Rajeev Peshawaria

The cry for a more inclusive form of capitalism is growing. But the irony is we are using the same tools that caused the excesses of shareholder capitalism—incentives and regulations—to drive responsible behaviour. Eighteenth-century economist Adam Smith propagated profit maximization as the incentive for businesses to create goods and services that society needs. He argued that free-market competition would ensure consumers get the best quality product at the cheapest price. 200 years later, Milton Friedman agreed in his seminal 1970 New York Times op-ed that the sole responsibility of business is to maximize profits ‘so long as it stays within the rules of the game’.

Incentives coupled with some regulations were to henceforth safeguard societal interests. Instead, incentives created bad behavior. Regulations were routinely bypassed with intelligent loopholes. Despite this—to encourage sustainability today—we are again using incentives and regulations. That’s predominantly what the ESG framework focuses on. And what do we see? Rampant greenwashing and box-ticking. To address today’s existential challenges, we need innovation of the highest order. Innovation can neither be legislated nor driven by extrinsic incentives alone. We need a values-driven revolution. We need steward leadership—the ability to create a win-win-win future for stakeholders, society, and the environment. ESG must upgrade to ESL, where the ‘L’ stands for Steward Leadership. In ESL, ‘G’ is a subset of ‘L’. The Sustainable Sustainability keynote or longer program lays out a practical, step-by-step playbook for any commercial entity that wants to succeed at marrying profit and purpose.

In recent years, technological advancements have led to life-changing innovations. However, in the first two decades of the 21st century, we have already witnessed two severe global economic recessions, increasingly polarizing politics, rising resource/income inequality and massive environmental degradation. We live in times where exciting growth opportunities coexist with existential threats to current and future generations.

• Can businesses enjoy the exciting growth opportunities while ignoring the existential threats?
• More importantly, can businesses drive superior shareholder returns by addressing the very challenges that threaten Planet Earth and all of Humanity?
• Will traditional models of leadership, management, and governance be adequate for organizations to succeed in a fundamentally altered digital-first post-pandemic landscape?

This interactive session will outline the tectonic shifts taking place in global markets and in society; and present a new, highly practical leadership and governance model that top teams can use to future-proof their organizations.

Research now confirms that younger generations of consumers and customers are demanding responsible behavior from businesses and are ready to pay a premium for sustainable goods and services. Furthermore, according to the World Economic Forum, McKinsey & Co, and other credible sources, addressing challenges such as environmental degradation (sustainability) and income inequality present $10.1 trillion in annual business opportunity.  Clearly, win-win-win success and prosperity is now possible.  This session will discuss how top leadership teams can shape strategy and culture to tap into this opportunity without forgoing profitability.

Most people seek happiness and success in life, and want to be effective leaders.. However, despite volumes of literature and advice available, very few actually achieve any of the three. Why? Because:

• We’ve misunderstood the three words for centuries
• The answers lie within us, not in any external stimulus

This keynote uncovers the real truth about happiness, success, and leadership. If participants internalize the learnings, they will never need a coach or any extrinsic motivation ever again to shape a life worth living – a life of joy, achievement, and giving. Equipped with such powerful self-leadership tools, they can also become more effective leaders at work and in society.

For decades, Emotional Intelligence or EQ has been touted as the be-all solution for professional and personal success. Yet despite countless books, assessments, coaching, and training, most people perform and live below their true potential. Why? Because the key lies in Emotional Integrity, not intelligence. This keynote unpacks Emotional Integrity and the three stages of emotional development, thereby empowering participants with life tools they can use to live the richest life possible. The framework will also help them in enriching the lives of others, and in maximizing performance.

When circumstances seem dire, resistance high, and resources short, what is it that allows some leaders to keep moving ahead even when everyone else loses faith? How do social leaders like Nelson Mandela or business leaders like Soichiro Honda persevere even after decades of failure and adversity?

Our research tells us it is Leadership energy – the deep, intrinsic strength found it in every powerful and effective leader we’ve studied over 25 years. The good news is, each and every one of us can uncover it within ourselves, but the bad news is that very few people realize this. Over a highly engaging and inspiring 2-3-hour session, participants will discover what it takes to develop long-lasting leadership energy, and how to use it for both personal and organizational success. Questioning conventional wisdom, this session will challenge the very definition of leadership, and offer a whole new perspective on how to live and lead meaningfully. The content is based on the global bestseller Too Many Bosses, Too Few Leaders published by Simon & Schuster in 2011, and the Amazon and Wall Street Journal Bestseller Open Source Leadership published by McGraw Hill in 2017.  In the session, participants will be guided through a powerful framework to clarify two main components of leadership energy – their personal values and leadership purpose. Specifically, they will be able to differentiate between simply living and leading a life.

As a result of attending, participants will be better able to:

• Articulate why some people give up easily while others stay resilient despite the toughest of resistance.
• Uncover their own personal sources of long-lasting leadership energy.
• Differentiate between simply living and leading life.

Generations of human experience have taught us that there are five universally proven principles to success, happiness, and leadership effectiveness. However, most of us not only forget, but also flagrantly violate them in our daily interactions with people. We are quick to criticize others when they fail to follow the principles.  Yet, when we ourselves are faced with situations that need their application, the brain conveniently goes into denial, and most of us default to the exact opposite negative behaviors. Five Denials of the Human Brain is a highly interactive keynote or workshop focussed on helping participants uncover and apply the principles to achieving success, happiness and overall leadership efficiency. A key feature of the workshop includes guiding participants to recognise the brain’s default mode and how to consciously transition from negative ‘default’ tendencies both when leading self and managing others. The workshop is suitable for senior executives that manage large teams or organizations, and high potential mid-level executives.

As a result of attending, participants will be better able to:

• Acknowledge and understand the five principles of long-lasting happiness, success and leadership.
• Recognize how, when and why the brain goes into denial, and initiates negative behaviours.
• Gain insight into new approaches for maximising performance and motivation.
• Engage in deep personal reflection to re-wire the brain.

The world’s largest taxi company owns no cars; and employs no drivers directly. The world’s largest hotel service owns no properties and employs no housekeeping or room service staff. Communication has been whatsapped, memories instagrammed, work homed, and life itself facebooked. We now live and work in the age of 24/7 connectivity where knowledge is free and abundant, everyone is empowered, everything is totally transparent, and the gig economy is here to stay.  While almost everything we knew as normal in both business and social life had already changed dramatically, the Covid-19 pandemic further accelerated the adoptions of new norms. The question is, are leadership, management and corporate governance practices in most organizations keeping pace?  Or are we are still trying to run companies with tools, frameworks and thinking designed in the 1960s?

Based on global research spanning 28 countries and including responses of approximately 16,000 executives, Open Source Leadership explores what is required to tackle the daunting challenges and exciting opportunities of today’s transparent, free, and empowered workforce. It also explores the drivers of motivation for superior performance in a highly connected, fast-moving 21st century. This keynote or program reviews leadership and governance trends that will drive engagement and innovation in the modern Open Source era. It walks participants through the vision, insight, and practices that have helped some of today’s largest and most influential organizations to meet the open source world head on.

This program or talk (depending on desired time investment) addresses how Boards and Senior Management teams can pro-actively shape and nurture cultures that position companies towards sustainable growth while preventing unintentional value destruction.  As a result of attending, participants will be better able to:

• Identify what compels decent people to turn rogue.
• Recognize key elements of corporate culture.
• Build/shape a culture for sustainable and ethical growth.
• Measure the effectiveness of corporate culture and identify red flags early.

Only 61 companies in the original Fortune 500 list published in 1955 are still around. The average life expectancy of a company is a mere 15 years. Yet, there are some companies that defy the odds and remain successful for 50-100 years. What do they do differently?

Our research reveals that long-lasting organizations continually reinvent themselves both in terms of what they offer to the market, and their internal capabilities. In today’s open source digital era, this recurring reinvention is more important than ever before. The Brains-Bones-Nerves (BBN) framework is designed for leadership teams that want to effectively manage this reinvention process on an ongoing basis.

BBN is a tool that enables leadership teams to regularly assess if the organization’s Strategy (Brains), Organization Architecture (Bones), and Culture (Nerves) are in tune with today’s high-speed business environment, and to make real-time changes as needed.  The extent to which a senior leadership team pro-actively shapes these three elements is the key determinant of success.