Corporate Vision September 2017

14 CORPORATE VISION / September 2017 , Providing a Clear Idea of What Success Looks Like Criticaleye is the peer to peer Board Community withmore than 14 years’ experience transforming executives and global leadership teams. CEOMatthewBlagg explains why leaders need a safe space to ask questions and stress test strategies in today’s fast-paced, uncertain environment. Established in 2003, Criticaleye is a global Community of CEOs, C-suite executives and senior teams. Comprised of CEOs, CFOs Chairmen, Non-executive Directors, Managing Directors and Divisional CEOs, Criticaleye inspires leaders to succeed by providing both individuals and leadership teams with a development framework. Central to everything Criticaleye offers its Members is a core belief that great leadership is fundamental to organisational success. The Criticaleye Community is a supportive environment, where leaders can discuss and collaborate with peers so that they make the right decisions when it matters. “In today’s business environment where disruption, and the potential for disruption, is so prolific, one bad or misplaced decision by an organisation’s senior team could have catastrophic consequences,” says Matthew. “Leaders need to be continually looking outside their businesses to ensure they understand the threats and opportunities, as well as how to deal with them. Here at Criticaleye we understand how hard, personally intrusive and complex leadership roles can be. Our Community and the way we structure the support offered to each Member and leadership team, provides an opportunity to step outside the day-to-day, collaborate and share with leaders from other organisations and sectors, and, ultimately, make the right decisions having scrutinised all potential outcomes.” When it comes to disruption, recent research conducted by Criticaleye, at its CEO Retreat 2017, revealed that 75% of leaders are currently experiencing some degree of disruption in their industry. Worryingly, only one in four respondents said they were fully confident their senior team had the right skills and capabilities to respond to business model disruption. Similarly, over half (58%) claimed their leadership teams are too insular and focused on the day to day, another concerning figure when we consider that disruption is potentially right round the corner and leaders need to have one eye on the external marketplace at all times. “Here at Criticaleye we help our Members and leadership teams achieve their potential via a broad range of opportunities to engage with executives from outside their own networks and explore business-critical topics,” says Matthew. “Our work with individual executives, leadership teams and senior leaders across organisations, enables businesses to address both individual and collective skills and competencies, as well as providing a safe space to benchmark new strategies. “For example, Criticaleye Pop-up Boards are events which enable leaders to tap into the collective expertise of our Community when they want to benchmark or stress test an idea or strategy,” he continues. “We draw together a group of individuals, a virtual Board of Directors, who have specific experience of the subject in question and can provide impartial advice so the Member can make an informed decision. Unlike discussions within the Member’s own executive team, where internal politics or silos might prevent complete openness and honesty, participants in Criticaleye Pop-up Boards have no other agenda than to relay their own experiences and critique the idea or strategy being discussed. The desired outcome being that participants are informed and inspired to go back to their organisations with a clear idea of what success looks like.” Criticaleye has seen the impact of failure to address shortfalls in leadership and teams which take a narrow and insular approach to decision making. These organisations struggle to recruit and retain top talent, and often take a silo-based approach to leadership. Lack of collaboration and strategic focus is a downward spiral for executive teams, who need to build an effective and flexible development framework which removes them from the day-to-day challenges of running the business, gives them high- level reference points and the opportunity to think strategically. Ultimately, whether a firm are seeking a new CEO, looking to build a leadership DNA, an organisation going through major strategic and transformation change or an executive team which is underperforming, Criticaleye has the ability to draw together the right expertise to develop your team, inspiring leaders to succeed through collaboration, constructive challenge, mutual respect, integrity and trust amongst team members. 1707CV02