Michael Diamond went from Oxford to a theater degree to a cable company’s marketing department to teaching it. He argues that intellectual curiosity, not a discipline, is what makes the combination work, and that purpose is not the only thing that can hold a leadership team together.
Raja Rajamannar on the companies that removed the role and what they were reacting to, the promotions that fund their own social programs, and the five hours he blocks out every weekend.
Colin Mayer traces corporate purpose back two thousand years, defines it as profitable solutions to the problems of people and planet, and explains why the crisis broke the win-win the declaration assumed.
Keith Weed on nine years running marketing, sustainability and communications at Unilever: the targets nobody knew how to reach, why he took the missed ones on stage himself, and beating yourself over the head before the CFO does it.
Sylvia Lagnado on the rough internal film of executives’ own daughters, why she asks more people than is comfortable before deciding, and a founder who was glad a competitor did his mission first.
Antonio Lucio on walking into three companies mid-transition and starting each time in the same place, the four things he says the industry controls outright, and the purpose he arrived at at forty four.
Coca-Cola’s sparkling CMO on interdependency by design rather than goodwill, four ways to take sugar out and the local judgement about which to use, and asking why the wrong decision looked right at the time.
WPP China’s chief executive on why the country is a continent rather than a market, why the winning recipe has to be held lightly, and what a leap forward looks like when the intermediate step never got built.
Paul Polman on the training program that came before the strategy, why he refuses the word courageous for his own decisions, and the answer he gives marketers who say they have not been given the space.
UNICEF’s deputy executive director on why money is the wrong opening offer, the homework a good partner has done before the first meeting, and admitting your own organization is slow.
