Comments

Cathy, well done for Tom. Wise advice in a city of wisdom. I love London too.

Posted by Andres Agostini (Andy) at September 4, 2009 12:21 AM

Thanks Cathy. Have a good trip home Tom...

Posted by Ian Sanders at September 4, 2009 1:18 AM

It was a very good afternoon and I went away entertained, provoked, challenged and energised. Thanks Tom.

Posted by Mark JF at September 4, 2009 1:32 AM

Dear Tom,

Thank you, thank you thank you for yesterday afternoon! You gave me loads to think about and plenty more to do. I have a notepad full of scribbles and remarks which I intend to convert to a reflective log of my experience and will send on in due course.

Just a couple of immediate chunks of that thought process. I've numbered them to suggest that there is an order to my thinking! :-)

1. An Equation:

Dancing >>>>>>>>>>>>> Strategy

In other Words Edward VII's ability to make relationships work is far more important than strategy. James Brown also noted "Any problem in the world can be solved by dancing" - possibly an overstatement by the King of Soul, but good value nonetheless! :-)

2. Parallel thinking

I did an interview on leadership the other day - the interviewer insisted on a personal reflective log and I was asked "What one thing do you think every organisation would most benefit from doing, or doing differently?"

My answer was "Saying thank you for something well done or at least a very good attempt"

'Thank you' is indeed an undervalued skill! It seems that we came up with a similar message.

Interview at http://dontcompromise.askeurope.com/2009/09/03/humdynger/

Personal Log with the 'thank you' remark at http://dontcompromise.askeurope.com/guests/plp-petercook/

3. Numeracy matters

In my attempt to spit my question out rapidly, I may have given the view that numbers don't matter and that we should replace business school Deans with 'Edward VII' types. Far from it. I am a scientist with an MBA (not yet returned!), so I completely agree that numbers matter. In philosophical terms however, math is a 'necessary' but 'insufficient' condition of organisational success. In other words, without spreadsheets et al, we cannot make informed decisions, but without humanity and soul, our decisions are vacuous.

I could think of nothing more that could have reasonably been fitted into the afternoon, save, perhaps for your personal views on a comparison of the leadership / execution styles of Napoleon, Edward VII, your Grandfather and Bruce Springsteen! ;-)) I suspect that Bruce 'counts the nails' before he goes on stage to make sure no-one is short changed. Excellence often has a background of meticulous small details in the preparation stage.

Thank you once again - this was a very important day for me.

Very Best

Peter Cook

Posted by Peter Cook at September 4, 2009 8:26 AM

The London p.m. session was an enthusiatic reminder for management to employ the basics. My colleague and I felt that some of the comments were directed at us! A great afternoon - Thank You.

Posted by Allan Davies at September 4, 2009 10:22 AM