I know, I know. I promised many and varied humorous tales from my many and varied roles around the globe, and I just keep coming back to Korea. I can’t help it. It was quite simply the most wonderfully bizarre, confusing, frustrating but ultimately rewarding two year period of my entire career. Not from a … More Tales from the Vault : Korea again
The never ending cartoon strip that is The Trump Presidency has thrown up yet another interesting intellectual dilemma, aka the question of being morally fit to lead. It has led me to reflect on my time close to the hot seat of a number of big businesses and ask the same question of my peers … More The Moral Olympics
Have you heard the latest? The robots are here, they’re smarter than us, they’re gonna take all the jobs, and finally they’ll take over and rule the world. And they dance. Of course you’ve heard it! You’re a leading or budding executive and are fully tuned in to the revolutionary robotic transformation in just about … More Dancing Robots?…Lifting the lid on the business conference.
Both regular readers will no doubt notice with some alarm that the “Vault” – my simple archive for hopefully humorous reminisces of my Executive past – has for this episode only been transformed to the “Crypt”. Two reasons for this. Firstly this tale is a little more contemporary than most tales that reside in the … More Tales from the Crypt : Stan and Ollie
Leaving a top notch executive role that you have put your heart and soul into is not an easy thing to do, whatever the circumstances and however it actually happens. I have just plummeted through this particular spin cycle, and while the painfulness of the circumstances still rankle too hard to fully explore in words, … More A miscarriage of corporate justice
Or as my mother-in-law, who is from a rather different era, infamously said rather too loudly on a plane where an announcement had just gone out for a Mr and Mrs Wong to make themselves known to crew – “two Wong’s don’t make a right”. OK, so not overly sensitive, and undoubtedly a bit of … More Hiring talent : 2 wrongs don’t make a right
Artificial intelligence has landed in my Executive life with a crash, bang and a wallop. And its name is Walter (its surname rhymes with Shitty). At certain points in a long, lucky and hopefully plucky career I’ve met people who don’t fit the mould. Usually this has been in a good way – variety is … More Enter the Executive maverick : Rock Star CIO
To achieve success and longevity in your Executive life you will require a certain number of key “skills” that you need to be able to seamlessly pick up along the way. It’s not a long list – relatively short on substance as well as quantity in truth – but it is essential to get to … More Tales from the Vault: a definitive guide to nailing a presentation, and how not to.
If your gut instincts are well tuned in then you know pretty quickly when you’re being led by a wrongun. I can safely say my gut has recently been jolted into overdrive, and my big challenge is what the hell to do about it. I believe that there is a widely held public view that … More Rotten role : a sad tale of corporate incompetence
Last week I was rudely introduced to a new level of data driven executive atrocity. A very thorough set of new age psychometric tests followed by a four hour – yes four hour – face to face interview with an ex lawyer. My fault entirely that the scale of the horror hit all at once. … More The Executive Assessment
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