The Power of Purposeful Business. Purpose is the corporate buzzword of today, with politicians, the public, and even shareholders calling on businesses to serve wider society. But purpose is also controversial, because companies also need to make money. Is there a trade-off between purpose and profit, or is it possible for companies to achieve both? This talk will passionately put forward the case for purposeful business, using rigorous evidence and real-life examples to show what works – and, importantly, what doesn’t. It will discuss practical ways for businesses of all sizes to put purpose into practice – to ensure it guides a company’s day-to-day decisions, is embedded throughout the organisation, and enhances rather than jeopardises profits.

Sustainable Investing: Does It Work and How To Do It? Sustainable investing has become increasingly popular, with even purely financial investors recognising its potential to increase returns and lower risk. But it also has its strong critics, who claim that it fails to achieve either financial or social goals. This talk will use rigorous evidence and real-life examples to explain what sustainable investing can feasibly achieve – and, importantly, what it can’t. It will discuss how to implement sustainable investing in practice – how to overcome the challenges with unreliable data and inconsistent ESG ratings, and how to distinguish companies that are truly purposeful from those that are greenwashing.

Thinking Smarter: Finding Truth in a Post-Truth World. We live in a world of confusion. Stories, statistics, and studies are everywhere, meaning you can find evidence to support almost any position. Many of them are flawed, yet by triggering our emotions, they can get widespread acceptance and distort our decisions. Professor Alex Edmans, whose TED Talk “What to Trust in a Post-Truth World” has been viewed 2 million times, explains how to sharpen our wits and separate fact from fiction. He will highlight the psychological biases that make us vulnerable to misinformation. Then, armed with the knowledge of what to look out for, the talk will provide a simple, practical guide on how to think smarter, sharper, and more critically. Going beyond simply “checking the facts” and understanding individual statistics, the talk discusses the relationships between statistics – the science of cause and effect – to help us make better sense of the world and take better decisions.

Time Management in the Digital Age. Classic time management frameworks advise us to focus on the important rather than the urgent. However, these frameworks seem not to be applicable to the 21st century, where technology means that we are constantly bombarded with deadlines, and it is not realistic to simply ignore the urgent.  This talk will explain how to focus on important long-term goals but at the same time meet urgent short-term deadlines, how to use email as an effective communication tool without being overwhelmed with it, and how to instil superior time management practices within the teams that we lead.

Public Speaking Without Fear. Surveys about people’s fears commonly feature public speaking at the very top of the list.  Many people believe that public speaking is either something you are born with or without.  This talk will provide practical tips that everyone can employ, regardless of their experience, to improve their public speaking.  It will highlight what is unique about public speaking compared to other forms of communication, and explain how to tailor your approach to both the audience and the format (e.g. large auditorium, panel interview, webinar).

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