Mark Foster

It was fantastic to see so many UK TMT colleagues this week at our quarterly TMT community event and spend some quality time again with EY alum, and now Director of Propositions and GTM for Sky Broadband and Mobile, Aman Bhatti 🌟 We kicked off with an insightful session from Douglas McCabe, CEO at Enders Analysis, who shared an in-depth update on macroeconomics and the state of the TMT industry. We then discussed the main insights arising from our latest Digital Home Study, with a particular focus on the UK market and diving into the attitudes and behaviours from 2,500 consumers, including: -Reliable connectivity as the constant "table stakes" of the Telco brand promise -The potential winners and losers from tightening spend appetite -The evolution of the bundle into security, smart home and props that were hitherto subscale or afterthoughts -The timing of AI-led customer service finally leapfrogging human voice interactions in customer preferences ...and much more! You can explore more next week on our UK Digital Home webcast, 27 November 3:45-4:30pm GMT. Join us by registering here: https://lnkd.in/gwK373-9. Rob Atkinson Anna Fry Roy Cornick James O'Brien Claire Mingo Adrian Baschnonga Victoria Clarke #TMT #ShapetheFutureWithConfidence #DigitalHome #ConsumerInsights

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Imagine a world where strategy-to-execution happens in under 20 minutes. Not possible? IBM’s Garage Experience (IGX) platform which is used by our IBM Consulting team is set to revolutionise this process - powered through GenAI technologies and our IBM Consulting Advantage platform. And I am excited to share that The Drum recognized #IBM with the silver award in the category Digital Experience: Best GenAI Experience. https://lnkd.in/eCakcDWm Designed to facilitate seamless digital transformation, IGX empowers organisations to identify and develop strategic initiatives, helps accelerate innovation, reduce risks, and align technology with your business strategy for optimal outcomes. How? The tools and AI accelerators our team in their work use are built to be flexible, allowing easy customisation to meet the unique needs of a clients business - with large language models and industry insights infused, this platform can help you identify potential pain points, and recommend solutions broken down into features and user stories. This not only saves time but also ensures that your strategy is executed effectively. Interested to learn more? Connect with Debbie Vavangas, Mohamed Elrefai, PhD and you can checkout more here: https://lnkd.in/eFjqEA8n

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In the face of uncertainty, CSOs need to lean into new capabilities, investments, and approaches to strategy to position their organizations for sustained and future growth. Discover how CSOs can help their organizations create advantage and capture value in a quickly changing world.

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I am excited to share the latest white paper from the Centre for Responsible Leadership: "Facilitating Constructive Challenge: Concrete Ways Leaders Recruit (and Repress) Speaking Up". The importance of speaking up and challenging the status quo to prevent organisational failure has long been recognised. However, leaders who genuinely seek to foster such a culture often face vague advice about making teams feel 'safe' or 'encouraged,' or they are pushed toward implementing 'radical candour' and seeing how things unfold. Thanks to a forward-thinking bank that bravely conducted a field experiment in recorded team meetings, we now have the data to make concrete and actionable recommendations on how leaders can effectively elicit actual employee voice—not just the self-reported kind! Our key findings for leaders include: 1. Ask Specific Questions: Tailor questions to prompt disagreement 2. Acknowledge Contributions: Go beyond gratitude to validate specific challenges 3. Foster Interaction: Use humour and ensure participation 4. Allow Adequate Time: Give space for thorough debate 5. Create Accountability: Hold team members responsible through methods like voting This two-year project, made possible by the dedication of so many at the firm, the Centre and the Financial Services Culture Board marks a significant step forward in understanding how leaders can foster real challenge in their teams. I’m incredibly proud to share these findings and excited for the next steps in this journey. 👉 Download the full report here and feel free to connect if you'd like to discuss how these strategies can be implemented in your organisation. https://lnkd.in/dnzSGTNH Mikael Down Rick Borges Alison Cottrell Carol Franceschini, PhD Jenny Robinson Hilary Viney Alex Maloftis Michael Kessler

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#CEOs across the board recognise both—the #threat and #opportunity of #GenAI—with 70% saying they see it impacting their #businessmodel in the next three years—a number that increases to 89% among those at organisations that have already put the #technology to work. Find out more on #GenAIinaction and its #transformative #potential here:  https://bit.ly/4dbknDk #efficiency #reinvention

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For high performing teams and successful organisations the Board and Senior leadership teams need to work effectively together and this article explores some of the common challenges and ways for a CEO to build a better environment with the board. At Boyden we have found that by using a psychometric tool - Prophet - we can work with organisations to gain deep insights into the natural motivators and influencers of behaviour. With Prophet, businesses can identify how a senior leaders will fit into the existing team and complement the attributes of the people they will be working with. We have seen it help with faster onboarding by providing in-depth insights into individual behaviour and motivators. This is a way to stimulate these conversations that are often difficult but essential for success and team performance to maximise the value of relationships within teams and create insights into organisational culture. https://lnkd.in/eNk6ng_7 #CEO #board #highperformingteams #effectiverelationships #psychometrictool #onboarding #CEOandboardrelationships

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I was belatedly reading the Heidrick & Struggles annual Board Monitor. For those of us who hold #NonExecutiveDirector roles, this is well worth a read (even the exec summary). https://lnkd.in/e7aNEwmR The authors posed six questions: 1. Who is influencing the board agenda today (happy with that)? 2. Where does the board spend its time (are those the right places)? 3. How are boards addressing the widening risk environment? 4. Are boards more operationally involved? 5. How should boards engage with the workforce? 6. How are boards thinking about diversity? For me the bits that jumped out were: a. Influence were CEO/Leadership, Regulators, Broader workforce, Consumers then the rest. Interesting the impact of regulators on driving board content. b. Time spent increase -Emerging tech/Ai, Sustainability, Geopolitical volatility, Organisational culture, financial performance/risk - then the rest. c. Widening risk split into external and external - for internal understanding board risks was first, interestingly second was understanding how the management team manage these risks. For external, hearing from experts on potential areas of risk d. Operational involvement - majority said yes boards were more operationally involved and the reasons where wanting to learn more, board member specialist knowledge and board not fully trusting the exec team to get things done (rather concerningly) e. There was a strong sense the boards should engage with the workforce beyond the immediate senior team. d. Diversity - the majority of FTSE 350 boards have already hit the 40% female target, the ethnicity study suggests that the proportion of white board members remains the same and the the diversity across the remaining 22% has become marginally more varied. Overall, these trends are inline with what I see, though the extent to which regulators drive the board agenda was a surprise, as was the proportion of broad members saying they didn't fully trust their exec teams on trust. The Operational involvement is, I think both a push and pull factor. Employees seem to want to see more visibility from the board and boards, want to be more seen. #Boards #Governance #CorporateGoverance #ESG #Risk #Sustainability #Diversity

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The role of the Chief Transformation Officer is more important than ever. But what does success look like? Read PwC UK’s article on the 10 traits of successful Chief Transformation Officers and why more organisations are appointing transformation leaders to drive change: https://pwc.to/45dP9ZI #Transformation #BeTransformative

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Exploring the transformative power of peer learning for leaders #authenticleadership #leadershipdevelopment

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At the Balance For Better Business launch with Carol Andrews and Aongus Hegarty. As a hirer, adviser, and worker, it’s both inspiring and challenging to see the progress made in achieving better balance but to also hear about the real challenges in getting a balanced candidate pool when seeking to fill key roles. Making progress is great. Making more progress is better. Great panel with Stephen Kent and Caroline Sherry.

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How do you make it rain? All leaders face a significant transition as they move into enterprise-level roles, but for leaders in professional services companies this shift is uniquely complex. And with research showing that clients are getting ever more discerning in who they choose to partner with, getting this right is more important than ever. Our experience has highlighted six key shifts professional services leaders need to make, with lessons for Executives in all organisations. This includes understanding the importance of context, focusing on the "who" alongside the "what, and considering developmental difficulty. This article summarises some of our thinking and experience, and the implications for leaders everywhere. Roy Woodhouse Virginia Mansell Margaret Cowle Mehul Joshi Elizabeth Hughes Bree Kloda-Pavitt Sarah Condon Donella Roberts

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Having a look back over time shows how the cost risk pendulum has swung back and forth between clients and service provider in technology services, and new commercial thinking is now needed to meet the challenges of 21st century technology delivery

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How important is it for board directors to build relationships outside the boardroom? I’ve found it to be critical to a company’s success, when delivering ambitious change and driving value. So, it was great to grab a coffee with my former fellow board directors Bill Langdon and Peter Jeavons. Together, we helped navigate VivoPower through its acquisition of Tembo e-LV (the electric vehicle solutions company now subject to a business combination agreement at an announced valuation of $904m), and its international product and geographic expansion which continues to gather steam (sustainability pun intended!). It was a great reminder of the importance of: - building relationships,  - keeping a consistent open dialogue between board meetings,  - fostering a culture of constructive challenge, and  - having complementary skills and experience. What would you add to the list? Kevin Chin, Gary Challinor and Michael Hui – you were missed! Having transitioned to an advisory role for the business, I’m excited to see what happens next.. #Sustainability #BCorp #EV #Boards

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How is your organisation pioneering with AI? AI is changing the way we work, creating new opportunities for growth and innovation. @PwC UK is helping businesses to get ahead of change. With around 10 years experience and alliances with leading AI firms, discover our human-led, tech-powered approach ➡️ https://pwc.to/4dA1ABD  #HumanLedTechPowered #ResponsibleAI 

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Sharing some of our thoughts on the rapidly evolving landscape with regards to human capital leadership within #privateequity. As most of my network no doubt already knows, I'm hugely passionate about the positive impact commercial people leaders have in all contexts. I would love to hear your thoughts as always! #PrivateEquity firms are turning to Human Capital Operating Partners to navigate complex talent landscapes and enhance leadership stability and capability. These professionals bring a blend of HR expertise, strategic thinking, and an investor mindset to portfolio companies. They excel in high-growth and change environments, guiding companies through rapid scaling and complex transformations. Their adaptability and insight allows them to deliver customised solutions to unique business challenges. Read more about our thoughts on the key characteristics and considerations for choosing the right #HumanCapital Operating Partner: #LeadershipExcellence #TalentManagement #ValueCreation #OperatingPartner

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Putting #sustainability at the heart of every business case is a great way to enable organisations to accelerate their sustainability ambitions. Take a look at the work PA and Schiphol Airport have done together to raise awareness across the airport of the importance of sustainability

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Unlocking Clinical Innovation: Key Insights from Our Roundtable Last week, our Clinical Innovation Roundtable convened at the Kearney London offices. Alongside luminaries Terttu Haring, James Gallagher, Alexander Krupp and Mark Travers, we delved deep into the ever-evolving landscape of clinical innovation. Here are just a few of the things that resonated with me: R&D’s Dynamic Shift: External asset sourcing is reshaping the game. As innovation leaders, we must navigate complexity with a pragmatic mindset. When to plan ahead? When to seize serendipitous opportunities? It’s a dance we perform with partners who bring fresh collaboration styles. Sites, Our Co-Innovators: Clinical trials can still improve in so many ways. Amidst the pressures faced by clinical staff, sponsors who roll up their sleeves as problem-solvers can turbocharge recruitment and retention. And for some things, we should really see how we jointly enable the sites to drive and deploy their own innovation across trials and sponsors. Immerse to Communicate: Remember learning a foreign language in its native land? Nothing beats immersion. Pharma and Site staff are bridging gaps, creating a shared lexicon. Bring out and connect the "young radicals" on both sides to bring in the disruptive ideas of tomorrow. ROI Beyond Trials: Site engagement isn’t a one-time affair—it’s an ongoing investment. Sponsors increasingly find ways to support sites and exchange with physicians beyond specific trials. Better yet to help prepare these partners for future trials, but smart resource allocation needs to be our compass. Exploring new lands: The drive for access to novel therapies for underserved populations is taking us into new regions and countries. There is so much opportunity there, if we are willing and able to invest the time to train and nurture these new sites. Ongoing site engagement is what ultimately gives us a case to "polish these raw diamonds". And the golden rule: Quantify Excitement! Innovation isn’t risk-free, but articulating benefits is non-negotiable. Hone the skill to translate moonshots into measurable value. These insights fuel our journey toward impactful clinical research and development. Looking forward to keeping this conversation going with our broader community, Marc P. Philipp and Horia Giuglea! #ClinicalInnovation #Pharmaceuticals #ClinicalTrials #ResearchAndDevelopment

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In 2024 the UK still does not have a well defined Industrial Strategy! But a new report out from @PwC_UK - which surveyed over 1200 of the UK's senior business decision-makers and interviewed more than 60 business leaders - is set to address that. Find out what it says here and get in touch if you'd like to know more. #IndustrialStrategy

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