Chandran Nair Business Futurist Speaker

 In an article in the Financial Times on June 18th, business and futurist speaker Chandran Nair says that the Asian economies must rewrite the rules of capitalism.

He says, “The 20th century’s triumph of consumption-based capitalism has created the crisis of the 21st century: looming catastrophic climate change, massive environmental damage and significant depletion of natural resources. Asia is now at the heart of it.”

“Imagine a world in which, by 2050, four to five billion Asians are consuming like Americans. The result would be catastrophic, yet this is what Asians are being told to aspire to. As Asia rises, the two billion now at the margins of the consumption economy will radically transform global demand and supply, not only for non-renewable commodities such as oil and coal, but also for renewables such as food. This is no Malthusian rehash.”

As a speaker, Chandran has strongly advocated a more sustainable approach to development in Asia, advising governments and multi-national corporations to instill these principles into their policies and key decision-making processes. His accumulative expertise and experience in Asian environmental and sustainability issues over the past 20 years are unrivalled.

Motivational speaker Hamish Taylor

Inspirational motivational speaker Hamish Taylor spoke to staff at the London of Lambeth on improving business performance, innovation and creativity.  He received high praise for his talk, ” Hamish was a passionate and lively speaker and he really engaged our delegates.  Despite having to deliver the same speech three times to different groups, he made each group feel they were the only ones and kept up the momentum”.

Mike Harris Motivational Leadership Speaker

 Motivational speaker Mike Harris is the founder and former CEO of First Direct bank and Egg.Com

He recently published an article in People Management magazine on Coaching High Performance Teams:-

I’ve created a few interesting businesses in my time. Three of them went on to be worth more than a billion pounds. The fundamental principle behind their success, I believe, was the creation of an environment designed to unleash the human spirit at work.

In some ways the approach – to liberate energy, creativity, innovation and commitment – was a reaction against traditional large organisations, where the fundamental principle seemed to be a nose-to-the-grindstone culture where people are invited to trade in their quality of life for career advancement. Let’s be clear – such businesses can produce high performance. I just wouldn’t want anyone who I care about to work for them.

With this in mind, whether in creating my own businesses or in applying the same principles to transforming large well-established businesses, I have always made extensive use of business coaches. This has, predominantly, been in the following three ways: First, to help people create motivating personal goals aligned with company goals. This includes helping them discover how they make decisions, how this habitual way of working sometimes helps them achieve their goals and sometimes gets in the way, and how to deal with problems and breakdowns. At its best this sort of coaching can give people a deep existential understanding of the way they are living their lives; at worst, it can provoke resistance and accusations of manipulation or irrelevance. It all depends on the quality and credibility of the coach.

Second, to facilitate meetings that focus on developing plans and strategies, dealing with urgent or intractable problems and/or serious brainstorming. Coaches who do a good job at this are usually highly valued and hard to find.

Third, to help develop a leadership team into a high-performance unit capable of building an extraordinary business or growing an existing business at extraordinary speed. I have only found a handful of people worldwide I would trust with this work.

To read the full article by Mike Harris click here.

Switched On by Sahar Hashemi

Switched On: 10 Habits to Being Highly Effective in Your Job, and Loving it, by Sahar Hashemi.

Sahar Hashemi”s new book follows on from her very successful “Anyone Can Do It!.  She says, “Life is too short to just come in for the paycheque.  Let′s face it, you work for the best years of your life and spend most of your waking hours on the job, so make sure you are energized, fulfilled and buzzing. Switched On will help you leap outside your comfort zone, awaken your creativity,  blast through the old thinking”.

“Switched On shows you how to think like an entrepreneur – have ideas, spot the opportunities, see the future and make things happen. The future belongs to fresh thinkers, so turn your receptors on and get ready to bring the real you to work”.

“Go on, unleash yourself – you′ll be surprised at how indispensable you become. You have it in you – you just need to switch it on!”

Business speaker Karren Brady

Karren Brady is to take over from Margaret Mountford as an adviser to Lord Sugar on the sicth series of the BBC TV show The Apprentice.

Business speaker Karren Brady, who was recently appointed Chief Executive of West Ham United FC, has happeared in one-off episodes as part of a panel that puts candidates through rigorous job interviews.

Karren Brady has appeared in one-off episodes as part of a panel that puts candidates through rigorous job interviews.

Arab Investments, a private property company best known for plans to build a London skyscraper, has completed the acquisition of Coffee Republic, the coffee shop chain.   The company, which is planning to build one of the tallest buildings in London at the Pinnacle in the City of London, will today confirm the acquisition for an undisclosed amount. Administrator KPMG has been in talks to sell the business to Arab Investments for two weeks.

Arab Investments said that it would commit “substantial capital” into developing the Coffee Republic brand, and will embark on further expansion of the branch network. Coffee Republic operates 80 outlets, of which 20 are outside the UK, including Bulgaria and Saudi Arabia. Khalid Affara, who runs Arab Investments in the UK, said: “We intend to start growing the business with immediate effect. “Coffee Republic has a strong brand name and we are bringing additional investment into the company to expand the number of retail outlets in the UK and elsewhere.” Richard Hill, joint administrator and KPMG partner, said that a substantial part of the business had been rescued, protecting 62 jobs. He said: “While coffee shops face tough competition on the high street in these challenging economic times, the amount of interest we received in Coffee Republic is testament to the strength of the brand.”

Neil Armstrong motivational speaker

 July 16th is the 40th anniversary of the lift-off of Apollo 11,  the first manned space mission to land on the Moon. It was the fifth human spaceflight of Project Apollo and the third human voyage to the Moon.

It carried Mission Commander Neil Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins and Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin. On 20 July, Armstrong and Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the Moon, while Collins orbited above.

The mission fulfilled President John F Kennedy’s goal of reaching the moon by the end of the 1960s, which he expressed during an inspirational speech given before a joint session of Congress on 25 May 1961:

Across Britain, the economic crisis is causing businesses to go bust. In this new series, Sir Gerry Robinson, one of the UK’s most respected entrepreneurs, is prepared to risk millions of pounds of his own money to rescue those that he believes deserve another chance. Each week, two British businesses whose futures hang in the balance must persuade Gerry Robinson that they’re potentially profitable, before he makes his big decision: which, if any, of the businesses to invest in. In the first episode Gerry’s quest takes him into the lives of two couples who have built award-winning breweries.

Motivational Speaker Ben-Saunders

  Between the 24th and 28th of June, polar explorer and motivational speaker Ben Saunders is competing in the UK’s longest non-stop running race, the Thames Ring 260 . This brand-new, 260-mile ultra-marathon entails completing nearly ten back-to-back marathons within a 100-hour cut off time.  Starting and finishing in Streatley, Berkshire, the race covers most of the Thames Path and the Grand Union canal.

Ben is the third in history to ski solo to the North Pole (a challenge Reinhold Messner called “Ten times as dangerous as Everest”), he holds the record for the longest solo Arctic journey by a Briton, and no one has been able to repeat the journey since. He is planning three groundbreaking expeditions between now and 2012, and is using the Thames Ring 250 as “a training event”. At a time of intense economic challenge, fewer speakers are as qualified to talk about tenacity, resilience, and succeeding against the odds.

From selling the first cases of Cobra out of the back of a battered old Citroen 2CV along the streets of West London to exporting to over 40 countries around the world, Karan Bilimoria′s vision of a less gassy beer has travelled a long way.

Starting out with a heap of student debt, a complete lack of industry experience and parents desperate for their son to get a proper job, it could all so easily have gone wrong. But Karan′s single–minded determination to succeed and his ability to inspire those around him to buy into his vision, turned Cobra, sip–by–sip, into the multi–million pound business it is today. Karan′s story bottles the very essence of entrepreneurship: vision, drive, creativity and a relentless battle against all odds, to make the idea you so passionately believe in work.

′Every bit as good as the beer itself.′ Sir Richard Branson

′Essential reading.′ Richard Reed, Co–founder, Innocent Drinks

′An inspirational story.′ Sir Martin Sorrell, Chief Executive Officer WPP

′Karan Bilimoria is one of the great entrepreneurs…′ Jo Malone, founder of Jo Malone

′Inspiring! … worth the cover price for the “Financing Cobra” chapter alone.′ Professor John Mullins, London Business School

′… His story should inspire youth everywhere who are fired by the dream of becoming a successful entrepreneur.′ Ratan Tata, Chairman, Tata Group

Against the Grain is packed with insights into finance, strategy, planning, luck, discipline, and generally doing the unexpected to build your own business, from someone who′s been there and done it… and all with just a little less gas.