2011 has been a tumultuous year. The world has been rocked by events both natural and man-made. Japan suffered a tsunami while the Middle East was home to numerous popular uprisings collectively dubbed the Arab Spring. Meanwhile the world’s economies, even the strong ones like Germany, found themselves in the midst of yet another storm. You could be forgiven for feeling trepidation as you stand on the brink of 2012. But here at the Inspired Leaders Network (ILN), we think you should think differently and look ahead with confidence.

During the year ILN has played host to a variety of leaders from business and beyond. One of the common threads in many of their messages was that difficult times bring opportunities to those who are resourceful, positive and prepared for hard work. There’s a major shake-out taking place and usually this results in the fittest and the most agile companies coming out of it all stronger than ever before. It would be easy to dismiss such optimism if we hadn’t been shown so much evidence by our speakers and hosts of businesses successfully swimming against the tide. They demonstrated clearly that businesses with the right corporate cultures can still go forward and get increasingly better results, despite harder times.

Here’s ten great tips for success taken from the year’s ILN event speakers and Learning Journey hosts:

ILN Event speakers:

“A measure of success is a work force that really wants to be at work and is performing to the best of their ability.”
Alison Saunders, Chief Crown Prosecutor of London

“I’ve never seen a company that focuses only on the bottom line, and not its people, do really well.”
Steve Auckland, former MD of Metro Newspapers

“It doesn’t matter what you think of Social Media, it’s there and we have to use it.”
Errol Damelin, CEO Wonga

“Focus on the customer, make them your fan and they’ll bring more customers to you.”
Craig Donaldson, CEO Metro Bank

“People define a business. Start with your people and they will look after everything else. Don’t ever start with numbers.”
John Pearson, former CEO Virgin Radio.

Learning Journey hosts:

“Work hard on driving customer satisfaction. Train current staff to refocus on the customer and only select new hires who fit this attitude.”
CityWest Homes

“Apple is honest but it is also always unshakeable in its own convictions.”
Apple

“Look after your people because happier employees can hit even higher targets.”
SKY

“A Powerful brand like Chelsea FC can be used to promote positive change wherever it is respected.”
Chelsea Football Club

“Put the right people in the right jobs, don’t try to bend the wrong people into the wrong jobs.”
The Royal Marines

In tough times people naturally look for strong leadership to guide them through. We need people of principle and conviction to inspire us – whereas during the good times we felt more comfortable without them. As I wrote in a recent blog post:

“We’re living in an age of uncertainty that is crying out for strong, confident and decisive leadership.”

Unfortunately, it appears there are still some areas where this leadership is lacking. However, even with strong people in key positions we cannot abandon our own responsibility to do our bit to help us get the economy back on track.

How’s your corporate culture? Is it conducive to doing better business? Are you looking after your employees and customers properly? You can be sure someone will and, in such a tough and competitive environment, that may be all the edge they need. What about your leadership capability? Are you and your key people properly equipped to make the right decisions and take the winning opportunities? This is not the time to take an entrenched position and make rash restructures that may mean you can no longer compete efficiently. We all need to keep a close eye on the numbers in tough times, as we should even in the good times but not at the cost of ability and attitude. Don’t scrimp on development, your people need to be well equipped to fight this battle. Be very careful you don’t risk downgrading your customer’s experience this is no time to be shedding customers to rivals.

Choosing the right team is vitally important. When the going gets extra tough, the quality of those people and their ability to interact is going to be crucial to your survival. Again, our interactions via the ILN events and Learning Journeys have provided both validation and practical examples of how to put the right team in place. The slogan, “hire for attitude and train for skill” was repeated time and time again by our speakers and hosts. Although the reality of needing the right skills in certain instances, such as doctors and airline pilots, was not lost on any of them but they still went for the right attitude but with skills paramount! However, the main thrust of the argument remains true: If you have the wrong people with the wrong attitude then no amount of training is going to get them to do things the way you want them done.

People are at the heart of your corporate culture, they are the ones who have to live and breathe it and make it happen on the ground. Culture is ‘the way we get things done around here’ and you need to get that ‘way of getting things done’ absolutely right to have any hope of your strategies delivering the desired results. Taking care of your people was consistently at the top of all of our speakers’ and hosts’ checklists. Nothing gets done with the wrong people. But don’t be too quick to show existing people the door, even in a failing business. We were given many great examples of where the current employees were able to adapt successfully to cultural changes and help transform even the most broken of organisations. It needed the right and inspired leadership. They need something to believe in and that’s why vision is so important.

2012 is ahead of us. We can’t be certain of what it might bring to our doors but we can be sure of our own response to whatever does come. We need to stay focussed, dedicated, positive and motivated – this is no time for failure of nerve.

All of us here at Inspired Leaders Network hope that you have had a great 2011 and are looking forward to an inspiring and successful 2012.

John Pearson’s inside view of Virgin’s corporate culture, revealed at November’s Inspired Leaders Network event, proved both fascinating and inspirational. Glenn Le Santo was there as René Carayol chatted to John in front of a capacity audience at the BPP Business School in London’s Square Mile.

John Pearson, the former CEO of Virgin Radio and current Chairman of Shazam, was our sofa guest at November’s Inspired Leaders Network event. At perfect ease as he was skilfully interviewed by René, John gave us a fascinating glimpse at Virgin’s unique corporate culture. A special buzz was generated as we all listened intently to John’s views and stories on what it takes to make people and companies really excel. It proved to be a genuinely inspirational and highly entertaining evening.

John reminisced about the birth of Virgin Radio and we saw a man who was obviously passionate about his work, totally focussed and yet relaxed and friendly. Perhaps this is no surprise as John has spent a good part of his life working closely with Richard Branson, the man John himself describes as ‘an enigma’.

“Richard’s greatest legacy is that he has shown us all that anyone can do anything,” John told René and the 120-strong audience. “He’s a great guy to work for because he is so inspirational – and the role of a leader is to inspire.”

This can-do attitude is firmly entrenched in Virgin’s corporate culture and it’s a mind-set that has helped propel them to success in even the most difficult of markets. Flexibility is another vitally important aspect of the culture of both Branson and the brand that epitomises his spirit.

“Richard said to me that the great thing about working for Virgin is there are no rules,” explained John. “The culture there allows you to use your own initiative and to follow gut feeling.”

One can almost hear those working in command and control cultures gasping with shock at the thought of employees operating on their own initiative. For them it sounds like a recipe for disaster. But John explained why and how it all works and actually, it’s all remarkably simple: Start with the right people.

“I always employ for attitude over aptitude,” says John.

The reasoning behind John’s choice of attitude over skill sets is simple; if your people have the right mind-set then everything else is going to be possible – just train them with the skills you want them to have.

Getting the right people is vital but even good people will under perform, or even move on, if you don’t handle them right.

“I want my people to feel very valued,” said John. “People define a business. Start with your people and they will look after everything else. Don’t ever start with numbers.”

This is a clear message but one that some companies obviously fail to hear as, once again, troubled times are bringing the accountants back to the fore.

“Tough times make accountants rule,” John observed. “But you can’t measure everything. If I ask my wife how much she loves me do you think she’ll answer ”87.86%? No! Because somethings, and they include really important things, simply can’t be quantified.”

Given there are yet more stories in the press about big bank bonuses and excessive executive pay awards, René and John’s chat about how renumeration effects motivation was both very topical and highly revealing.

“Is there a correlation between financial reward and motivation?” asked René.

“No. Money is the last thing that motivates people,” was John’s emphatic response. “It is passion that drives people. You must find a way to create passion in your people. Find a crusade to unite them behind it.”

Communication is a key part of getting the best from your people, nobody likes to be in the dark, and openness brings great rewards.

“Honesty is so important in business,” urged John. “Always tell everyone everything the way it is. You owe your people that, you must treat them as you’d like to be treated yourself.”

The three-hour ILN event was jam-packed with valuable insight, information, wisdom and inspiration. It was obvious that the delegates were left feeling very privileged to have shared in such a great evening.

However, with the shadow of recession over us, it was John’s closing words that perhaps carried the most important message of the entire evening:

“Times might be tough but this is also an era of huge opportunity. We need to empower people with clear, confident and decisive leadership.”

Amen to that John!

Here’s a message from Inspired Leaders Network alumni Errol Damelin, founder and CEO of Wonga, who needs your help to raise $100,000 for charity: water.

I’m trying to raise $100,000 to provide clean water for 5,000 people – by running a marathon in the Antarctic.

At the end of this month, I’ll be attempting the Antarctic Ice Marathon, near the South Pole in one of the world’s driest and most inhospitable environments. The event comprises 26.2 miles of treacherous snow and ice at an altitude of around 3,000 ft. I’ll be running in sub-zero temperatures on an active glacier, not to mention the potential bone chilling Katabatic winds that can bring the windchill temperature to -30C. Only 100 people have ever completed this mammoth event and this year is  especially significant as it marks the 100 year anniversary of a person first reaching the South Pole.

Why? Every year people in Africa spend over 40 billion hours walking to get water. Unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation cause 80% of all disease and kills more people every year than all forms of violence, including war. 90% of the 30,000 deaths that occur every week from unsafe water and unhygienic living conditions are of children under five years old. Many of these diseases are preventable. Women and children usually bear the burden of water collection, walking miles to the nearest source, keeping them from school, work and putting them at risk.

charity: water is a brilliant charity, they passionately believe that technology can make the world more efficient. Using the best of digital technology and social media they are aiming to raise $2bn in 10 years. Backed by many tech entrepreneurs, charity: water has a lean start-up mentality and has a separate operating budget. I’ve covered all my travel and event costs which means that 100% of everything raised will go straight to building water projects in the field, even the credit card fees. Then, when the projects are complete, charity: water will show us just where they are and who they’re helping (with GPS coordinates, photos and other details). We’ll be able to see the communities we’ve impacted.

Please donate here: http://mycharitywater.org/icemarathon

We’re trying to get to $100,000 so I need your help. Any amount will will help massively and will also help to motivate me in whats going to be a somewhat challenging event.

Do we only want our leaders when times are hard? In this video René Carayol talks about national leadership and observes how in the West we only really care to be lead when we’re in a jam, when the economy is slow or our security is threatened. René suggests this is not the case in developing nations. Watch the short clip to get a taste of René’s views on leadership.

Media man John Pearson is back working with Richard Branson and Virgin – having previously been Virgin Radio’s CEO during the company’s most formative, turbulent and successful years.

After launching the national station and winning a prestigious London FM licence, John was part of the management buyout with Chris Evans that created The Ginger Media Group. Subsequently he played a significant role in the sale of The Ginger Media group to Scottish Media Group for £230million. However, he left shortly after the sale the SMG.

Now back as MD Europe at Virgin Radio International, John talks about Virgin’s corporate culture when he’s speaking at business events. He believes that great corporate culture can be taught: “Virgin has a unique set of values and behaviour that empowers staff to act in a Virgin way,” explains John. “These values define the invisible code of best Virgin practice and form the unique strand of Virgin DNA.  By understanding the Virgin Values and how they work, not only are they transportable – you can identify the core values already working within your business and start to use them for competitive advantage.”

John is also chairman at Shazam, a digital music business with a special focus on the burgeoning mobile market. When he joined the group back in 2006 Shazam’s CEO Andrew Fisher told the press:

“His track record of establishing world-class market-leading consumer music offerings will prove invaluable, particularly as we enter a significant growth phase in new markets, while also concentrating on strategically enhancing our long term integrated position.”

John Pearson’s ideas on business culture are undoubtedly influenced by his experiences working with Richard Branson and Chris Evans. But nonetheless he’s very much his own man and his views on how to do business in a recession are typical of the way he thinks:

“In a recession accountability becomes the ultimate KPI,” says Pearson, “but the best things cannot be measured. How do you measure the value of your staff – their engagement, commitment, motivation and trust do not appear on your balance sheet but will give you a competitive edge as things improve.

“There seems to be a belief that in today’s complex business market, being in business needs complicated solutions. Ask yourself – is your business making progress or engaged in time-wasting process? Now is exactly the right time to look for simple transforming moves – there may never be a better opportunity”.

His story is a valuable one to hear, it’s the sound of success in action. Sharing the knowledge and experience of people like John Pearson is an essential part of our personal development, it’s both instructional and inspirational.

Andy Jonesco, CEO of AOL UK has said of him:

“John has a unique ability to make everything appear simple that engages his audience and inspires thinking without boundaries. His energy and warm style combine to deliver a great message.”

John Pearson will be joining Rene Caroyal to discuss life, success and business culture at the next Inspired Leaders Network event in at the BPP Business School in London on November 22, 2011. Register using the link below if you’d like to come along to see their chat.

Register your place here

Unfortunately (or perhaps fortuitously) it was limited to just 700 words.

See the article here.

After it appeared on October 4th in the Entrepreneur section of the Financial Times, the feedback has been both heartfelt and passionate.

At first reading, there was no obvious disagreement but on reflection, it was fascinating to read the different shades and colours of ‘sugar coated agreement’ – very quintessentially British.

On occasion, especially when the prize is so vitally important, an open and challenging argument can be the lifeblood of finding the way forward, so excuse me whilst I share the best of the politely put ‘agreements’.

So let’s start with the bankers:

• A strong consensus on ‘no run on liquidity’ but increasing difficulty with wholesale banking (high value banking services between banks and other financial institutions), consequently the cost of loans will be going up – and soon
• The banking high street is ultra-competitive but perhaps many of the banks’ central loan-sanctioning teams are still remembering the pain of the large number of recent ‘distressed’ loans. Therefore rejection is less personally damaging on their KPI’s (key performance indicators) than the inherent risk of approval
• They have witnessed the demise of customer loyalty, and now just focus on encouraging repeat behaviour through ‘de-personalised’ automated processes and systematised credit scoring systems
• The Government’s much heralded Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) looks attractive for both SME’s and banks, but when an SME defaults the civil servants start nit-picking at the far too complex process and endeavour to wriggle out of providing the agreed 75% of the defaulted loan

Views from Private Equity (PE):

• They are still a strong and viable part of the mix for funding SME’s
• There needs to be much better business management amongst SME’s
• The Government could assist in making it more attractive for PE to get involved, perhaps through ‘enterprise zones’ – Ireland has bounced back after near financial oblivion, by establishing compelling enterprise zones that encourage entrepreneurial activity and subsequent investor participation
• PE have not become more risk averse just a lot more ‘discerning’ in keeping with the challenging economic environment

Views from entrepreneurs:

• They totally agree with the article but point out that there was no mention of the desperately penalising tax situation in the UK
• The Government’s Enterprise Investment Scheme is rarely voluntarily offered by the banks, they will always try and sell you one of their far more expensive loan products, overdrafts or invoice finance instead
• They feel they are the only ones prepared to take a real risk, EVERY potential funding agent demands a ‘guarantee’ and behaves increasingly like a new age banker
• Directors of SME’s who have their homes on the line tend to make the wrong decisions for the business

What this tells me is that everyone has a (differing) point of view when it comes to moving out of the downturn and driving growth.

In my strong view, every interested party needs to better understand and accept that there is no risk free approach when it comes to driving growth – neither for them, or indeed, their prospective partners. Strong, transparent and trusting relationships where risk is shared and owned by all is still the only way forward

What is not needed is ill-informed and patronising advice about what is a good business or what is a bad business from those with limited exposure to the pressures and challenges of ‘backing themselves in the toughest of times’ to attempt to create prosperity and vital employment opportunities.

Ed Milliband’s simplistic ‘predator’ or ‘producer’ business approach is both banal and unhelpful.

What is very clear is that we’re living in an age of uncertainty that is crying out for strong, confident and decisive leadership.

It would be great if we got it from the Government but it’s probably not a good idea to wait for that to happen, despite the Prime Minister’s spot on messages from his recent conference speech of “can-do optimism” and “right now, we need to be energised not paralysed by gloom and fear”.

Therefore, it would be far more useful, if the SME’s and entrepreneurs along with the banks and the investment community realised they are in the business of unavoidable collective risk, and the current stance of caution, cynicism and austerity just doesn’t ever foster growth.

There is no ‘divine right’ for any business to survive, let alone thrive, but with the right trust based relationships and a better understanding of risk, the successful ones will always more than compensate for the unfortunate but necessary failures.

With a collective and more tempered but still risk ready approach, we might just drive the economy beyond recovery and back to growth.

This takes us back to confident and decisive leadership again, from all the necessary participants.

Nothing worth having was ever achieved without enthusiasm or overcoming inherent risk, just witness at Apple’s extraordinary rise and stellar profitability after nearly going out of business on more than one occasion.

Without accepting some failures along the way, success will no longer be so energising and sought after and what made the UK the natural historic epicentre for enterprise and economic growth will continue its sad and avoidable demise.

Many would say the new management buzzword is ‘Engagement’ and tend to decry it as yet another HR fad.

This could not be further from the truth; in an era of uncertainty our people are desperate to be part of something special or just to be given a feeling of belonging.  They have no choice but to have to learn to live with ambiguity however, progressive leadership through employee engagement can remove the growing doubts and anxiety.

If anything, the opposite is happening and the continuing ‘story about the storytellers’ is getting hotter and hotter. The last few years in particular have seen the tinderbox lit on the most explosive of subjects.

Firstly there were the privacy laws and the vehement opposition from the likes of Max Mosley who considered gagging injunctions a “necessary evil”, and after that there was the ongoing saga over just what should and shouldn’t be printed with regards to high-profile figures such as footballers.

Then there was the ‘grey area’ between whistle blowing, putting important information in the public domain and breaching confidentially, which came to a spectacular head with WikiLeaks and Julian Assange.

Bubbling underneath it all is the much-predicted ‘death of the traditional press’, as the world becomes ever-more digitalised, interconnected and joined-up.

And yet all of this has been put sharply into focus with the recent News of the World debacle. Even as the dust settles on one of most deplorable media stories of our times, it was clear that the News of the World could not be saved simply by arresting, or even jailing, those responsible for the phone hacking scandal.

This is far more than bad tactics or rogue behaviour, this is a rotten culture and there can be no hiding place for the leadership.

Some of the triumphalism from the BBC and The Guardian has not been pleasant – let’s just hope they don’t have similar issues – but, just like the vilification of the banks as the credit crunch spiralled, this is another case of organisational cultures being ‘performance-driven and values-led’ but going seriously awry.

Time and again performance is driven hard at the expense of values. And the culture that materialises percolates to every corner of the business.

When it comes to values, News International is clearly based on loyalty and when it comes to performance its measure is unequivocally sales.

Employees past and present have unconditional loyalty to News International and Murdoch – and go out of their way to never, ever implicate the organisation.

Just as unconditional is the cultural driver to get the ‘sale’ by any means necessary. It is this beating heart of the organisation and has led to the problems it faces today.

This all comes from the leadership.

You can change the people within the organisation, you can change the strategy but you cannot change the culture whilst the same leadership is in place; in the case of News International it pervades every single newspaper and comes from the top.

The leadership sets the behaviours – they are responsible for ‘how things get done around here’ regardless of whether they know, see or hear about everything that is going on in the organisation at all times.

The lesson here is ‘be careful what you wish for’ because good leaders tend to get what they want. With it they get the culture they deserve; it’s the law of unintended consequences.

So just who’s brave enough within the organisation to tell Rupert Murdoch he’s to blame?

Once again it comes back to our simple mantra. Culture is more powerful than strategy.

The two guests that sat before the sell out audience had one thing in common; they both follow their vocations and are doing the jobs they feel they were born to do.

With it both have the necessary passion, commitment and focus needed to succeed in their high-profile roles and the pair are recognised as hugely successful at what they do and hugely capable leaders in their own right.

The ILN event coincided with the crescendo of public outrage that had been blown up after revelations about the News of the World’s sordid phone hacking affair and we were reminded by Commander Foy that scrutiny is at the heart of our system of justice.

This constant examination of everything in detail – ranging from evidence, process, the police, the witnesses and even the victim – is an essential element in ensuring proper legal process.

René switched the conversation to the guests and their careers, trying to discover what made them tick and how they’ve arrived at the places they are today. Alison Saunders said a television program called ‘Justice’ was the seed of her career and it was watching the show as a young girl triggered a desire to become a barrister. Now, a little further on in her distinguished working life, she’s the head of London’s Crown Prosecution Service and responsible for 200,000 prosecutions a year ranging from a traffic violation to murder.

Alison has staff in over 40 locations across London and inherited an organisation that was eyed with an element of distrust prior to her appointment. She described her situation as “trying to turn a very large ship around” as she wrestled with the complexities of encouraging the correct culture to take firm root in London’s CPS.

When asked how she measures success Alison had a simple and succinct answer:  “A measure of success is a work force that really wants to be at work and is performing to the best of their ability”.

Commander Foy’s rise through the ranks of the Metropolitan police was also clearly driven hard by the potent mix of ambition and a vocational calling. Simon has since gained a reputation as a man who fixes things – and his services have been enjoyed by more than one head of the Met.

His obvious intelligence and his clear and concise conversational style reveal a man who seems to relish solving problems, no matter how large. He talked of a Met that was in the process of a huge transition; driven both by previous mistakes and the natural evolution that the intake of new officers brings – especially with the attitudes of the younger officers who have grown up in a more diverse and accepting society.

When discussing “is London safe?” we were reminded of the capital city’s falling crime rates and relatively low number of murders.

And whilst it’s easy for society to point the finger and blame ‘the system’ for any number of law and order issues, Commander Foy reminded us that, in the words of Robert Peel, the police are the public and the public are the police. All of us have our individual and collective parts to play in making London and the rest of the UK an ever safer place.

Our two guests, one trying to catch the villains and the other trying to bring them to justice, can only clean up any mess they are presented with. It is up to society to see to it that there is less work for them to do  and this can only be done ‘upstream’ of their jurisdictions – back in homes, schools and
workplaces across London.

Prevention is always better than the cure.

The evening was once again a fascinating and informative insight into the daily lives, minds and even hearts of two very inspired leaders. Our two guests get to see the uglier side of London life as part of their daily working lives and during the evening we were given glimpses of the grave and terribly shocking world they are exposed to.

It was an eye opening and visceral experience.

Is London a safe city? It all depends on perspective.

But you can rest assured that some of the best leaders in the country are working hard to keep on improving and learning as our capital continues to evolve and grow.

Growing businesses, developing leadership teams or embedding a new corporate culture into an established brand or organisation are all tough assignments.

However experienced we are in leading organisations (be they privately owned, PLCs or Government backed), the single best way to strengthen our experience and broaden our skills is to share situations with others. This is something that cannot be learned in a classroom.

After the huge success of the inaugural Botswana Learning Journey in July, our next ground-breaking trip to London is scheduled for this November; designed to bring the ‘best of the best’ CEOs in Botswana to meet  a carefully-selected cadre of renowned business leaders and leading  global organisations across the UK.

Places are already filling extremely fast due to exceptional demand, so register you interest now with david@inspiredleaders.com to be part of one of the most exciting Inspired Leaders Network events of the year.