Hamish challenges organisations and teams to think differently about how they approach innovation and/or sustainable change and to re-focus their activity and behaviours accordingly. In his career he has been the non-airline man in an airline, the non-railwayman running a railway and the non-banker running a bank. Based on these experiences, he is keen to ensure we all embrace the opportunities provided by looking outside our current environment to both customers and other industries and disciplines.

Key challenges include:

• The need to change the way we “understand” the internal and external customers for our innovation/change (Use of soft insights, immersion in their world etc)
• How a clear “Customer Promise” is the critical tool for delivering innovation and Change. In BA and other organisations, changing the platform for innovation/change to a clear articulation of the intended “benefit to the customer” brought a number of breakthroughs:
  • A clearer focus in your key priorities/activities and communications.
  • A new starting point for idea generation and problem-solving.
  • A unified approach and common ambition for all departments
• Taking Lessons from outside is critical to innovation and change. Other industries and disciplines often provide the best new ideas - not just in product and service, but also in leadership, process, and communications. If you don’t look at new sources of inspiration, where will your innovation come from? Hamish (the “Master Thief”) can share examples from BA, Eurostar, Sainsbury’s and many others where breakthroughs came from “stealing” ideas from other businesses, sport, the rescue services, the Arts and many other places.
• When it comes to Making it happen there are many lessons to be shared in Internal communication; Leadership; the way you set the “Ambition”; Creating Ownership among staff; the “Make it Easy” model; “Less discussion/more testing”; the critical role of first-line supervisors and many others.

Are you ready for the challenge? Register for the European Label Forum in Copenhagen.