At Egon Zehnder, we have worked with family businesses around the world since our founding in 1964. We interviewed scores of family executives to better understand their sources of success—as well as their pain points.

Can AI really transform a business or is it all just hot air? Hear from Royal Mail CEO Moya Greene in her conversation with Egon Zehnder’s Karim Jalbout at CogX 2018.

By this point, together with our client we have determined what degree of transformation is necessary in various dimensions and at different points within the company. A shared view among the management team of the level of transformation required (improvement, renewal or reinvention) and of the current state of the company at the start of the transformation is a fundamental prerequisite before setting the ball rolling.

By way of structure for our diagnosis, we take the five key dimensions that determine the success or failure of any transformation and examine them. As the transformation affects the entire system, the diagnosis invariably looks at three levels from the same perspective: the CEO, the management team and the organization as a whole.

It’s a simple truth that haunts many a corporate leader: “What made us successful in the past will not keep us competitive in the future.” Contributing to their restless nights is a growing awareness that, in complex and volatile environments, the future is no longer something that can be planned. So what must the nature of the long-term goals be with which they align the company?

Any change you make is going with your people, not against your people.” – Royal Mail CEO Moya Greene in conversation with EgonZehnder’s KarimJalbout on stage at CognitionX

Leadership has never been easy. Yet given the current volatility of the external world—stemming from geopolitical uncertainty, activist pressure, a new generation of employees, and digital disruption—running a large company is both more challenging and less secure than it’s ever been, as the daily drumbeat of CEO departures shows.

In the competitive Chinese market, Western companies are losing the war for talent.

The mobile industry is in the midst of large-scale evolution requiring every company to be more agile, more efficient and more innovative in the effort to discover and implement new ways of adding value.

Personal development and managing teams are identified by CEOs as the most challenging aspects of their job. Citing a recent CEO survey by Egon Zehnder, Moneycab and Organisator report that CEOs are very conscious of the need to change and evolve personally to keep up with business developments.