July 2017
Vision
"When I think of vision, I have in mind the ability to see above and beyond the majority."
Charles R. Swindoll
June 2017
Self-interest
"Self-interest is the most ingenious and persuasive of all the agents that deceive our consciences, while by means of it our unhappy and stubborn prejudices operate in their greatest force."
William C. Bryant
May 2017
Courage
“It is easy to stand with the crowd. It takes courage to stand alone.”
Mahatma Gandhi
April 2017
Governance and Leadership
“Governance and leadership are the yin and the yang of successful organisations. If you have leadership without governance you risk tyranny, fraud and personal fiefdoms. If you have governance without leadership you risk atrophy, bureaucracy and indifference.”
Mark Goyder (Director of Tomorrow’s Company) quoted in Governance: My Top Ten Governance Quotes, Suren Rajakarier
March 2017
Corporate Reinvention and Values
“In anything other than a protected industry, longevity is the capacity to change, not to stay with what you’ve got.”
Lou Gerstner, McKinsey Quarterly, September 2014
February 2017
The Shifting Sands of Board Dynamics
“I ... subscribe to evolutionary psychology, which indicates that due to eons of socialization, females have developed a different set of coping and leadership mechanisms, which should be acknowledged and in some cases, encouraged. For example ... dealing with male aggression ... concern for the feelings of others ... better and faster recognition of mood and veracity ... [being] less likely to risk the security, health, reputation and safety of the firm to “bring home an elephant for lunch”. These are important characteristics, which may suit the needs of the modern organization, much more than the imperial male leadership style of the hunter gatherers.”
Chris Clarke, Boyden Executive Search
January 2017
2016 Rolex Awards for Enterprise
“Nothing of consequence really happens, but for the power that individuals have.”
Sylvia Earle, Jury Member and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence
December 2016
Seeing far and seeing wide: moving toward a visionary board
“The role of a corporate board is to guide the company into the future while governing it for the present. Boards move toward the visionary when they excel at not only providing oversight and insight, but - importantly - foresight.”
Susan Stautberg, Women Corporate Directors Foundation (WCD) and KPMG Board Leadership Centre