Management Today's Leadership Lessons

On this week’s episode, MT’s former staff writer Éilis Cronin talks to Leon Butler, general manager of IBM UK and Ireland.  Having previously been IBM vice president responsible for global AI sales, Butler has a clear viewpoint on what businesses need to do to get the most out of the technology. As far as those at the top of the organisation are concerned, this comes down to the need to “lean...

Are organisations getting it right or wrong on workplace culture? While the answer to that question isn’t straightforward, it would seem that something is slightly amiss across British businesses. As workplace culture expert Bruce Daisley says, it is clear that the last few years have been difficult and many organisations are probably aware that their culture is just not as good as it used to be....

Shevaun Haviland is a born optimist – a trait it seems safe to suppose has helped see her through some tough – or as she jokes is the more characteristically understated British way of putting it – “interesting” times. As deputy director of business partnerships at the Cabinet Office and later also head of business engagement at Number 10, Haviland served the government for five years – a period t...

Lord Heseltine tells the story of the birth of the European Space Agency. Why post-Apollo, when the US was spending £1.2 billion a year on space, the whole of Europe was spending just £200 million. Why the birth of ESA was driven by the self-interest of three major countries. Why the US general with a $29 billion budget for the Star Wars project wanted to invest in Heriot-Watt University in Edinbu...

On this week’s episode, we hear from Ivan Doruda, CEO of native advertising platform MGID. Doruda was plotting a new venture when the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in early 2022 and over the next couple of years served in the army as a reconnaissance soldier, then a drone operator, before rising to become a commanding officer.  In the episode, we talk about the different ways in which...

On this week’s episode, we hear from Vineta Bajaj, CFO of Holland & Barrett. By her own admission Bajaj thrives on change. Before joining the high street chain of supplement and health food shops, she was group CFO at European online grocery business Rohlik and spent nearly ten years as a finance leader at Ocado, during which period the business grew from a FTSE 250 company to at one point overtak...

For the already anxious, this year has provided plenty more fodder for AI-related unease. A wave of AI-connected layoffs continues to impact the tech sector. Companies have been quietly reworking performance criteria to include usage of the technology, with some warning that AI refuseniks’ days are numbered. And Meta’s CEO is reportedly helping to train an animated, AI-powered version of himself t...

Pippa Murray is a foodie at heart with a particular love for nut butters, which in the early 2010s were her favourite pre- and post-marathon snack. But many of her favourite products at the time were “pretty processed”, often containing palm oil which is high in saturated fats and environmentally destructive to procure.  Simultaneously, the protein trend was in its infancy and the wellness in...

How do we solve population pressure and climate crisis in space? How has GPS allowed us to provide 12% more food globally? How did the UK become a global leader in small satellite manufacture after the British Government said, “there’s no future for the UK satellite industry”? How did Elon Musk turn reusable rockets from science fiction to science fact in less than 20 years? What else are “Elon an...

What did the Space-Comm Expo conference and exhibition tell us about connecting space and wider business? How does this manifest as tech connectivity in telecoms and why do farmers care about that? What did we learn about the benefits of extreme cold in manufacturing laboratories and why do pharmas care about that? How vulnerable are global logistics to the spoofing of navigation signals? And...

David Craig is a man who knows a thing or two about leading major organisational change projects, from his background as a partner at McKinsey advising companies on strategy to turning around Thomson Reuters’ largest – but “unloved” – financial and risk division, and spearheading its subsequent separation and reincarnation as Refinitiv. In his new book, Bluebook: How bold leadership unlocked a $27...

As of 2026, the UK space industry is a significant and strategic driver of the national economy, contributing over £19 billion in revenue and supporting tens of thousands of high-skilled jobs. Satellite-based services and data underpin roughly 18% of UK GDP, equivalent to approximately £454 billion of the wider economy. And the sector is growing exponentially. But this is just the tip of the icebe...

Cortney Stapleton, CEO of the Bliss Group, outlines her journey from the non-profit sector to leading the 50-year-old marketing and comm firm, emphasizing a leadership philosophy grounded in intellectual curiosity where employees are given an opportunity to innovate and learn from failure.  In this week's episode, she discusses the firm's proactive response to industry disruption, specificall...

Self confessed "shoe obsessive" Daniel Rubin launched fashion brand Dune London more than 30 years ago. Since then the brand has expanded from a shop on Oxford Street to locations across more than 130 countries. In this week's episode, Rubin discusses his new book - Sole Survivor: How I Built a Global Shoe Brand, which documents the brand's journey and the leadership lessons he learned along the w...

Steph Edusei’s leadership strategy can be encapsulated in two philosophies: “be a little bit naughty” and “push the boundaries”.  This mindset of challenging the status quo, paired with a commitment to compassionate, human-centred leadership, defines her career trajectory from the rigid NHS structure to the caring culture of the charitable hospice sector. Edusei spent almost 20 years in the N...

As the world grapples with an ongoing wave of global disruptions, which many have dubbed the “supply chain polycrisis”, automotive distributor Inchcape has been forced to adapt quickly. CEO Duncan Tait, who took the helm during the Covid pandemic, is putting his more than 30 years of tech experience to good use, steering the almost 180-year-old company through this turbulent period. On the latest...

Visa, Birmingham City Football Club, and Grindr. What do these companies have in common? They're all clients of PR firm Grayling, headed up by CEO Heather Blundell, who will grace the stage as a speaker at this years' Women in Work Summit. In this week's episode, Blundell reflects on her career trajectory; from a rigorous start at Edelman, which she describes as SAS training, to taking on a managi...

New ideas are the engine of corporate growth, but all too often established businesses find innovation too cumbersome and too distracting from the day job – which means it’s the preserve of nimbler start-ups. Daniel Aminetzah is a McKinsey consultant on a mission to change that. The global co-leader of McKinsey Business Building wants companies to pursue new revenue streams and act more like start...

American author F. Scott Fitzgerald famously wrote that: “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.” This is also, according to dean of Ivey Business School Julian Birkinshaw and ex-Pearson CEO John Fallon, who have co-authored a new book on established companies in an age of digital change...

On this week’s episode, MT’s editorial team discusses the impact of AI on professional services and the role of psychological safety in business transformation. Is AI coming for your job? If you’re a consultant that question might have been hard to shake in recent months, after a slew of headlines warned of the impact on the profession and data showed that the Big 4 scaled back their entry-level h...

In 2023, the CBI became embroiled in a well-documented sexual misconduct crisis, which saw the exodus of a number of its member companies. Two years on, and with its former chief economist Rain Newton-Smith at the helm, the organisation is once again a trusted voice for businesses and is actively working with the UK government to boost business optimism and confidence. On this week's episode, Rain...

In this week’s episode, we discuss how to elevate your business transformation abilities and the obstacles to women’s career progression in professional services. Ever heard of a ‘wicked problem’? Identified by two social scientists, Horst Rittel and Melvin Webber, in the 1970s, these are problems that are difficult or impossible to solve because of the numerous interlinked challenges they present...

Bloom & Wild's tagline is ‘care wildly’ - a message that could also be an apt description of the leadership ethos conveyed by CFO Dominique Highfield, who became the letterbox flower brand’s first finance chief when she was appointed in the autumn. In the two decades since she started out as an auditor at PwC, however, Highfield has also learnt that sometimes you have to “reframe kindness”. She dr...

On this week’s episode of The Debrief, MT’s editorial team discusses what can be done to boost business optimism and how groupthink can sabotage your transformation agenda. If the first quarter’s GDP figures briefly put a spring in Rachel Reeves’ step, this boost would have been short-lived, while we can only assume she had regained the standard-issue world-weary tread of a put-upon chancellor by...

Samsung is putting people at the very heart of its new company proposition. Under the direction of its first-ever chief customer officer, Deborah Honig, the company is evolving from creating standalone products to leveraging AI to give busy customers back time “in a world that reduces to slow down”. In this week's episode, Honig discusses Samsung's shift towards a "customer-first" strategy, focusi...