Customer Experience & Marketing

Why organisations work with Paco Underhill He invented the methodology behind modern in-store consumer research. Envirosell’s video-tracking and observational fieldwork, built up over four decades, is the empirical foundation that most behavioural retail consulting now borrows from. His client base is the proof point. Envirosell has worked with more than a third of the Fortune 100 across 50-plus countries, on stores, banks, restaurants, malls, and digital interfaces. Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping is taught in MBA and design programmes globally and has been published in 27 languages, giving him a shared vocabulary with the buyers in the room. Malcolm Gladwell’s 1996 New Yorker profile “The Science of Shopping” turned Underhill’s work into one of the most reprinted pieces the magazine has ever run, anchoring his standing as the named figure in the field. He works in concrete categories, food and beverage, beauty, telecoms, fashion, supermarkets, malls, financial branches, not abstract retail strategy, which is what category leaders actually need. Biography highlights Founder and former CEO of Envirosell Inc., the behavioural research and consultancy firm he established in 1986 Author of four Simon & Schuster titles: Why We Buy, Call of the Mall, What Women Want, and How We Eat Why We Buy published in 27 languages and used in MBA and design school curricula worldwide Subject of Malcolm Gladwell’s 1996 New Yorker profile “The Science of Shopping” Vassar College graduate; also studied at Columbia University and Ewha University, Seoul; former adjunct instructor in the doctoral programme in Environmental Psychology at City University of New York Owner of Peckshee LLC; columnist for Design: Retail and The Robin Report Biography In 1986, almost no one was studying what customers actually did inside a store. Marketers had surveys, retailers had sales data, and architects had floor plans, but no one had a continuous record of human behaviour at the shelf. Envirosell, founded in New York that year, was built to fix that. Paco Underhill borrowed the basic premise of environmental psychology, that surroundings shape behaviour, and turned it into a fieldwork practice using video cameras, trained observers, and large-sample tracking inside live commercial space. The output, after four decades, is a body of work that consumer brands and retailers across more than 50 countries have used to redesign stores, formats, packaging, and service flow. Envirosell’s client list spans more than a third of the Fortune 100. The categories range from grocery and food service to beauty, fashion, financial branches, telecoms, and malls. Underhill’s books, published by Simon & Schuster, took that work into the public domain. Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping has appeared in 27 languages and is taught in MBA and design schools globally. Call of the Mall, What Women Want, and 2022’s How We Eat extended the method into specific commercial terrains. The work earned wider recognition through Malcolm Gladwell’s 1996 New Yorker profile, “The Science of Shopping,” one of the most reprinted articles in the magazine’s history. It introduced ideas that have since become standard vocabulary in retail design: the decompression zone at a store entrance, the butt-brush effect, the way physical adjacency shapes purchase decisions. Underhill’s role in this is specific. He is the figure most consistently named when the field is described. He stepped back as CEO of Envirosell in 2020 and now advises through Peckshee LLC. The intellectual position has not changed. Stores, malls, food retail, and the consumer-facing parts of banking and telecoms remain the terrain, and direct observation of behaviour remains the method. Key speaking topics The science of shopping and retail psychology Consumer behaviour in physical and digital commercial environments Food, beverage, and grocery retail transformation Female-friendly markets and the rise of women as commercial decision-makers The future of malls, high streets, and retail real estate Brand experience at the point of purchase Cross-market retail trends from 50-plus countries Ideal for Chief marketing officers, chief customer officers, and brand leaders inside consumer-facing businesses Retail and merchandising leadership inside grocery, food service, beauty, fashion, and electronics Real estate, mall, and property executives planning the next generation of commercial space Boards and leadership teams of consumer banks, telecoms, and service businesses with branch or storefront networks Audience outcomes A clearer read on how customers actually behave inside their own stores, sites, and branches Specific levers, layout, adjacency, signage, dwell time, that move conversion and basket size A grounded view of how food, beauty, fashion, and grocery retail are shifting across markets A practical sense of where female consumers are reshaping product, format, and service design An external reference point for internal debates on store closures, format changes, and digital integration

Why organisations work with Paul Redmond He brings a five-generation diagnostic, not a Millennials-versus-Boomers cliche, that gives HR and commercial leaders a working language for friction they can already feel. His employability research, built across senior roles at the University of Liverpool, lets him speak credibly to graduate-recruitment, early-careers, and talent-pipeline audiences other generational speakers cannot. His Zombie Jobs thesis, anchored in his 2019 TED Talk and 2024 Trotman book on the AI age, gives leadership audiences a sharp, named frame for which roles AI hollows out and which it does not. He moves comfortably between commercial keynotes and broadcast work, including BBC and ITV current affairs, which translates into a polished platform presence for high-stakes events. Biography highlights Director of Student Experience and Enhancement, University of Liverpool, with continuing lecturing responsibilities. Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (2010), awarded for writing and research. Author of The Graduate Jobs Formula, Talking about my Generation, A Parent’s Guide to Graduate Jobs, and The Graduate’s Guide to Future-Proofing Your Career (Trotman, 2024). TED speaker: Zombie Careers: Will You Lose Your Job to AI? (2019). Regular contributor to BBC and ITV current affairs; collaborator on the BBC and Tiger Aspect documentary Who Gets the Best Jobs? Speaks across financial services, technology, healthcare, and travel, with named clients including Google, Hargreaves Lansdown, Janus Henderson, Royal London, the NHS, and ABTA. Biography Five working generations now sit inside the same organisation. Each one learned to work under a different economy, a different communication norm, and a different settlement with the employer. The friction this produces shows up in engagement scores, retention numbers, and customer outcomes. Redmond’s work names that friction and gives leaders a way to act on it. His vantage is unusual. As Director of Student Experience and Enhancement at the University of Liverpool, he has spent years inside the machinery that produces the next generation of the workforce, and in continuous research conversation with the employers buying that talent. That has made his commentary on Gen Z and the post-Covid graduate market a regular fixture on BBC and ITV current affairs, and a reference point for HR and early-careers teams across UK plc. The future-of-work strand runs alongside it. His TED Talk Zombie Careers, published in 2019, set out the roles most exposed to AI and robotics, and the cognitive and human skills that survive automation. The Graduate’s Guide to Future-Proofing Your Career, published by Trotman in 2024, extends that argument into a working guide for the AI age. The thesis lands because it is grounded in named research, not in tech-keynote futurism. His books include The Graduate Jobs Formula, Talking about my Generation, A Parent’s Guide to Graduate Jobs, and Making it Happen. In 2010 he was awarded a Fellowship of the Royal Society of Arts for his writing and research. Key speaking topics The multigenerational workplace Gen Z and the post-Covid workforce The future of work and AI exposure Graduate recruitment and early-careers strategy Selling and marketing across generations Wellbeing and the staff-customer link Employability and career resilience Ideal for CHROs, heads of talent, and early-careers leads designing pipelines around Gen Z and a five-generation workforce. Commercial and marketing leaders building proposition and channel strategy across generational customer segments. Executive teams stress-testing which roles AI will hollow out and which human capabilities to invest in. Boards and leadership conferences in financial services, technology, healthcare, and professional services. Audience outcomes A working language for the five generations now in the workforce and the specific friction points each pair produces. A named view of which roles are most exposed to AI and robotics, and which capabilities buyers and employers should be investing in. Practical engagement and retention moves calibrated to Gen Z and post-Covid graduate expectations. A sharper read on how generational difference shows up on the customer side, in buying behaviour and channel preference.

Why organisations work with Peter Avis A career from dishwasher to General Manager of Galvin at Windows at the London Hilton on Park Lane, giving him operational credibility with both frontline teams and executive leadership in the same room. Fifteen years inside the Virgin Group, working alongside Sir Richard Branson on the London Roof Gardens, Mont Rochelle and Kasbah Tamadot, where service culture is a measurable commercial asset. UK Restaurant Manager of the Year in 2009 and Chairman of the UK Guild of Restaurant Services, recognised credentials that translate hospitality language into commercially serious customer experience. A working operator’s view of employee engagement, not a consultant’s deck: how rosters, recognition and recruitment actually change guest outcomes. Biography highlights General Manager of Galvin at Windows and 10 Degrees Bar at the London Hilton on Park Lane from February 2020, succeeding Fred Sirieix. UK Restaurant Manager of the Year, 2009, while running Babylon Restaurant at The Roof Gardens, which won Best London Restaurant at the Visit London Awards in 2008. More than 15 years with the Virgin Group, including involvement in the launches of Virgin Limited Edition properties Mont Rochelle in South Africa and Kasbah Tamadot in Morocco. Chairman of the UK Guild of Restaurant Services and Fellow of the Institute of Hospitality. Recipient of the 2014 Richard Branson Special Award for Services to the Community and the 2014 Carey Award Manager of the Year. Awarded the Platinum Jubilee Medal in 2022 and inducted into the Seal of Excellence at the House of Lords for services to hospitality. Biography Service businesses can describe their brand promise clearly. The difficulty is keeping it intact across a 14-hour service, three sittings, a kitchen running short and a new starter on the floor. That gap, between corporate standard and the table the guest is actually sitting at, is the problem Peter Avis has spent a career solving. He began as a dishwasher in Liverpool and ran kitchens, floors and rooms up through the ranks at named London venues. By 2009 he was UK Restaurant Manager of the Year at Babylon Restaurant in The Roof Gardens, Kensington. Babylon had taken Best London Restaurant at the Visit London Awards a year earlier under his management. Fifteen years inside the Virgin Group followed, working closely with Sir Richard Branson and the Virgin Limited Edition team. He was part of the launch teams for Mont Rochelle in South Africa and Kasbah Tamadot in Morocco, brands where service is the product. In 2020 he was appointed General Manager of Galvin at Windows and 10 Degrees Bar at the London Hilton on Park Lane, succeeding Fred Sirieix. That breadth gives him an unusually grounded view of engagement, recognition and service culture. He chairs the UK Guild of Restaurant Services and holds Fellow status at the Institute of Hospitality. Boards and operational leaders book him because he can talk about engagement, retention and customer experience in the language of a working operator, not a consultant. Key speaking topics Customer service and guest experience Employee engagement in service businesses Building high-performing hospitality teams Leadership in service operations Delivering on a brand promise Recognition, retention and culture in frontline industries Ideal for Hospitality, leisure and retail leadership teams and operations directors Customer experience and service excellence functions across consumer-facing industries HR and people leaders working on engagement and retention in frontline workforces Conferences focused on service culture, brand delivery and operational excellence Audience outcomes A practical view of how recognition, recruitment and floor leadership change guest outcomes A clearer understanding of where brand promise breaks down between executive intent and frontline delivery Specific examples from named flagship operations rather than generic service theory Confidence that service excellence is a managed system, not a personality trait

Why organisations work with Peter Cross He has held the customer experience seat at one of the UK’s most service-known retailers. As Customer Experience Director at the John Lewis Partnership, he was responsible for the customer agenda across both John Lewis and Waitrose at a moment of acute pressure on British retail. His thinking is now codified in book form. Start with the Customer, published by Pearson in 2025 and called “the essential text on customer experience” by The Grocer, gives audiences a usable framework, including a “lexicon of customer needs” that distinguishes transactional, interactional, core and higher-level requirements. As Vice President of the Institute of Customer Service, he sits at the centre of the national conversation about service standards, with sight of how the issue plays out across sectors rather than inside a single company. His career holds two seats most operators never combine: ten years inside the Mary Portas consultancy that worked on the 2011 Portas Review, and eight years inside the John Lewis Partnership. He has built the strategy and lived with the consequences. Biography highlights Former Customer Experience Director at the John Lewis Partnership, with the brief extended to cover Waitrose Co-author of Start with the Customer (Pearson, 2025), called “the essential text on customer experience” by The Grocer Vice President of the Institute of Customer Service Ambassador for the Retail Trust and Leader in Residence at Leeds University Business School Ten-year business partnership with Mary Portas at her retail agency Earlier senior roles at L’Oréal, Burberry and Alfred Dunhill Biography Between 2017 and 2021, two of Britain’s most service-known retailers, John Lewis and Waitrose, were pressured by pure-play online players and a public mood shifting hard toward speed. Holding their character through that period was the customer experience brief, and it sat with Peter Cross. Before John Lewis, he spent ten years as business partner to Mary Portas at her retail agency. Their work together included charity-shop reinvention and the 2011 Portas Review of the British high street, commissioned by government. Earlier still came senior marketing roles at L’Oréal, Burberry and Alfred Dunhill. He has occupied both the operator’s chair and the advisor’s chair. Start with the Customer, his 2025 Pearson book co-written with Institute of Customer Service CEO Jo Causon, was called “the essential text on customer experience” by The Grocer. The book argues that service has been quietly reduced to process, and that technology cannot substitute for the cultural work of building a service organisation from the CEO’s desk down. He now serves as Vice President of the Institute of Customer Service, Ambassador for the Retail Trust, and Leader in Residence at Leeds University Business School. The thinking he brings to senior teams centres on a framework from his book: the “lexicon of customer needs,” which separates requirements into transactional, interactional, core and higher-level categories. The standards he asks organisations to meet are ones he held himself, for eight years, on the customer agenda at the John Lewis Partnership. Key speaking topics Customer experience strategy Service culture The lexicon of customer needs Customer behaviour and expectation Leadership in customer-facing organisations Employee engagement and frontline empowerment The future of retail Ideal for Boards and CEOs setting the customer agenda for the next strategic cycle CMOs, Chief Customer Officers and Customer Experience Directors making the case for cultural investment alongside technology spend Retail and consumer-facing leadership teams under pressure from online competitors HR and people leaders responsible for service culture and frontline engagement Audience outcomes A vocabulary for the different types of customer need (transactional, interactional, core, higher-level) and where each one surfaces across the customer journey The case, evidenced through John Lewis and Mary Portas-era examples, for treating service culture as a board-level discipline A way to test whether technology investment is enabling service or quietly substituting for it The “golden rules and cardinal sins” of service that separate brands customers stay with from brands they leave

Why organisations work with Peter Field His IPA Effectiveness Databank analysis – spanning over 1,000 campaigns, 80+ categories, and 30 years – gives senior marketers an empirical base for budget decisions that no internal dataset can match in scale or authority. The 60:40 principle he co-established with Les Binet is now the dominant reference point for CMO-level investment decisions globally; organisations use it to resist short-term pressure from finance and hold the case for brand building with the board. His 2019 Crisis in Creative Effectiveness report – showing that creatively-awarded campaigns had lost their effectiveness advantage entirely due to short-termism – gives marketing leaders the evidence to argue for sustained creative investment rather than disposable activation. The Creative Effectiveness Ladder, co-developed with James Hurman for Cannes Lions and WARC, gives organisations a practical evaluation tool for assessing the long-term ambition of creative work before it runs. His extension of effectiveness principles into B2B – The Five Principles of Growth in B2B Marketing – fills an empirical gap that most B2B marketing leaders have had to navigate without equivalent guidance. Biography highlights Cambridge graduate; 15 years as a strategic planner at advertising agencies including BMP (later part of the DDB network) Co-author with Les Binet of the IPA Effectiveness Databank series: Marketing in the Era of Accountability (2007), The Long & The Short of It (2013), Media in Focus (2017), Effectiveness in Context (2018) Author of The Crisis in Creative Effectiveness (IPA, 2019) – analysing 24 years of data on the declining relationship between creative awards and business outcomes Co-author with James Hurman of The Effectiveness Code (Cannes Lions/WARC, 2020), which produced the Creative Effectiveness Ladder framework Honorary Fellow of the UK Institute of Practitioners in Advertising Regular keynote speaker at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, IPA EffWeek, and WARC Sessions Biography Marketing measurement has a structural flaw: the channels easiest to measure in real time are the ones least suited to building durable growth. Peter Field has spent 25 years making that argument with evidence – the IPA Effectiveness Databank, a repository of independently verified advertising effectiveness data spanning more than three decades. With Les Binet, Field co-authored the series of IPA Effectiveness Databank reports that set the empirical terms for decisions about budget allocation, media strategy, and creative investment. The Long and the Short of It (2013) established the 60:40 principle: most organisations systematically under-invest in brand building relative to short-term activation. Long-term emotional campaigns, the data showed, generate roughly double the profit of short-term approaches. The series has been cited in over 70 international academic publications and textbooks. Field’s solo research extended these findings into the relationship between creativity and effectiveness. The Crisis in Creative Effectiveness (IPA, 2019) revealed that creatively-awarded campaigns had become no more effective than non-awarded ones – the first time in 24 years of data – driven by the industry’s shift toward short-term activation work. His co-authored Creative Effectiveness Ladder, developed with James Hurman for Cannes Lions and WARC, provides a practical framework for evaluating the long-term ambition of creative work before it runs. A Cambridge graduate and former strategic planner at BMP, Field is an Honorary Fellow of the UK Institute of Practitioners in Advertising. His research has been presented at Cannes Lions, WARC Sessions, and IPA EffWeek, and has shaped how CMOs, CFOs, and boards across the world evaluate the returns on marketing investment. Key speaking topics Marketing effectiveness and budget allocation Long-term brand building vs. short-term sales activation Creative effectiveness and the business case for creativity Measurement, metrics, and the limits of digital attribution Brand growth and pricing power B2B marketing effectiveness Evidence-based commercial strategy Ideal for CMOs and senior marketing leaders under short-term commercial pressure from CFOs or boards CFOs and CEOs seeking an empirical framework for evaluating marketing investment decisions Brand and creative strategy leads making the case for long-term creative ambition internally B2B marketing directors who have lacked an effectiveness evidence base equivalent to B2C Audience outcomes A clear, evidence-based framework for allocating budget between brand building and short-term activation – grounded in 30+ years of campaign data A working understanding of why short-term digital metrics can systematically mislead commercial decision-making The analytical language to present the commercial case for brand investment to a CFO or board Practical criteria for evaluating whether a creative strategy is built for long-term effectiveness or short-term efficiency Awareness of how the Five Principles of Growth in B2B Marketing translate consumer effectiveness evidence into B2B strategy

Why organisations work with Peter Fischer Brown He brings an operator’s view of brand strategy. Years inside Orange Business and KPMG mean he reads brand as a P&L and procurement question, not a marketing artefact. He teaches B2B value creation at Esade Business School, so the frameworks he uses in the room have been pressure-tested with MBA and executive cohorts who push back hard. His membership of the Medinge Group gives him a serious intellectual home for “brands with a conscience” arguments, separate from the agency circuit that usually owns the topic. He works in English, German and Spanish across Europe, the Middle East and Latin America, which makes him useful for groups whose brand and culture questions cross those markets. His coaching qualification from Henley and his executive coaching practice mean he can move between keynote framing and small-group leadership work in the same engagement. Biography highlights Founder of FischerBrown, an international brand and corporate strategy consultancy. Former Director of Strategy for Orange Business and Ambassador of Strategic Branding for the Orange Group; former Manager and Consultant at KPMG. Academic Collaborator at Esade Business School, Barcelona, teaching MBA and Executive programmes on B2B value creation and leadership with conscience. Member of the Medinge Group; contributing author on the Slow Food Movement in “Brands with a Conscience” (Medinge Group, 2016). Contributor to the Radix think tank on European centre-ground politics and democratic participation. MA in Modern Languages and Literature and MPhil in International Relations, both University of Cambridge; Professional Certificate in Executive Coaching, Henley Business School. Biography Most “purpose” programmes break the moment they hit procurement, pricing or a difficult supplier decision. The brand line survives in the campaign and disappears in the operating model. Peter Fischer Brown works at exactly that seam, where a values-led brand position has to be defended in B2B negotiations, capital allocation and the everyday behaviour of senior leaders. He spent the formative part of his career inside the operating side of two demanding environments. At KPMG he advised on corporate and marketing strategy. At Orange he was Director of Strategy for the B2B business and Ambassador of Strategic Branding for the wider France Telecom group, running brand and strategy across European, Middle Eastern and Latin American markets. That history is why his brand frameworks read as commercial first and editorial second. Today he runs FischerBrown and teaches at Esade Business School in Barcelona, where his MBA and Executive sessions focus on B2B value creation and on leadership with conscience. The Medinge Group, of which he is a long-standing member, gives him a serious intellectual home for the latter; his chapter on the Slow Food Movement in the group’s 2016 book “Brands with a Conscience” is a worked example of how a values-led proposition can become a category position. The work that sits outside the brand spine sharpens it. As a Radix contributor he writes on the “radical centre” in European politics; he is a qualified executive coach through Henley; his linguistic and musical training (Cambridge, Trinity College London) feeds the cross-disciplinary keynotes he gives on cosmopolitanism and the art of business. Senior teams book him when they need someone who can argue brand and purpose in the same register as a CFO, and then sit with the leadership team afterwards. Key speaking topics Brand and corporate strategy Brands with a conscience and purpose-led positioning B2B value creation Leadership with conscience Sustainability and the brand promise Cosmopolitanism and cultural identity as competitive advantage The art of business: learning from the creative and performing arts Ideal for CMOs and brand directors in B2B and consumer businesses under pressure to make a purpose claim operational CEOs and strategy leads working through a brand or positioning reset Boards and leadership teams wrestling with ESG and purpose credibility HR and executive development leads commissioning leadership-with-conscience programmes for senior cohorts Audience outcomes A sharper view of where brand sits in the operating model, not only in marketing A vocabulary for discussing purpose in front of a sceptical CFO or procurement audience Specific examples of values-led brands that have held up commercially, and ones that have not A clearer framing of leadership credibility when a business is being asked to behave consistently across markets

Why organisations work with Peter Fisk He brings a structured framework for business reinvention. Business Recoded sets out seven mindset shifts and 49 codes drawn from deep work with senior leaders at companies including Microsoft, Adidas and Patagonia. Senior teams leave with a shared model to argue from. He sits in the rare overlap between marketer and strategist. As former CEO of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and now Professor of Strategy and Innovation at IE Business School in Madrid, he treats marketing, customer thinking and innovation as parts of one growth discipline. Most organisations still split them across separate functions and budgets. He has worked with senior leaders across more than 300 companies in over 55 countries, with particular depth in Asian innovation and emerging-market growth. The case material is current and varied, not the same handful of examples a leadership team has already seen. As former Thinkers50 Global Director and founder of the annual European Business Forum, he has unusual curatorial access to the leading management thinkers in the world. Sessions draw on what is actually moving across the field. Biography highlights Founder and CEO of GeniusWorks, a London-based strategy and innovation consultancy Professor of Leadership, Strategy and Innovation at IE Business School, Madrid; academic director of the Global Advanced Management Program Former Chief Executive of the Chartered Institute of Marketing Former Thinkers50 Global Director; founder of the annual Thinkers50 European Business Forum Author of nine business books, including Business Recoded, Gamechangers, and the Genius series, translated into 35 languages; Business Recoded shortlisted for the CMI Management Book of the Year Earlier commercial career at British Airways, including responsibility for the Concorde brand Biography The Chartered Institute of Marketing is the world’s largest professional marketing organisation. Peter Fisk ran it before founding GeniusWorks. He used the role to argue that marketing, customer and innovation belong inside growth strategy, where most organisations still treat them as separate functions. That argument has shaped his work since. His career started in physics, in a superconductivity lab. He moved into commercial roles at British Airways, including managing the Concorde brand, before consulting work at PA Consulting Group and Brand Finance. After CIM he founded GeniusWorks, a London consultancy, and joined IE Business School in Madrid as Professor of Strategy and Innovation. His 2020 book Business Recoded sets out seven mindset shifts and 49 codes for reinventing how a business creates value. It is built on deep interviews with leaders at companies including Microsoft, Adidas, Patagonia and Spotify. The Financial Times reviewed it as “the book you have to read now”. It was shortlisted for the CMI Management Book of the Year. Through the Thinkers50 European Business Forum, which he founded in 2017 as Thinkers50 Global Director, he convenes the world’s leading management thinkers each year. Recent stages have brought together Michael Porter, Rita McGrath, Erin Meyer and Alex Osterwalder. That curatorial position is unusual for a working consultant. The frameworks in his sessions are continually refreshed by direct contact with the academics and practitioners writing the next generation of management ideas. Key speaking topics Growth strategy in fast-changing markets Business model reinvention Innovation strategy and execution Customer strategy and brand growth The Business Recoded framework: seven shifts for reinventing the business Asian innovation and emerging-market growth Sustainable growth and purposeful business Ideal for CEOs and boards facing slowing growth in mature markets Strategy and innovation leaders responsible for new business models or category growth CMOs and customer experience leaders rethinking how marketing connects to commercial strategy Executive leadership teams running annual strategy or transformation offsites Audience outcomes A shared vocabulary for the seven shifts that separate business reinvention from incremental change Case material from Asian innovators and global category leaders that most leadership teams will not have seen A connected view of innovation, customer and marketing strategy as one growth discipline Specific direction on where to stop investing, alongside where to grow

Why organisations work with Peter Sheahan A defined commercial framework. Matter and the Edge of Disruption give boards a concrete way to locate where their existing profits, reach, and reputation can be redeployed to create new markets, not just defend old ones. Operating credibility, not just theory. He has built three companies and runs Karrikins Group, advising leadership teams at Apple, Microsoft, IBM, Wells Fargo, Hyundai, Pfizer, and Cardinal Health on transformation execution. Authority recognised by his peers. The National Speakers Association ranked him among its 25 Most Influential Speakers and inducted him as the youngest member ever into its Hall of Fame. A clear thesis on commoditisation. He gives commercial and sales leadership a usable argument for moving organisations off price competition and onto value, trust, and indispensability. A senior-room voice on the human side of growth. His work on culture, attraction, and retention is grounded in the same commercial logic, treating people strategy as a driver of competitive position rather than an HR programme. Biography highlights Founder and Group CEO of Karrikins Group, a global growth and transformation consultancy. Author of seven books, including Matter, Flip, Generation Y, and Making it Happen; published by Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, and Amplify. Inducted into the National Speakers Association Hall of Fame as its youngest-ever member. Named one of the 25 Most Influential Speakers in the World by the National Speakers Association. 2,500+ keynote presentations delivered across more than 40 countries. Advisory and keynote client roster including Apple, Microsoft, IBM, AT&T, Wells Fargo, Hyundai, Pfizer, Cardinal Health, Chick-fil-A, and BP. Biography The companies that sustain growth do not protect what made them successful. They identify the place where their existing reach, reputation, and profits give them permission to build the next market, and they move before they have to. That place is what Peter Sheahan calls the Edge of Disruption. The thesis is laid out in Matter: Move Beyond the Competition, Create More Value, and Become the Obvious Choice, co-authored with Julie Williamson, PhD. The book studies more than thirty companies that achieved indispensability by leaning into disruption rather than defending against it. It is the intellectual spine of his consulting practice at Karrikins Group, where he advises Fortune 500 leadership teams on transformation, growth, and commercial repositioning. His earlier books cover the same terrain from different angles. Flip set out the case for counterintuitive thinking when markets refuse to behave predictably. Generation Y and Making it Happen addressed how the workforce side of a business has to evolve in step with its commercial ambitions. Across the work, the argument is consistent: growth comes from identifying where the most important problems are converging, then committing operational resources before the rest of the market sees them. The credibility behind the argument is operating, not academic. He has built three companies, delivered more than 2,500 presentations across 40+ countries, and counts Apple, Microsoft, IBM, Wells Fargo, Pfizer, and Cardinal Health among the leadership teams he has worked with. The National Speakers Association named him among its 25 Most Influential Speakers in the World and inducted him as the youngest-ever member of its Hall of Fame. Key speaking topics Growth strategy under disruption Business model innovation and the Edge of Disruption Competitive advantage when products and services commoditise Culture as a commercial driver Workforce attraction and retention Trusted-adviser positioning and winning on value Ideal for CEOs, chief strategy officers, and chief growth officers planning the next horizon of competitive position Boards and executive teams confronting margin compression or post-acquisition integration Chief commercial officers, sales leadership, and revenue teams shifting from price to value CHROs and chief people officers tying talent strategy to commercial outcomes Audience outcomes A defined view of where the organisation’s Edge of Disruption sits, and what would need to be true to commit to it A working argument for moving customers, talent, and internal narrative away from price as the basis of choice Sharper language for the leadership team on what genuine differentiation looks like in their category Renewed conviction in the commercial logic of culture, talent, and organisational design decisions

Why organisations work with Peter Siljerud Engineering training combined with twenty years in trend analysis and futures work. His AI commentary runs deeper than headline level into how machine learning and neural networks behave, and what that means for deployment risk. Author of AI för offentlig sektor (Liber, 2023, foreword by Professor Fredrik Heintz of Linköping University), with case studies of Bolagsverket, Riksarkivet, and Hallands sjukhus. One of the few futurists with substantive applied work on public-sector AI. Co-author of Supertrends (ProSales Institute, English edition 2020), a framework of fifty structural shifts in commercial strategy. The book is built for sales and marketing leaders running real planning cycles. Long-running client work with Nordea, ICA, the Church of Sweden, LRF, SPP, and Teracom. The LRF programme reached 12,000 people across a two-year external-analysis curriculum. Biography highlights CEO and founder of Futurewise, a Stockholm-based trend research firm operating since 2008 Author of four books: 100 trender (2011), Bryt normerna (2015), Supertrenderna (2018), and AI för offentlig sektor (Liber, 2023) Two books nominated for Marketing Book of the Year by Sveriges Marknadsförbund (Swedish Marketing Federation) Named one of Sweden’s most creative people by media group IDG in 2012 Former future strategist at Kairos Future and world analyst at Intel Clients include Nordea, ICA, the Church of Sweden, LRF, SPP, and Teracom Biography Sweden’s public-sector AI investment sits at around three percent of national AI spending. The figure is small enough to embarrass policymakers and large enough to matter. Peter Siljerud’s 2023 book AI för offentlig sektor (Liber, foreword by Professor Fredrik Heintz of Linköping University) is the practical response: case studies of Bolagsverket, Riksarkivet, and Hallands sjukhus, written for the leadership teams making the actual deployment decisions. That instinct, work backwards from organisational reality, has shaped twenty years of his practice. He trained as a civil engineer before moving into futures work as a strategist at Kairos Future and a world analyst at Intel. Futurewise, the firm he founded in 2008, helps leadership teams turn external-analysis signals into specific budget and capability calls. The earlier books trace the same arc. 100 trender (2011) was nominated for Sweden’s Marketing Book of the Year and mapped structural shifts hitting Swedish business. Bryt normerna (2015) attacked the assumption that the working day and the employment contract are settled categories. Supertrenderna (2018), co-authored with Henrik Larsson-Broman and Markus Ejenäs of the ProSales Institute, distilled fifty shifts in commercial strategy into operating advice for sales and marketing leaders. What separates him from the broader futurist circuit is the engineering instinct. The talks press past signal identification into what the audience should do next quarter. AI is treated as a specific technology with specific behavioural patterns that leadership teams need to understand at working level. Key speaking topics Artificial intelligence and generative AI Strategic foresight and trend analysis Future of work Future of sales and marketing AI in the public sector Consumer behaviour and retail trends Ideal for C-suite and senior leadership teams in Nordic and European businesses making AI investment decisions Public-sector leadership in regions, municipalities, and central agencies working out where AI investment pays back Heads of marketing, sales, and customer experience facing structural change in how customers buy Boards and executive committees in mature industries (real estate, retail, financial services) where trend response is overdue Audience outcomes A clear-eyed view of AI development that goes past press-cycle headlines A short list of trends worth genuine board attention this cycle, separated from the noise Specific case studies from Nordic public and private sector AI deployments, including Bolagsverket and Hallands sjukhus A method for translating external signals into capital and capability decisions Ideas they can put into a board paper inside a fortnight

Why organisations work with Peter York He named and codified a market segment that became a global reference point. Co-authoring The Official Sloane Ranger Handbook gave brands a working language for tribal segmentation that is still in use forty years later. He has run the brand-rehabilitation playbook on the actual problem, not the conference version of it. SRU clients have included Dunhill, Coutts & Co, Tiffany, Mont Blanc, Liberty, Jaeger, The Economist and The Financial Times. He moves between editorial authority and consulting authority in a way few speakers can. Harpers & Queen, Management Today and GQ on one side; ICI, Unilever, Marks & Spencer, BAT and WH Smith on the other. He carries a long memory of how consumer culture actually shifts. Two BBC2 series on style and the 1980s, Peter York’s Hipster Handbook, and Dictators’ Homes are the visible output of a thirty-year archive of trend reading. Biography highlights Co-author, The Official Sloane Ranger Handbook (with Ann Barr); author of Style Wars, Peter York’s Eighties, and Dictators’ Homes. Co-founder, SRU Ltd, and architect of the SRU Group of nine specialist consultancies; clients have included ICI, Unilever, Marks & Spencer, BAT, Clarks, Allied Dunbar, Thorn EMI, WH Smith and Ladbroke. Style Editor at Harpers & Queen for ten years; columnist at The Independent on Sunday, GQ and Management Today. Brand and positioning advisor to Dunhill, Coutts & Co, Tiffany, Mont Blanc, Liberty, Jaeger, The Economist, The Financial Times, Channel 4, the BBC and UK Government clients. Visiting Professor, University of the Arts London; President of The Media Society. Broadcaster: two BBC2 series on style and the 1980s; Peter York’s Hipster Handbook (BBC4, 2016); The Rise and Fall of the Adman; regular contributor to BBC Newsnight. Biography Most marketing teams describe their customers in language that was already a decade old when they wrote the deck. The Sloane Ranger arrived in Harpers & Queen in 1975 and in The Official Sloane Ranger Handbook in 1982 because Peter York and Ann Barr were watching the same people the rest of the industry was missing. The book sold in millions and became a working reference for any brand trying to talk to a tribe rather than a demographic. That instinct hardened into a consulting practice. With Lord Stevenson, York co-founded SRU Ltd and built it into a group of nine specialist agencies through the 1980s, working on brand positioning, repositioning and what York calls brand rehabilitation for ICI, Unilever, Marks & Spencer, BAT, Thorn EMI, WH Smith and Ladbroke. The luxury and editorial side of the practice ran in parallel: Dunhill, Coutts & Co, Tiffany, Mont Blanc, Liberty, Jaeger, The Economist and The Financial Times. The writing kept pace with the consulting. Style Wars, Peter York’s Eighties, Dictators’ Homes and roughly eleven books in total, alongside columns at The Independent on Sunday, GQ and Management Today, and a long second life on screen with two BBC2 series on style and the 1980s, Peter York’s Hipster Handbook on BBC4, and the documentary The Rise and Fall of the Adman. He is a Visiting Professor at the University of the Arts London and President of The Media Society. For a senior brand or marketing team, the value is specific. York can sit across pricing, positioning and reputation work and tell a board what their customers are about to want, in language that does not sound like a trend report. He has been doing it on the same client list, in print and on screen, for forty years. Key speaking topics Brand strategy and brand rehabilitation Luxury markets and high-end consumer behaviour Consumer tribes, segmentation and cultural identity Marketing communications and positioning Cultural change and creative industries Reputation and corporate communications Ideal for CMOs, brand directors and marketing leadership teams running repositioning or rehabilitation work Boards of luxury, premium and heritage brands managing relevance under generational change Senior teams in retail, financial services and media translating cultural shifts into commercial decisions Communications and reputation leads working on category narrative Audience outcomes A sharper read on the cultural drivers behind shifts the data is only beginning to show A working language for tribes and segments that goes beyond demographic categories Specific examples of brand rehabilitation drawn from named luxury and heritage clients A frame for separating real positioning problems from surface communications problems

Why organisations work with Phil Spencer 25 unbroken years on a flagship Channel 4 show means audiences recognise Phil Spencer before he walks on. Few hosts in UK broadcasting can match that level of advanced familiarity. He moves between hosting and substance. Spencer founded Garrington Home Finders in 1996, one of the first UK property businesses built around buyer advocacy, and has since built two further businesses, including Move iQ. His past corporate hosting credits include British Gas, HM Land Registry and Norwich Union. Bureau testimonials repeatedly point to his ability to hold difficult rooms without losing them. Property is the obvious entry point, but the wider relevance is consumer trust in markets structured around the seller. That makes him useful to financial services, mortgage providers, insurers and housebuilders looking for a credible voice on customer-side decisions. The MBE awarded in the 2026 New Year Honours, for nineteen years of patronage at homelessness charity St Mungo’s, adds reputational gravity to the broadcasting credit. Biography highlights Co-presenter of Channel 4’s Location, Location, Location since 2000 with Kirstie Allsopp, across 44 series and counting. Founder of Garrington Home Finders (1996), one of the first UK property buying agencies built around buyer-side representation. Co-founder of Raise the Roof Productions (2010), now a major independent supplier to Channel 4, based in Glasgow. Founder of Move iQ (2018), the consumer property advice platform with a podcast, YouTube channel and Property Report tool. Awarded MBE in the 2026 New Year Honours for charitable services, recognised for nineteen years of patronage at homelessness charity St Mungo’s. Author of three Vermilion-published property books: How to Buy a House (with Kirstie Allsopp), Adding Value to Your Home, and How to Buy Your First Home. Biography Most consumer property markets are organised around the seller. Estate agents are paid by vendors and conveyancers work transaction by transaction. The buyer walks into the largest financial decision of their life without anyone professionally obliged to represent them. Phil Spencer founded Garrington Home Finders in 1996 after qualifying as a surveyor at London South Bank University. The business grew to four offices, thirty staff and £3.5m annual turnover before he stepped back in 2008. The buyer-agent model has since been widely copied across the UK property industry. Television came almost by accident. A Scottish production company looking for a property consultant on a new format invited him to screen-test as a presenter. Location, Location, Location launched in 2000 with Kirstie Allsopp and is now in its 44th series, the longest-running property programme in British television. The two later founded Raise the Roof Productions, now a major independent supplier to Channel 4, based in Glasgow. For corporate audiences, the proposition is unusual. Twenty-five years of continuous broadcasting give Spencer the immediate audience recognition that hosting demands. Three businesses sit behind the screen: Garrington in 1996, Raise the Roof in 2010, and Move iQ in 2018. The MBE in the 2026 New Year Honours, for nineteen years of patronage at homelessness charity St Mungo’s, adds a public-service credit beyond the broadcasting career. Key speaking topics The UK property market and the buyer’s journey Consumer-side business models in seller-led markets Entrepreneurship and category creation Awards hosting and conference facilitation Independent television production Career storytelling from Location, Location, Location Ideal for Property and housebuilding businesses running customer or industry events Mortgage providers, insurers and consumer financial services firms hosting client and broker conferences Awards programmes and industry recognition ceremonies that need a confident broadcast host Conference organisers booking after-dinner speakers with an entrepreneurial story behind the broadcasting credit Audience outcomes The Garrington story: how a category-defining property business was built around buyer advocacy in a seller-led market Honest commentary on the UK property market that goes beyond the news cycle into transaction-level dynamics How Move iQ was built as a consumer media platform inside an established broadcasting career A confidently held event programme with the pacing of British broadcast television

Why organisations work with Philip Hesketh A behavioural framework, the Seven Drivers of Motivation, published by Wiley and built specifically for sales, pricing, and client conversations, not generic influence theory. Direct operator credibility: he ran a 150-person advertising agency with clients including the BBC, Nestle, Disney, and HSBC, so the case studies come from his own P&L. A specific, repeatable answer to the pricing question. His “How to hold high prices and fees” session is built around what makes buyers concede on value rather than discount. Two Amazon number-one books on persuasion, giving the speaker a public reference point the audience can revisit, share with their teams, and use as a working text. Biography highlights Founder and managing partner of Advertising Principles, Leeds, grown over 17 years to £48m in billings with 150 staff and clients including the BBC, Nestle, Disney, and HSBC. Author of two Amazon UK number-one bestsellers on persuasion, “How to Persuade and Influence People” and “Persuade”, both published by Capstone/Wiley, and a third book, “The Golden Rules for a Happy Life”. Psychology graduate of Newcastle University and former Procter & Gamble salesperson, named P&G Salesman of the Year. Vistage UK “Outstanding Performer” and “Most Requested Speaker”; TEC Australia “Overseas Speaker of the Year” 2009. Visiting Fellow of Newcastle University. Has delivered keynote and training programmes for sales, professional services, and leadership audiences across more than 20 countries. Biography Most pricing pressure does not come from competitors. It comes from how sales and account teams handle the conversation when a client pushes back. The behavioural science of why people say yes, why they concede on value, and why they stay loyal sits at the heart of that conversation, and it is the territory Philip Hesketh has worked in for two decades. Hesketh is a Newcastle University psychology graduate who started in sales at Procter & Gamble, where he was named Salesman of the Year. In 1986 he founded Advertising Principles in Leeds and built it over 17 years into a £48m agency with 150 staff and clients such as the BBC, Nestle, Disney, and HSBC. The frameworks he now teaches were developed inside that business, not bolted on afterwards. His two Wiley books, “How to Persuade and Influence People” and “Persuade”, set out the Seven Drivers of Motivation: a working model of what moves buyers, decision-makers, and colleagues to act. Both reached number one on Amazon UK in their categories. The model is built for commercial use, with direct application to pricing, negotiation, and client relationship work. Vistage UK named him “Outstanding Performer” and “Most Requested Speaker”; TEC Australia named him “Overseas Speaker of the Year”. Beyond the awards, the practical proof is repetition: chief executive groups book him back, which only happens when the content moves the conversations leaders are actually having about value, fees, and customers. Key speaking topics Psychology of persuasion and influence Pricing and value negotiation Client acquisition and retention Sales performance and conversion Behavioural drivers of buyer decisions Customer experience and loyalty Ideal for CCOs, sales directors, and revenue leaders facing margin compression Professional services partners and client-facing leaders in agencies, law, accountancy, and consulting Account management and key client teams in B2B environments Leadership audiences at Vistage, YPO, EO, and similar peer-group settings Audience outcomes A working vocabulary for the seven psychological drivers behind buyer decisions Specific techniques for holding price and defending fees in negotiation A sharper read on why clients defect, and what conversations keep them Practical questions and conversational moves teams can put to work the next day A clearer separation between price objections that are real and price objections that are tested