The Inspiring Leaders Podcast

Episode 4 of our "Leadership with New Horizons" Podcast Series

Offering an outlook for leadership in 2021, this podcast is part of our Leadership with New Horizons series. Featuring Criticaleye’s CEO Matthew Blagg and Managing Editor Emma Carroll, it covers some of the key outtakes from our recent Growth Company, NED and Asia Leadership Forums, including:

• At our Asia Leadership Forum, 87% agreed that leadership teams need to be more agile. What does this mean in practice, and what distinctions need to be made between agile working across the business and the approach of leaders?
• Businesses talk about operating at pace - how do leaders ensure pace doesn't supersede profitability? 
• The difficulties of needing to change strategy when many leadership teams still can't come together physically
• How local leaders are more isolated than ever, and need the right support and development, particularly access to global reference points, to be successful
• Looking forward to our HRD Retreat at the end of April - what role does the HR Director play in today's environment? They have a core responsibility to ensure the people strategy aligns with the business strategy.

Episode 3 of our "Leadership with New Horizons" Podcast Series

Offering an outlook for leadership in 2021, this podcast is part of our Leadership with New Horizons series. Featuring Criticaleye’s CEO Matthew Blagg and Managing Editor Emma Carroll, it covers some of the key outtakes from our HR Director Forum 2021, including:

• HR Director sentiment in the current climate - are HRDs more or less positive than their executive counterparts?
• HRDs contribution to strategy - are HRDs getting a seat in the top table and can strategy be done virtually? 
• The future of the workplace and hybrid-working
• The role of the HRD in aligning the top team, plus those crucial relationships between HRD, CEO and CFO
• Benchmarking and external reference points - what role will looking outside the business play in 2021?

Episode 2 of our "Leadership with New Horizons" Podcast Series

Offering an outlook for leadership in 2021, this podcast is part of our Leadership with New Horizons series. Featuring Criticaleye’s CEO Matthew Blagg and Director of Content Marc Barber, it covers our CEO Research 2021, including:

• The challenge of aligning people, strategy and culture in 2021
• Putting strategy back on the leadership agenda and how to overcome the difficulties of strategic debate in a virtual environment  
• Top priorities for leaders in the year ahead including sustainability and ESG
• C-suite succession - will we see a lot of change at the top of organisations in 2021?
• The likelihood of increased investor pressure this year and how leaders will approach key stakeholder relationships

Episode 1 of our "Leadership with New Horizons" Podcast Series

Offering an outlook for leadership in 2021, this podcast kicks off our new Leadership with New Horizons series. Featuring Criticaleye’s CEO Matthew Blagg and Director of Content Marc Barber, it covers key themes for leaders and senior executives in 2021, including:

• Customer and employee experiences in the year ahead - will lessons learned in 2020 stick? What changes will be long-term?
• How organisational agility and the need for leaders to move at pace in 2021 will determine success  
• Criticaleye’s CEO Research 2021, including news that sustainability has moved into CEO’s top three priorities for the first time
• HR Director pressure as the people agenda becomes even more important in 2021
• The need to reconnect in person and why Criticaleye has adjusted its support for the year ahead in response
• Why balanced and impartial benchmarking will be critical this year, especially when it comes to influencing stakeholders

Leadership Reflections On 2020 - Part 2

In this 32-minute podcast, our Managing Editor Emma Carroll speaks to Catriona Schmolke, former SVP Operational Centres of Excellence, Jacobs and Charlie Wagstaff, Managing Director, Criticaleye about the leadership challenges of 2020. They discuss:

• Have leaders questioned their ability to lead in 2020? At our CFO Retreat in November, 58% told us they had doubted their leadership
• The importance to leaders of outstanding teams
• Leadership isolation and how the virtual world has impacted leaders
• Employee engagement and support - how did this play out in 2020? Did leaders get it right in terms of maximising productivity and motivation?
• The ‘return to the workplace’ - how 2020 will transform the way we all work and interact in the future
• What our speakers have learned about their own leadership style and what they will take into 2021

Leadership Reflections On 2020 - Part 1

In this 38-minute podcast, our Managing Editor Emma Carroll speaks to Dr William Lo, Chair of Captcha Media (plus a Criticaleye Board Mentor), Catriona Schmolke, former SVP Operational Centres of Excellence, Jacobs, and Charlie Wagstaff, Managing Director, Criticaleye about the business challenges of 2020. After a year of not often getting what you want, but appreciating what you have, our leaders cover:

• How leaders have both captured and acted upon the lessons of the year
• Shared experiences of the early days of COVID-19
• The increased importance of employee wellness in 2020, and how employers took on the role as trusted reference points for their teams
• Responses from different regions - the opportunities arising in Asia as case numbers have fallen
• The challenges for leaders of balancing honesty with positivity, and the role of purpose in 2020
• How have we stayed close to and understood our customers in the last 12-months

Episode 5 of our "Leadership in Uncertain Times" Podcast Series

Following our recent Asia Leadership Retreat (held on 26 November 2020), Criticaleye’s CEO Matthew Blagg and Director of Content Marc Barber reflect on some of the key discussion points in this 26-minute podcast, including:

• What leaders will be focusing on in 2021, and how challenges of customer centricity and employee behaviour are universal
• The opportunities we are likely to see in the next 12-18 months - what areas companies are likely to focus on when it comes to leadership, purpose and the people agenda?
• The key question of purpose - why do organisations exist and how do leaders align teams behind purpose?
• What change we will see across executive teams (are we are likely to see many executives making the move to a plural career after the changes in 2020?)
• How has the pandemic changed consumer behaviour long-term?

Episode 4 of our "Leadership in Uncertain Times" Podcast Series

Following our recent CFO Retreat (held on 12 November 2020), Criticaleye’s CEO Matthew Blagg and its Director of Content Marc Barber reflect in this 28-minute podcast on some of the key themes:

• How finance leaders can remain resilient, the balance between cost-cutting and investment, data, talent and digitisation, plus much more
• In a poll taken at the Retreat, 84% said they see the current economic situation as an opportunity to accelerate operating model change
• The role of the CFO, and how this plays out when operating in a complex and fast changing market
• The CFO as ‘timekeeper of the current moment’ alongside the need to play an integral role in strategy and future innovation
• What the end of 2020 will bring in terms of future planning, what opportunities there are for 2021, as well as ongoing challenges that we will see into the New Year.

Episode 3 of our "Leadership in Uncertain Times" Podcast Series

Following our recent virtual CEO Retreat (held on 15 October 2020), Criticaleye’s CEO, Matthew Blagg, and its Director of Content, Marc Barber, reflect in this 26-minute podcast on some key outtakes:

• 65% of CEOs at our CEO Retreat revealed they had doubted their ability to lead in the last six months
• Making difficult calls as a CEO, and how the pandemic has forced all leaders to be flexible on strategy
• The importance for leaders to stay calm and to give themselves time
• Views on the economy in Asia and if we are seeing a return to normal activity levels

Matthew comments “Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want, and there are a lot of leaders getting a lot of experience at the moment.” 

Episode 2 of our "Leadership in Uncertain Times" Podcast Series

In this 38-minute podcast, Criticaleye’s CEO, Matthew Blagg, and its Director of Content, Marc Barber, discuss the state of leadership in the current environment, the forward agenda for CEOs and senior executives and where they need to be focusing in the coming months.

Listen to Matthew and Marc talk about 

• Significant operating model change
• The future of the office – reintegrating furloughed employees
• Understanding the customer experience and how this has changed
• Management team performance and effectiveness
• Cost cutting – striking a balance between reduced cost and long-term opportunity
• The challenge between economic pressures and continued pressure of Covid19 on health