hello I’m what’s probably labeled as a
serial global CEO I’ve spent the last 25
years living and working in over 10
countries most people probably are lucky
if they do one international assignment
but I’ve had the privilege of living in
some fantastic places very different
Sweden Malaysia Singapore Myanmar as
Abidjan who was that I can say but and
in these ten areas
I’ve worked for different people but
doing one job CEO of mobile phone
company always challenging the big
established companies there is a
statistic quite a well-known statistic
that says seventy-five percent of all
new startups fail I look at my past 25
years every one of those ten companies
is alive and kicking every one of those
10 companies is successful and still
operational some of them have been
successful IPOs some of them I bought
the big established companies out that
they came into challenge when everyone
alive and kicking from Singapore to
Sweden to Myanmar to Nigeria and I look
at this and think what’s different if
you check and do research and a lot of
people he’ll be doing business studies
it’s all about marketing it’s all about
understanding culture it’s all about
understanding language and Here I am
speaking English to a Spanish audience
our reality is I don’t speak one
language other than English and most of
my posh London friends would say I don’t
speak English very well either so what’s
the difference why why did I choose this
the reason I chose it very simple
I always but night over 38 years old 20
years ago now I took a phone call that
is my brother and he rang and said look
you’ve been offered Asia now for three
years you’ve got children isn’t it time
you came home and got a normal job and I
looked down at my children who were like
two years older than four years old at
the time the faces were beaming as they
were watching this beautiful waterfall
in the Malaysian jungle and I basically
had to mérida no yet
not if I can help it because I want this
life so eventually I left Malaysia and I
left in the normal way I get a phone
call and sort of known as the go-to guy
when you’ve got a problem with a mobile
telephone company and it’s usually the
guy at the end of the line says the
existing operators are expensive the
existing operators are ripping the
consumers off there’s need for a new
dynamic but we’ve tried and we’ve failed
can you come over and give it a look so
I do my usual get on a plane I land it’s
a Lagos oh stop oh oh Vienna and I do my
best research ever I get into a taxi and
I talk in very slow English and lots of
Han languages what phone do you use mr.
taxi driver and it’s usually the same oh
I use X Y Z I’m not allowed to say and
again you hear this they’re really bad
the ripping is off
there’s no lover so as I’m in the taxi I
look around and I think I do it again
can I develop a kick-ass company a
computer that can change lives develop
an organization that will change the
paradigm of and challenge the big giants
when it’s been failed before and as I
think this the others on the back of my
neck stand up and I’m looking around I
think yep
I can get a good cup of coffee there and
there’s a pretty good gymnasium there so
I think yes I can do this
and then it starts and it doesn’t start
like all those books do in the airports
where you do the marketing plan you do
the positioning statement that’s been
done by the big guys it starts by saying
what’s the values of the company that
will succeed here and those values tend
to be the same honesty
curiosity innovation bravery because
you’ve got to be brave in some of these
countries and passion and then I start I
recruit the team I’ve never ever in ten
years
recruited anyone who’s worked for one of
the biggest stablish companies you think
why not
don’t they want the excitement and Anne
says no they want the office they want
the kudos they don’t want to create
something so I’ve never succeeded in
recruiting someone from the management
team of the competitors but when I
interview people it’s all about one
thing can you live the values does it
mean so much to you will you walk the
talk not just have it written on the
wall or a tattoo but will you live it
every day eventually there are people
who burn with the passion and the values
of a company and then the journey starts
and every day you’ve got to ensure that
we’re recruiting the people the top 50
people of a 2000 organization it’s the
top 50 that have to live those values to
drive it every day to make sure that
they are honest that just because you’re
the CEO you don’t have an office if
you’re the CEO you don’t get more
luncheon vultures than any wells these
things seem very small but they make the
values real of a company I’d say it’s
not the marketing plan it’s not the
positioning it’s not the network it’s
not the brand all those things just ooze
the personality and the values of the
company and eventually you can see the
organization responding to those values
those values that every day people want
to belong to you think it would be easy
you think spending a billion US dollars
you could buy that you can’t you can’t
buy people and even when people join me
and they passed the interview 25 percent
of those people fail
to deliver against the values now the
good news on that statement is it means
every 25% of the people get refreshed
it usually takes 12 months when you’ve
got the organization singing and they
know the values they wake up in the
morning wanting to change the world one
of the other statistics that I’ve come
across which is in my current company
when you deliver a value in every
decision based on how you behave not
what you say but how you behave you get
a motivated workforce of the 2,000 staff
I’ve got 95% are proud to work for the
company not just it’s good the salaries
okay throughout that’s because they feel
they can their life has been changed
because they can make a difference not
to the telephone society or the
countrymen but to the society that they
live and imagine if you’ve got a
salesperson 2,000 kilometres away not
turning up for the salary not telling
your for the bonus but turning up
because they are proud to make a
difference that creates that difference
it creates that difference that
challenges those established
organizations who spend millions on
marketing positioning and this has been
the case in 10 different countries
whether they be rich countries like
Sweden or poor countries like Azerbaijan
in Myanmar whether they are Muslim
countries or Christian countries and it
makes you think people want to work for
organizations that have human values not
marketing values not corporate values no
corporate jargon not vision statements
they want to wake up in the morning I
think today I can make a difference
today I work for an honest company I
don’t work for a company that does deals
in closed doors I don’t work for a
company where the CEO and the management
team a distant I work for a coming I can
argue with the CEO every day and make
that difference now that has mean the
difference between 75% failure and a
hundred percent success
so as I’m closing here I would really
put three messages the people in the
audience and my two children who are now
19 and 21 searched for a career and a
job that you’re passionate about search
for an organization that has values not
marketing statements or jargon but
values values that you believe in
because by then and by doing that you
can change the world and this world
needs to be changed
and it’s up to the young people out
there to change it it’s possible it’s
doable enjoy it and embrace it my final
message if my brother’s out there I’ll
be home soon unless I get another
telephone call thank you very much
[Applause]
serial global CEO I’ve spent the last 25
years living and working in over 10
countries most people probably are lucky
if they do one international assignment
but I’ve had the privilege of living in
some fantastic places very different
Sweden Malaysia Singapore Myanmar as
Abidjan who was that I can say but and
in these ten areas
I’ve worked for different people but
doing one job CEO of mobile phone
company always challenging the big
established companies there is a
statistic quite a well-known statistic
that says seventy-five percent of all
new startups fail I look at my past 25
years every one of those ten companies
is alive and kicking every one of those
10 companies is successful and still
operational some of them have been
successful IPOs some of them I bought
the big established companies out that
they came into challenge when everyone
alive and kicking from Singapore to
Sweden to Myanmar to Nigeria and I look
at this and think what’s different if
you check and do research and a lot of
people he’ll be doing business studies
it’s all about marketing it’s all about
understanding culture it’s all about
understanding language and Here I am
speaking English to a Spanish audience
our reality is I don’t speak one
language other than English and most of
my posh London friends would say I don’t
speak English very well either so what’s
the difference why why did I choose this
the reason I chose it very simple
I always but night over 38 years old 20
years ago now I took a phone call that
is my brother and he rang and said look
you’ve been offered Asia now for three
years you’ve got children isn’t it time
you came home and got a normal job and I
looked down at my children who were like
two years older than four years old at
the time the faces were beaming as they
were watching this beautiful waterfall
in the Malaysian jungle and I basically
had to mérida no yet
not if I can help it because I want this
life so eventually I left Malaysia and I
left in the normal way I get a phone
call and sort of known as the go-to guy
when you’ve got a problem with a mobile
telephone company and it’s usually the
guy at the end of the line says the
existing operators are expensive the
existing operators are ripping the
consumers off there’s need for a new
dynamic but we’ve tried and we’ve failed
can you come over and give it a look so
I do my usual get on a plane I land it’s
a Lagos oh stop oh oh Vienna and I do my
best research ever I get into a taxi and
I talk in very slow English and lots of
Han languages what phone do you use mr.
taxi driver and it’s usually the same oh
I use X Y Z I’m not allowed to say and
again you hear this they’re really bad
the ripping is off
there’s no lover so as I’m in the taxi I
look around and I think I do it again
can I develop a kick-ass company a
computer that can change lives develop
an organization that will change the
paradigm of and challenge the big giants
when it’s been failed before and as I
think this the others on the back of my
neck stand up and I’m looking around I
think yep
I can get a good cup of coffee there and
there’s a pretty good gymnasium there so
I think yes I can do this
and then it starts and it doesn’t start
like all those books do in the airports
where you do the marketing plan you do
the positioning statement that’s been
done by the big guys it starts by saying
what’s the values of the company that
will succeed here and those values tend
to be the same honesty
curiosity innovation bravery because
you’ve got to be brave in some of these
countries and passion and then I start I
recruit the team I’ve never ever in ten
years
recruited anyone who’s worked for one of
the biggest stablish companies you think
why not
don’t they want the excitement and Anne
says no they want the office they want
the kudos they don’t want to create
something so I’ve never succeeded in
recruiting someone from the management
team of the competitors but when I
interview people it’s all about one
thing can you live the values does it
mean so much to you will you walk the
talk not just have it written on the
wall or a tattoo but will you live it
every day eventually there are people
who burn with the passion and the values
of a company and then the journey starts
and every day you’ve got to ensure that
we’re recruiting the people the top 50
people of a 2000 organization it’s the
top 50 that have to live those values to
drive it every day to make sure that
they are honest that just because you’re
the CEO you don’t have an office if
you’re the CEO you don’t get more
luncheon vultures than any wells these
things seem very small but they make the
values real of a company I’d say it’s
not the marketing plan it’s not the
positioning it’s not the network it’s
not the brand all those things just ooze
the personality and the values of the
company and eventually you can see the
organization responding to those values
those values that every day people want
to belong to you think it would be easy
you think spending a billion US dollars
you could buy that you can’t you can’t
buy people and even when people join me
and they passed the interview 25 percent
of those people fail
to deliver against the values now the
good news on that statement is it means
every 25% of the people get refreshed
it usually takes 12 months when you’ve
got the organization singing and they
know the values they wake up in the
morning wanting to change the world one
of the other statistics that I’ve come
across which is in my current company
when you deliver a value in every
decision based on how you behave not
what you say but how you behave you get
a motivated workforce of the 2,000 staff
I’ve got 95% are proud to work for the
company not just it’s good the salaries
okay throughout that’s because they feel
they can their life has been changed
because they can make a difference not
to the telephone society or the
countrymen but to the society that they
live and imagine if you’ve got a
salesperson 2,000 kilometres away not
turning up for the salary not telling
your for the bonus but turning up
because they are proud to make a
difference that creates that difference
it creates that difference that
challenges those established
organizations who spend millions on
marketing positioning and this has been
the case in 10 different countries
whether they be rich countries like
Sweden or poor countries like Azerbaijan
in Myanmar whether they are Muslim
countries or Christian countries and it
makes you think people want to work for
organizations that have human values not
marketing values not corporate values no
corporate jargon not vision statements
they want to wake up in the morning I
think today I can make a difference
today I work for an honest company I
don’t work for a company that does deals
in closed doors I don’t work for a
company where the CEO and the management
team a distant I work for a coming I can
argue with the CEO every day and make
that difference now that has mean the
difference between 75% failure and a
hundred percent success
so as I’m closing here I would really
put three messages the people in the
audience and my two children who are now
19 and 21 searched for a career and a
job that you’re passionate about search
for an organization that has values not
marketing statements or jargon but
values values that you believe in
because by then and by doing that you
can change the world and this world
needs to be changed
and it’s up to the young people out
there to change it it’s possible it’s
doable enjoy it and embrace it my final
message if my brother’s out there I’ll
be home soon unless I get another
telephone call thank you very much
[Applause]
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