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Brexit is a rally cry for innovation

Now is the time for Business Schools to help their students capitalise on the opportunities that Brexit uncertainty could introduce, argues Victoria Harrison-Mirauer

Wherever you sit on the Brexit spectrum, from ennui to exasperation, there can be no doubt that, for many organisations, the present levels of uncertainty are uncomfortably high.

Uncertainty is nothing new to business – concepts such as ‘VUCA’ (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) have become so much a part of common parlance, and which so infuses Business School curricula, that they can sometimes float past almost unnoticed. 

Brexit has added a new dimension – a ‘perfect storm’ showing that many of the ‘old’ rules are ripe for reassessment. The current political chaos in the UK serves to highlight that many of the organising systems and structures we rely on to make decisions are no longer helpful. As these structures are proving themselves inadequate, now is the time to focus on innovation and the opportunities that Brexit uncertainty could introduce.

Whatever the terms of Brexit and its final details, the UK still operates in a global, networked, connected context, and the country will still be full of skilled, creative and forward-thinking businesspeople who can find opportunities in plenty of sectors. The innovative, competitive and dynamic economic forces that make up the UK’s creative industries, universities, health system, financial and professional services companies are the envy of the world and matter now more than ever. 

Innovation has a central part to play in rewriting the post-Brexit rulebook. Innovators (who are, by nature, optimists) might look at the situation now and hope that new politics, new types of organisation, new global relationships and new commercial opportunities are there to be shaped.

A 21st-century Business School can help its students step up to this opportunity in the following ways:

1. Contextualising the change. This will help ensure future leaders are well equipped to respond to the challenges of unprecedented technology-led innovation, the spectre of climate change and the responsibility of business to the planet, as well as the seismic implications of new-world demographics and emerging economies. This is about helping students see the ‘big picture’, and encouraging them to take some ownership and agency in shaping how it develops. 

When schoolchildren take to the streets to protest about climate change, our time to act on this issue must be surely be running out. What this tells us is that the world is in need of some ideas, and fast. It is the responsibility of Business Schools to ensure their students are ready to drive this change, and to help them graduate both wanting to, and feeling capable of, making a difference.

2. Equipping students with an innovation mindset. Without question, the ‘red threads’ woven through the success narratives of tomorrow’s leaders will be agility, a growth mindset, and resilience as a personal ‘super power’. Business Schools are well placed to encourage and facilitate the development of an innovation mindset, as well as to focus on building creativity and problem-solving skills. Students need to be prepared for new kinds of leadership in new kinds of organisation ecosystems. This environment is one where collaboration, co-creation, partnership and flexibility count. 

3. Developing students’ communication skills. Innovation and uncertainty both demand leaders who are brilliant communicators. Being able to lead for innovation means being able to bring diverse interest groups and stakeholders along with you. Communication is essential for those who want to work at pace in complex circumstances, where strategies are increasingly emerging in ‘real time’, and where priorities are constantly changing and so much is simply unknown. 

If Brexit teaches us anything, it’s the central role communication plays in creating understanding, building consensus and negotiation. It also teaches us what happens when communication breaks down. Tomorrow’s global leaders need to be able to communicate effectively across increasingly international teams and cultures, and to be technology agnostic, moving seamlessly between face-to-face and virtual contexts. Business Schools which use experiential learning effectively can help their students practise these skills in a safe space, as a supportive proving ground.

4. Focusing less on innovation processes and more on cognitive and behavioural approaches. As far as innovation is concerned, ‘where there’s a will, there‘s a way’. As with Brexit, innovation can be a messy and unpredictable business; however, as we all now know too well, being comfortable with ambiguity is easier said than done. Understanding and embracing the cognitive diversity that drives creative problem solving and innovation is an essential piece of the future leader’s toolkit. 

One of Google’s mantras is ‘creativity loves constraint’. The constraints of Brexit are therefore a rally cry for innovators. Educators must avoid fuelling panic and instead work hard to ignite the optimism that, in turn, fuels the kind of opportunism and entrepreneurship that can be the foundation of new markets, new technologies, new jobs, new business and growth.  

In response to some international businesses expressing concern about disruptions to their supply chains as a result of Brexit, UK-based businesses have to be persuasive and optimistic about their ability to meet these challenges. Innovation is a fundamentally optimistic pursuit; it has to be. Innovation is also positive and future-focused. These qualities are all the more important in times of crisis and uncertainty. 

Now is not the time to turn off the innovation tap, but quite the reverse. Investing in the ability to innovate, solve problems creatively and lead in the development and commercialisation of
new technologies is more important than ever as the UK forges new structures, new politics and seeks to lead different geopolitical relationships.

Young people, aspiring business leaders and entrepreneurs are often described by the media as the ‘victims’ of Brexit. This may be troubling – and it may be true – but by creating connected communities, active global alumni networks and using genuinely international content, Business Schools are well-placed to counterbalance that narrative. 

Hult International Business School is a case in point. With five campuses globally and a globe-trotting cohort, its UK base is one cog in a truly international machine. Hult MBAs move across campuses in ways that mirror the international career aspirations of many of its participants. Perhaps this peripatetic option becomes more attractive to students as a result of Brexit who might otherwise have chosen a single-campus, UK-based institution. 

A few years ago, I came across some interesting discussions into a 300-year-old theory that challenges today’s innovators. A team at Cambridge University explored some ideas by English philosopher and statesman, Francis Bacon, and used his approach to think about how organisations innovate today. 

Bacon’s theory was all about ‘unknown unknowns’, different ways of creating hypotheses and therefore ideas and hunches. Born in 1561, he was what history celebrates as an influential ‘thinker’ and someone whose ideas have stood the test of time by being both innovative in context, as well as useful and interesting, posthumously.

Commenting on this research, University of Cambridge Judge Business School Professor of Economics and Organisation. Jochen Runde said: ‘We urge people to imagine possible influences that might lead to business scenarios that are radically different from the one they think is most likely. By being induced to look for information about extreme possibilities, they will be taken away from the familiar places they would normally be looking and thereby put themselves in a position of learning things that are truly new to them. Effectively, the method we are proposing provides a means to counteract the confirmation bias, as well as many other biases that have been identified by behavioural psychologists. And it can be done on either end of the spectrum – extremely good outcomes or extremely bad outcomes.’

The future is certainly unpredictable, but what is interesting is our continued attempts to predict it. The efforts made to ‘future-proof’ loom large in the scenario planning around Brexit, with many businesses across the UK making plans for a ‘no-deal’ scenario. 

To an extent, this scenario-planning conversation is good strategy practice; thinking about the context of your operations, anticipating key influences and trends, working with organisational strategy as an ‘emergent’ rather than fixed entity. 

The organisations best prepared for the future are the ones that spend less time trying to predict it, and more time building the innovative, adaptive, and agile capabilities of their employees at all levels so that they are ready to respond to it and shape it.

Victoria Harrison-Mirauer is a Cambridge University graduate with 19 years of experience across innovation, marketing, digital and brand strategy. She is currently the Discipline Lead for Innovation at Ashridge Hult International Business School and runs a private innovation practice, The Ideas Machine.

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How you can help address diversity and unconscious bias in the workplace

Every employee can do something to minimise the impact of unconscious biases, and new recruits are particularly well positioned to help organisations improve their diversity policies, says Trevor Sterling, Partner at UK law firm, Moore Blatch

When starting a new job, there are many things to get to grips with – a new commute, getting to know your colleagues and a different style of working.

But, alongside the exciting opportunities, I would also encourage you to look at your organisation’s diversity policy – with a fresh perspective and outlook, you are an invaluable resource for suggested upgrades and improvements. Taking the time to make suggestions also gives you a great opportunity to make your mark and get noticed early on.  

Obstacles and gaps in awareness

A 2019 study from the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) found that most company leaders, who are primarily white heterosexual males, still underestimate the challenges diverse employees face. These are the leaders who control the budgets and get to decide which diversity programmes to pursue.

For those entering new roles, after a career move or graduate schemes which have elements of learning and training embedded, there is a wonderful opportunity to spot where a company’s gaps may be, in terms of addressing diversity.

Every employee can do something to minimise the impact of unconscious biases and discrimination, no matter their position, and this is particularly true when you enter a new organisation. Taking action to effect positive changes should also improve morale at work, help build stronger relationships between colleagues and, ultimately, help retain talented staff. 

Unconscious biases

One of the biggest restrictions to increasing diversity may be unconscious biases. Everyone has unconscious biases but failing to address these creates a cycle in which companies continue to hire those that act, think and look similar to themselves.

Sadly, the BCG study also found that more than a third of diverse employees said ‘yes’ when asked if they see obstacles to diversity and inclusion at their company. In addition, half said they do not believe that their companies have the right mechanisms in place to ensure that major decisions are free from bias.

Recognise your own biases

There are always things you can do to ensure you minimise your own unconscious biases and help encourage diversity within your workplace.

If you are a newer employee, it may be easier for you to see the issues which surround diversity and you may even experience it firsthand. You may also need to be honest with yourself about the stereotypes that affect you and your decisions. There are various tests you can take, for example, those developed by researchers at Harvard, but it’s possible to spot these for yourself in day-to-day interactions. Watch how you react to situations and people when you are tired, under pressure and stressed. When these emotions and moods are felt, you are more likely to allow your subconscious thoughts to become visible. Researchers have also suggested that simply thinking about positive situations, such as your interactions with a group towards whom you may have a bias, can limit your unconscious biases.

How we are addressing unconscious bias

From my own experience as a legal professional with a BAME background, there have certainly been times where I have missed out on opportunities in my career due to unconscious bias from those around me.

For example, I noticed subtle issues arising with colleagues at a previous firm that I believe were down to cultural differences. These instances, which did not involve arguments or questions relating to my work, escalated to the point where it was suggested that I be moved from my field of expertise on to stress cases, effectively sidelining me.

I mention this not to relay to you my career ups and downs, but to make the point that having achieved a degree of success in an identical role in the field of law has only strengthened my belief that I was on the receiving end of unconscious bias at my previous firm. It is experiences like these that led to my involvement in the Mary Seacole Trust, a UK organisation that campaigns for equality and promotes diverse leadership in both the private and public sectors.

At my current law firm, we have addressed the issue of unconscious bias directly by making training in this area a key priority for all partners and managers. This has raised our employees’ awareness of the types of bias and discrimination traps that people can fall into and has created a more inclusive working environment as a result. We have also taken more direct measures, such as ensuring that there is ethnic representation on the firm’s pay and promotion committees.

No matter what level of seniority you currently hold, it’s important for you to express your opinion if there are ways in which you believe your company can improve their diversity initiatives. It may feel like your opinion’s value will be limited if you’re new, or in a more junior role. But, in reality, there is ample opportunity for you to express your opinion and to help improve the company as a whole. This is something which the senior leadership team and other colleagues will inevitably be thankful for.

Trevor Sterling is Major Trauma Partner at UK law firm, Moore Blatch.

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Leaders and entrepreneurs in focus: Barry Moore, Cofounder at Party Hard Travel

When is the right time to launch a company? Ideally, it’s when you’re still a student, says Barry Moore, Cofounder of UK travel agency, Party Hard Travel.

‘While you’re a student you probably have more time than you’ll ever have once you graduate and have work commitments,’ he reasons. 

Barry set up his company (while still at university) in 2014 alongside business partner, Nathan Cable and Party Hard Travel has since been able to expand and take on new recruits, particularly during those all-important summer months. In this, Barry has found great value in personality tests: ‘We get every new hire to complete the Myers-Briggs test when they start. We’ve learnt from experience that what you think you’re good at isn’t always what you’re actually good at.’

In the following interview, Barry [pictured below, right] also outlines how his own role has evolved over time and why he believes mentoring should be a two-way street – ‘think about how you can make it beneficial for your mentor too,’ he advises. Read on to learn more.

Can you tell us a little bit about your current role and what it involves?

My role has evolved a lot from the early days. When we started Party Hard Travel, we fell into work tasks and I worked on social posts while Nathan [pictured above, right] dealt with details. It wasn’t working well. Doing the Myers-Briggs test [a questionnaire designed to identify differing psychological preferences] helped push us into the right areas with Nathan focused on sales and marketing, while I concentrate on operations.

Operating in such a competitive industry means constantly innovating. My preoccupation has been how we can adapt our operations to improve them and drive the business forward, and I’m forever reading business books and podcasts, all of which can spark ideas. The one thing we don’t want to do is stagnate or become stale.

We get every new hire to complete the Myers-Briggs test when they start. We’ve learnt from experience that what you think you’re good at isn’t always what you’re actually good at. Our growth so far has been phenomenal and we’ve taken on a number of new staff to help drive this period of growth. Nowadays, most of my role is helping to build systems and structures to enable the rest of the team to work as well as possible.

What single piece of advice would you offer undergraduate and post-graduate students of business and management who plan to start their own companies after completing their studies?

Get started as soon as you can, ideally while you are still studying. We set up Party Hard Travel during our second and third year at university.

You might not realise it at the time, but while you’re a student you probably have more time than you’ll ever have once you graduate and have work commitments. It’s an opportunity to explore ideas and do the laborious research and planning stages for your business. There’s also a huge amount of support on offer from universities for students wishing to set up their own businesses. Get all of the advice you can while it’s there.

Mentorship schemes in business are becoming increasingly popular. Who would have been your dream mentor when you were at the outset of your career and why?

At the outset of my career, my dream mentor would have been Duncan Bannatyne. He’s from a working-class (lower socioeconomic) background and started out with a single ice cream van, which became a fleet, before moving into care homes, nurseries and health clubs, building progressively more valuable businesses. After seeing Bannatyne on [UK TV programme] Dragons’ Den and reading his autobiography, what really impressed me was how he has built his businesses from nothing. Today, it’d be Elon Musk – what a legend!

Nathan and I have had a number of great mentors over the years. Portsmouth University set us up with our first mentor when we were starting out. Then we met Paul Stanyer, who set up Holiday Taxis and previously worked as a rep in our industry, and his advice has been invaluable. Gary Lewis from the Travel Network Group is a current mentor and we have Richard Woods from [UK TV programme] The Apprentice as a consultant.

If you’re starting out, a mentor can be hugely beneficial for you, but also think about how you can make it beneficial for your mentor too. For example, we offered Paul a stake in the business, and our time to assist him with a new startup.

What are some of the challenges you’re currently facing, both as a leader and as an organisation?

The biggest challenge we have is when our team more than quadruples over the summer. From our core team of eight, we take on around 25-30 resort hosts between June and September. Party Hard Travel has been built on the product and the service and that means that each and every temporary resort host needs to buy into us as a company.

Yes, our customers will liaise with the head office team when they book their holiday and through other touchpoints, such as social media, but the majority of their customer experience will come through the resort experience delivered by resort hosts. In effect, we’re setting up mini businesses across Europe, and giving our resort hosts the skills and tools they need to deliver that optimal brand experience.

Please outline the importance of responsible management to your company’s strategy and why you feel it is important to business approaches as a whole today.

Responsible management is really important to us as a brand. We give great opportunities to everyone working for us and try to help them to develop new skills rather than just hiring people who already have the skills but might not fit our culture.

A good example is when we hire resort hosts to work for us over the summer. We give them the opportunity to develop skills and experience in a particular area, such as social media marketing,  supply networks, finance or event management, as well as real responsibility and influence.

It’s hugely important to have team members that fit your culture and believe in what you’re doing. If you just see people as a resource and don’t care about them, they’re going to be extremely unhappy in the office and/or they’re going to leave as soon as they get a better offer.

Which three words best describe your approach to leadership (or your management style) and why?

I went to the team to answer this one and the three things they came back with on my approach to leadership are honesty, positivity and independence.

Honesty allows staff to understand how their efforts are impacting the business as a whole. Nothing is off limits; the financials are there for everyone to see and we’ll even train staff to understand them better. This creates a culture of honesty.

A positive culture is paramount, both in work and personally. We have professional targets for staff based around the future growth of the company, but also personal targets like receiving a monetary bonus for hitting fitness goals. Positivity is also about [fostering the] belief that any task is doable and showing that each staff member can achieve their goals.

For me, it’s also important to lead in a way that enables each team member to work independently. It’s good for motivation, engagement and professional satisfaction – and ultimately, that’s good for everyone.

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Adopt a learning mindset to succeed in business

Former Olympic rower Greg Searle has translated lessons from sport to the world of business. In an interview with Kevin Lee-Simion, he outlines some practical advice, from ‘un-learning’ bad habits to building emotional connections within teams

It’s 1992, and the men’s coxed pairs rowing final at the Barcelona Olympics is reaching its climax. 

Team GB –  23 year-old Jonny Searle and his 20-year-old brother Greg Searle – are gaining ground on the leaders, Team Italy. The finish line is approaching. An incredible sprint finish sees the Searles overtake the Italians in the last few metres and win the gold medal.  

Greg Searle followed his success at the 1992 Olympics by winning a second gold medal at the 1993 Rowing World Championships. He went on to win medals in the subsequent seven World Championships in which he competed and has a total of three Olympic medals to his name. 

While training and competing in the late 1990s, Searle became increasingly aware that the lessons he had been learning in sport could be translated to business. After the 2000 Sydney Games, he decided to retire from rowing and, after an 18-month spell sailing in the America’s Cup in New Zealand, he moved back to the UK and began his business coaching career in earnest. 

Reflecting on his sporting past and how he made the move into consultancy, Searle explains: ‘I worked with organisations even as I was rowing. I felt I had an understanding of how to get the best out of myself and the best out of teams.’

Rowing ‘smarter’

The temptation of a home Games brought Searle out of retirement to train with the GB men’s eight for the 2012 London Olympic Games and he was rewarded with a bronze medal. He believes his experience as an executive coach enabled him to be a ‘smarter rower’: he put into practice ideas had he learned in the business world to help his team achieve success. 

For example, he had more honest conversations with team members, encouraged the giving and receiving of feedback, took responsibility for his actions and asked for help when he required it.

‘I loved the ethos behind London 2012 of inspiring a generation,’ he says. ‘I felt that I could be part of a great team and I could do something that was genuinely me at my best and encourage others to challenge themselves too.’ 

Now Searle is once again focused on executive coaching and his varied work includes advising business leaders on performance, engagement, change, emotional connections, resilience
and adaptability. 

He firmly believes that, in both sport and business, passion plays a huge part in working towards, and achieving, a goal. 

‘The most important thing is to find something you’re passionate about and really care about what you’re doing,’ he says. ‘There needs to be an intrinsic motivation. Then, I think work doesn’t feel like work.’

Searle believes individuals can find this ‘passion’ by considering four key aspects: ‘First, you have to find work that is meaningful to you,’ he attests. ‘Second, you need to be in control; third, you need a sense of belonging within your team; and fourth, you have to be good as possible at what you do, and get recognised and rewarded for it.’ 

Searle identified a passion for both rowing and business, but needed to complement this by adopting a learning mindset – a will to improve and develop on an ongoing basis – in order to stay at the top of his game.

He explains: ‘Once you attribute your success solely to your talent and ability, you stop learning new things. I thought I was really talented because I won a gold at the Olympics at the age of 20. I didn’t work as hard for the 1996 Olympics, and didn’t achieve a gold medal.’ 

Adopting a learning mindset

Putting this into the context of business, Searle adds: ‘Individuals, organisations – and MBAs particularly – need to keep learning and remain open to feedback. I was rowing at my best when I had a clear goal and I saw every day as an opportunity to improve. MBAs and business leaders need to do the same.’ 

Searle advises people to adopt and retain a learning mindset throughout their careers, asking themselves: ‘Do I have an attitude that says today is an opportunity to learn, so in the future I can take on bigger projects and face bigger challenges? 

‘I want to learn every day – and tomorrow I want to be slightly better than yesterday,’ he stresses. ‘That’s the learning mindset people need to take into work.’ 

If an entire workforce takes on this learning mentality, it follows that the potential of the whole organisation will be maximised. But Searle also emphasises the importance of what he calls ‘un-learning’, which he defines as the ability to forget a habitual way of doing something, so that you can learn a new, and better way. We all have past experiences but we have to decide whether the past comprises the tools that will help us in the future, or whether the past consists of “baggage” holding us back,’ he says.’ It depends on how you filter you past.’ 

By this he means that individuals must take a step back and really evaluate their past experiences, in a bid to identify and interpret the lessons within them as well as the ‘tools’ that can help them move forward. It is important to note that individuals must be careful not to misread the past, to ensure that the things that used to get in the way do not influence the future.  

Moving forward

‘Un-learning’ helped Searle to move forward in his rowing career.

‘I was coached by Jurgen Grobler, the Head Coach of GB rowing for the Sydney Olympics, but I didn’t like his methods at the time, so I tried to prove to him that my way was the best way,’ he explains. ‘As a result, I was competing with Jurgen, and didn’t want to see him be successful. I needed to un-learn my filters about Grobler and his coaching methods.’ 

Searle misinterpreted the past, and brought the wrong ‘tools’ into the present, and this led to incorrect preconceptions about Grobler. 

He adds: ‘It wasn’t until I missed out on a medal at the Sydney Olympics, that I realised I was the one misreading the past – and this was a factor in our unsuccessful campaign’. 

To prepare for the 2012 London Olympics, Searle analysed his past – in particular the events involving Grobler – and identified what he, himself, had done wrong. This meant that he was no longer competing with the coach. 

 ‘When the London Olympics came around, I recognised that my coach offered a lot of wisdom,’ he acknowledges. ‘With un-learning, I was able to white wash the painting and start again.’

Emotional connection

Un-learning was important for Searle and, as a result, he didn’t make the same mistakes in London as he did in Sydney. He realised the importance of the role of the coach and of forging a sense of togetherness rather than internal conflict; one of the elements of an effective team is an emotional connection.

Searle says: ‘One of the most powerful examples I can give about the importance of  of an emotional connection is a story about the French pair to whom I lost in Sydney. During the race, my team mate was just urging me to pull harder while the French bowman was shouting the names of his team member’s children. They pulled even harder and won the gold medal. There is something about having a psychological and emotional commitment to your teammates and these connections  can be developed in any team, sport or business.’ 

However, for this emotional connection to have any sort of effect, let alone push a team to gold, a lot of work has to be done to nurture this bond, as Searle explains. ‘In 2010, we decided, as a team, that the medals we won at the World Championships wouldn’t be defined by what we did on the day but what we did in the next 50 days leading up to, and during, the World Championships.’ 

Having a shared set of values means that the whole team is working towards the same goal, which further strengthens the emotional connection. 

‘We came up with four key words about how we were going to be, leading up to, and during the World Championships: long, relaxed, hard, and connected,’ says Searle. ‘We would row long; we could stay relaxed and enjoy what we were doing; we would be hard on ourselves; and we would be connected [to each other] emotionally, and to the water. 

‘To enhance this emotional connection, we would remove our sunglasses before the de-brief so we could look each other in the eye.’

An emotional connection builds an effective team, and with teams, it is what about what the group achieves together, not individual accolades. Searle relates this to how the role of the leader changes in business and sport. 

‘The coach gets very little recognition and very little reward,’ he says. ‘The coach might have a big ego but must recognise it is his or her job to facilitate the performance of others. In business, the boss gets the recognition when the team performs well.’ 

Athlete to coach and student to leader

Relating this to MBA students, he explains that they need the attributes of both coach and athlete. 

‘You might decide to study for an MBA because you’re a good performer, but after you graduate, you need to facilitate others and sometimes help them do things you couldn’t even dream of doing,’ he explains. ‘So essentially, an MBA student is the athlete, and the MBA graduate is the coach’.

MBAs can take lessons from sport, and these teachings can then be used in business, as Searle points out: ‘Sport is useful because it is so clear where the finish line is. You have a clear focus and can methodically work towards it and check your progress. We can translate this to business by using quarterly/annual goals to measure progress.’  

During the period between Sydney 2000 and London 2012, Searle’s experience in executive coaching allowed him to take the lessons he learned from business back into sport. This included a greater ability to have honest conversations, being prepared to give and receive feedback, taking responsibility for his actions and not being afraid to ask for help. Ultimately, when preparing for and competing in London 2012, he used his role in the team to get the best out of himself and the people around him. 

Analysing failures

In addition to his undeniable success, Searle has experienced ups and downs in his career, and recognises the importance of analysing mistakes. This may help to avoid repeating them in future, but it is also worth considering whether you could have changed outcomes had you behaved differently. 

‘It’s important to think about attribution,’ he advises. ‘When something doesn’t go well, I try to recognise my role in the problem. Then I see if I could have done something about it, or if the problem was out of my control. I say “control the controllables, and control your reaction to everything else”.’ 

‘I love the quote “if you win, have a party; if you lose, have a meeting,”’ he continues. ‘But if you do this, you miss opportunities in both cases: sometimes you win with luck and sometimes you lose even though you did everything right. I would say celebrate the things you’ve done well, regardless of winning or losing, and learn from the things you didn’t do well. It comes back to attribution, and taking a real look at your performance.’ 

Challenging and stretching people

In terms of Searle’s coaching style, how does he use his experiences to coach people in all aspects of the business world? 

He explains that he simply brings in various aspects of the things he has learned himself throughout his career, such as un-learning. 

‘I use my experience to challenge and stretch people,” he says. ‘I try to help them recognise the influence the past has on their performance, and show them how they can get the most out of their life and the people they work with.’

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How to become a creative problem solver like Elon Musk

Using lessons from Tesla’s Elon Musk and biopharmaceutical firm, Regneron, this excerpt from Innovation Capital looks at how you can use first-principles thinking to question assumptions and create new solutions using a blank-slate approach

Elon Musk has been instrumental in building three revolutionary, multibillion-dollar companies in completely different fields. His ability to solve seemingly unsolvable problems is essential to his success and he attributes his problem-solving success to first-principles thinking.

‘I operate on the physics approach of analysis by first principles,’ Musk told us. ‘The first principles approach to thinking is where you boil things down to the most fundamental truths in a particular area and then you reason up from there.’

In lay terms, first-principles thinking – which was first articulated and named by Aristotle – is the practice of identifying what you think is true and then actively questioning every assumption you have about a given problem or scenario.

Challenge everything

First-principles thinking helped Regeneron, the New York–based biopharmaceutical company, revolutionise how it develops new therapies. Whereas it costs, on average, $4.3 billion USD for the average company to develop an approved therapy, Regeneron has been estimated to develop therapies for less than $1 billion USD per approved therapy, which is 20% of the cost of its competitors.

How? ‘We challenge everything,’ says Regeneron CoFounder, President, and Chief Scientist, George Yancopoulos. ‘Every concept. Every scientific principle. Nothing is unchallengeable, and you don’t take anything for granted. Most of what we believe are facts are not.’

The next step is to identify the constraints to achieving what you want to achieve and then start with a blank slate and create solutions that might solve those constraints. ‘We always try to figure out what’s limiting in a field. What’s the bottleneck?’ Yancopoulos says. ‘Then you look for a game-breaking idea that addresses the limiting factor.’

Tesla’s approach to expensive batteries

To illustrate how to apply a first-principles process, consider Musk’s description of how automotive and energy company, Tesla, approached the problem of the high cost of battery packs for automobiles.

Some people say: ‘Battery packs are really expensive and that’s just the way they will always be. . . Historically, it has cost $600 USD per kilowatt hour. It’s not going to be much better than that in the future.’ With first principles, you say, ‘what are the material constituents of the batteries? What is the spot market value of the material constituents?’ It’s got cobalt, nickel, aluminium, carbon, some polymers for separation, and a seal can. Break that down on a material basis, and say, ‘if we bought that on the London Metal Exchange, what would each of those things cost?’ It’s, like, $80 USD per kilowatt hour. So, clearly, you just need to think of clever ways to take those materials and combine them into the shape of a battery cell, and you can have batteries that are much, much cheaper than anyone realises.

Of course, it isn’t that easy to ‘think of clever ways’ to combine the materials into a battery cell, but first-principles thinking starts with a blank slate, questions every assumption, and considers a wide variety of options. Here is a three-step process for first-principles problem solving:

1. Identify the problem you want to solve

In the case of Tesla, the key problems the company needed to solve were reducing the cost of the battery pack (to make it affordable) and increasing the range a car could go on a single charge (to reduce range anxiety).

At Regeneron, two big delays in the creation of successful new medicines were the time required to create and breed accurate animal models, a necessary step in ensuring safety before clinical-stage testing in humans, and the time required to develop ‘fully human’ antibody drug candidates that would be accepted in a human immune system.

2. Break down the problem into its fundamental principles, and list major constraints to solving it

The main constraint to an affordable battery pack might have been the cost of one or more of the materials. So then you would ask, ‘how could we possibly reduce the cost of that key material?’ For Tesla, the challenge of creating a lower-cost battery pack had less to do with materials and more to do with the process of combining them into a battery cell at enough scale to reduce the cost (hence the need for the Gigafactory, Tesla’s facility to design and build lower-cost lithium batteries at scale). A major constraint to increasing the range of a Tesla from a single electric charge was the weight of the car body. Thus, Tesla became the first automaker to use a lightweight, all-aluminium body.

At Regeneron, the limiting factor to rapid, successful drug testing was the time required to carefully test, select, and breed for certain genetic qualities in mice to ensure the closest parallels to future human patients. So Regeneron sped up the process by developing a precision technology capable of directly inserting human immune-system genes in mice, eliminating the need for many generations of breeding to accurately model human diseases and produce antibodies that could be safely introduced into humans. These ‘fully human’ mice have allowed Regeneron to more quickly and accurately identify medicines that will work on humans, thereby reducing the cost of each potential new drug. This breakthrough has contributed to a tenfold increase in the company’s stock price in the 10 years since 2010.

3. Create new solutions using a blank-slate approach

Ask yourself: ‘If I could create any solution I desired, what would that solution be?’ The point here is to imagine the perfect solution and then consider a wide variety of approaches that might eliminate the greatest bottleneck.

At Regeneron, the blank-slate solution was having an animal model respond exactly like a human during early-stage drug testing. Of course, Regeneron needed to figure out how to make this solution a reality, or at least closer to reality.

During this phase, you need to engage four behaviours actively – questioning, observing, networking, and experimenting. Creative problem solvers excel at questioning, constantly challenging the status quo with ‘why not’ questions to turn things upside down. They also frequently ask ‘what if’ questions to envision a different future. They are also intense observers, carefully watching the world around them – especially customers, products, services, and processes— with a beginner’s mindset. Creative problem solvers also stand out at networking, talking with diverse people to spark a new way to solve perplexing problems. Finally, they search for new solutions by constantly experimenting.

First-principles thinking is a helpful approach to attacking problems creatively. And if you want to become an innovative leader, you will need to be as creative as you can in navigating around the obstacles that get in your way.

This is an edited excerpt from Innovation Capital: How to Compete – and Win – Like the World’s Most Innovative Leaders (2019) by Jeff Dyer, Nathan Furr and Curtis Lefrandt, courtesy of Harvard Business Review Press.

BGA members can benefit from a 20% discount on Innovation Capital – click here for details.

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Using AI to empower the next generation

MIP Politecnico di Milano has developed an AI-infused career-coaching tool to help students gain new skills faster and boost their employability, explains Federico Frattini

As the education sector booms, universities are being forced to think further outside the box to attract the best students. Courses that are not flexible, personal and relevant to the increasing digitisation of many jobs and workplaces are simply being left behind. New demands from students about how courses are taught, as well as their content, are making the industry increasingly competitive and put more pressure on the educational systems in place. The goal for students is not just to graduate, but to be truly employable, by gaining a set of skills that will be relevant now and in the workplace of the future.

Practically all universities will have witnessed the market widening over the past few years, with a new demographic of potential students looking to continue their lifelong learning and keep abreast of ongoing technological advances. The World Economic Forum reports that 65% of  primary school students will be doing jobs that don’t yet exist when they graduate. 

From this perspective, acquiring new skills is important, not only for young people, but also for those wishing to remain competitive in their industry and grow in their professional life or even in their current position. In fact, according to Vanessa Byrnes, Sector Managing Director at global talent management consultancy, Alexander Mann Solutions, upskilling has never been more vital. She explains: ‘In our experience, retraining and redeploying internal resources is one of the most efficient ways of bridging future skills gaps. When faced with the option to “buy, build or borrow” expertise, growing your own talent comes with numerous benefits, not least the retention of culture and reduced recruitment costs.’

A career coach for students and alumni

Fresh technologies must be made available to empower everybody with new capabilities. Research suggests that AI, as well as a plethora of other new technologies, will directly impact a huge number of jobs worldwide, so real-life experience is critical in both understanding and adapting to these advances. For MIP Politecnico di Milano, using these new tools is important both for our School and our students. 

That’s why we have launched FLEXA, an AI continuous learning platform which acts as a career coach for potential students, current cohorts and alumni networks. 

The basic idea is to give our students the knowledge they need to achieve their career goals faster and make them more employable. Developed in partnership with Microsoft, FLEXA analyses each individual and suggests personalised material that can close skills gaps while promoting their profiles to recruiters. 

So, how does it work? To begin, users undergo a short assessment of their hard, digital and soft skills. This, combined with details of their personal career aspirations, helps to identify courses, tutorials, digital material, MOOCs, and even the best mentors and coaches to help enhance their capabilities. 

FLEXA can be accessed by current students, alumni and potential students alike, mapping out their next logical steps to close skills gaps at all levels of their career. Each individual’s data is then set against job skills required by the market and FLEXA allows a number of top recruiters to access the profiles of both students and alumni. 

FLEXA uses Microsoft’s cloud service and AI platform, Cortana Intelligence, which Silvia Candiani, Microsoft Italy’s General Manager describes as an ‘innovative continuous learning tool’. She says it is ‘fully aligned with Microsoft’s culture of continuous skills updating and its mission of empowering every person and organisation on the planet to achieve more. The goal is upskilling, the improvement of people’s employability, and (for it to act) as an enabler of innovation and digital transformation’.

Personalisation of the student experience 

Innovations such as these are the first step in accelerating a transformation in education. Matching curricula with aspirations is one side of the coin, but it becomes a larger, more targeted operation when employers get involved. This creates the perfect platform to match supply and demand, and provides critical information to fine-tune curriculum development. This is likely to transform the curriculum from a top-down, education system-led model to a bottom-up, or market-led one, while still working on students’ terms. 

One of the key benefits of this digital learning ecosystem is that it allows users to personalise their learning journey, which is of increasing importance for those selecting which MBA or master’s degree to undertake. The changing role of Business Schools means they must now curate knowledge and broker content, to deliver to students and alumni at exactly the right time for them and their careers. It appears that management education is becoming less about imparting ‘know-how’ to the next generation of business minds than focusing on ‘know-where’ – the critical ability to source knowledge from different media. FLEXA is designed to do just that.

The implications of using technology such as FLEXA are far-reaching. One advantage is the wealth of data that can be collected from recruiters using the technology, many of which systematically develop talent for future roles. As Byrnes explains: ‘In order to know what skills need to be developed to ensure an organisation is future-fit, leaders need to map capabilities against project demand.’ 

In this way, data collected from the system will provide insights into what employers are really searching for, as well as the knowledge that allows students to reach career targets. This is invaluable for the education system, which can start to anticipate and follow shifting demands in the real business world for the first time. This could be the key to understanding how to close rapidly growing, global skills gaps. This service could even be offered without an accompanying degree to strengthen the digital capabilities and soft skills of individuals, whether they are a Business School student or not. This is an indication of potential societal impact.

In addition, the system also encourages intelligence-based networking between individuals, allowing collaborative learning and skills building, as well as connecting people with mentors. This is a huge advantage to students who are exposed to situations where they must develop soft skills such as problem solving, verbal communication and adaptability. 

According to Deloitte’s 2016 Global Human Capital Trends report, executives now consider these skills key to employee retention, improving leadership and building a meaningful culture. In fact, 92% of Deloitte’s respondents rated soft skills as a critical priority. As technologies such as AI and robotics are increasingly capable of completing automated and analytical tasks, business minds of the future must develop their ability to work effectively alongside and in synergy with these systems, as well as nurturing the qualities that tech does not possess. 

Growth of online education and the need for flexibility 

The number of online courses being offered by Business Schools is increasing, as is the number of applicants to them. A 2018 report published by the Babson Survey Research Group suggests that the number of US students who enrolled in at least one online course
rose by 5.6% between 2015 and 2016, a faster rate than the three previous years. Jeff Seaman, Co-Director of the Babson Survey Research Group and a co-author of the study, expects this trend to continue and that data for 2017 will mark 15 consecutive years of enrolment growth. At MIP, flexible learning with the student at the core of the programme is part of the School’s ethos. In the past few years, we have been experiencing a radical change in the needs of professionals interested in post-graduate training who, besides an increasing need for flexibility and the compatibility of educational programmes with their agenda, are demanding a highly personalised and concrete learning experience. MIP has responded to this need with a dedicated educational offering revolving around the concept of smart learning, which combines digital learning tools with personal coaching, mentoring and advisory services. 

In 2012, the School started to adopt emerging technologies in higher education and  its first digital executive MBA was launched in 2014. It was so successful that we had to launch a new edition of the programme every six months. Today, there are domestic and international executive MBA digital offerings, the Flex and International Flex Executive MBAs, which allow participants to decide where and how to access their lesson material, from anywhere in the world and with any device. This means that their learning fits around other commitments, and is part of the School’s wider digital strategy to use tech to enhance learning capabilities. In 2016, the Flex EMBA was shortlisted for the MBA Innovation Award in the annual AMBA Excellence Awards. FLEXA further enhances the School’s educational offerings and operates entirely online, making it accessible to all users at any time.

Advances in technology mean the traditional education framework will soon become as anachronistic as the notion of knowledge acquisition occurring merely through a textbook, or in a discussion. The best people in each field are becoming aware that they must keep up with these advances and know how to use them to get ahead, as well as developing soft skills. If Business Schools don’t innovate and cater to this growing demographic, they are likely to see potential students applying elsewhere. In order to remain valuable, Business Schools must rise to the challenge of engaging alumni in a meaningful way, and encourage them to see the value in lifelong learning. By failing to take advantage of new technologies, universities are not arming current – or future – generations of business minds with the knowledge and skills needed to succeed.

Federico Frattini is Associate Dean of Digital Transformation at MIP Politecnico di Milano.