Corporate culture

‘Ensuring successful CEO transitions’ – Interview Ty Wiggins (‘The New CEO’)

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Why do people want to become CEO in the first place?” That was one of the first questions I posed to Ty Wiggins during our interview for the Leadership 2.0 Podcast.

After all, the statistics are sobering:

Being a CEO comes with immense responsibility because the CEO is ultimately accountable for the company’s entire trajectory, from strategic wins like M&As to major setbacks like corporate scandals.

Every day, CEOs must make tough decisions on issues that can’t be resolved at lower levels. More often than not, these choices are a matter of picking the ‘least unattractive’ option. These decisions have a significant influence on the lives and financial well-being of all stakeholders. This broad group includes employees, investors (e.g., pension funds), consumers, suppliers, and government bodies.

In the 32nd episode of the Leadership 2.0 podcast, I interview Ty Wiggins of Russell Reynolds about his book ‘The New CEO – Lessons from CEOs on How to Start Well and Perform Quickly (Minus the Common Mistakes)’.

During our conversation, we discussed the following topics:

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Heroic Leadership – An interview with Chris Lowney

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Many people in the workplace wrestle with combining their ethical and spiritual convictions on the one hand, with what they feel is required of them to progress their careers, or simply to stay in their roles, on the other.

For people who want to address this tension, ‘Heroic Leadership – Best Practices from a 450-Year-Old Company That Changed the World’ by Chris Lowney. ‘ will be a great read!

Chris Lowney, is a one-time Jesuit seminarian, who currently chairs the board of CommonSpirit Health, America’s largest not-for-profit healthcare system with 140 hospitals and more than 150,000 employees. Previously, he served as a Managing Director of J.P. Morgan & Co. in Tokyo, Singapore, London and New York.

In the 28th episode of the Leadership 2.0 podcast, I interview Chris Lowney about Heroic Leadership. During our conversation, we discussed the following topics:

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‘The Change Philosopher’ – An interview with Daniël Wolfs

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🎙️ Even though we have a vast array of change management theories and methodologies at our disposal (John Kotter, Kurt Lewin, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, William Bridges, ADKAR, etc.), it still proves to be very hard for us as leaders and consultants to implement real, sustainable change (transformation).

🚫 The harsh reality is that most change projects fail (the famous 70% of McKinsey), or end with a superficial victory declaration, after which the organization often falls back to ‘the way we DID things here’.

⁉️ ‘Why is that?’ That very question drove Daniël Wolfs, experienced change consultant and co-founder of The Change Studio (Netherlands), to write his thought-provoking book ‘De Veranderfilosoof’ (The Change Philosopher) on how we can approach transformation in a deeper, more human, and more sustainable way.’

► In our conversation about this book, we discussed the following topics:

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Leadership in the Banking Industry – Interview Ralph Hamers

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The image of the banking industry has been severely tarnished by the financial crisis (2007-2008), which led to increasing regulatory and compliance demands. At the same time, the industry is experiencing emerging competition from FinTechs, evolving business models, and disruptive technologies.

In light of these challenges, I recently spoke with Ralph Hamers, to explore his views on what effective leadership in the banking sector entails.

In our conversation, we touched on the following topics:

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How FOUND is Disrupting Recruitment – Interview with Victor Akwunwa

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In many recruitment processes, human beings are reduced to commodities, and human dignity has become an afterthought.

More often than not, recruitment has become a volume-driven exercise, where metrics like ‘time to fill’ have replaced the craftsmanship essential for identifying the best candidate for the role. As a result, candidates often find these processes unsatisfactory, as their potential unique contributions and value to organizations are not adequately recognized.

FOUND, a Swiss-based start-up company, wants to disrupt this traditional approach to recruitment. I recently interviewed Victor Akwunwa, the Chief Sales Officer of FOUND for my Leadership 2.0 podcast.

During our conversation, we discussed the following topics:

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The Company Culture of On – An interview with Alessandra Del Pino

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There are some companies I deeply admire, and On, the Swiss sports and apparel brand is definitely one of them! Not only do they make amazing products and have an extremely powerful brand, they also have a unique company culture.

For this reason, I was thrilled to sit down with Alessandra Del Pino, Head of Engagement & Talent Growth at On, to discuss the company culture of On, or, as Alessandra describes it, their ‘secret sauce’.

During our conversation, we covered the following topics:

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Leadership lessons from a CEO – An interview with Jeroen van der Veer (Shell)

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Twenty years ago, in 2004, Shell was hit by the reserves scandal. In the midst of this crisis, the board asked Jeroen van der Veer to become CEO and navigate the company out of this crisis. Recently Jeroen wrote a book titled ‘Van A near B – Lessen in leiderschap’ (‘From A to B – Lessons in Leadership’), in which he reflects on these, and other experiences during his long career (which also included for instance being the chairman of the supervisory board of ING during the financial crisis).

In this episode of the Leadership 2.0 podcast, I discuss with Jeroen:

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A successful corporate culture change requires leaders to be the change they want to see

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Culture change is firmly back on the map! More and more companies are starting to reflect (again) what their culture is and what it should be.

More often than not, such a culture review is initiated by the CEO. The reason is that CEOs have a unique position in organizations: they often see both the current performance of the organization, as well as its unrealized potential. In case CEOs do not see this unrealized potential themselves, their Supervisory Boards, analysts and (activist) shareholders will point it out to them quickly enough.

Unrealized potential

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