CEO

About a decade ago, I decided to join a friend’s retreat. It was a planned weekend for people to take time out. At that time in my life, I needed to get to know new people and expand my circle of friends, so I decided to go. I left without an agenda, aiming to just

An important part of designing your investment and retirement strategy is deciding exactly what your wealth goals are. You’ll want to determine how you plan to spend the money that you save or earn through investing later in life. Some individuals may seek to set higher wealth goals as they will want to continue to

If I were to take a “blue widget” from each one of us, set them side by side, and ask typical customers to choose the best, they would probably have a difficult time. All of the widgets would be very good, and all very similar. We know there are differences between us, but the typical

There was once an advertisement that was trying to sell Australia to the world which finished with the catch cry from model Lara Bingle asking, “Where the bloody hell are you?” The advert, whilst heavily criticised, certainly did not hold back the careers of those involved, with Lara Bingle finding great fame and the heart

My favourite word has always been ‘why.’ Understand the ‘why’ before asking further questions. Why build a purpose-driven company culture? A purpose-driven company culture is clear about its direction and actively makes sure everyone in the company is working in the same direction. Every individual has a heartfelt sense of ownership for the purpose. A

Twenty-five years ago, in the feature film Contact, Ellie Arroway (Jodie Foster) responded to her former mentor and nemesis, Dr. David Drumlin (Tom Skerritt), after having had a tough day testifying before Congress. Here’s a snippet of the dialogue:  David Drumlin: “I know you must think this is all very unfair. Maybe that’s an understatement.

Does the play-it-safe mentality run rampant in your organization?  Are the “innovative” ideas really just retreads of past decisions that led to lackluster results? While it’s easy to blame individual leaders for their un-inspired initiatives, maybe there’s another culprit.  Maybe your business lacks a risk-taking mindset. Too often in business, when leaders hear the word

The 6 thinking hats is one method used to enhance creative conversations. This method ensures that a wide variety of views and ways of thinking are represented. Using the 6 roles or else what hats represent, the framework allows teams to structure abstract thinking for productive results. But what does each hat represent?The blue hatThe

It might seem hard to believe in 2022, but for many years, business and personal elements mixed about as well as oil and water. As consumers and employees, people engaged with companies with little thought as to how their actions connected to a central, relevant purpose. But over the past few decades, we’ve seen the

As much as it pains some of us, we are all in the people business. Until the robots take over, we are always engaged with another person, be it a customer or a coworker, a loved one, or a stranger on the street.  Relationships are the core of leadership because leadership means influencing other people

There are the five Cs to live by when it comes to establishing and building trust: While a leader must be above average on each of the five Cs to be effective, growing evidence suggests that care matters more than the others. Many leaders engage in unconscious acts of self-destruction in their first days in

Asif Sadiq is Senior Vice President for Equity and Inclusion at WarnerMedia International, where he ensures diversity and inclusion is embedded in all elements of a business, resulting in innovative, creative and inclusive products and services for WarnerMedia’s more than 30,000 employees worldwide. Sadiq sat down with Joe Kornik, VISION by Protiviti’s Editor-in-Chief, to discuss the role

Most organizations typically relegate creatives, especially designers, to their marketing departments, where they can create pretty logos, brochures, and marketing materials. As a result, it is highly unusual to find creatives (right-brained individuals) leading large enterprises or organizations.  The last well-known creative/right-brained CEO the world remembers is Steve Jobs. That’s probably because designers and creatives

Labor shortages are plaguing just about every industry and role, but the problem is nearing crisis level for finding qualified tech workers. According to the Wall Street Journal, demand for skillsets encompassing technology, digital transformation, data, engineering and information security grew by 83% from 2020 to 2021. Those shortages are brewing at the highest reaches

The pandemic reignited the debate surrounding the need for society to visualize a new world of work. Empathy for people’s exhaustion is driving C-suite discussions on alternatives to the five-day, 40+-hour week. In response, the California state legislature which represents the world’s fifth-largest economy introduced legislation that would mandate a 4-day work week for large

In a fast-moving, uncertain, and highly competitive world, we need to be creative and innovative in deciding on the things we do and the way we do them. Effective Boards inspire and facilitate fresh thinking in organizations. Yet sometimes Boards act as blockers rather than enablers and are viewed by management as conservative rather than

David Roberson spent a month running RoseRyan from Hawaii last year, and now the CEO is overseeing the entire accounting and financial services firm from a guesthouse in the backyard of his home in Silicon Valley. The website still cites an address on Bascom Avenue in nearby Campbell, California, but nobody works there anymore, and Roberson

During Season 3, Episode 14 (Hartsfield’s Landing) of the hit TV series The West Wing (1999-2006), President Bartlet (Martin Sheen) and Sam Seaborn (Rob Lowe) talked about a foreign policy dilemma and how to negotiate a way forward that would avoid military conflict. While the two were playing chess, Sam questioned the President’s stand on

At a time when corporations are making headlines for the wrong reasons—toxic culture chief among them—and employee burnout is on the rise, people are looking to their leadership to do better, act with greater integrity, and prove that they are worth following. But cultivating that loyalty, especially among a scattered workforce and during a time