“I don’t care if your mother has died — finish the meeting and then deal with it.”
It wasn’t said in anger. It wasn’t said for effect. It was said as a standard. And in that moment, the culture of the organisation was perfectly clear. Not the version written in the annual report. Not the one presented at town halls. The real one. We often talk about culture as something you define. […]
I thought I was buying a home but I was just buying a house
I Thought I Was Buying a Home—They Were Just Selling Me a House. How a simple reframe can transform experience, culture, and results. I thought I was buying a home. In reality, they were just selling me a house. I had moved to the UK just over a year earlier.New country. New chapter.And this […]
Dare to Lead Like a Woman
My dad died last week—two days before his 80th birthday party. He was an engineer and liked to plan things meticulously, so I sometimes wonder whether he simply didn’t want to turn 80… or whether he really didn’t want the party. We’ll never know. If I had to guess, it was probably the party. He […]
Vision. Mission. Purpose. Or Just Corporate Theatre?
Ask most executives whether vision and mission statements still matter, and you’ll get a familiar answer: of course they do. Ask what they actually mean—or how they shape decisions—and the confidence quickly fades. Some argue they’ve been replaced by purpose. Others insist they still play a role. In reality, most organisations aren’t suffering from a lack of […]
“Disruption” – Corporate jargon or corporate necessity?
Few words in modern business vocabulary have been as overused—or as diluted—as disruption. It appears in strategy decks, investor pitches, and leadership manifestos with near-universal enthusiasm. Organisations aspire to it. Executives claim it. Yet, in practice, genuine disruption remains rare. The issue is not the concept itself, but the casualness with which it is invoked. “Disruption” […]
Sustainability Is No Longer Enough
Sustainability has become one of the defining ideas of modern business. It appears in annual reports, brand campaigns, and boardroom agendas with near-universal approval. It is also, increasingly, inadequate. For over two centuries—since the Industrial Revolution—economic progress has been built on extraction. Fossil fuels, forests, oceans, ecosystems: all treated as inputs to be consumed, optimised, and, […]
Elkington recalls the “triple bottom line”
From Sustainability to Regeneration In recent years, sustainability has become a defining theme in business strategy. Yet for all its prominence, a growing body of thought suggests that sustainability, as currently practiced, may no longer be sufficient. The distinction is subtle but important. Sustainability, in its conventional form, is largely concerned with reducing harm—minimising environmental […]
BizTrends2021: Purpose or profit? It’s not a choice.
For the past 50 years, business has largely operated under a single guiding principle: maximise shareholder returns. This doctrine can be traced back to a 1970 article in The New York Times by Nobel Prize–winning economist Milton Friedman, who argued that any use of shareholders’ money beyond profit maximisation was irresponsible. That idea reshaped capitalism. It also shaped the world […]
Time for a reset: Pandemic triggers sea-change for business in society
In 1970, Nobel Prize–winning economist Milton Friedman made a claim that would go on to shape half a century of corporate behaviour. Business, he argued, has only one social responsibility: to increase profits. Everything else — concern for people, communities, or the planet — was, at best, a distraction. That idea didn’t just influence business thinking. It […]