Authors

Alan Williams is the Managing Director of Servicebrand Global, a consultancy that specialises in customer service.

Books: The 31 Practices , My 31 Practices 

Described by Theodore Zeldin as “one of our boldest business gurus”, Andy is an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year. After 40 years working in advertising and global business consulting, he has returned to Classics.

 

Books: Implosion, Upgraded, 20/20

Ana Carreras holds a PhD in Economics and Business Studies and leads several research projects on satisfaction, customer loyalty and corporate reputation at the CEU San Pablo University (Spain). She is also a project director at MQ Medición de Calidad SL., where she is responsible for the creation, development and implementation of different indices, such as the LO.CAL index and the Professional Reputation index.

Books: Corporate Reputation

Angel Alloza is the CEO of Corporate Excellence – Centre for Reputation Leadership, a leading consultancy in corporate reputation.

Books: Corporate Reputation

Is a marketing and communications expert with an MBA from ESADE Business School. She is currently Global Brand Manager for the baby and medical nutrition division of the Danone Group, and is based at the company’s head offices in the Netherlands.

Books: The Mango Story

Tas started life as an ad agency Planner before setting up POV, a communications and training consultancy, 17 years ago, and still acts as Planner for several travel and retail brands such as Fred.Olsen.

His second field is Training: he is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, and is a Training Director for the CIM, specialising in Persuasive Storytelling, Behavioural Economics and “Insightment”.

Thirdly, Tas is a Lecturer at Bucks, Nottingham Trent and Beijing Normal Universities, teaching MA and BA advertising and marketing courses.

Books: The Storytelling Book

Ari and Mona Riabacke are consultants and doctors of philosophy, and specialize in risk and decision analysis. They are members of the Decide Research Group at Stockholm University.

Books: Freestyle Decision Making

Bahriye Goren-Gulek is a brand strategy expert with 15 years of global experience, both on client side with Unilever and on agency side where she has consulted world class multinationals across the globe. As the former Executive Director Innovation and Strategy at Wallace Church & Co., an award winning branding agency in New York, she has worked with the most talented creative and brand leaders. She is a university lecturer at the graduate and undergraduate level at business schools in New York, Colorado, Singapore and Taiwan. She lives with her husband, son and their dog in Boulder, Colorado.

Books: BE

Ben Elijah is a coach, speaker, and author. He developed his early career in some of the world’s biggest technology firms. After overcoming the issues described in his book, he began working with individuals and organizations, helping them build a better relationship with conflicting information in a complex world.

Books: The Productivity Habits

Ben Renshaw is one of today s foremost leadership thinkers. Speaker, coach and author of eight books, Ben s innovative work with leading organizations, senior executives and entrepreneurs has brought him international acclaim. Formerly a classical violinist, Ben plays a different tune getting the best out of people. He believes that everyone has a purpose and that to discover and lead with purpose is the greatest opportunity in life. Ben partners with leaders and organizations focused on how to be purpose-led.

Books: Purpose

Ben Tallon is an internationally renowned illustrator, artist and art director in  lm, music and TV. He works with clients including WWE, Channel 4,  e Guardian, Russell Brand, Unicef, Manchester United and  e Wall Street Journal.

Books: Champagne and Wax Crayons 

Brian leads the Elix-IRR Retail practice. He typically consults on key stores, multichannel and retail supply chain initiatives. He has worked with many of the UK’s leading retailers and across most sectors (including food, non-food, speciality and convenience) as well as leading teams in South Africa, China and America.

Books: Re-thinking retail in the digital era

Brian Scanlon is Chairman of CPS Ltd and GG Management Consulting Ltd. He graduated in mathematics and physics and took a masters degree in operational research. After an early career in the steel industry, he became a director at AT Kearney Ltd in London and led a practice that addressed strategic issues. He has also held a number of executive and non-executive boardroom positions, being responsible for the creation and flotation of a number of new ventures and privatisation projects.
More recently, he was a Vice President of JP Morgan Chase Bank in its Treasury Services Division.

Books: The Board Game

Carl Hall is the co-founder of Alder, the largest environmental technology investment fund in the Nordic region. For several years he had been a serial entrepreneur, starting businesses in primarily IT and internet services. In 2006 he began working as a venture capital investor. Right around this time climate change was becoming a huge issue for humanity. Carl decided to start an environmental investment fund to help the environment, make money and build great companies. Having met more than 300 environmental entrepreneurs he now shares their secrets on making money by saving the planet.

Books: The Environmental Capitalist

Chris Buckingham is a researcher in crowdfunding and is the founder of Minivation, a leading consultancy that advises entrepreneurs on crowdfunding campaigns.

Books: Crowdfunding Intelligence

Chris Budd is a FCA authorised financial adviser and managing director of Ovation Finance.

Books: The Financial Wellbeing Book

Christian Stadil is the owner of global sportswear brand hummel and the Thornico Group and one of Europe’s most charismatic business leaders.

Books: In the shower with Picasso

Claire co-founded Relume in 2000 and she is currently consultant at Relume.

Books: The Challenger Spirit

Claire Fox is a high profile HR director with 14 years experience internationally and locally. She spent a significant period of time in a professional multinational FMCG, but started her career in a dynamic, entrepreneurial, fast growth, start-up.

Books: Work/Life Symbiosis

Covadonga O’Shea is the president of the ISEM Fashion Business School.

Books: The man from Zara

Damian McKinney is the CEO and founder of McKinney Rogers, a management consultancy with offices in London, Amsterdam, USA, Brazil, Japan and Hong Kong. He is a former operations commando with the UK Royal Marines.

Books: The Commando Way

David Guillebaud is a senior advisor to CEOs and top management teams on strategy and transformation issues, especially on digital disruption. He challenges executive teams to seriously address the scope, scale, reach and pace of disruptive change, particularly from digital technologies. He is currently an Associate Partner at Elix-IRR consultancy.

Books: Disruption Denial

Dawn Sillett has been designing and delivering training workshops and executive coaching for over 15 years.

Books: The Feedback Book

Derek Roberts is a business coach and CEO of Roberts Business Group based in North Carolina, US.t.

Books: Be a Mindsetter

Diana has spent most of her life moving from one state of Not Knowing to another. From fleeing her country of birth, Romania, to an unknown future in a new country; to a continuous process of professional reinvention covering the fields of law, strategy, communications, refugee advocacy and leadership development.

Diana is Director of Not Knowing Lab, an international consulting practice focused on building the capability of organizations and individuals to successfully navigate uncertainty and complexity. She consults to senior executives in a range of commercial, government and community organizations around the world.

Books: Not Knowing

Dorothy MacKenzie is UK Chairman at Dragon Rouge, one of the world’s leading design and innovation agencies.

Books: Business is Beautiful

David is a business and marketing consultant and strategist, specilasing in advertising agency performance management; agency sourcing and selection; marketing process and design and marketing procurement. Before founding Salt Partners in 2009, David had a career in advertising spanning more than two decades.

Books: How to buy a gorilla 

Doug graduated from the University of Arizona as a mechanical engineer and forged a career in the sugar and corn processing industries, finally serving as CEO of major companies in both industries. He was a leader in the early production of high fructose corn syrup, restructured a sugar company through difficult downsizing, and led another company out of the chaos and disarray of bankruptcy.Doug and his wife, Ginny, have been married for over fifty years and live in Pinehurst, NC.

Books: Sweet Success

Mark Powell is a Partner at global consulting firm A.T. Kearney and Associate Fellow at the University of Oxford’s Said Business School, where he has spent 10 years directing leadership programmes. He lectures on subjects including strategy development, leadership, power and influence, and strategic relationship building.

Mark read Economics and Management and gained a PhD in Organizational Behaviour both from the University of Cambridge. He started his career with Scientific Generics, a technology consulting company, followed by Powergen (now Eon) and moved into consultancy, spending nine years with Accenture. Mark ran several start-up businesses and has held Partner roles in KPMG, Aon and Fujitsu. He combines consultancy with leadership development, teaching and writing, and is one of the first UK Gurus of the Futureworld Organization (www.futureworld.org).

Books: Perform to Win , My Steam Engine is Broken

Emanuele Neena is the co-founder of Now Available, based in Italy, and one of Europe’s most innovative advertising agencies. Its clients include MTV, Nestle and Volkswagen.

Books: Creative 4cast

Enrique Carreras is a professor at the Faculty of Economics and Business at the CEU San Pablo University in Madrid. He has extensive research experience and currently specializes in causal models for measurement tools to evaluate intangible assets such as customer satisfaction and corporate reputation.

Books: Corporate Reputation

Erik Elgersma is Director of Strategic Analysis at FrieslandCampina. He speaks and lectures frequently on the topics of strategic analysis and data management. He is based in the Netherlands

Books: The Strategist’s Analysis Cycle Toolbook, The Strategist’s Analysis Cycle: Handbook

Dr Fabian Sommerrock is a Principal and member of the management team of Roland Berger Switzerland. From 2011 until 2013 he was Executive Assistant CEO and before a Project Manager at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants. Dr Sommerrock is an expert in strategy development, transformation, post merger integration and reorganisation as well as efficiency and change management.

He is a visiting lecturer at the University of St. Gallen with a focus on marketing, and a Director of the AlpEuregio.BusinessClub, a non-profit organisation.

Books: Rethinking Luxury

Francisco Soler Caballero is the Managing Partner of the Garrigues Shanghai office. He holds a degree in law and a degree in economics from the University of Valencia and a degree in political sciences from the UNED. He completed his studies with a master’s degree in EU law from the University of Sorbonne in Paris.

Francisco has lived and worked in China for over 5 years and has extensive knowledge of the legal, economic and social environment in this country. He has specialized in foreign investment in China, mergers and acquisitions, corporate and commercial contracts, as well as in Chinese investments overseas. Francisco frequently participates as a speaker in seminars and conferences on foreign investment in China and collaborates with several governmental institutions on advising them about the Chinese legal framework. He has taught several university courses on China, including the International MBA Update organized by the Instituto de Empresa and is currently the Vice-President of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce in China.

Books: Doing business safely in China

Giles Lury is the Executive Chairman of The Value Engineers, a leading marketing and advertising agency.

Books: The prisoner and the penguin

From 2002‐11, Giovanni Bisignani was the Director General‐CEO of IATA.

He is the former CEO of Alitalia. He continues to be an important advisor and influence in the aviation industry today.

Books: Shaking the skies

Harold Moe has worked in senior marketing and sales positions for over 30 years. He is the co-founder of Locomotiv Action Marketing, an ad agency that specialises in action marketing. Lennart Grahn is a copywriter for several large ad agencies.

Books: Party Marketing

Humberto Salerno is a journalist specialising in business and economics. He currently directs and presents a radio programme on the economy for Cadena Ser in Spain, and prior to that he was CEO and director of the economic information portal Noticias.com

Books: The Mango Story

Weiwei Huang is a professor of business at Renmin University of China. He has served as senior consultant to the Huawei board and Huawei’s founder Mr. Zhengfei Ren since 1996. He is currently Chief Management Scientist at Huawei.

Books: Dedication

Herbert Henzler is the former German office head and European Chairman of McKinsey & Company. Today he is an advisor and board member of several leading companies, including Credit Suisse, FC Bayern Munich and New Silk Road.

Books: Pushing the Boundaries 

Helen Chapman is a former senior business manager with an Airline company and has Health & Fitness background. Helen has led successful organisational development strategies, working as developer, owner and facilitator of new company cultures. Today Helen is a Facilitator and works as a thinking partner with senior business leaders.

Books: The Meeting Book

Ian Atkinson is a multi award-winning creative director at one of the UK’s biggest agency groups.

He’s written copy in every major medium and for some of the best-known brands in their sectors – including Avis,Barclays, Dyson, Macmillan, Nando’s, National Geographic, Oxfam, Sky and Zurich. He has a degree in psychology, is a regular conference speaker and awards judge, and runs training days on creativity and copywriting. He even writes a blog that people actually read.

Books: Copy Righter

Ian is CEO of Transform People International, a global business improvement consultancy a global business improvement consultancy that has worked with some of the world’s largest organizations in delivering bottom-line results and culture change through people by transforming attitudes, mind-sets, beliefs, behaviours and skills.

They work with clients all over the world, including many FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 companies.

Books: 100 Big ideas to help you succeed

As well as being passionate about modern history, Ignacio Gonzalez-Posasa is a marketing professional who has worked in Germany, Spain, Japan and the USA.

Books: How to win a war

Jane Cunningham is the founder of Pretty Little Head, a consultancy that specialises in gender marketing. Clients include Tesco and the Conservative Party in the UK. Author of Inside Her Pretty Little Head and previously worked in leading international advertising agencies.

Books: The daring book for boys in business

Jane Sunley founded a successful recruitment agency and is a career mentor. She is also currently CEO of PurpleCubed, a consultancy specialising in people engagement.

Books: It’s never OK to kiss the interviewer 

Javier Lamelas was previously Group VP Marketing of the Coca Cola Company, where he led global campaigns and worldwide marketing initiatives. He is now the CEO of Top Line MARTKeting.

Books: MARTketing

Jean-Baptiste Danet is the CEO at Dragon Rouge, one of the world’s leading design and innovation agencies.

Books: Business is beautiful

Jerome Chouchan is the Managing Director of Godiva Chocolatier for Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia, India, Australia and New Zealand. Fluent in Japanese, he has extensive management experience in Asia, having worked for premium global brands such as Lacoste, Hennessy and Lladro. He has practiced Kyudo in Japan for more than 25 years. He holds a Kyudo Renshi (instructor license) and a 5th dan degree. He is also a Board Director of the Kyudo International Federation, the body governing the development of Kyudo globally. He published Target in Japanese in 2016.

Books: Target

Dr Jeffrey Kuhn is the founder and CEO of GrowthLeaders. He is an acclaimed columnist, business advisor, and speaker. He holds a doctorate from Columbia University and has served as an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School and is a founding member of the Strategic Management Forum.

Books: Beyond the mirage

Jianlin Wang is the founder and chairman of the Wanda Group. Prior to that, he spent 17 years in the Chinese army, rising from border guard to regimental commander.

Books: The Wanda Way

Joachim Rene Zyla, 55, is ranked one of the most experienced European executives with a focus on Senior Management Evaluation.

After MBA and PhD studies in Vienna, Paris and at Harvard Business School in Boston, JR Zyla worked for almost 12 years in the investment banking industry, predominantly in London. In 1990 he moved into management consulting and in 1997 became CEO and key shareholder of Odgers Berndtson Central Europe (formally Ray & Berndtson CEE), the leading executive search company in the region.

In 2009 JR Zyla merged his company with Heidrick & Struggles, the world’s largest leadership advisory business, where he still serves as a partner, on a part time basis.

Books: When god wasn’t watching the devil created business

Jochen Graff is an A.T. Kearney principal and member of the firm’s Operations Practice, where he has leadership roles on both the R&D and innovation management teams. With more than 15 years of consulting experience, Jochen advises clients across industries on all topics related to innovation, R&D, and operations and shares his expertise in the engineering, automotive, high-tech, and process industries.

Jochen coordinates the firm’s annual Best Innovator Competition globally. He has published numerous articles on innovation management and is a frequent conference contributor.

Jochen earned graduate degrees in business administration from Erasmus University Rotterdam and the London School of Economics, where he earned the additional Community of European Management Schools (CEMS) degree for his work abroad

Books: Masters of Innovation

Juan Carlos Eichholz is the founder and principal of CLA Consulting, which was born out of Cambridge Leadership Associates (CLA) to work with private companies, as well as public and nonprofit institutions, to create purposeful and adaptive change. He is also a professor at the Business School of Adolfo Ibáñez University and the founding director of the Adaptive Leadership Center, which brings together international professors and practitioners committed to helping others tackle their toughest challenges. In 2006, Eichholz was appointed a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum. As an expert in leadership and organizational change, he is a frequent speaker in congresses and conferences, and has consulted with companies such as Oracle, Procter & Gamble, Verizon, L’Oreal, Nutreco, AON, BHP Billiton, Ernst & Young, and Walmart. Eichholz studied law at Universidad Católica de Chile and holds a Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard University.

Books: Adaptive Capacity

Jonathan Gifford is a business author and speaker whose other books include History Lessons, Blindsided, 100 Great Leadership Ideas and 100 Great Business Leaders. Jonathan has a degree in philosophy from the University of Kent. His early career was spent in print media, working for The Guardian, The Sunday Express and The Mail on Sunday, and later for BBC Magazines, where he was the launch publisher of BBC History Magazine.

Books: Perform to Win , My Steam engine is broken

Jon Geldart is Executive Director of Market Development at Grant Thornton, one of the world’s leading accountancy groups. He has spent the past five years working in China.

Books: Inside the Middle Kingdom , Notes from a Beijing coffeeshop

John Grant is a leading thinking and consultant in the new frontiers of marketing and branding. He has written five other influential books, the most recent being Co-opportunity (Wiley).

Books: Made With

Since 1998 John Dembitz has pursued a portfolio career and is currently chairman of TITUS International Ltd., a nonexecutive director of Park Group Plc., Lee Baron Group Ltd., and The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, senior group advisor to Enterprise Architects Pty., and was Chairman of Coffee Point PLC., TACK International Ltd., CVO Group BV., and PALS Leisure Group Plc., all of which have been successfully exited.

Books: It’s the people

Juan Mateo is an experienced business coach specialising in conflict management, leadership and creativity. He was previously a director of courses at Colombia University, the Disney University and the Royal Complutense College at Harvard.

Books: The Reason

Julia Pérez-Cerezo holds a degree in civil engineering from the Polytechnic University of Madrid and a master’s degree in city planning from the University of Berkeley, as well as having completed a programme in management from the IESE Business School. She has extensive experience, at an international level, working in the service sector, strategic consulting and engineering.

Since 2004 she has worked on projects related to China where she actively collaborates with the All China Women’s Federation, the Chinese Women Entrepreneurs Association and the Chinese Women Entrepreneurs Chamber of Commerce.

Books: China New Leaders

Kai Engel is an A.T. Kearney partner and head of the firm’s Innovation Practice for Europe. He has more than 20 years of consulting and industry expertise in all areas of innovation management, including innovation strategy, portfolio management, innovation-to-profit, and supplier-driven innovation. In 2003,

Kai initiated the firm’s Best Innovator Competition and the Best Innovators Club, and for the past eight years has been a key collaborator with the EU Commission’s IMP³rove initiative.

He is the author of numerous articles and books, including German-language versions of Innovation Management and Best Innovators—Successful Strategies of Innovation Leaders.

He also chairs executive roundtables and is a frequent presenter at business and industry conferences. Kai earned a doctorate in mechanical engineering from the University of Hannover and a degree in business administration from the University of Braunschweig.

Books: Masters of Innovation

Keiron Sparrowhawk is a former neuroscientist and founder and CEO of MyCognition, a consultancy that specializes in improving the cognitive health of managers and executives.

Books: Executive Function

Kelly Odell is a leading expert and trainer in management, and works with some of Europe’s largest companies. He is a frequent speaker and media commentator.

Books: The Human Way

Kevin Duncan is a business advisor, marketing expert and the author of several successful business books, including the bestselling The Diagrams Book (LID). He previously worked in the communications and advertising sector for over 25 years.

Books: The Diagrams Book, The Ideas Book, The Smart Thinking Book, The Business Bullshit Book

Khurshed Dehnugara has spent 10 years as a corporate executive and then 15 years as a coach and facilitator to those working at the most senior levels of large, complex, global organizations. He is the founder of Relume, a consultancy that specialises in working with challenger organizations.

You can find out more about Khurshed’s work and get in touch with him at www.relume.co.uk or @relume1

Books: Flawed but willing, The Challenger Spirit

Lene Tanggaard is a professor of psychology at the University of Aalborg, Denmark and is also co-director of the International Centre for the Cultural Psychology of Creativity.

Books: In the shower with Picasso 

A serial entrepreneur who holds a Master’s degree in Engineering and a Bachelor’s degree in International Commerce, Lars is also a certified derivatives trader from National Futures Association in Chicago. Lars spent 11 years in portfolio management and investment banking before moving to the high-tech and telecommunications industries in the mid 1990s, where he has co-founded and seed-funded a number of award winning high-tech companies in the satellite communication, Internet and mobile space. He is also founder of Beluga, a successful financial trading company.

He has authored a number of books on marketing strategy, technology, financial markets, general economics and the future, which between them have been published in 11 languages and more than 50 editions. He has been a frequent participant in international media, including TEDTalks. Lars was listed in The Guru Guide to Marketing as one of the world’s 62 leading thinkers of marketing strategy.

A Danish national, Lars lives in Switzerland with his family. His main hobbies include sailing, skiing and collecting Italian sports cars.

Books: The Creative Society 

Li Zhigang is one of China’s top business journalists.

Books: The JD.com Story

Lukas Michel is the owner and MD of AgilityINsights l Sphere Advisors AG based in Switzerland. As well as developing his own management consultancy practice, he is a business leader with a 30- year international career which includes balance sheet accountability working for global corporations in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

He works with executive teams around the world, focusing on organizational agility and decision making, delivering systemic analysis, advising on the design of culture, leadership and systems, and providing implementation guidance for a range of local, national and international organizations. He holds an MS degree in management from North Carolina State University, USA, and bachelor degrees in textile management and teaching. Lukas Michel is the author of The Performance Triangle.

Books: Management Design, The Performance Triangle 

Magnus Lindkvist is one of the world’s leading and most respected futurologists. He works with governments and corporations around the world. He is the author of Everything We Know is Wrong and The Attack of the Unexpected.

Books: When the Future Begins, The Future Book, Minifesto 

María Eugenia Girón holds an engineering degree and is a Harvard MBA. She currently lectures at the Instituto de Empresa, ISEM and ESADE Business Schools in Spain, and speaks frequently at a wide range of events.
Her professional career has been dedicated to the luxury industry – of particular interest is her work in Loewe where she developed a strategic plan to strengthen the brand; and in Carrera y Carrera, a Spanish company which she directed after heading up an acquisition process and which she later sold to the Lladró group. She currently manages the investment fund MEGAMCAPITAL and advises companies on branding and brand strategy. María Eugenia is actively involved in the environmental cause as a member of the Board of Trustees of Oceana.

Books: Inside Luxury

Mark Edwards is the founder of Whiteboard Strategies, a consultancy that specializes in visual communications that works with world-leading companies (including Symantec, Vodafone, Toshiba).

Books: The Visual Communications Book

Mark Masters is MD of The ID Group, a content marketing consultancy. He is a believer in the importance of businesses creating better content, establishing organic growth and standing for something compelling.

He speaks to marketers and businesses at industry conferences on the topics of content marketing and applying a ‘story first’ approach to engage better with an audience.

He curates the Once Upon A Time storytelling event and is co presenter of the Marketing Homebrew podcast. His online series Talking Content Marketing brings together infl uencers, authors and speakers from the world of marketing to share their knowledge.

Visit theidgroup.co.uk for the latest articles, stories, interviews and events.

Books: The Content Revolution

Mark is the Director of Transform People International, a global business improvement consultancy a global business improvement consultancy that has worked with some of the world’s largest organizations in delivering bottom-line results and culture change through people by transforming attitudes, mind-sets, beliefs, behaviours and skills..

They work with clients all over the world, including many FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 companies.

Books: 100 Big ideas to help you succeed

Dr Mark Powell is a business writer, consultant and entrepreneur. He spent ten years as an Associate Fellow of the Oxford Saïd Business School where he specialized in executive coaching and designing and directing senior executive leadership programmes. He lectures on subjects including strategy development, leadership, power and influence, strategic relationship building and customer and employee engagement and was one of the first UK gurus in the Futureworld network.

Mark read Economics and Management and gained a PhD in Organizational Behaviour, both from the University of Cambridge. Mark has had a long and distinguished corporate career. As a business and strategy consultant for over 30 years, he has held senior Executive and Partner roles in a number of large organizations including Accenture, Fujitsu, Aon, KPMG, A.T. Kearney and Capgemini, in addition to running several start-up businesses.

Books: Machiavellian Intelligence , Perform to win , 

Markus is a journalist, entrepreneur and writer of non-fiction books. He lives in Berlin, Germany. Markus is a Managing Partner at content marketing agency Rethink as well as Contributing Editor for Monocle and Brand Eins. His work has also been published in GQ, Architectural Digest, Vanity Fair, Der Spiegel, Stern, SZ-Magazin, Welt am Sonntag and Die Zeit.

His books, Meconomy, and the business book bestseller Smart Work, received enthusiastic reviews and have been translated into many languages. He also speaks and gives keynotes based on the books’ topics.

Books: Rethinking Luxury

Dr Martin C. Wittig is a Senior Partner and Chairman of Roland Berger Switzerland.

Dr Wittig was global Managing Partner and Chief Executive Officer of Roland Berger Strategy Consultants from 2010 to 2013. He is a visiting lecturer at the University of St. Gallen and was elected to the university’s International and Alumni Advisory Board. Dr Wittig and his wife Susanne are also involved in multiple social and cultural organisations, such as Ashoka Switzerland, Right to Play, the Swiss Institute for Art Research and the Museum of Photography in Winterthur.

Books: Rethinking Luxury

Martin Echavarria has dedicated his professional career to working directly in collaboration. From building Strategic Alliances and Partnerships across industries, culture, and geographies, to coaching executives and their teams to collaborate internally, Martin has successfully combined applied business partnering expertise with group collaborative-leadership theory and practices.

He holds a Master’s Degree in International Management from the Thunderbird School of Global Management, a Bachelor’s Degree in Business and Political Science from Emory University, studied Strategic Alliances at the Wharton School and earned an Integral Coaching Certification from New Ventures West.

As we are all aware, collaboration is “the name of the game” in business and all kinds of organizations today. The world has become a complex web of interdependent actors—some are competing, while others are learning to collaborate in new and innovative ways by establishing, strategic partnerships and establishing networks of ecosystem partners to create new opportunities, bring innovative products and services to market, continuously re-invent themselves and help solve some of the world’s most difficult problems. Those that collaborate in this way are entering new stages of formation and complexity through digital reinvention, ecosystem design, multi-stakeholder programs and social innovation.

Because of the complexity of the collaboration, the number of actors involved and opportunities missed if no time is spent to innovate and co-create.  More importantly, collaboration requires groups to get to know each other from a psychosocial perspective to build the collective muscle to communicate clearly and authentically, learn together and cut away what is not relevant for success. Once they have developed the collaboration structure, operating principles and values, social contracts and culture, they will have also built the collaboration capability to tackle the more difficult final negotiations pieces, not to mention the fact they know what is left to negotiate.

It only makes sense that all businesses combinations that require collaboration have a concordant process and method to guide their success.

Enabling Collaboration – Achieving Success through Strategic Alliances and Partnerships provides practitioners interested in forming all kinds of collaborations a practical roadmap and methodology to do just that. Help create the structures, processes and opportunities that arise from collaborative approaches to organizational and societal success.

Books: Enabling Collaboration 

Dr Martyn Newman is a leading international expert on emotional intelligence and leadership. He is MD of RocheMartin and a consulting psychologist with an international reputation as an expert in emotional intelligence (EQ) and leadership.

Books: The Mindfulness Book

Prior to founding Farmer & Company in 1992, Michael Farmer was a strategy consultant with The Boston Consulting Group and a Director of Bain & Company.  He previously headed Bain’s Munich, Paris and London offices during Bain’s decade of European expansion in the 1980s.

Books: Madison Avenue Manslaughter 

Michael Hogg is aged 53 and is an entrepreneur in the anti-ageing sector. He was previously the Global CEO of the Cobra Group and is a member of various public company boards.

Books: The Age-nostic man

Moe Glenner is an experienced senior manager in the supply and logistics sector with Global Logistics for Steel Warehouse (a $2-billion company). He is much in demand as a consultant in creativity and keynote speaker.

Books: Plus Change

Myles Downey is the founder of The School of Coaching, and was part of the team that established The Alexander Corporation (acknowledged by The Economist as “the leading provider of executive coaching in Europe”). He is widely regarded as one of the best business coaches in the world.

Books: Effective Modern Coaching, Enabling Genius

Nicklas Bergman is a futurist, technology investor and entrepreneur. He is also an advisor to the TechCast Think Tank in Washington DC.

Books: Surviving the Tech-Storm

Nigel is an A.T. Kearney partner and member of the firm’s Financial Institutions practice in Asia Pacific. With more than 15 years of management consulting experience, Nigel specializes in customer-led innovation, partnering with companies and organizations across Australia, Southeast Asia, India, Europe, and North America to help them unlock tangible and sustainable value. He is based in Sydney.

Books: Australia 2034

Nicole Soames is a highly qualified coach and emotional intelligence practitioner. She gained extensive commercial experience during twelve years of managing large sales teams at Unilever and United Biscuits, followed by fifteen years developing and delivering training programmes around the globe. In 2009 Nicole founded Diadem, a leading commercial skills training and coaching company. With 85 clients in 12 countries, Diadem has helped thousands of people become commercial athletes in influencing and selling, negotiation, account management, marketing, presenting, strategy, coaching, leadership and management. Nicole is also the best-selling author of The Negotiation Book, part of the Concise Advice Series from LID publishing.

Follow Nicole on Twitter @diademperform or visit www.diademperformance.com

Books: The Negotiation Book

Oke Eleazu, is the Managing Director of the consulting company, Think Outside In.  Oke has held several senior roles in major organizations all centered on improving the experience of customers, most recently as Director of Customer Service Strategy for Sainsbury’s.

Books: The cult of service excellence 

Oliver specializes in working with retail and consumer clients with a focus on digital transformation and multichannel technology. Recent projects include designing a digital learning experience for a large UK retailer, developing a Target Operating Model for a leading department store chain and the development and delivery of a digital strategy and transformation programme for an international publisher.

Books: Re-thinking retail in the digital era

Pedro Algorta is one of the sixteen survivors of the Uruguayan plane that crashed in the Andes in 1972. After the accident, he lived in Buenos Aires where he graduated with a degree in Economic Sciences from the University of Buenos Aires, and then went on to get an MBA from Stanford University. He has had a successful business career as an executive at various companies: Techint, Quilmes and Peñaflor, among others.

Books: Into the Mountains

Pedro Nueno is Professor in the Department of Entrepreneurship, IESE and Professor and President of CEIBS.

Books: The 2020 Board

Peter Hubbell is a proven leader with 30+ years’ experience in the advertising agency business. Peter’s dissatisfaction with industry norms compelled him to create BoomAgers – a new kind of ad agency purpose-built for the new age of marketing and Dedicated to the Most Valuable Generation™. Before BoomAgers, he was global board member at Saatchi & Saatchi, responsible for one of its top three businesses worldwide. Throughout his career, Peter has enjoyed success building some of the world’s best-known brands and businesses. He has been a long-standing partner with blue-chip clients including Procter & Gamble, Pillsbury and General Mills and has a reputation as an innovator who builds creative cultures around clients and consumers.

Books: Getting better with age, The old rush

Per Wimmer is the owner of Wimmer Financial, Wimmer Family Office and WimmerSpace.com.

He is the author of the book Wall Street (2011), about the bubbles in the financial markets, with anecdotes from his career in the world of global finance.

In June 2014 he published his second book The Green Bubble to critical acclaim in Sweden and in Denmark. Prior to founding his London-based international corporate advisory firm and family office, Per Wimmer worked in New York and London for Goldman Sachs, leaving the company as Executive Director for Institutional Sales of European Equity products. Per currently lives in London and is also a private astronaut with three trips to space lined up. In 2008, he completed the world’s first tandem sky dive above Mount Everest.

Books: The Green Bubble

Peter Munro is an A.T. Kearney partner based in Sydney. Formerly the managing director of Australia and New Zealand, Peter now leads the firm’s Strategy, Marketing and Sales practice in APAC. With more than 20 years of management consulting experience, he specializes in corporate and business unit strategy, strategy implementation, and operations transformation.

Books: Australia 2034

Phil Dobson BSc (Hons), MBPsS, DHyp, BSCH (Assoc). Phil is trainer, facilitator and coach, and the Founder of BrainWorkshops. He now works with organisation including the BBC, NBCUniversal, Jamie Oliver, Discovery Communications Europe, and Viacom International, providing brain-based training programmes that transform thinking and performance. Phil turns insights from neuroscience, cognitive and behavioural psychology, NLP, hypnotherapy and mindfulness into applicable skills and techniques for the workplace.

Books: The Brain Book

Joined Roland Berger Germany in 2003, and is a Partner in the Consumer Goods and Retail Competence Center and heads the Fashion and Luxury Practice Group.

He is the author of various studies and articles about the luxury goods and fashion markets. Previously, he was Director of Business Development for an international start-up company that he co-founded. Philip is a graduate of Ludwig-Maximilian University and lives with his wife in Munich.

Books: Rethinking Luxury

Richard Martin is a freelance writer and editor.

Kenneth Mikkelsen is a writer, speaker, business adviser and learning designer.

Books: The Neo-Generalist

He is a former fellow in English Literature at Merton College in Oxford, and former editor of the Penguin Classics series. He is now a consultant in branding and corporate storytelling for communications business Radley Yeldar in London.

He has seen storytelling from all sides, and applies insights from the Story Business to helping clients develop their Business Story. He has worked for the likes of GSK, Shell, Lloyds Banking Group, the NHS, Anglo American and Pearson, as well as numerous UK universities and public bodies.

He has published on Victorian literature, John Keats, Oscar Wilde and Shakespeare, and he is the author of a cultural history of sunshine. Only Connect brings these two worlds together. It is his first business book.

Books: Only Connect

Ruben  Turienzo  is  a  leading  business  coach  and  cofounded  141  Coach ing.  He  also  teaches  creativity,  leadership  and   personal  branding  at  the  Jaime  Vera  Foundation  and  Formaselect  in  Spain.

Books: The Wisdom of Oz

Salvador Alva is the president of Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico. He was previously the president of PepsiCo Latam

Books: Your life, your key business

Scott Keyser is a business development consultant who helps organizations around the world to compete more effectively for business and win ‘must-win’ contracts.

His background includes eight years with Ernst & Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers. As a National Proposals Consultant with Ernst & Young in London, he helped the UK firm to double its tender win-rate. Besides training in bid writing and pitching, Scott offers clients live bid support: he works with the bid team on a live opportunity to tip the odds in their favour through advice, support and coaching.

His average win-rate is 86%. Scott also trains organizations across the board in writing skills, having identified 21 persuasive writing techniques. 2014 marks his ten-year anniversary of delivering training in writing skills to staff of The Economist.

Books: Winner takes all

Shelley has spent her 34 year career as a psychologist determined “to give psychology away,” by demystifying psychological and psychoanalytic principles, and providing people and organizations with thoughtful, practical information and methods to change their lives.

She has provided employee assistance programs, executive coaching, and organizational consultation to leading corporations, including Avon, Credit Suisse First Boston, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, and divisions of Exxon, Eastman Kodak, and General Electric, nationally and globally. She offers her expertise in leadership through coaching and development programs to such diverse industries as finance, fashion, education, technology, entertainment, and the arts.

Dr. Reciniello has a Clinical/Social Psychology Doctorate from the Graduate Faculty of the New School For Social Research and is a member of the International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations. She has appeared on television, radio, and been quoted in varied publications including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Glamour, Elle, and the Reuters international publications network. A popular speaker, her presentation goals are to inform, assist, entertain, and inspire.

Books: The Conscious Leader

Mr Shigeo Shimizu was a senior executive of Toray Industries and a life-long veteran of Japan’s management culture

Books: Japanese Style Management

Siemon Scamell-Katz founded a market research agency in the early 1990s, which specialised in shopper behaviour, and which he then sold to TNS (part of the WPP Group) in 2007. Today, he is one of the world’s top 3 experts in consumer behaviour and lectures and consults globally.

Books: The art of shopping

Simon Tyler is a specialist in Leadership Impact and has coached over 500 executives from companies including BP, Coutts, DuPont, and Lloyds Banking Group.

Books: The Impact Code, The ‘Keep It Simple’ Book, The Impact Book, The Attitude Book

Simone Lemming Andersen is an author and journalist. She is a specialist in networking and performance. She worked at the Danish Broadcasting Corporation, where she produced radio and TV programmes and hosted her own live talk show. Later she became a senior adviser in a PR company. Her clients include Novo Nordisk, Microsoft and Ernst & Young.

Books: The Networking Book

Si Alhir is an Entrepreneur, Author, Enterprise Business & Technology Transformation Coach, Trainer, Consultant, and Practitioner.

Books: The anti-fragility edge

Stefan Hyttfors is an international futurist, consultant and speaker who specializes in teaching people how to understand and deal with change in an uncertain world.

Books: Yoga for Leaders

Stephen W. Dyer, PhD, is an A.T. Kearney partner and head of the firm’s Asia Pacific Innovation Practice. Stephen has more than 20 years of industry and consulting experience in a number of highly engineered product fields, including automotive, aerospace, and high tech.

He has led strategy development and operational improvement initiatives for numerous automotive and industrial clients, and worked extensively in the field of alternative energy automobiles. He consults across many industries on innovation and product development topics. Prior to consulting, Stephen conducted research and development.

He holds several patents and is the author of numerous articles in technical journals and business publications. He earned his MS in mechanical engineering at Brigham Young University, and earned both a PhD in mechanical engineering and MBA from the University of Michigan.

Stephen Schneider is Managing Director of CPS Ltd, which he founded in 1996 to support boardroom development through executive mentoring and coaching. Stephen’s corporate background includes senior executive roles in the ENSERCH Corporation of Dallas and Higgs & Hill where he was a member of the PLC board. Over the past 14 years Stephen has built a reputation as a mentor and coach to boards, boardroom directors, and senior executives of some of the country’s leading organisations. He regularly contributes articles and interviews on leadership and boardroom development to professional journals, the national press and radio.

Books: The Board Game

 

Books: My 31 Practices

Steven is the Director of Deeper Learning Ltd, a global executive education consultancy based in London, UK. He currently works internationally as a consultant, speaker and coach in the areas of leadership, organizational development, diversity, networking, managing in uncertainty and social capital. He has trained in Gestalt psychology for groups and individuals, ontological coaching and is an experienced executive coach, working frequently with senior teams including at the CEO level.

Books: Not Knowing

Thomas became involved in graphic design at an early age and his passion for creativity runs like a thread through his entire life. After making an instructive detour via architecture, in 2004 he successfully completed his studies as a creative director (BA). Since then, he has gained a lot of experience with global players such as UBS and SIEMENS as well as with small companies and agencies.

Passionate about design and the wellbeing of the SME landscape in Switzerland, he is now an independent entrepreneur advising young entrepreneurs and implementing start-ups.

Books: Management Design

Tim Johnson has spent most of his working life as a business strategist, helping create scalable sustainable businesses and turning around those in distress. Tim now works as a business coach, and mentor.

Books: The Success Book

Twan van de Kerkhof is the founder of the European Leadership Platform (HQ in Amsterdam), a roundtable and discussion group for leading business leaders, and author of six other management books.

Books: The YOU of Leadership

Violetka Dirlea is an A.T. Kearney partner and head of the firm’s Innovation Practice for the Americas. She has more than 15 years of business and consulting experience, primarily in industrial manufacturing, with a focus on advising original equipment manufacturers and suppliers on how to improve performance.

Violetka’s expertise extends to all areas of the value chain—from quality, innovation strategy, and supply chain strategy to profitability, organizational design, and cost and quality transformations—as she helps companies gain competitive advantage.

Violetka earned a dual master’s degree in international business and business administration from Thunderbird, the American Graduate School of International Management, and Arizona State University.

Books: Masters of Innovation

Bill Cohen’s books have been published 23 languages. As a speaker, Cohen has spoken on five continents, and executives from more than 50 foreign countries have heard him.

Books: Peter Drucker on Consulting

Viviane is the founder of the Spanish chapter of the International Coach Federation and author of numerous books on coaching.

Books: Coaching Excellence