Andrew Kakabadse and Nada Kakabadse are experts in top team and board consulting, training and development. They have a combined 40 years experience working with some of the world’s leading organisations, including Credit Suisse, the Scottish Executive, the Police Service of Northern Ireland and the Bank of Ireland.

From Andrew Kakabadse

Podcast: Executive Compensation for Charities

Prompted by this blog post by Dan Pallotta on Harvard Business Blogs, in this podcast I discuss how organisations outside the private sector should evaluate compensation. Charitable work is becoming more professional, and as it does so, it is becoming increasingly necessary to pay the market value for executives.
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

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From Andrew Kakabadse

Tall vs. Flat Company Structures

An interview with Cristóbal Conde, president and CEO of SunGard, recently appeared in the New York Times . I found it particularly interesting because the debate between flatter structures and more hierarchical structures and their relevance for today is an ongoing issue.
The interview didn’t quite capture the issue of confusion between structures and culture. We cannot escape the fact that we are in mature markets. Few companies and few industries are not within the tail end of the cycle of maturity, and I would have thought an organisation like SunGard would be no exception. Mature companies tend to have ‘taller structures’ in which tasks, roles, responsibilities, accountabilities, and even governance are made very clear. You need that–you need to know what people are doing and why they are doing it because you’re going to make as much money from the products you sell and their [...]

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From Nada Kakabadse

Leadership Survey

Andrew and I, together with Dr. Isaac Mostovicz of Janus Thinking , are in the process of developing a leadership questionnaire. We would like to test and validate the questionnaire so far before we proceed any further. Can you spare 10 minutes and test out our survey? Click on the following link to take it:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/leadership_opinions
Thanks very much.

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From Andrew Kakabadse

Podcast: Technology for Stockholders

In this podcast, I address Eliot Spitzer’s recent article in Slate about how technology can help stockholders take control of the corporations they own . I believe that technology can be a minor enabler of information sharing and capture, but as long as ’shareholder value’ is the predominant philosophy, in the end stockholders just aren’t interested in governance.
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

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From Nada Kakabadse

Techno Addicts Articles

Andrew and I (along with Susan Bailey and Andrew Myers) recently published two articles on technology addiction.
‘ Techno Addicts: Young Person Addiction to Technology ‘ describes the disruptive effect that technology addiction can have on positive attitudes towards learning. While students expressed little concern of addiction, technology obsession is hindering spelling skills, encouraging plagiarism and disrupting classroom learning.
‘ Techno Addicts: Life Style Through Technology ‘ examines the effects of information communication technology (ICT) on individuals. Using quantitative data from over 1,200 respondents across a broad spectrum of society ranging from lower income groups to top managers and directors, we found shocking information about how individuals adopt technology for work, personal use, and pleasure.
Both can be downloaded from Sigel Press .

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From Andrew Kakabadse

Discussing Intimacy on the BBC

I recently appeared on the BBC World Service to discuss intimate relationships in the workplace. My research has found that 60% of workers during their lifetimes have an intimate relationship in the workplace. By ‘intimate’ I mean something beyond friendship but not necessarily up to physical contact — the Greeks had a word for it: agape, meaning “divine, unconditional,
self-sacrificing, active, volitional, and thoughtful love”.
You can listen to the clip on the BBC site here . Nada and I discussed this topic in further detail in our book Intimacy .

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From Andrew Kakabadse

RiskMinds Risk Managers Survey 2009

Last week I gave the following presentation with Paul Moore and Dominic Carter at the RiskMinds conference. It highlights the results of an anonymous survey of risk professionals we conducted, looking at the causes and implications of the 2008 banking crisis.
Our findings include

that executives are to blame
that it was a cultural problem at banks, NOT a regulatory problem (the cost to benefit of risk taking is not weighted correctly)
that remuneration was too high and that culture does not encourage effective change management
that executives should have a right to tell their side of the story

We’ll post our full report when it’s released in January.
Risk Minds 2009: Risk Survey Presentation
View more presentations from kakabadse .

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From Andrew Kakabadse

Business Schools, Society and Climate Change

In advance of the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference , I recently gave a presentation at Copenhagen Business School on Business Schools, Society and Climate Change. Here is a short video overview of my presentation: [...]

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From Andrew Kakabadse

The Walker Report and the State of UK Corporate Governance

The Walker report is a lowest common denominator response to addressing corporate governance at UK banks. We need a deep overhaul of the financial system: much better regulation, longer-term thinking, and a break up of the investment banking mindsets which led to the financial crisis.
Giving non-executive directors more powers, scrutinising how they are appointed, or increasing regulation alone will make absolutely no difference.  Non-executive directors already have the powers; it’s the culture of investment banking globally which must change.
Non-executive directors must spend more time understanding the bank on whose board they sit.  They have to understand the culture, get to know the key managers in the bank, and spend more time in the bank appreciating the way business is done there.  Banks also need to spend the resources to ensure their non-executives become familiar [...]

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From Andrew Kakabadse and Nada Kakabadse

Podcast: Online Habits

Prompted by this article about changing online habits, in this podcast Nada and I discuss information overload, online etiquette, and research we’ve done on teenage technology use.
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

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Video Andrew Kakabadse on the Politics of Management

Professor Andrew Kakabadse discusses office politics, and how they are inevitable because the complexity inherent when people are making a number of choices.

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Andrew is a consultant and professor of international management development at the Cranfield University School of Management.

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Nada is a consultant and professor in management and business research at the University of Northampton Business School.

Book Citizenship: A Reality Far From Ideal

Citizenship: A Reality Far From Ideal

This unique collection of original works examines the relationship between citizen and state.

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Book Global Boards: One Desire, Many Realities

Global Boards: One Desire, Many Realities

This book provides an insightful and challenging view of board functioning, governance application and top director interaction with business and the state.

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Book Leadership Teams: Developing and Sustaining High Performance

Leadership Teams: Developing and Sustaining High Performance

A practical guide which provides insights for team leadership in the modern world, drawn from many years of working with leadership teams in business and organisations across many sectors.

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Book Leading for Success: The Seven Sides to Great Leaders

Leading for Success: The Seven Sides to Great Leaders

Classic leadership theory is presented here in a fresh and fashionable framework in this new and practical book for managers.

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Book Leading the Board: The Six Disciplines of World Class Chairmen

Leading the Board: The Six Disciplines of World Class Chairmen

Being the chairman of a company is the top job. Forget the hyperbole and hero-worship surrounding CEOs, it is the world’s chairmen who call the real corporate shots. It is chairmen who hire and fire CEOs. Little wonder that some CEOs choose to neuter the chairman by combining the two roles.

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Book The Elephant Hunters: Chronicles of the Moneymen

The Elephant Hunters: Chronicles of the Moneymen

This title features an awesome, penetrating exposure of the greed, frailty and goings-on of those who determine our lives – the moneymen! The book is unique in that it discloses without restraint the true experiences of financiers from all levels of success and from all parts of the world. It is easy to read and consumable by a general audience.

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Book Essence of Leadership

Essence of Leadership

This book tackles every aspect of leadership technique and philosophy and discusses them in a global context. Based on recent research, it examines a wide range of leadership issues and looks at the best practice of leadership as exhibited by global business leaders.

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Book Sabotage: How to Recognise and Manage Employee Defiance

Sabotage: How to Recognise and Manage Employee Defiance

Examines the behaviour and attitude of people who are dissatisfied with their work environment. The book uses case studies to show the variety of ways in which employees express their hostility to the work environment and tries to identify some of the main causes of disaffection.

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Book Designing World Class Corporate Strategies: Value Creating Roles for Corporate Centres

Designing World Class Corporate Strategies: Value Creating Roles for Corporate Centres

Designing World Class Corporate Strategies considers the key role of corporate centres within very large, primarily multi-business organisations. At present, these corporate centres are under attack as not creating and value and merely adding cost to their groups.

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Book Working in Organizations

Working in Organizations

In this practical and thought-provoking book, three specialists in the field answer the questions that managers always ask, using perceptive case histories and real life examples that relate management theory to modern-day working life.

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Book Intimacy: International Survey of the Sex Lives of People at Work

Intimacy: International Survey of the Sex Lives of People at Work

Sixty per cent of people at work admit to one or more intimate relationship. A recently completed international workplace survey highlights that many people intermingle their private and work lives.

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Book The Geopolitics of Governance: The Impact of Contrasting Philosophies

The Geopolitics of Governance: The Impact of Contrasting Philosophies

Considerable attention has been given to the topic of governance and its relevance to private and public sector organisations. However, little attention has been given to the impact of adopting different governance models on societies and nations which are unaccustomed to alternative ways of working.

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