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The bottom line is…the bottom line isn’t enough

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The bottom line is… the bottom line isn’t enough Philip Beddows , Partner, The Silk Road Partnership   Originally published in The Boardroom Magazine: August 2010 Despite the infamy of corporate failures such as Lehman Brothers, Enron and GM, the global corporation is not dead — and remains unlikely to die. Business coach and mentor Philip Beddows says the non-executive director has a responsibility to serve employees, the community and society beyond short term profiteering. The bottom line in the corporate world, ultimately, is that the bottom line isn’t enough. Profit is incontestably vital, bringing a myriad of benefits to all levels of society. It is the lifeblood of any commercial enterprise; provides income to investors; taxes to government that fund public services, money for development, and expansion; ensures continued investment in the employment of people and regeneration of communities; and is the root of much charitable giving. Perhaps mos
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Yellowstone National Park: a lesson for the economy?

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People and Leadership Yellowstone National Park: a lesson for the economy? Author: Philip Beddows Originally published in The Boardroom Magazine: December 2008   Coverage of the recent economic crisis has been extensive and it is feared that recovery will be long, drawn-out and painful. But, asks Philip Beddows, has anybody stopped to consider that what is happening in the markets is simply part of an economic cycle, entirely natural and expected –  just like the forest fires of Yellowstone National Park? Over the past few weeks, anyone picking up any newspaper will have read increasingly  dismal headlines about the state of the economy in the UK, Europe, the US and beyond. Words such as ‘Armageddon’, ‘crash’, ‘meltdown’ and ‘slowdown’ abound; meanwhile, Alistair Darling has declared he is “confident” we will get through the recession. What is the alternative, we might ask? Is it even possible to conceive that we will not get through it? Last summer seem
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A gallop through leadership

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A gallop through leadership Author: Philip Beddows Originally published in The Boardroom Magazine: July 2008 With companies spending more than ever before on leadership development, Philip Beddows ask what qualities define great leadership – and whether heavy investment to nurture them is paying off A professor from one of the world’s leading business schools recently introduced the subject of leadership with the statistic that a Google search on ‘leadership’ resulted in approximately 200,000 references and, on Amazon, over 35,000 books. At the end of the talk, one of the audience asked: “If we accept the evidence of Amazon and Google that more has been written on leadership than ever before in history, and that more money is being invested in teaching and developing leadership in business schools and via talent management programmes in organisations, are we developing better leaders?” The professor had no answer. When I posed the same question to a number of business
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Guiding Light - career mentoring for lawyers

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Guiding Light Author :  Philip Beddows Published in its original format in Legal Week (Training and Education), 3rd August 2007 During the past year or two, much has been written and spoken about the challenges facing lawyers who seek to pursue a career outside law, particularly those who seek a role on the board of a company. A recent letter to the editor of the Financial Times, written by a Birmingham lawyer in response to an article on how City lawyers could be more welcome on boards, was bold enough to state that City solicitors are simply not ‘businessmen’, and that the same could not be said of solicitors outside the City. I could hear the pencils being sharpened in reply, not as swords, but in written riposte to this inflammatory charge.  But if the Birmingham lawyer is right, the picture he painted in his letter is not always so for City solicitors. It is true that there are many lawyers who maintain close, high-level strategic relationships with boards
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