The children’s parable of The Little Red Hen has been read countless times to millions of children around the world over the past century. Yet it demonstrates an epic failure of leadership – what impact does this tale have on corporate leadership failures today?

Ian examines The Little Red Hen’s failures, unpacking key leadership themes of purpose, vision, vulnerability and delegation, rounding off the keynote with his new, re-imagined, millennial version of The Little Red Hen…

In this highly autobiographical keynote, Ian leans on his experiences of a fast-track 25-year global career from graduate trainee to billion dollar CEO and outlines the concept of career consciousness.

The career consciousness framework links together ambition, purpose, attitude, and perspiration in a unique and memorable way that all current and future leaders can access and leverage in the future.

What does it take to unleash the potential of the team in front of you? Why do so many organisations rush to hire an army of consultants when the answers are already in front of you, lying within the people that know the business best?

In this keynote Ian talks to keyways of getting your organisation to understand and map forward the art of your possible, using the resources you already have, the ideas that have lain fallow and the existing energy in the room.

Remember Nokia? Recall Kodak? Want to be the next Blockbuster or Toys R Us? Ian strikes through to the heart of what business and personal relevance is and shows how losing that relevance can be terminal. All is not lost though.

In this keynote, Ian will lay out a clear 5 point plan that any business can quickly grasp and execute upon, that will create a step-change in their ongoing relevance to their customers, and open up the concept of Engine 1/Engine 2 thinking.

Perhaps Ian’s most famous keynote, Fuzzy Logic dispels the myth once and for all that organisations take decisions rationally and logically.

Ian clearly highlights the key reasons why organisations do not take decisions rationally, and the consequences of these failings. Concluding the keynote, Ian creates a 5-point roadmap that any organisation or individual can employ to reduce the levels of ‘fuzzy logic’ around decisions, and a route forward to create long term success.

Big organisations were once small, nimble and agile. They made decisions in a heartbeat, walked the journey in lockstep with the customers and were known for their focus, flexibility and innovation.

But then something happens. They become successful. They scale for growth. Age and size wearies them, and suddenly the once agile, small business, is a large, cumbersome and lumbering beast.

Ian calls this ‘organisational cholesterol’ and in this keynote focuses on the cause of this silent killer of businesses and outlines the steps and remedies that can be taken.

Be warned, this is not for the fainthearted, and the cure is not to be taken for granted.

The average Formula 1 pitstop in 1954 was 67 seconds, in 2024 it was 1.8 seconds. The progress is remarkable, but the illusion of competitive advantage gained when all your peers progress at the same rate.is a dangerous fallacy for businesses.

In this keynote Ian looks at what it takes to not just run hard to stand still but rather change the nature of the game being played.

With a focus on the difference between growth and scale, the need for a metabolic rate greater than your peers and an insatiable desire to look at everything through the other end of the telescope, Ian unpacks what it takes to move ahead of the game.