in the economy through acquisition or aggressive entry into other geographic markets In both purposes one can choose to be orthodox (as stated in the above examples) or unorthodox; for example: To defend by extending ubiquity and thus...

This is the latest part of my thought experiment on the future of executive teams (ExCos). Thus far I’ve looked at the starting point in FTSE 100 ExCos , at roles that would allow them to defend their position in a Digital Economy, at roles that would enable them to create new growth and latterly at the most likely configuration of roles on the team. In this post I’m going to explore how today’s ExCo can evolve into the future. My conclusion in terms of makeup is that the ExCo should effectively halve in size from today’s average of 10 roles to 5 in the new configuration. Today’s average ExCo consists of: CEO CFO COO CHRO A Geographic Market Leader 2 Market Vertical Leaders CIO or Chief Digital Officer General Counsel CSO Before I talk about the future positions in a fully-installed Digital Economy, I need to do some renaming. Some of you might regard this as an atypical reversion to conventionalism… but it has been pointed out (kindly) that some of this work is ...

This is the fourth part of a thought experiment I’m performing about the future makeup of executive teams. If you’ve skipped them, here are parts one , two and three . One of the motifs that I use in the book to describe the role of leaders in the Digital Economy is the famous Hero’s Journey. Although it may seem a strange thing to reference, in reality that flow of comfort, storm clouds, challenges, fall and redemption is a useful metaphor for the journey that organisations go for. No leader is more exposed to this journey than the CEO. Interestingly though, it feels to me that the average CEO fails to engage in one critical part of the Hero’s Journey: assembling their party. Having talked about the kind of people that the CEO might want around him or her to defend their core business and take the offensive, we should now think about the way those perspectives can be combined to best effect. Of course, the combination of people that a leader wants around them is very de...

I have been a little digitally-quiet recently. There have been three reasons for this. First (and most importantly), I have a new son! Second, business remains insanely busy. Third, I've been working on my new book, which was published earlier this month. What I have tried to do in about 60,000 words was to understand what I've learned in the last ten years of helping large organisations compete and win. That decade represents a period of great change, in that it began with the launch of the first true smart phone and encompasses the aftermath of the Great Crash. The latter damaged the economic models of organisations that had been ticking along for at least a decade. The former provided the basis for rerouting economic value from the damaged legacy organisations into new business models and experiences. In sum, we are left with an environment in which 'free' growth is unavailable and in which we must win in competition with other orga...