On this week’s episode of The Debrief, MT’s editorial team discusses what can be done to boost business optimism and how groupthink can sabotage your transformation agenda.

If the first quarter’s GDP figures briefly put a spring in Rachel Reeves’ step, this boost would have been short-lived, while we can only assume she had regained the standard-issue world-weary tread of a put-upon chancellor by the time the ONS’s latest monthly estimate rolled around. The 0.7% increase in GDP that raised spirits early in the year gave way to projections of virtually flat growth in the second quarter, while the most recent data for May showed a surprise – if small – contraction of 0.1% (let’s not even mention the latest inflation figures). But Downing Street aren’t the only ones feeling under siege. With sentiment among businesses faring scarcely better, we asked our community of CEOs what’s needed to boost optimism.

It’s common to strive towards consensus, but at what point do organisations become echo chambers, where new ideas quickly lose steam under the collective weight of conformity - if they ever even see the light of day? And as businesses face the need to rapidly evolve to meet new realities, what implications does it have for transformations if teams are governed by common assumptions, shared notions of ‘best practice’ and attachment to what’s come before? Data Impact author Ritavan’s own view is clear: groupthink is the “silent killer of transformation”. We discuss his argument.

Credits:

Presenters: Antonia Garrett Peel and Éilis Cronin

Producer: Inga Marsden

Artwork: David Robinson

Links:

https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/mt-asks-against-backdrop-economic-headwinds-boost-business-optimism/opinion-and-analysis/article/1925050

https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/groupthink-enemy-transformation/opinion-and-analysis/article/1924413

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Samsung is putting people at the very heart of its new company proposition. Under the direction of its first-ever chief customer officer, Deborah Honig, the company is evolving from creating standalone products to leveraging AI to give busy customers back time “in a world that reduces to slow down”.

In this week's episode, Honig discusses Samsung's shift towards a "customer-first" strategy, focusing on integrating technology to provide meaningful solutions to everyday problems, such as reducing energy consumption. It's collaboration with British Gas directly supports customers looking to reduce their consumption and their energy bills.

Credits:

Producer: Inga Marsden

Presenter: Éilis Cronin

Artwork: David Robinson

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week’s episode, MT’s editorial team discusses what chatbots think of your brand and how humans and AI agents might work together in the future.

The traditional customer journey largely consisted of touchpoints that businesses could control, such as website content or paid advertising. The rise of social media and proliferation of influencers has upended this – a challenge for brands that is amplified when these sources feed the chatbots that have become a consumer and business go-to for product and service recommendations. BCG’s chief marketing officer Jessica Apotheker recently spoke to MT about the evolution of reputation management in the gen AI era. We discuss what she had to say.

Continuing the AI theme, in a recent article for MT, Salesforce UK&I’s CEO Zahra Bahrololoumi argued that today’s cohort of business leaders will be the last to oversee ‘all-human teams’. As the technology advances, she predicts that AI agents will become increasingly integrated into the workforce, taking on repetitive tasks so humans can focus on driving innovation. We unpack her argument.

Links:

https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/5-mins-with%E2%80%A6-jessica-apotheker/interviews/article/1922694

https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/todays-ceos-will-last-manage-all-human-workforces-heres-why-thats-good-thing-growth/opinion-and-analysis/article/1923090

Credits:

Producer: Jude Owen

Presenters: Éilis Cronin and Antonia Garrett Peel

Artwork: David Robinson

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s 5pm on a Friday and you’re still in the office. In just two short hours, the CEO is scheduled to have dinner with a major supplier. This meeting is not merely a social occasion, but a strategic briefing. Preparations for events such as this are typically protracted processes, however you possess a unique advantage. By submitting a prompt to an AI program, you have effectively completed 90% of the work needed to prepare, thereby reducing the need for additional office hours and ensuring CEO satisfaction.

This transformative approach, leveraging the expansive integration of AI across all departments, represents a shift in how BT Sourced manages its procurement operations. This isn’t purely about incremental improvements; it’s a fundamental reimagining of the entire large-scale procurement process.

Cyril Pourrat, the company's CEO, discusses the inspiration behind this ambitious project, which cuts sourcing cycles from around a week to just one day and, in some cases, just a few minutes.

Credits:

Producer: Inga Marsden

Presenter: Éilis Cronin

Artwork: David Robinson

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week’s episode of The Debrief, MT’s editorial team discusses how to get employees behind your AI transformation and the six steps you need to nail when selling a business.

When orchestrating a transformation it can be tempting to focus on the strategic, operational and financial dimensions of the change – the why, the what and the how – at the expense of the who. Objectives can be neatly mapped, and budgets and KPIs clearly delineated, while winning over employee sentiment presents a somewhat hazier and more slippery goal. But this task becomes even more important when standard-issue resistance to change meets ‘FOBO’ (fear of becoming obsolete) in the AI integration era. We consider Immediate Media people director David Reay’s pointers for getting it right.

Selling a business, as Heligan partner Simon Heath recently wrote for MT, is often described as ‘part marathon, part chess game’ – and for good reason. Parting with something you’ve poured years into building can feel simultaneously like a test of endurance and strategy, but there are pointers you can follow to smooth the process. Heath has broken down a sale into six steps – we bring you his tips for nailing each one.

Links:

https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/avoid-one-error-wreck-ai-strategy/opinion-and-analysis/article/1920705

https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/selling-business-six-steps-need-nail/down-to-business/article/1921941

Credits:

Presenters: Antonia Garrett Peel and Éilis Cronin

Producer: Inga Marsden

Artwork: David Robinson

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2025 has so far been a year of high profile M&A deals, But Trump’s trade war, armed conflicts in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, and, on a more local scale, the UK’s various trade agreements with the US, EU, and India, have all contributed to business leaders delaying investments, according to the latest EY-Parthenon CEO Outlook survey.

Chief executives are always looking for ways to increase financial value for their customers, clients, and shareholders, says Gonzalo Brujo, chief executive of consultancy Interbrand. Their focus is always on “expanding, gaining different capabilities, bringing in different partners, gaining customers from around the world, and bringing new ideas to the table”.

In his view, leaders must always have a pipeline of acquisitions or new mergers to ensure their company survives and thrives. In this week's episode, He provides CEOs with a checklist to help them elevate their brands throughout the M&A process.

Credits:

Producer: Inga Marsden

Presenter: Éilis Cronin

Artwork: David Robinson

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week’s episode, MT’s editorial team discusses the pros and cons of AI avatars and whether our consumption habits are hurting British business.

Swiss-based bank UBS is using AI to create avatars of its experts that will appear in video content for clients, in a move it claims will be a win for productivity. The technology, while not a new phenomenon, raises significant questions about AI’s potential impact on human connection and relationships in business. We discuss the pros and cons of using digital clones.

If the other outcomes of Trump’s manoeuvrings on US-China trade are still unclear, one thing he has achieved has been to thrust the issue of “de minimus” exemptions firmly into the spotlight. In April, the UK government announced it would be reviewing its own rule, which permits packages worth less than £135 to enter the country duty-free – a loophole that many credit with fuelling the rise of Chinese retailers such as Shein and Temu. As one Telegraph commentator wrote that UK homes have become “temporary staging posts for goods on their way to the landfill”, MT asked its readers: is the UK bingeing on cheap imports at the expense of British business? We bring you a flavour of the responses.

Links:

https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/ai-avatars-future-business-communication/long-reads/article/1920337

https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/bingeing-cheap-imports-expense-british-business/opinion-and-analysis/article/1918842

Credits:

Presenters: Antonia Garrett Peel and Éilis Cronin

Producer: Inga Marsden

Artwork: David Robinson

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“Any idea you can think of for a new product, I guarantee you that somewhere in the world there’s six other people thinking of the same thing.”

If those words from L.E.K. Consulting vice chair Stuart Jackson come as something of a reality check, consider also the challenges involved in achieving superior functionality to existing offerings, defining a market, and gaining those consumers’ trust. And that’s not to mention the incumbent channels, suppliers and even parts of your own organisation that will be “trying to find ways to preserve the current order of things”.

It’s little wonder then that the failure rate for new products is so high. Fortunately, however, there are steps you can take, as Jackson and co-author Ilya Trakhtenberg write in their new book Predictable Winners, to “systematically identify and retire risk at each step of the innovation journey”.

This week's guest on Leadership Lessons, Jackson offers listeners advice on doing just that. He also talks about the pitfalls of sticking to incremental innovation, the role of leadership mindset, and where to find the 'low-cost signals' that can offer clues as to what would-be customers really want.

*This episode was recorded on 22nd April.

Credits:

Producer: Inga Marsden

Presenter: Antonia Garrett Peel

Artwork: David Robinson

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.