Style Dynamics



A chinese lion statue

Style Dynamics works to connect and promote talented leaders to full potential, at each of individual and institutional levels. Focused on the inter-related areas of Talent & Culture, Brand & Reputation, we work at aligning perception and reality, to secure full, fair and sustainable value. With an outcomes orientation, Style Dynamics brings insights that inflect actions, to embed change. Services.




Welcome to the Blog



The blog reflects on Talent & Culture, Brand & Reputation in corporate and public life. And their dynamic influence on people and performance. The rules of engagement? Common courtesy and fair sparring.



Swallows of some remorse

November 30th, 2008

In the past month or so, some regrets expressed in the midst of the newsflow on the ongoing global financial and economic crisis. Alan Greenspan put it on record that he had been mistaken in assuming that banks could properly self-regulate. More recently some of the excesses of executive pay for poor governance and performance is being partly paid back or forgone, at UBS and AIG. And this past week Sir Tom McKillop, apologised to shareholders, customers and former and present employees of the Royal Bank of Scotland, for the state the bank has gotten into, now majority owned by the British taxpayer. Genuine and public apologies are of course rare, and possibly even rarer are public acceptance and forgiveness. Nothing can now cancel or make much redress for the coming global economic downturn. Though such contrition wins attention, the players that more likely deserve recognition are those banks that held firm during the boom times, that did not succumb to the seduction of easy money and the pressure to pursue it, but held steadily to a conservatism that by today appears to have served them well indeed.



Leadership of the free world

October 22nd, 2008

On the day when Britain’s shadow chancellor fought allegations of having sought donation funds from a foreign tycoon, into the email from a loose connection pops what seems like a friendly directive/ solicitation to cast a foreign vote in the US presidential campaign: Delicately worded and urging the checking out of virtual votes from all over the world. If it’s a campaigning ruse, it’s a clever one to measure, evidence and magnify grass roots preferences on a global scale. The map today, no surprise, strongly favours Obama. One can’t but feel sorry for the McCain campaign’s being left standing on this. And a little uneasy at the scope creep. The US election is for US citizens, but we do now have, and more so than ever before, a global politic. While the US may not be the largest or even the greatest democracy, it certainly remains for now the one with the greater latitude of power. And for that, citizens everywhere will want to have confidence in the choice of America on 4th November.



Another day…

September 30th, 2008

…..another bail out, or not. As we watch with a macabre fascination the Wall Street story getting grim, grim and grimmer, the Republican failure to pass a bill of its own president’s making, in what is clearly a fast spiralling crisis, speaks loudly to the leadership failure of the Bush years. The market meltdown is now caught up well and truly in the mire of politics. Setting aside social outrage at executive pay on the one hand and free market ideology on the other, it appears that many on main street were also tempted and or persuaded to speculate, in the belief that ’safe as houses’ meant exactly that. In the event that Obama’s candidacy for the presidency becomes a surer and surer thing, the chaotic closing out of the incumbent administration, and the global hope now invested in him, will make his task all the harder. One of his biggest challenges will be to manage expectations.



Insider tack on corporate culture

August 24th, 2008

First Tony Hayward, now Andrew Witty. Two new CEOs to FOOTSIE 100 companies in the past months declaring culture change a top priority. Even while in their prior senior roles they must have contributed to and owned to an extent the prevailing norms. But this nods also to culture perhaps being less about ‘the people’ collectively than the CEO individually. The tone, look and feel of a firm are to a great extent set from the mindset and world view at the top. The rest may align or conform to a greater or lesser extent due to bounded rationality and allied factors. The leadership bias, be it to a theory x or theory y view of people, can make a big difference to an organization’s available energy as well as potentially, the performance. Let’s see what upside can be orchestrated at the respective firms. And whether internal talent is more successful at forging culture change than new blood from outside.



Viva Espana!

June 30th, 2008

…great sport, flair and atmosphere in Vienna last evening with Spain beating Germany 1-0 in the UEFA Euro 2008 championships. An engaging match, despite the dominance of Spain over Germany, who were only a little less pedestrian than in the semi-final against Turkey. With this Spain breaks a 44 year fallow period of no wins of a single major title. And, as the commentators kept on reminding us, with a coach just short of his 70th birthday. What happens next with Spain will be an interesting case in succession management, as the team finally finds its form, but with Luis Aragones moving on, and the World Cup in South Africa in a couple of years.



The Clinton miss

June 25th, 2008

… on the Clinton miss, the asymmetrical information was all his to leverage (known unknowns) and hers to defend (very well-known knowns). On certain levels she did remarkably despite the lorryloads of information about her and her wider organization, including the mixed blessing of her enduringly popular husband. At a distance it’s still hard to see quite why she’s so loved on the one hand and loathed on the other. Conversely it’s easier to grasp the broad appeal of Barack Obama, naturally gracious, and with time on his side. The newsflow too. Iraq ameliorating by some reports, Mandella at 90, and Hillary pitching in with her own brand of graciousness, can all but help. And Obama’s own campaign, already highly impactful, is ticking up an assertiveness, which he will undoubtedly need in the upcoming furlongs between now and November. The hints at warmth between him and Hillary in the past few days would not make it far-fetched that she’s still compelling as a possible running mate.



Buffet in Europe

May 20th, 2008

Warren Buffet is touring Europe this week, redressing (overdue) a perceived lack of prominence for Berkshire Hathaway in the European arena. IMD must be cock-a-hoop to have secured him for a 45 minutes’ broadcast to alumni and corporate clients, as well as a session with student MBAs. But then IMD does the business of business schools better than anyone else. At least on this side of the pond. At 77, the famous Buffet wisdom just keeps on flowing. And the wit as well (he’ll have a go at succeeding himself..). He gets close to Mother Teresa in terms of the venerability in which he’s held. All the more remarkable that he appears not ever to have fallen into the trap of believing his own public relations. With all the noise and urgings around about ‘authenticity’, Mr Buffet comes across as the most original, real deal. So much talk of love and passion, the ‘right’ parents, and choice of spouse, and not a curling toe in sight. While he evenhandedly has backed both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in the current Democratic nomination process, I’d vote for Buffet himself to lead the charge to rehabilitate the US in the eyes of the world. He travels well.



Hostages to fortune

April 13th, 2008

…recent weeks, some misses in terms of expectation management. First BA, with big pre-launch hype over T5, setting travellers up for unprecedented disappointment and tugging of forelocks as the rollout turned into a brouhaha of an all together different scope. Then Jeff Immelt of all people, no doubt in good faith, proclaiming on a Saturday Night Live as early as December 2007 that a 10 per cent growth in earnings was “in the bag” for 2008. On the latter Friday, a collective ‘Oh sugar’, as with the first quarter outcome, big dismay at the impact of financial market unravellings causing results below guidance and a course correction for the rest of the year. Testing times for predictions. But on the resilience of the respective reputations most pundits will likely bet on GE.



Lost in translation..

March 26th, 2008

Most of Easter in the mountains, in the good company of German speakers. And as a minority of one, obliged to speak German as well as able. An interesting experience, and reminder of that less-remembered fact among native English speakers that so many colleagues working globally have to formulate a thought in a second language to bring of their ideas and contributions. That demands a lot of energy, in keeping up with the gist of a conversation, let alone the nuance and looking out for the break in the flow. In the cut and thrust of English dominated business life, one can wonder how many brilliant half-formulated thoughts are lost to the brisk pace of the assertive global firm. Add the confusion of slang, idioms and jargon and heads may well reel. While there’s a lot of cross-cultural content by now in the development programs of global leaders, does the resulting behavior accommodate those few moments of extra time to gather all available contributions? Trying to function effectively, let alone excel in a foreign language, is a humbling experience, in which pulling one’s punches can easily become the default norm.



The Transformers

February 24th, 2008

…a professional friend, reporting of a respected talent. “…she’s become Head of so and so and Transformational Change, whatever that may mean”. That transformation word has the distinction of raising not only expectations but also hackles of the sort promoted by business jargon of uncertain meaning. Often contrasted with incremental change, and, presumably more effective towards a sustainable business future. Scanning the horizon for some examples, certainly IBM would be a standout, as would privatized utilities, otherwise Britain under Thatcher, the former soviet block countries, as they adapt to free markets, or China and India as they accede to global economic power. More tangible with hindsight and usually changing the game, requiring big shifts in mindset both internally and externally. ‘Transformation’ is quite likely the new ‘reinvention’… To help with meaning, a recent piece from McKinsey on the challenge of radical, fundamental change. Instructive, but still a bit short on those headline examples of global companies that really pulled it off.

« Prev - Next »