NEWSLETTER AND BLOG
The moment that Lehman Brothers lost the plot – when they abandoned their ‘Strategic Core’.
Published in CEO World 4 March 2023. I was lucky enough to see The Lehman Trilogy at the Gillian Lynne Theatre in London last month. What a brilliant play: sharp script, clever set, perfect [...]
Why are the Canadians, Australians, Emiratis, Qataris, Norwegians and Chinese dumping sewage into Britains waterways?
Published as a LinkedIn article 15 Feb 2023 Thanks in no small part to Feargal Sharkey's brilliant and relentless campaigning, we are all now fully aware that Britain’s waterways are in a dire state [...]
Emotionally Intelligent Leadership
EQ trumps ego every time. Ego-driven leaders ultimately fail - for the simple reason that they put themselves first and everybody else a distant second. They also leave carnage in their wake, often quite [...]
Where are you on the chequerboard of leadership?
Leadership today is not about hierarchy. It is about influence. I would like to introduce you to a new model that I have been using in my 'leading change', 'leadership development' and 'leading with influence' programs and webinars - [...]
Why the Maldives isn’t underwater – yet!
(Includes excerpts from The Power to Change (Kogan Page 2020) Climate change has become a battleground. It is not only a battle between man and nature, but also a battle between science and dogma; [...]
Leadership insights from the last year as we emerge into a new dawn
It may be a cliche but it is true nevertheless. A new phase seems to have begun. The anxious, volatile and uncertain twelve months we have all endured may at last be coming to an end [...]
Yoga for change
An updated version of the article published in Om Yoga December 2020. If you wish to improve your ability to cope with and embrace change, it’s pretty hard to find a better solution than [...]
Leading in a crisis feat. City AM and the Police!
Leadership in a time of crisis Welcome to the July newsletter. What a quarter we have just endured! How the next quarter will pan out is anyone's guess. But as we tip-toe out of lockdown, one thing [...]
Embracing Change: The Online Series
Equip your people with the tools they need to embrace change. Right now. Online. Your people are living in times of unprecedented uncertainty and heightened anxiety. We all are. They are being asked to cope [...]
Interviews with extraordinary CEOs – Edition 1
Welcome to the first edition of “Interviews with extraordinary CEOs”: a series of interviews with leaders who are accomplishing something special – with insights that are relevant to all of us. The philosophy behind this [...]
Leading in a post-Brexit VUCA world
After three years of political sclerosis and six straight months of continuous and unedifying electioneering, one significant piece of clarity finally emerged from last week’s UK General Election – Britain is definitely leaving the European [...]
A must for every HRD and CEO – OrgVue people planning software bowled me over!
You know when you see something so utterly brilliant, your immediate thought is, “How come this hasn’t been done before?!” A couple of weeks ago, I was engaged by a switched-on PR firm with the [...]
Future-proof your culture
The need for culture change is not an admission that your culture is broken or that the way your business has been operating has been wrong. It is simply an acknowledgement that success in the [...]
Strategy on a Page
I am very excited to share with you a priceless new strategy tool – something I have been searching for decades. “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication” Leonard Da Vinci. Too often, strategy is over-complicated. And I [...]
21st Century Leadership: a team game not a solo pursuit
Three key themes emerge from the delegates on my Leading Change workshops (both at Henley Business School and with clients directly) when we discuss leadership: Leadership is leading change. Anything else is simply managing the [...]
The Power of Purpose
April 2019. A clear and genuine Purpose is critical for your organisation's future success. A company without one will struggle to achieve its potential. It will also struggle to attract and retain talent and clients [...]
Lessons in Leadership from Brexit
15 March 2019. The UK’s Brexit debacle may be excruciating to watch but it is providing us with some invaluable lessons in leadership. So many lessons, in fact, that it is difficult to know [...]
Beat the odds: How to be one of the few M&As that succeed
7 Feb 2019. Most mergers and acquisitions fail. Consultancies and financiers will disagree over the percentages, but they are unified in their agreement that the vast majority of M&A deals fail to deliver the outcomes [...]
Leading your business through the Brexit uncertainty
15 Jan 2019. Tonight marked the end of the beginning of the UK’s Brexit adventure. Five doors now stand between us and our future. Only one will open at 11pm GMT on the 29th March. [...]
Insights on Leading Change from 2018
4 Jan 2019. After reflecting upon all of the fascinating conversations and interactions I have been fortunate enough to experience during speeches, workshops, mentoring and consulting engagements during 2018, I would like to share a few [...]
A brilliantly simple strategic planning tool
29 Oct 2018. I gave a particular energising keynote to a remarkable group of senior FS professionals at the FS Forum’s European Executive Summit at St Paul de Vence near Nice a couple of weeks [...]
Successful leadership of change is possible
11 Oct 2018. 88% of change initiatives and business strategies fail to deliver what they set out to achieve. A similar proportion of mergers and acquisitions suffer the same fate. How can you ensure that your [...]
Lies, Damn Lies & Brexit
July 9, 2018. Our departure from the European Union needs to be done on the basis of facts, rather than the dangerous untruths that we have been peddled for the last two years, argues [...]
Mission Impossible? Leading change in successful organisations.
21 June 2018. “Our biggest barrier to change is our success,” declared a senior executive during one of my ‘Leading Change’ workshops. Successful organisations automatically erect formidable barriers to change – with very few exceptions. [...]
What does it mean to be a genuine long term investor?
London 4 May 2018. Speech at the SII West Round Table. The Landmark Hotel. By Campbell Macpherson. CEO, Change & Strategy International Ltd Download the PDF of the full speech here. Good morning. It is [...]
Lessons from Oz: Where listed companies can get it wrong
23 April 2018. I have just returned from a fabulous few weeks in Australia and would like to share some observations with you – as there are some great lessons for CEOs and Boards of [...]
The Change Catalyst: 2018 Business Book of the Year!
On Friday 16th March, The Change Catalyst was awarded 'The Business Book of the Year' at the Business Book Awards gala in London. It also won the 'Leading the Team' category. In announcing the overall [...]
Responsible Capitalism: an oxymoron or a new dawn?
Why are Facebook and Starbucks becoming ‘Responsible Capitalists’? Because it is good for business. This is a summary of a 5000-word essay “Responsible Capitalism: Why change is necessary and what we can do about it.” [...]
Engage your people emotionally if you wish to succeed
One of the most insightful papers on the power of employee engagement was published back in 2004 by the Corporate Leadership Council, part of the Corporate Executive Board (www.cebglobal.com). They called it ‘Driving Performance [...]
Is your culture ready for change?
It is impossible to transform an organisation without a culture that is ready for change. To thrive in today’s fast-changing world, leaders need to be able to take their organisations in new directions swiftly and [...]
Brexit 2019: how on earth did we end up here?!
Change may indeed be inevitable, but change that is brought about without a comprehensive understanding of the implications is rarely a recipe for success. 4 July 2017. The UK electorate spoke last month for [...]
How to…lead change in your business
As published in the IOD's Director magazine - June 2017 Edition. The vast majority of change initiatives fail, as do a similar proportion of strategies, mergers and acquisitions suffer the same fate. How can you [...]
‘The rise of the machines’ will come back to bite Trump
Sixty-three million Americans cast the loudest of protest votes last November. They voted for change, any change and to put "only America first". They voted to bring jobs back to the US; for tough negotiations [...]
The FCA will have to force our banks to change their cultures.
“Corporate cultures won’t change in financial services unless CEOs and Boards are forced to do it” says Campbell Macpherson. [NB: This article was published in Money Marketing on 7 March 2014. It remains just [...]
After Brexit and Trump, what shall I tell my kids?
16 November 2016. That it is OK to lie? That it is OK to hate? That discrimination is OK if there is enough of you doing it? That if you have money and status, [...]
London to leave the UK
London June 28, 2016. The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, today declared that London will be separating from the nation previously known as the United Kingdom. “The only way to take back control of [...]
What does a good leadership team look like?
Reflecting on the many dozens of Leadership teams that he has worked with over the years, Campbell assesses just what makes a great leadership team… One of my favourite clients recently launched a new division, [...]
Author of
THE CHANGE CATALYST
2018 Business Book of the Year
Wiley 2017
Author of
THE POWER TO CHANGE
Kogan Page 2020
Author of
YOU: PART TWO
Hachette 2021/2022
Author of
YOU: PART TWO
August 2021
Author of
THE CHANGE CATALYST
2018 Business Book of the Year
2018 Leadership Book of the Year
Author of
THE POWER TO CHANGE
Finalist 2021 Business Book Awards