AI is transforming the travel industry faster than many leaders realise. Those who adapt will unlock new opportunities for growth and innovation; those who don’t risk being left behind. The future belongs to leaders who can combine human insight with technological change.
New research exploring the growing gap between automotive industry disruption and leadership readiness, and what organisations must do to build more agile, resilient leadership teams for the future.
As market conditions become more uncertain and holding periods extend, leadership quality is moving to the centre of the investment thesis.
The smartest law firms are no longer treating M&A and partner hiring as separate decisions. They are using both to shape the same outcome: a stronger platform, a sharper market position, and a more durable path to growth.
The pervasive nature of AI is inviting leadership teams to reconsider, and in some cases redefine how their organisations create value.
Organisations that are investing in a more thoughtful, insight-led approach are unlocking greater long-term value.
Leaders must make faster decisions with incomplete information and build organisations capable of operating in environments where disruption is routine.
The role of the Chief Financial Officer in the mining and natural resources industry is changing rapidly. Traditionally focused on financial reporting, cost control and compliance, the modern mining CFO is increasingly expected to play a central role in corporate strategy, capital allocation and governance.
At Savannah Group’s Talent Acquisition Forum, senior talent leaders discussed how organisations are adapting their workforce strategies to operate in an increasingly volatile environment.
To coincide with International Women’s Day, Allison Kirkby, BT CEO, shares her perspectives on how inclusion drives business performance with Savannah Group’s Ali Palmer.
We asked 30 CFOs what was keeping them awake at night. Their concerns go way beyond this quarter’s numbers; CEOs are asking them what needs to fundamentally change in the next 24 months, and what does that mean for finance?”
Savannah Group interviewed and surveyed over 170 executive and non-executive board leaders to discuss how boards must evolve.
TA leaders are being pulled into strategic territory that demands new thinking, new tools, and new levels of influence.
With cyber risk becoming more severe, we’ve analysed the current state of security leadership to understand how it compares across sectors and how it needs to evolve.
Savannah Group is pleased to announce the appointment of Jim Berriman as Partner.
How is investor relations leadership affected by the current business context? Is the ideal profile for leaders in IR shifting, and if so, how?
How HR leaders and their teams can turn RemCo and the annual compensation period from headache to strategic advantage.
A recent Deloitte study found that only 14% of leaders feel confident in their organisation’s succession plan. The missing piece is external benchmarking.
AI has vaulted from pilot projects to board-level priority almost overnight. Should you hire a Chief AI Officer to orchestrate the shift?
Savannah Group is pleased to announce the appointment of Simon Gillibrand as Partner, Natural Resources & Clean Technology.
Savannah Group announces the launch of a dedicated Legal Practice focused on private practice partners and in-house legal.
The most pertinent takeaways from a recent Next Generation Leadership Institute lunch of Audit Chairs and CFOs
Pioneering organisations are rethinking not just the capability mix, but the entire Boardroom structure.
Real digital fluency is a genuine understanding of how technology is affecting the strategy.
Digital maturity is a critical factor in the ultimate success of hires intended to progress an organisation’s technological effectiveness.
Only 6% of FTSE 350 NEDs have digital leadership experience. As AI reshapes business operations at lightning speed, is your leadership equipped to guide it?
Today, CPOs are central to succession planning, talent mapping, and building resilience in volatile markets. Here are the five core challenges, and the bold moves needed to address them.
Paul Mendelssohn examines why more companies and private equity funds will opt for interim CFOs in 2025.
We explore the key trends shaping the future of HR.
What is the most effective way of managing succession? And how can organisations
continue to identify and develop leaders for the future?
We’ve summarised Ten Tenets that define Next Generation Leadership in an increasingly challenging business environment.
Savannah’s Talent Intelligence Practice examined the current state of data leadership in the industrial sector in the UK
While much attention is rightly given to finance, legal and operations, human capital is critical for a successful IPO transition.
Savannah Group’s Senior Advisor, Clancy Murphy, examines the potential role of AI in leadership succession
Savannah Group’s Next Generation Leadership Institute is examining how key board roles are evolving
Humility and vulnerability in leadership are increasingly being heralded as crucial traits for modern leaders. Is humble leadership truly practical in reality?
Whilst the Infrastructure Trends highlighted earlier this year are still at the forefront of leaders’ minds, we have seen four leadership piorities emerge.
Ali Palmer and Clancy Murphy discuss the actions leaders can take to ensure seamless, successful leadership transitions. Four priorities emerged.
We analysed 520,000 Vice President or Director level individuals working in cyber-related roles to understand the leadership talent gap
We are proud to be supporting Danone in using a data-enhanced approach to solving a current leadership challenge.
Savannah Partner Richard Ashton gives his guidance to candidates considering their next move.
With 75% of CEOs predicting that AI will significantly change their business in the next three years, where is the talent who will realise its potential?
Katie Hevey and Rebecca Sharkey spoke with Monique Breen, Global IT Executive Director at Boston Consulting Group.
Katie Chevis and Alex Martin discuss how organisations are benefiting from the relatively new discipline of talent intelligence.
Talent Intelligence continues to evolve as a tool for forward-thinking leaders. Here we examine four of the most common applications of this capability.
Savannah CEO Katrina Cheverton sits down with Senior Advisor and Former FTSE CHRO Clancy Murphy to delve into the solutions for ensuring sustainable diversity.
Savannah’s Talent Intelligence team set about taking a closer look at recently appointed CEOs’ gender diversity and the proportion of women at senior levels in different industries.
Savannah Group’s Katie Hevey and Rebecca Sharkey met with Lisa Gibbard to talk about her career journey.
Savannah Group’s Next Generation Leadership Institute is examining how non-executive board roles are evolving.
Heads of executive search from across sectors shared their insights on the challenges facing executive TA functions, and how to address them
What is Talent Intelligence and how can it give businesses and leaders a competitive advantage?
Savannah Group announces that Clancy Murphy has joined as Senior Advisor. Clancy will work with clients to operationalise their business strategies through leadership and talent.
Are the CEOs and Chairs jobs getting harder and if so, how can leaders cultivate resilience and thrive?
76 infrastructure leaders talked to Savannah about the most important trends impacting their businesses
and leadership.
Nick Allan, CEO of Control Risks talks to Ali Palmer, Client Service Partner at Savannah Group.
Savannah Group’s Katie Hevey and Rebecca Sharkey met with Françoise Russo to talk about her journey to becoming a CIO.
If you’re building a senior leadership team and have acquired the necessary strategy, finance and operations skills, what comes next?
Study objectives In the context of a difficult hiring environment for technology talent, we set out to answer a series of critical questions. Download full
Savannah Group’s Joe Rudkin met with PE Treasury favourite Pedro Madeira to discuss
the cash benefits this specialist position brings to portfolio businesses.
When it comes to leadership, the modern military does not rest on past laurels but is constantly evolving to embrace technological advances and new strategic thinking. As a result, today’s business leaders have much to learn from the armed forces.
CEOs were already operating in a volatile, fast-changing business environment, but post pandemic, the challenges they must overcome to succeed have intensified.
Cyber attacks are expected to exceed $10 trillion annually by 2025. As they become more frequent and sophisticated, the need for leadership cyber talent who can defend against them becomes business-critical.
CFOs are crucial for business survival but appointing the right financial guardian has never been more challenging. Partner at Savannah Group, Richard Ashton explains what skills are vital for CFOs and where technology can aid with recruiting the perfect CFO.
Want to be a next generation leader? Here are three things you need to know.
In the grip of a global economic slowdown, the Chief Financial Officer holds one of, if not the most critical role in any organisation.
Savannah Group is proud to announce that they have formed a strategic partnership with Tech She Can, a charity focused on driving equal opportunities in technology.
In this report, we look at the breakdown of non-executive and executive director appointments. The start of a new year typically brings feelings of hope, and as the clock ticked into 1 January, business execs will have been forgiven for leaning towards optimism in their outlook for 2022. Following a difficult couple of years, England was getting through a winter spike in Covid cases without returning to lockdown rules which crippled large parts of the economy in 2020 and 2021.
The dynamics of the talent landscape has been upended over the past two years. Despite predictions of mass unemployment throughout the pandemic, what transpired was a fierce war for talent and an even greater drive towards transformation and organisational change. In parallel, the COVID crisis prompted a major mindset shift from employees both in regard to what they seek from their employers and realising their own value. One thing has become crystal clear: candidates now hold all the cards…
In this report, we analyse the board appointments to the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 listed companies in Q4 2021 and share a deeper analysis of the full year. Having been conducting these reports now since 2018, we have a strong basis through which to provide comparative analysis and draw conclusions as to the buoyancy of FTSE board activity and what impacts the market.
The chair is in a unique position when it comes to a subject that is vital to the success of every business: succession. On the one hand, chairs play a crucial role in ensuring there is a sensible and appropriate succession plan in place for the two most important executive positions: CEO and CFO. Meanwhile, as is discussed throughout this report, they are also tasked with ensuring a diverse composition of non- exec board members around them. And all the while considering whether they are meeting the evolving needs to best serve as chair themselves.
Respondents of a 2021 board study by Savannah reveal how a business landscape where volatility is the norm impacts the attributes of successful chairs and boards of the future.
Purpose, innovation and diversity are driving a realigned set of priorities for board directors. When the chairs and other executive and non-executive directors were asked by Savannah Group in mid-2021 to rank the top issues of importance to the board today, the results revealed a stark realignment of priorities from what was traditionally associated with boardroom decisions.
In a dramatically shifting business environment, the traditional roles of the chair and board are having to evolve. Non-financial issues, and non-traditional board measures such as sustainability, D&I, digital transformation and social purpose, are adding new dimensions to board leadership and governance, causing the role of the board to evolve. The pressure is on all board directors, but most of all the chair, to not only take on a more active role but also to reflect on what they personally need to bring to the table as companies look to reinvent themselves for a post- Covid, post-Brexit age.
In any time of economic turbulence, we always see an increase in activity and demand for roles within the treasury functions of our clients of businesses. We saw this after the Global Financial Crash of 2008 and we have been witnessing this again throughout the pandemic as large organisations had to react with urgency to their changing financial circumstances. In this article we look at treasury market insights and the talent implications for listed companies and PE/VC backed businesses.
In this report, we look at the breakdown of non-executive and executive director appointments. The long-anticipated ‘Freedom Day’ came 19 days into the third quarter of 2021 in England, finally unleashing the British economy from the remaining shackles of Covid restrictions, albeit with numerous limitations still remaining on global travel. For many businesses, certainly in the sectors most affected by lockdowns, it was a moment of jubilation and relief that they could turn back to the recruitment market to reignite their growth plans following 18 months of
stagnation.
2020 will be remembered as the year the world was forced to make a radical and life-altering pivot. Change has been forced upon organisations and they’ve had to be quick to adapt. One of the major themes that has been accelerated is the adoption and use of digital technology. Whether it’s how we work, where we work, how we shop or how we spend our leisure time, digital technology is embedded in every area of our lives. The barriers to change have been taken down and acceptance of change has never been greater.
Non-financial issues, and non-traditional board measures such as sustainability, D&I, digital transformation and social purpose, are adding new dimensions to board leadership and governance, causing the role of the board to evolve. The pressure is on all board directors, but most of all the chair, to not only take on a more active role but also to reflect on what they personally need to bring to the table as companies look to reinvent themselves for a post-Covid, post-Brexit age.
The role of the people function has never been more important. Businesses are in a rapidly increasing war for talent and we’re seeing that organisations without exceptional people functions are quickly losing ground. This article looks at the latest market insights and trends affecting the People, Talent & Culture function, and the impact it has on the current and future performance.
In this report, we look at the breakdown of non-executive and executive director appointments. The UK economy sprung back to life in the second quarter as the government’s phased reopening plan saw the return of non-essential retail and outdoor hospitality in April followed by indoor hospitality and some events in May. Though England’s so-called ‘Freedom Day’, removing all remaining legal restrictions, was delayed by four weeks, pushing it into Q3, it didn’t blight the growing optimism among UK businesses, which for many has been brewing since Q1.
In a business that’s all about people, we know first-hand how leaders influence happiness, healthiness and high-performing work environments. Investing holistically in health and wellbeing is high on the agenda of both clients and candidates. At our recent Health Matters for the Workplace event in partnership with Aetna and the InsideOut LeaderBoard, Savannah Group’s Mary Driscoll explored the topic of getting c-suite support on health and wellbeing in the workplace. Pushing mental health up the board agenda brings with it a broad range of benefits related to recruitment, retention, productivity and most importantly, overall workforce health.
In this report, we look at the breakdown of non-executive and executive director appointments. As is tradition, we have crunched the data to identify both new and continuing trends while also highlighting notable individual appointments for the period Q1 2021. Rising Covid-19 infections at the end of last year meant the first quarter of 2021 was dominated by another strict national lockdown in the UK. Yet despite the renewed stress on economic activity, and Covid-19 hospitalisations and deaths spiking higher than the 2020 peak, December to February saw the first quarterly drop in unemployment since 2019, ONS figures revealed.
In this report, we analyse the board appointments to the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 listed companies in Q4 2020 and share a deeper analysis of the full year. We now have three full years of analysis and trends from our close monitoring of the FTSE 350 board appointments. Following our 2018 report, we have continued to publish quarterly updates allowing us to see the emerging trends, most particularly the rapid rise in the number of women in the boardrooms and that, in turn, revealed the yawning gap between the relative numbers of women in non-executive director roles and executive director roles, one of the most serious governance issues facing us.
This report in Savannah Groups’s People and Performance series features lessons for CEOs from the Armed Forces. The British military is renowned for its world-class leadership. Over centuries, they have honed a highly effective structure for identifying and developing leadership talent. The trio of organisations that make up the British Armed Forces – the British Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force – are each the size of a FTSE 100 company and have their own leader responsible for managing tens of thousands of people and billions of pounds of budget and assets. They represent the UK on the global geo-political stage, including security, trade, foreign relations and international business partnerships.
The successful execution of a digital, product and technology strategy is one of the important commercial competitive differentiators for any business. Yet we frequently hear boards and ExCos lamenting the lack of technology leadership and delivery of impactful digital transformation. Their plea is for CIOs who can deliver meaningful, commercial value through digital and data technologies. Conversely, CIOs report that the dynamic, digital role they were promised is, in fact, more operationally focused – dealing with legacy challenges. CIOs are passionate people with a real desire to effect digital change, so why, when there is clearly the will on both sides, is there still a disconnect between CIOs and their business colleagues?
This report looks at the evolution of the CFO as a strategic visionary and business advisor. CFOs have been gradually transitioning to a more influential and business-focused role, presenting them with a different range of challenges and a complex and demanding remit. We look at questions such as ‘what will define successful CFOs in a post-crisis business landscape?’ and ‘if the skills and traits required of a successful CFO are evolving, are the approaches to identifying the best succession candidates, internally and externally, changing too?’
In this report, we look at the breakdown of non-executive and executive director appointments and, as we have done in past reports, identify the trends and the individuals concerned. Our analysis again shows interesting trends. In our report for the full 2019 year, we showed the dramatic fall off in executive director appointments, essentially CEOs and CFOs, as the Brexit debate and parliamentary debacle intensified through that year. In all of 2019, there were only 69 executive director appointments at the FTSE 350 companies, compared to 119 in 2018. Looking now at the 2020 year-to-date appointments, we can see the turnaround with 73 executive director appointments already in the first 9 months.
An assumption that was made by a raft of executives in the wake of lockdown was that interims couldn’t be effective away from the office, leading to a significant number of assignments ending prematurely or never getting off the blocks. Eight months on, as we contend with local and national lockdowns, businesses are grappling with the reality that a number of staff will be operating remotely for some time and companies cannot afford to tread water forever. With the relaxing of the restrictions looking unlikely until 2021, we must all learn to deliver our objectives under the current conditions.
A combination of remote working and an accelerated pace of change have made transitions more challenging than ever. Whether moving internally or externally, leaders are faced with building trust, credibility, and their networks, without being able to spend time with their colleagues face to face. To discuss how to set leaders up for success in this environment, Savannah Group was joined by Michael Watkins, bestselling author of The First 90 Days, Master your Next Move, Professor at IMD Business School and co-founder of Genesis, and Danielle Harmer, Chief People Officer at Aviva.
CEOs were already operating in a volatile, fast-changing business environment, but the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the challenges they must overcome to succeed. In June 2020, Savannah Group surveyed 90 chairs and CEOs from FTSE and PE-backed companies about their views on how the traits and skills required of a business leader are changing. In the responses to an open question about the fundamental challenges facing CEOs in the “next normal” arising from the crisis, several key themes emerged.
For businesses to protect margin and grow revenue in the future, a focus on customers is more crucial than ever before. We call this Customer Obsession – a fixation to drive strategy and actions that deliver greater value for the customer by embedding the customer’s real perspectives at the heart of a company. To continue to learn how different businesses are benefitting from this approach, we asked a select group of high-performance CMOs how they maximise the impact of marketing for their organisations.
Research across over 400 senior executives shows a substantial “digital divide” between the Board/CEO and the corporate functions (Technology/Digital/ Finance/HR/Marketing/Sales) in understanding the talent and skills required to enable and embed digital transformation within the UK’s largest businesses. Corporate functions were far less confident about the organisation’s progress than the Board/CEO. A significant proportion of corporate functions “strongly disagreed” that the progress required is being made.
In this report, we look at the breakdown of non-executive and executive director appointments and, as we have done in past reports, identify the trends and the individuals
concerned. In this report we also take a brief look at that most contentious and complex of boardroom issues – remuneration
– and challenge the dominance of this subject as evidenced by the fact that the Remuneration Reports of the top FTSE 100 companies average 27 pages or 45% of the Corporate
Governance Reports of those companies.
As we speak to executives in businesses that are now restarting, an area of concern that comes up frequently is information security as a result of remote working. With the majority of workers continuing to work from home on laptops and computers there are worries over increased vulnerability to cybersecurity attacks or a significant data breach. So what three questions should you be asking your CISO that you probably aren’t? And what answers should you be expecting to hear back?
In this report, we look at the breakdown of non-executive and executive director appointments and, as we have done in past reports, list the individuals behind those numbers. We also look at the gender diversity numbers so we can continue to report on that trend. And for the first time we try to assess the impact of the Government backed Parker Review in 2017 on ethnic diversity in the UK boardrooms. Unlike gender diversity, however, ethnic diversity is not binary and so difficult to assess and, other than the Parker Review Committee, lacks the protagonists and lobbyists to beat the drum loudly enough.
I have been in the privileged position to discuss race and diversity in all its forms with many leading Chief Executives and Chairs. One thing that always struck me was their need for a safe environment. An environment where they could not only challenge me but also their own concepts of race and get a better understanding of privilege in order to make their companies more attractive, better and ultimately more profitable places to work.
Following our 2018 report, we published quarterly updates for the first three quarters of 2019. This report will look at the Q4 appointments, give a summary of the whole of 2019 and examine some of the trends we are now seeing.
There are three standout findings discussed in some more detail in this report. First, we show with absolute clarity the success of the gender diversity movement.
The differing pressures of ESG agendas, political emission, stakeholder activism, digital take up, decarbonisation and inclusion means that CEO’s of today must tread carefully. With corporate reputation now accounting for at least 25% of a company’s market value, 2020 will be a pivotal year driven by geopolitical agendas which are shaking up markets across the world. So what are CEOs within the industrial sector looking to focus on in 2020?
The average age of the non-executive directors governing the FTSE 350 companies is 59. None of them is below the age of 30 and only a handful are even in their 30s, primarily the nonindependent shareholder appointees. For the purposes of this discussion we are excluding 29 year old Cally Price who is an employee/workforce representative appointed to the Sports Direct board (more on this later). The absolute age range is 32 – 84. No one will be surprised to learn that 84% of those non-executive directors are aged between 50 and 70. One hundred and twenty-eight of them are in their 70s and six are in their 80s. The female NED’s average 57 years and the males 60.
This report reviews the FTSE 350 board appointments in the second quarter, April – June 2019 and follows our reports for the full year 2018 and Q1 2019. We again analyse the non-executive and executive director appointments to the FTSE 350 companies and explore the trends. The FTSE 100 appointments in Q2 show a particularly interesting change in direction with, on the one hand, only 28% of the non-executive appointments being women and, on the other, 100% of the executive director appointments being women.
Sport and business are often compared to one another, with good reason. In both environments, leaders seek to be top of their game. To gain a unique perspective on the experienced similarities between sport and business, and what business can learn from athletes, we recently hosted a breakfast briefing ‘From the Podium to the Boardroom’ with guest speakers Jason Gardener, Olympic Gold medallist, and Joanna Adams CEO of England Netball.
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