The New P & L - Principles and Leadership in Business

In this episode of The New P&L TO THE POINT, Paul explores the growing conversation around AI that increasingly positions it as an ‘existential crisis’ for businesses and society.

Drawing on insights from dozens of executive roundtablesheld across the UK and Europe with CIOs, CTOs, CMOs, HR leaders and transformation executives, Paul reflects on how the AI conversation has evolved at remarkable speed. In just a couple of years, organisations have rapidly shifted from asking What is AI? to How do we deploy it? and now increasingly Why are we using it in the first place?

At the heart of the discussion is a critical observation: many organisations approached AI implementation in reverse order. Businesses rushed into experimentation and deployment before establishing strategic clarity around purpose, culture and long-term impact. According to Paul, this is where the real challenge lies.

Rather than focusing solely on future fears around AGI orsuperintelligence, this episode argues that today’s AI crisis is more immediate and human: a leadership, capability and adaptability crisis. AI is not simply another technology tool; it is transformational and foundational, requiring organisations to rethink leadership, culture, communication and workforcedevelopment.

Paul also examines how AI acts as a mirror for organisational health, exposing weak leadership, fragmented data, siloedcultures and poor communication. Without clear vision, employee trust and meaningful upskilling pathways, businesses risk creating fear, disengagement and resistance internally.

Ultimately, this episode challenges leaders to rethink their relationship with AI: not as a transactional solution, but as a force that will fundamentally reshape the nature of work, organisations and leadership itself. Those who fail to adapt may face their own existential crisis far sooner than the technology does.

To discuss the topics outlined in this episode on moredetail, email: hello (at) principlesandleadership.com

In this episode of The New P&L, we speak with Francesca Lagerberg, CEO of Baker Tilly International, the eighth largest global accounting network, spanning 147 territories, 50,000 people, and revenues of $6.8 billion.

The first and only British woman to lead a major accountancy network, Francesca brings a rare combination of commercial rigour, human warmth and strategic clarity to one of the most complex leadership roles in professional services.

Our conversation with Francesca spans leadership, culture,artificial intelligence and the enduring importance of hope.

On leading a global network, Francesca is clear that connection is everything. Without trust and collaboration across geographies, growth means nothing. She introduces the concept of ‘freedom in a framework’ a set of non-negotiable values, like integrity, that anchor the network globally, while leaving room for the cultural nuance that makes local firms thrive.

On integrity, she pushes beyond regulation as a proxy for values, arguing that ethical standards must be continuously reinforced through training, conversation and visible leadership behaviour. In a profession built on independent advice, integrity isn't background noise, it's the product.

On AI, Francesca is measured and pragmatic. She doesn't believe it's an existential crisis, but she's equally clear it isn't just another software tool. The real challenge, she argues, isn't the technology, it's the capability and culture needed to use it wisely. Leaders must be transparent about what they don't know, invest in upskilling their people, and resist the temptation to automate broken processes rather than rethinking them entirely.

On value and billing in an age of AI, Francesca suggests the real question was never about hours, it was always about value. AI has simply accelerated a conversation that professional services has been avoiding for thirty years.

On leadership and hope, Francesca argues that leaders have a responsibility to be honest about uncertainty while actively showcasing opportunity. The generation entering the workforce today are digital natives who can reverse-mentor their seniors, who have extraordinary skills in communication and connection, and who will reshape these professions from the inside. That, she says, is a reason for genuine optimism.

Her career advice is straightforward: stay curious, ask questions, say yes to opportunities and don't be discouraged by a path that meanders. "I don't think I knew what I wanted to do until I was about 50!" Francesca admits, and she means it as encouragement.

Key takeaways:

1. AI demands a rethink, not just an upgrade:Francesca's sharpest observation on AI is that the temptation to simply automate existing processes is a missed opportunity and a trap. The real prize is in questioning whether those processes were right in the first place.

2. Freedom in a framework is the blueprint for global culture: Running a network across 147 territories means accepting that a single, rigid culture won't hold. Francesca's answer is to identify the true non-negotiables, such as integrity, quality, trust; and hold those as sacred,while giving firms the flexibility to operate in ways that are locally relevant.

3. Hope is a leadership responsibility, not a soft extra:In a climate of noise, uncertainty and AI anxiety, Francesca argues that leaders have an active duty to surface genuine reasons for optimism: not as spin, but as honest counterbalance to a media environment that defaults to the negative. Addressing the opportunities clearly and consistently isn't cheerleading; it's leadership.

In this episode of The New P&L: Principles & Leadership in Business, Paul sits down with Dr. Andy Bass, a strategic advisor, author, and founder of Bass Clusker Consulting to explore a deceptively simple but powerful idea: the answers to many organisational challenges already exist within the business. The real challenge is uncovering and activating those ‘hidden assets.’

Andy’s work focuses on helping mid-market organisations improve profitability, productivity, and performance, not by adding more, but by better leveraging what they already have. These assets can take many forms: underused software, overlooked internal expertise, untapped customer insights,or siloed knowledge sitting in different parts of the organisation.

Too often, companies look outward for a ‘saviour solution’: a new hire, system, or acquisition, without first fully understanding their internal potential.

The discussion also challenges traditional top-down leadership thinking. Many organisations rely on a small leadership group to generate solutions, but Andy advocates for broader participation. He highlights approaches like open-space workshops, where employees collectively define problems and solutions.

This not only surfaces better ideas but also builds ownership and engagement. However, enabling this requires leaders to shift their mindset recognising that sometimes ‘you have to give control to getcontrol’.

Another powerful insight is the reframing of innovation.While many associate innovation with new products or technologies, Andy argues that some of the most impactful innovation comes from re-seeing what already exists. This requires moving away from a purely problem-focused mindset (what’s not working?) to one that also asks, ‘what’s working and how can we build on it?’

From a cultural standpoint, Andy introduces a simple framework: Curiosity, Exploration, and Ownership (CEO). Leaders must first spark curiosity, then create space for teams to explore ideas, and finally transfer ownership so those ideas can be implemented. This progression is critical for embedding change and ensuring it’s not just another top-down initiative.

Ultimately, the episode reinforces that leadership is as much about mindset as it is about method. The shift toward ‘starting with what works’ is not about ignoring problems, but about balancing problem-solving with strength-building. When organisations take the time to recognise and amplify what’s already working, they unlock energy, engagement, and momentum that can drive meaningful change.

Andy closes with a practical exercise for leaders: rate your organisation’s performance against your aspirations, then list all the reasons you didn’t score lower. This simple reframing helps identify existing strengths and opens the door to new opportunities.

5 Key Takeaways

1. Start with what works: Innovation doesn’t always mean adding something new. Often, the biggest gains come from better leveraging existing strengths.
2. Hidden assets are everywhere: From underused tools to untapped expertise, organisations often overlook valuable resources already within their reach.
3. Culture unlocks capability: Breaking down silos and aligning teams around a shared purpose, especially the customer, helps surface and activate hidden potential.
4. Leaders must let go to gain control: Empowering teams to contribute ideas and take ownership can increase engagement, accountability, and overall performance.
5. Reframing questions changes outcomes: Asking ‘why aren’t we doing worse?’ or ‘what do we already have?’ can reveal insights that traditional problem-solving misses.

In this episode of The New P&L podcast, our first The New P&L To The Point' episode of the new series, we discuss one of the most consistently recurring themes from our conversations with business leaders: the gap between the culture an organisation claims to have and the culture that actually lives within it every day.

No organisation is perfect, and culture is never static. It shifts as new people join, as external pressures force compromise, and as the energy behind a set of values quietly fades through neglect or weariness.

But some businesses commit fully and intentionally to building a culture where values aren't just written on a wall; they are lived, communicated with clarity, and celebrated consistently across every function of the business.

The good news? Moving from performative to purposeful isn't as difficult as many leaders think. But it does require adherence to a simple yet critical equation: leadership commitment + clarity of vision + employee belief and collaboration 'over' time. Because what erodes most cultures and most culture programmes is the absence of structure, measurement and consistent role modelling from those at the top.

Real culture, this episode argues, isn't found in mission statements or town halls. It's found in the micro-moments.

This week's episode closes with a practical takeaway any leader at any level can use immediately: a simple but powerful exercise to test whether your team knows your values, whether they can see them in action, and how to start closing the gap between aspiration and reality.

This week on The New P&L - Principles & Leadership and Business podcast we speak with Gaelle Devins, Chief Customer Officer & Member of the Executive Board at Breitling – the Swiss luxury watchmaker. Gaelle is alsothe Founder of FLOW@WORK  and Author of the brand new book, Flow Leadership – unleash the power of people, purpose and performance – which was officially released earlier this month.

Key discussion points:

- Overview of Flow Leadership

- How to measure 'Flow at Work'

- Challenges of achieving Flow Leadership

- Self-awareness and leadership

- Purpose as a commercial imperative

- Methodology for finding personal purpose

- Barriers to Flow Leadership

- The role of curiosity in business

This week in the first The The New P&L - Principles & Leadership in Business podcast for 2025, we discuss why it is so important to embrace the friction in a world where technology aims to make engagement as friction-less as possible.

We consider why friction is so critical to curiosity and, in turn, why embracing the curiosity that friction offers is so critical to personal growth and business innovation. To join The new P&L movement, go to: www.principlesandleadership.com

This week on The New P&L - Principles & Leadership in Business podcast series, we speak with Tim Robson, Managing Director, NSU Media, an Employee Communications & Engagement agency. Tim is also the author of Showing Up: How to Make a Greater Impact at Work. An inspirational thinker and speaker, he brings a fresh approach to work, performance and the professional mindset. To learn more about the work Tim and his team delivers, go to: https://nsu.media/

This week on The New P&L - Principles & Leadership in Business podcast series we speak with Andrew Cooper, Author of ‘The Ethical Imperative’ ; Legal Coordinator & Head of Patent Acquisitions, Meta.

This week on The New P&L - Principles & Leadership in Business podcast series we speak with Ed Fidoe, Co-founder & Chief Executive, The London Interdisciplinary School (LIS). We discuss with Ed:

- the core principles that underpin an Interdisciplinary approach to education

- the background to the founding of LIS

- what an interdisciplinary approach can offer business leaders

- why intellectual curiosity matters

- whether we can have a truly interdisciplinary approach in an increasingly polarised world

- the role of AI in increasing or diluting our curiosity

- why 'solving complex problems' not studying in a discipline-based framework is crucial to the future of education

The Week on The New P&L – Principles and leadership in Business podcast we speak to Asiya Jelani, Director of Sales at Worldline UK&I. Asiya is a key advocate for Women in Transport, a not-for-profit that empowers women in the industry to maximise their potential.

With over 20 years of experience in mobility and transport, Asiya’s work spans roles in sales, business development, and strategic growth. At Worldline, Asiya is focused on driving customer value from innovative solutions for rail, shared mobility, and active travel.

This week on The New P&L - Principles & Leadership in Business podcast we speak to Cameron Atlas. Cameron is a global Keynote Speaker, executive coach and Founder of The Method To Mastery.

Cameron is also renowned musician and composer and he utilises the these skills and all the emotion music elicits from all of us to incredible effect in the workshops and keynotes he delivers on how we all maximise our human potential.

Well - we made it to 250 episodes! Unbelievable! In this episode - a special celebratory show, our host, Paul, discusses some of the insights and inspirations from the last 4 years and 250 episodes of the show.

This week on The New P&L - Principles & Leadership in Business podcast series we speak with Lyndsay Dowd. Lyndsay is a Speaker, Founder, Author, Coach, Podcast Host and founder of Heartbeat for Hire.  She has been recognised as a Top 10 Business Coach by Apple News and was the recipient of the 2023 Award for Innovation and Excellence. She is an accomplished leader, decorated seller and has successfully managed large, diverse, high performing sales teams over the last 25 years - with 23 of those years were spent climbing the ranks at IBM. 

In creating her company, Heartbeat for Hire, she has devoted her career to transforming leadership through building irresistible culture and modern leadership practices to get the best results from their teams. 

This week on The New P&L - Principles & Leadership in Business we speak with David McQueen, CEO, Q Squared, Leadership & Executive Coach, Keynote Speaker, Author of ‘The BRAVE Leader’ - Better Decisions for Inclusive Leadership.

This week The New P&L - Principles & Leadership in Business speaks with Maja Djikic, Author of The Possible Self - a Leader's Guide to Personal Development; Associate Professor and Director of Self-Development Laboratory at the University of Toronto - Rotman School of Management.

Maja is a personality psychologist specializing in adult development. She has been selected by Thinkers50 as one of 30 thinkers around the world whose ideas have the potential to shape the future of organizations.

This week’s guest on The New P&L – Principles & Leadership in Business podcast series we speak with Dan Södergren. Dan is a respected Futurist, keynote speaker and thought leader who works at the intersection of people, AI/technology and business. Dan’s views are regularly sort by BBC and other TV and countless other radio shows where he discussed how AI and technology will change the world for the better as part of the Fifth Industrial Revolution.

This week on The New P&L podcast we speak to Dane Baker - serial Entrepreneur and Co-founder and CEO of Eco Cart – a start-up that is on a mission to make the fight against climate change easy, affordable and accessible so that everyone can play their part.

EcoCart has developed a technology that calibrates and helps to offset the carbon footprint created by online consumer purchases. The company partners with online retailers and eCommerce brands to offer their customers the option of carbon offsetting their online purchases in real time, as they order their products online.

This week, in our first podcast episode for 2024, we consider the importance of a moment of reflection and retrospection - getting back to remembering the passion and the purpose that unpins our careers and businesses, to help accelerate our collective success in 2024.

In our final episode for 2023, host Paul Spiers discusses the highs and lows of the last 12 months and offers his view on the entrepreneur's journey.

This week on The New P&L - Principles & Leadership in Business we speak with Kathleen O’Connor, Faculty Director of Executive Education and Clinical Professor of Organisational Behaviour at London Business School.

This week on The New P&L - Principles & Leadership in Business we speak to the phenomenal Jeffrey Madoff, Founder & CEO Madoff Productions, Adjunct Professor - Parsons School of Design, Author: ‘Creative Careers’, Keynote Speaker, Lead Producer & Playwright.

Once ranked as one of the top 10 young designers in the U.S., Jeffrey has had a career dedicated to creativity. After some time as a designer, Jeffrey transitioned his career into film, video and live production, producing award winning commercials, documentaries and web content for global clients including Ralph Lauren, Victoria's Secret, Tiffany's, Radio City and Harvard University to name a few. 

Jeffrey is also adjunct professor at the Parsons School of Design, as well as a celebrated author and playwright.

We discuss creative leadership, the role creativity and curiosity has played in his career and the role of creativity in the future of business.

This week on The new P&L TO THE POINT we ask listeners whether they are Door Kickers or Door Fixers? We need both for change - those who kick the door down to break through social, technological or business barriers, but also those who then fix the door to enable others to follow and come through without obstruction, building frameworks to open up opportunities and ensure the change delivered by the door kicking is positive, constant, and fixed for the future.

This week’s guest is fantastic Dr Lynda Shaw. Lynda is a neuroscientist and business psychologist, Founder of The Neuroscience Professional Development Programme and a respected international keynote speaker.

As a leading voice in behavioural neuroscience, Dr Lynda Shaw is dedicated to improving everyone’s understanding of how the brain affects your behaviour and how your behaviour affects your brain.

With a rare talent to turn the complexity in relationships into something we can all understand, Lynda is having a major impact on businesses across the globe. 

This week on The New P&L - Principles & Leadership in Business podcast series we speak to the awesome John Oswald. A business design pioneer with a passionate commitment to sustainability, john is European Managing Director of Accenture Interactive's new Song Sustainability Studio – which aims to make sustainability relevant and actionable to everyone by understanding the human factors behind sustainability choices, and helping companies use this to improve products and communication.

This week on The New P&L TO THE POINT we ask if we are outsourcing our curiosity to an algorithm and reducing our creative and innovative potential in the process.

This week on The New P&L - Principles & Leadership in Business podcast series we speak to the brilliant Josh Akapo, Co-Founder and Head of Strategy at Creative House, Archtype, and an award-winning strategist and researcher with a focus on people, culture and community. Archtype 'moves differently' through nuanced thinking, and co-creating with communities to deliver transformative campaigns for organisations like the NHS right through to music legends, including Stormzy. He uses data and stories to better understand people, challenging brands to recentre their work in their audience.

Josh is also Marketing & Partnerships Director and Board Director at Joined Up Thinking, a youth mentoring organisation that supports young people aged 11 - 25, helping them to stand out and reach their potential.

Josh’s work focuses primarily on young people, marginalised groups and radical social purpose. Awards for this work include 'Emerging Leader' in the BRiM; B&BAN and Ad Association 'Changemaker Awards' in 2022 and GUAP Magazine X Converse 'The Blacklist' 30 under 30 in 2020.

This week on The New P&L Deep Discussion we speak with the phenomenal Emma Jones, Founder & CEO of Enterprise Nation - one of the UK’s leading small business support platforms and providers. Emma is also a renowned business expert, keynote speaker and best selling author. 

Since launching in 2005, Enterprise Nation has grown to become a powerful and dynamic community of over 100,000 business people, and small and medium sized businesses. Over the last 18 years, it has helped tens of thousands of entrepreneurs to start and grow their businesses in the UK, Ireland and EU.

This week on The New P&L we speak with the awesome Rahul Varma. Rahul is a board member at Sapien Labs, a not-for-profit organization founded in 2016 with a mission to understand and enable the human mind.

He is also is a global Human Resources leader, speaker and thought leader, whose career has been dedicated to helping people thrive at work and make a positive impact on businesses and society. Most recently, Rahul was Chief Talent Officer at Accenture Technology, leading HR for Accenture’s largest business division that employs over 375,000 people.

During his 28-year tenure at Accenture, he crafted a new approach to leadership development and led the largest re-imagining of performance management in the world, creating multiple innovations in digital learning and global learning centres.

As the first HR Director for Accenture in India, Rahul led the organisation through a phase of dramatic growth as Accenture grew from 200 people to almost 40,000 in seven years, an achievement that is now a Harvard Business School case study on hyper-growth in India.

This week on The New P&L - Principles & Leadership in Business podcast we speak with the fascinating Rob Moore.

At the age of 25, Rob was £50k in debt; less than five years later, he had gone from deep in debt to multi-millionaire. Firstly, through building a property portfolio, then co-founding the Progressive Group including Progressive Property, Progressive Success, and the Entrepreneurs Business academy (EBA).

Rob’s training group has grown to be one of the largest in the UK, and is now expanding globally; helping 10,000s of start-up and scale-up entrepreneurs to successfully launch and grow their businesses.

Having given 1,000+ speeches in the last decade, Rob is a sought after keynote speaker and an influential podcast as host of the hugely popular 'Disruptive Entrepreneur' and 'The Money' podcasts.

This week on The New P&L Deep Discussion we speak with Alexandra McCalla, Entrepreneur, Breathwork & Somatic Therapist.

Alexandra is a specialist in guiding people into their bodies and back into connection with their true self through breathwork and somatic therapy. Trained in Rebirthing Breathwork and Integrative Therapy, Alex facilitates the liberation of stuck emotion, energy, and experiences in the body, enabling them to shift and integrate.

Having worked through her own acute post-traumatic stress symptoms and auto-immune issues in addition to her training, she is strongly informed by how trauma and the nervous system function. Alex guides her clients and groups through similar challenges - all while staying grounded in a gentle breath.

We discuss with Alex:

- What is driving breathwork’s current popularity

- The principles of Somatic Therapy

- How breathwork positively impacts on the nervous system and immune system

- What we uncover when we consistently tap into our subconsciousness

- Breathwork’s impact on creativity

- Whether there an optimal time / place / environmental to maximise the impact of breathwork

- How someone deciphers the jargon and the promises to understand who are authentic breathwork practitioners and who the charlatans are

This week, The New P&L speaks to the phenomenal Shaun Tomson - South African professional surfer, 1977 world surfing champion and ranked as one of the top 10 surfers of the 20th century. Shaun's also an environmentalist, actor, global keynote speaker and businessman and the best selling author of The Surfer's Code, The Surfer & The Sage and The Code: the power of 'I Will'.

For the past three decades since retiring from the World Professional surfing circuit in the early 1990s, Shaun has traveled the world, sharing his academically-tested leadership methodology with business leaders, employees, schools, universities, charities and prisons, using purpose as the foundation to engage, inspire, and drive higher performance and teams and businesses.

Our conversation with Shaun includes:

- A discussion on Shaun's professional surfing career

- What is behind Shaun's famous quote 'time is expanded inside the tube'

- What defines a brand with a purpose

- Shaun's five elements of purpose

- Why purpose-led companies perform better

- How a business culture is a collection of communities and subcultures

- The Surfers Code exercise and the 12 commitments of the Code

- The importance of having a Code Card

- How to ensure the Code remains relevant to you

- The two most critical 'Codes'

- The theory of 'Flow' for optimum human functioning and flourishing

- How to use Flow in business

- Have we lost our ability to trust our instinct

- Why resilience and perseverance are not interchangeable

- Redefining one's purpose

- Shaun's time working with Patagonia and what it taught him

- Shaun discusses the tragic loss of his son and how this dramatically changed his perspective on purpose

- Shaun's cites a 'scared script' from his home town

This week we focus on the second episode of our new mini-series: The New P&L '10 in 10' - ten actionable insights for business leaders and entrepreneurs in just 10 minutes. Our second guest on our new mini-series is Prasanna Dhungel, co-founder &Managing Partner, GrowByData, who will be discussing his 10 key insights on starting your entrepreneurial journey.

This week on The New P&L - Principles & Leadership in Business podcast series we speak with Carolyn Dawson is Chief Executive of Founders Forum Group, a global community and group of businesses supporting entrepreneurs at every stage of their journeys. Founders Forum events are designed to empower today’s entrepreneurs to drive positive change through technology, while fostering collaboration amongst the world’s most inspiring founders, investors, corporate and government leaders.

Alongside Founders Forum’s event portfolio, Carolyn’s remit includes the broader Founders Forum Group, supporting today’s founders and disruptors with businesses in education, investment, charitable giving and professional services.

This week’s guest on The New P&L is Kieran Read, former captain of the All Blacks - Aotearoa/New Zealand’s national rugby team, as well as a former captain of The Crusaders – one of the New Zealand’s most successful teams in the international Super Rugby competition.

Kieran played for All Blacks from 2008 to 2019 and is one of the most-capped rugby players in All Black in history, having played 127 tests, scoring 26 international tries. He captained the All Backs 52 times, which makes him the second most-capped All Black captain ever.

Kieran was also IRB Player of the Year in 2013 and a key member of New Zealand's 2011 and 2015 Rugby World Cup-winning teams. He now runs a leadership consultancy delivering the leadership lessons he learned leading one of the world's most successful high performance sports team.

This week we launch our latest mini-series - The New P&L '10 in 10' - ten actionable insights for business leaders and entrepreneurs in just 10 minutes. Our first guest on our new mini-series is the brilliant Andrea Pacini, presentation coach and head of Ideas on Stage UK.

Whether you are communicating your strategic vision to employees, pitching to clients, or presenting to board members, shareholders or stakeholders, strong, nuanced and purposeful presentation skills are critical to both delivering your message effectively, and ensuring and resonates with your audience influences them so that they can take action as a result. So, in this episode, Andrea will be outlining his 10 top tips on how to present with more purpose and more power to more people.