Allan Leighton is one the UK’s most successful leaders. He has been chairman of Asda, Selfridges, Royal Mail and now at the CO-OP. Allan has famously asked why the boards of FTSE100 do not have more focus on execution of strategy. So many of the top 100 hundred executives in top companies are focused on strategy. That is important of course but Allan argues that nothing changes until we actually “crack on” and do something.

How do we make sense of where we are now, when the traditional ways of doing so have been so massively disrupted by the Pandemic? Trend data does not make sense, some disruption is temporary, some is here to stay – but can you confidently predict your next chapter for your organisation? Yet understanding where we are is an important step in taking advantage of the opportunity you see. This week we want to explore how to understand where we are “Right here, right now.” 

As we tentatively emerge from the restrictions imposed by the Global Pandemic, we suggest to leaders that it is What’s Next that matters. And yet we are aware that conditions remain volatile making traditional methods of strategy difficult.

In this 3 part series we argue that now we must form a longer-term view, and we offer a route through from formation of strategy to execution.

Heraclitus famously said “You can’t step into the same river twice;” meaning that as time moves forward and change happens you can not get back to the past.

As countries across the World take their first tentative steps towards emerging from lock down, we notice that the context for business has shifted to a degree that could not have been imagined at the works Christmas drinks only 6 months ago.

This blog invites not just Leaders but everyone to consider how we help the older generation to keep in contact, be stimulated and feel part of the wider society.

As the World continues to be in the grip of the Covid 19 pandemic and the scale of the tragic loss of life continues to grow, the world is in lock down. Organisations are responding with a dual purpose – first to protect people by sending them home and second to find a way to keep trading if at all possible.

There is a street in Liverpool, England, called Hope Street, it famously links the City’s Anglican Cathedral and Catholic Cathedrals together.

The news headlines continue to be dominated by Coronavirus (covid – 19). It is a human story and presents a real danger to health.  Businesses are preparing. Although a distraction from the real work of strategy and longer-term planning it would be foolish not to be asking What If?

How quickly our world has shifted in just a few weeks. The speed of change created by the worldwide pandemic of COVID 19 is unprecedented in peace time. This week as the economic impact of the virus starts to hit home, Murray Cook and I have been discussing what this means for business as they lean into these economic realities with a social responsibility.