WACL NED Talk – “Culture eats strategy for breakfast” – why company culture, values, and behaviours are a critical Board priority

More than 30 years ago, Peter Drucker, the renowned management consultant and writer, commented that “culture—no matter how defined—is singularly persistent”, summarising how even a great business strategy will fail without a company culture that encourages people to implement it.  The people who deliver the plan matter, and driving the desired behaviours – by the CEO, the employees and, indeed, the customer – is a key responsibility of the Board.

A lack of alignment of corporate strategy with a clear purpose, positive values, and a healthy culture which encourages collaboration with employees, leads to reduced employee engagement and has fuelled labour market trends such as the Great Resignation and Quiet Quitting.  An unchecked toxic culture can lead to catastrophic damage to employees and brands – as seen in the recent cases of the Confederation of British Industry, the Post Office, and Brewdog – with questions asked about the role the Board of these organisations played in failing to prevent it.

This NED session will explore the Board’s role and responsibilities in relation to understanding the culture of the organisations they lead, and supporting their executive teams to proactively monitor, manage and sustain that culture in the best interests of the organisation and its key stakeholders.

Please join us to hear from Cindy Yendell, Founding Partner at Leonardo Advisory and Culture Change Advisor, and Richard Stone, CEO of the Association of Investment Companies.

The discussion will be chaired by Non-Executive Chair, Kerry Glazer.

Please let us know on [email protected] if you would like us to save you a spot.

Speaker Biographies

Cindy Yendell

Cindy is co-founder and a senior partner of organisation culture advisors, Leonardo Advisory. Leonardo Advisory works with Executive teams and Boards to help them understand, manage and change their culture, reducing reputation risks and maximising the opportunity to turn culture into competitive advantage.

Cindy Yendell has 25 years’ boardroom level experience, providing strategic counsel to leaders of public, private  and political organisations.  Starting her career in corporate, political and leadership communications, she moved into advising organisations and leaders who understood how a positive, inclusive culture was not just the right thing to aspire to but could be translated into competitive advantage, years before the FRC published the UK Corporate Governance Code highlighting the requirement for company boards to manage and monitor their culture and even Peter Drucker famously stated that culture eats strategy for breakfast. She has provided strategic counsel on major culture change programmes to leaders of public and private sector organisations such as Oxford Instruments, Crossrail, Shaftesbury Capital, Bupa, as well as KPMG, Barclays and TfL. Cindy’s counsel is formed not only from her breadth of experience, but having as a business leader herself cofounded two advisory firms, one acquired by Omnicom.

Richard Stone

Richard Stone is the Chief Executive of the Association of Investment Companies, having joined in September 2021.  Prior to that, Richard was Chief Executive of Share plc (The Share Centre platform) from 2014 to 2020 and was Finance Director from 2006 to 2013.  At Share plc., he positioned the company to deliver exceptional customer service, including digital transformation, for both direct retail clients and other partner investment firms.  Richard is an ICAEW Chartered Accountant and has also worked as an equity research analyst, as financial controller of a dual listed business and as the first finance director of a high growth business which attracted private equity backing.  In addition to floating Share plc on AIM in 2008, this range of experience has enabled Richard to see financial capital from many different perspectives.

Kerry Glazer

Kerry has been a member of WACL since 2001, is a Past President of WACL (2017-18) and was named one of the eight Honorary Members of WACL in July 2021.
She has worked in the communications agency business for more than three decades, including roles at JWT, WCRS, Limbo/BBH and Kendall Tarrant (now The Talent Business) during that period.  Kerry joined AAR – the leading management consultancy in marketing agency ecosystems helping UK, international and global brands to design, build, and drive the performance of their partnerships with agencies – in 1999, initially as Commercial Director.  She was promoted to Managing Director in 2000 and Chief Executive in 2006, finally moving to the role of Non-Executive Chair of the company in 2019.

Kerry is also Non-Executive Chair of Untold Studios, an independent creative studio that produces all forms of original and culturally relevant content, including advertising, music, and entertainment, and delivers premium VFX for advertising, TV and film. Kerry is a Past President of NABS (2018 – 2020), and past Chair of the of the Steering Committee for timeTo, the initiative to end sexual harassment in the advertising and marketing industry, and a role she held for five years. Kerry was named as one of the IAA UK 21 Women of 2021 for Women who Empower, and is one of 30 people on the IPA’s iList 2022, which celebrates those who champion diversity and inclusivity, driving initiatives that make our industry a better place.