Top challenges ahead for CEOs

SHORT TERM

Queensway Group: managing uncertainty

With the pan­dem­ic still under­way, the future remains unclear for many busi­ness­es, espe­cial­ly those in hos­pi­tal­i­ty.

So Naushad Jivraj, CEO of Queensway Group, the par­ent com­pa­ny of Point A Hotels, has made con­nect­ing with his team a pri­or­i­ty, includ­ing hav­ing one-to-one meet­ings in parks to ensure a face-to-face rela­tion­ship.

“The pan­dem­ic has been incred­i­bly tough for our 150 team mem­bers, who have had to adapt to fur­lough, the open­ing and clos­ing of our prop­er­ties and min­i­mal occu­pan­cies in a usu­al­ly thriv­ing busi­ness,” he says. 

“Fac­tor­ing in time to con­nect both indi­vid­u­al­ly, and as a group, is vital in main­tain­ing vis­i­bil­i­ty and encour­ag­ing two-way dia­logue. The last 12 months have been per­son­al­ly chal­leng­ing on many fronts. The pan­dem­ic remind­ed us of our fragili­ty as human beings and the pace at which change can hap­pen.” 

Jivraj is very con­fi­dent of an upturn in book­ings when things open again, with cen­tral loca­tions in Lon­don, Edin­burgh, Glas­gow and soon Dublin being key dri­vers to recov­ery.

“Deci­sion-mak­ing and stake­hold­er man­age­ment in a con­stant­ly chang­ing envi­ron­ment has been dif­fi­cult,” he says. “Our long-stand­ing, open and trans­par­ent dia­logue and rela­tion­ships with our investors, share­hold­ers, banks and sup­pli­ers have been crit­i­cal and remain a key pri­or­i­ty as we work through the var­i­ous finan­cial and oper­a­tional chal­lenges that lie ahead.”

Walking With The Wounded: harnessing digital

The UK char­i­ty sec­tor was hit hard in the past 12 months and a sur­vey by the Nation­al Coun­cil for Vol­un­tary Organ­i­sa­tions sug­gests 43 per cent of organ­i­sa­tions ques­tioned have reduced their range of ser­vices since March 2020.

For Fer­gus Williams, CEO of Walk­ing With The Wound­ed, which helps injured for­mer British Armed Forces ser­vice­men and women to career tran­si­tion from mil­i­tary to civil­ian life, this now means embrac­ing dig­i­tal for fundrais­ing and out­reach more than ever.

“It is clear char­i­ties must con­tin­ue to adapt to the new envi­ron­ment carved out by COVID-19. Dig­i­tal strat­e­gy is a busi­ness imper­a­tive,” he says. 

“We cre­at­ed a dig­i­tal work­ing group and col­lec­tive­ly iden­ti­fied key areas to focus on. From here, we devel­oped our goals and time­line and start­ed to map out a strat­e­gy. Dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion can be daunt­ing. How­ev­er, break­ing it down into key areas makes it much more achiev­able.”

With 70 staff across three key hubs and work­ing with more than 200 organ­i­sa­tions, Williams says his chal­lenge will be help­ing every­one under­stand their pri­or­i­ties. “I am look­ing at our peo­ple strat­e­gy to show­case the incred­i­ble tal­ent with­in the wider team and look at our process­es to ensure we are a peo­ple-first organ­i­sa­tion,” he adds.

MEDIUM TERM

Yubico: ensuring business continuity

Nav­i­gat­ing chop­py waters is a key man­age­ment skill and Sti­na Ehrensvärd, CEO of Yubi­co, recog­nis­es how you choose to adapt to events out of your con­trol will be increas­ing­ly impor­tant.

Ehrensvärd, who cre­at­ed the secu­ri­ty authen­ti­ca­tion YubiKey used by top com­pa­nies world­wide, says the last 12 months were some of the “hard­est we’ve ever expe­ri­enced as a com­pa­ny”. 

While Yubi­co saw increased demand, because cyber­at­tacks due to advanced phish­ing spiked dra­mat­i­cal­ly with remote work, it also faced delays in the sup­ply chain, impact­ing prod­uct launch­es.

“The biggest chal­lenge was nav­i­gat­ing a team in a world of uncer­tain­ty, a role far beyond run­ning a com­pa­ny,” she says. “To keep my mind and body sane, I decid­ed after a cou­ple of weeks of lock­down to make meet­ings that did not require look­ing at data into walk­ing con­fer­ences around my house, gar­den or in a near­by park. 

“My advice to CEOs dur­ing these times is to be kind to your­self and oth­ers. Focus on what is in front of you. Cel­e­brate even the small­est of wins. Look for, and high­light, things that can make your­self and oth­ers smile. Be trans­par­ent and hum­ble to your team and cus­tomers about the chal­lenges.”

V.Group: revamping maritime

In his March Bud­get, chan­cel­lor Rishi Sunak announced cre­ation of a num­ber of freeports across Eng­land, which are planned to help the coun­try push glob­al trade fol­low­ing Brex­it.

And with 92 per cent of all goods trans­port­ed by sea, René Kofod-Olsen, CEO at glob­al ship man­age­ment com­pa­ny V.Group, says he now faces a chal­lenge to improve the per­cep­tion of mar­itime trade and get it fit for the future.

“We have to renew, rein­vig­o­rate and fur­ther dig­i­talise what’s often seen as a rather old-fash­ioned indus­try. Sea­far­ers are the unsung heroes of glob­al trade and they need to be val­ued far more, so our ulti­mate chal­lenge is repo­si­tion­ing ‘brand mar­itime’,” he says.

“The relent­less shifts in the glob­al econ­o­my and trade pat­terns, cou­pled with per­pet­u­al advances in dig­i­tal­i­sa­tion, mean the view from the bridge is con­stant­ly chang­ing. It is imper­a­tive I have a will­ing­ness to adapt to these changes and fast.”

Kofod-Olsen pre­dicts hav­ing the right crew­ing strate­gies in place in the future will be a chal­lenge for com­pa­nies. “As busi­ness lead­ers emerge from a dif­fi­cult peri­od, they need to review their sup­ply chain pro­to­cols and ensure they have con­tin­gency plans in place. Every sec­tor of inter­na­tion­al busi­ness is like­ly to face logis­ti­cal chal­lenges in the next cou­ple of years,” he warns. 

LONG TERM

Confused.com: empowering women

While the num­ber of female direc­tors at FTSE 100 com­pa­nies has increased by 50 per cent in the last five years, accord­ing to the gov­ern­ment-backed Hamp­ton-Alexan­der Review, there are still only a hand­ful of female CEOs in the FTSE 350. 

Louise O’Shea, CEO of insur­ance price com­par­i­son web­site Confused.com, is look­ing to the future to make prac­ti­cal changes. “As com­pa­nies, we now have a big chal­lenge as well as an oppor­tu­ni­ty, to make a dif­fer­ence for future gen­er­a­tions of women,” she says. 

“We need to start by cre­at­ing work­ing envi­ron­ments that allow women to excel in their careers. Flex­i­ble and con­densed work­ing mod­els need to become the norm, not the excep­tion. That way we’re not sti­fling work­ing moth­ers from pro­gress­ing up the chain.

“As a female CEO, I want to set the prece­dent for oth­er women that it’s pos­si­ble to reach lead­er­ship, with­out hav­ing to sac­ri­fice fam­i­ly life. 

“It needs to be a col­lab­o­ra­tive effort; it can’t be just females push­ing the agen­da, we need male allies to help dri­ve this for­ward too. We must pri­ori­tise mak­ing path­ways to lead­er­ship more acces­si­ble alto­geth­er, so we facil­i­tate bet­ter inclu­siv­i­ty and diver­si­ty in gen­er­al.”

Advanced: tackling climate change

When it comes to envi­ron­men­tal, social and cor­po­rate gov­er­nance (ESG), the poten­tial for rad­i­cal pos­i­tive change is immense.

Gor­don Wil­son, CEO of Advanced, the UK’s third largest provider of busi­ness soft­ware and ser­vices, with a £254-mil­lion turnover, more than 19,000 cus­tomers and 2,400-plus employ­ees, says, as an “eth­i­cal employ­er and sup­pli­er”, he wants to “leave an envi­ron­men­tal mark as a CEO”.

“The scale of ESG is daunt­ing and it’s cru­cial to dis­til the key pri­or­i­ties to align with our stake­hold­ers, busi­ness strat­e­gy and val­ues. ESG plans have to take action for things peo­ple care about,” he says.

“Our start­ing point has been the com­ple­tion of an ESG matu­ri­ty sur­vey to base­line our start­ing posi­tion, focused on three key areas: pro­tect­ing our plan­et, inclu­siv­i­ty, and social and com­mu­ni­ty empow­er­ment. From that point, we pri­ori­tised our ini­tia­tives and set tar­gets.” 

This includes ele­ments such as car­bon foot­prints, the pur­pose of phys­i­cal office spaces, busi­ness com­mut­ing and trav­el, and diver­si­ty and inclu­sion ini­tia­tives, notably female equal­i­ty and dis­abil­i­ty.

“As a medi­um-sized busi­ness, we have the same chal­lenges as large glob­al cor­po­rates around ESG, but few­er resources to define our strat­e­gy and tack­le it. So to achieve our goals, we must be agile and cre­ative,” says Wil­son. 

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