Video transcript: The importance of a value creation mindset in private business

Transcript

Paul Stanley, CEO and regional ambassador to Yorkshire, Institute of Directors:

The biggest opportunity to create value in private business is to adopt a differentiated position to make sure that you define the niche that you're serving as clearly as possible. And it's really important that those management teams are capable of challenging themselves constantly.

As a CEO the first thing to do is to identify the big challenges that the business has and the big opportunities that the business has. It's then really important to identify a very small number of big messages that you can communicate to the entire team. And then you've got to put in place some measures so that as you start to execute against that vision, you know what progress you're making and you can adjust your course as you go.

Businesses don't exist in isolation, they're part of a community, and they have to play their part in engaging that community in a social way, in a respectful way, and also thinking very carefully about their energy usage and the impact that has on the climate and the environment.

Global warming is a significant issue, it's led to huge weather volatility around the world. Businesses can play their part by simply managing their energy usage more efficiently. Businesses have to think about their resilience, not just against the kinds of threats that they can anticipate and quantify, but things that they have not even thought about yet. And it's not just about financial resilience, it's operational resilience, it's psychological resilience, it's about having supply chains that work when challenged. And increasingly, we're also seeing cyber challenges in the modern world, and it requires a really careful strategy for ensuring the business is resilient against these types of threats.

If you want to engage properly with the business to drive the best possible outcomes then you have to engage with that culture in a positive way to get the best out of people, out of teams, out of the whole organisation within that culture.