What does leadership actually mean once you strip away the job title?
These elevator pitches, from three exceptional leaders, each offer a distinct perspective on leadership – in about 2 minutes.
Jesper Brodin, former IKEA CEO and now Chair of The Earthshot Prize, has spent his career proving that values and business success aren’t opposites.
Sahar Hashemi built Coffee Republic from scratch, then watched it lose the spark that made it special – and turned that experience into some of the sharpest leadership lessons you’ll hear all year.
And John Blakey, the UK’s leading executive coach for purpose-driven CEOs, asks the question most leaders are too busy to stop and consider: is the destination you’re driving towards actually worth reaching?
If you’ve ever suspected that something is missing in the way we talk about leadership, these three might be able to tell you what it is.
Former IKEA CEO Jesper Brodin didn't just run one of the world's biggest brands, he simultaneously transformed it on two fronts.
This dual transformation of pivoting digital while embedding sustainability at the heart of its commercial strategy (all through crises) achieved a decoupling of growth from emissions, breaking the historical link between profit and pollution.
Values-based leadership sits at the core of Brodin's advisory. He found a goldmine in the belief that what's good for the world is genuinely good for business. Between 2016-24, IKEA grew revenue by 24% while cutting emissions by 30%. Today they generate a surplus revenue projected to save $112 million annually.
Now Chair of The Earthshot Prize, Jesper’s insight will inform and inspire every type of audience, whether they are policymakers and thought leaders, or executives and employees.
Serial entrepreneur Sahar Hashemi turned Britain from a nation of tea-drinkers into coffee obsessives. As co-founder of Coffee Republic she scaled up from a single shop to over 100 sites, and then watched as it become the kind of slow, process-heavy organisation she'd originally set out to disrupt.
Sahar’s experience is her secret weapon to business audiences and entrepreneurs. Hers is an uncomfortable message that most leaders recognise but rarely get told: the bigger a business gets, the further it drifts from the customer. The hustle, the creativity, the direct feedback loop of a startup - all of it gets buried under structure and procedure.
Sahar Hashemi brings the cautionary tales and war stories to audiences, as well as practical tools to help organisations think - and innovate - like startups again.
John Blakey speaks about leadership from a rare vantage point: he has lived it at the top and studied it at doctoral level. He is now one of the UK’s most sought-after leadership experts, having coached over 130 CEOs in 22 countries on how to succeed when you’re at the top of the tree.
Dr Blakey’s advisory isn’t just sought by FTSE 100 boards: John has helped teams and individuals focus on elite performance, leading to Olympic gold medals and Premier League football titles.
He’s an award-winning author of several books and his central argument – that trustworthy leadership is what drives lasting results – is backed by doctoral research.
For any organisation that wants its leaders to “thrive, not survive”, and which values significance above success, Dr John Blakey, with his combination of boardroom experience and academic rigour, is the speaker to book.
