This year sees the twentieth anniversary of the publication of Jim Collins bestseller Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't.

With over 4 million copies sold worldwide good to great became a management must-read. But what can we learn from it 20 years on?

Is it still relevant? Do its findings pan out in the 21st century?

The book addresses a single question: can a good company become a great company (stock market performance, 5 times the average) and if so, how? Based on a five-year research project comparing companies that made the leap to those that didn’t, Good to Great shows that greatness is not primarily a function of circumstance but largely a matter of conscious choice, and discipline. ‘Good to Great’ discusses concepts like Level 5 Leadership; First Who, Then What (first get the right people on the bus, then figure out where to drive it); the Hedgehog Concept, and the Flywheel.

Helping Harley discuss Good to Great in his virtual studio are:

• Dr. Katrin Winkler, Leadership and organizational coach and Professor of Human Resources and Leadership at the University of Applied Sciences (UAS) Kempten, Germany
• Cor Loots, Business Strategist, former Vice-president in Business Improvement and Operations for Levi Strauss Europe and owner of Cobalo consultancy
• Philippe Van Haren, Business Consultant and former CEO of Unicon Solutions NV and member of a number of boards of directors
• Peter Ruymen, Partner of The Bayard Partnership. Peter has a degree in Enterprise Architecture from the University of Antwerp and is described as a no-nonsense guy that sees the bigger picture immediately.

Can the state of establishing diversity in your business guarantee you some kind of edge, and if so, what?

Coming from the Latin verb "divertere", meaning to turn aside, the classic dictionary definition of diversity is the containment of many very different elements practice of quality. In recent years however, probably the first definition you will find on the internet is the inclusion or involvement of people from a range of different social and ethnic backgrounds and of different genders, sexual orientations and abilities.

Helping Harley to discuss this topic:

• Nico De Cleen – CEO Passwerk
• Wivina Briers - Founder & CEO at X Kwadraat and Keynote speaker on gender equivalence
• Trees De Bruyne, Innovation manager and CEO of the company, Bark Today.

In this podcast, both Trees De Bruyne and Wivina Briers refer to Sustainable Development Goals SDG’s. More information can be found here: https://sdgs.un.org/goals.

Nassim Taleb’s book, The Black Swan, was published back in 2007 and yet today it’s observations are as poignant as ever. In this podcast Harley Lovegrove and his guest panel look at the implications of handling unexpected major events. They consider, among other questions, if one can anticipate the unexpected and if so, how can they as leaders keep their teams focused, motivated and aligned? They explore the process of inspiring managers into becoming leaders, and to embracing the fact that their teams needs are vastly different during periods of massive change and uncertainty.

Harley’s guests are:

Michèle Longpré, Executive Director at Gordian Management

Kamil Mroz, Director, Program Management Lead for strategic projects at UCB

Brian Thumwood, Director Global Billing - e-Billing and Online Payments at DHL

Saskia Van Dyck, Program Management advisor at Goodyear Dunlop

Bertrand Potier, Managing Director, Corporate Liquidity & Bank Treasury Professional Services Europe at FIS

After so long in lock-down, many companies are slowly going back to normal and management teams are beginning to encourage their employees to return to their offices. But will they want to? Will they try to hold on to working from home or are they looking forward to rushing back in? What are the consequences of this new normal?

Guests:

• Jürgen Schmied: Senior Program Director Airlines & Network Control Centres, DHL
• Tineke Van Hooland, founder and CEO at Epic 10 & Deputy Secretary General at bio.be
• Gert Vanleeuw, Technical Director at the Airbus / Proximus consortium
• Jan Borghs, Partner at The Bayard Partnership bv
• Cheyenne Goeminne, Junior Product Line Manager, Covestro AG

In this podcast: ‘How to keep our workforce safe while satisfying our clients, suppliers and shareholders.’ We examine the potential impact of social distancing in our production facilities and how to be sure our organisations can turn the challenges they face into some kind of competitive advantage.

To help him explore this topic, our host Harley Lovegrove is joined by:

• Koen Libbrecht, Director Technical Services at Aleris
• Bérénice Crabs, Secretary General at Synergrid and ARGB
• Paul Bennington, Associate at The Bayard Partnership, with over 27 years experience in production in the automotive sector
• Oliver Tullet, Managing Partner The Bayard Partnership UK, currently in the middle of a production improvement program
• Hans Luts, Interim Manager and recent CEO of an international frozen food business

This podcast is part of The Bayard Partnership CXO Academy program. An initiative where c-level executives join us to discuss important topics of the day.

If you have any comments, ideas, or topics for future programs, please feel free to reach out!

In this third episode, Harley Lovegrove and his podcast guests discuss how best to plan, report and keep track on progress in a remotely managed project or program.

Podcast series on Managing Projects Remotely
In this series, Harley Lovegrove and his guests are exploring the topic of remote project management and all the challenges and benefits it brings.

With so many people having to switch to running their entire project remotely it might be reassuring to know that for some this has been their way of life for a long time now.

In this second episode, Harley Lovegrove and his podcast guests will discuss how working remotely can impact data security. What is needed to keep our data safe and GDPR compliant?

Podcast series on Managing Projects Remotely
In this series, Harley Lovegrove and his guests are exploring the topic of remote project management and all the challenges and benefits it brings.

With so many people having to switch to running their entire project remotely it might be reassuring to know that for some this has been their way of life for a long time now.

In this first episode in a series of three, Harley Lovegrove and his podcast guests will discuss the ins and outs of remote project management. How experienced managers keep social contact and unity within their teams and which tools they use to keep their projects alive and on track.

Podcast series on Managing Project Remotely
In this series, Harley Lovegrove and his guests are exploring the topic of remote project management and all the challenges and benefits it brings.

With so many people having to switch to running their entire project remotely it might be reassuring to know that for some, this has been their way of life for a long time now.