Strategy into Practice: Sir Kenneth Olisa, Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London

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Time: 6.30pm - 7.30pm
Venue: Room 0026, Business School, Kingston Hill campus, Kingston Hill, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey KT2 7LB
Price: free
Speaker(s): Sir Kenneth Aphunezi Olisa

Kingston Business School's premium Strategy into Practice seminar series is designed to give you the opportunity to gain insights of strategy within business and not-for-profit corporations. 

You will hear first-hand accounts from top executives on strategic challenges in their industry and how they strategically steer their organisation to compete successfully and deal with complex issues such as international growth, innovation and corporate social responsibilities. 

You will have the opportunity to ask questions and network after each session with the speaker, other local business leaders and academic staff from Kingston Business School.

Guest speaker

Sir Kenneth Olisa OBE is the Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London. Born into what he describes as a tough reality background, Sir Kenneth was raised in a single parent environment in what he describes as the ‘back streets of Nottingham'.  He attended State schools before winning an IBM Scholarship at Cambridge.  After graduating he worked at IBM and Wang ending up as Head of Marketing based in Boston and finally General Manager of Europe based in Brussels.   He went on to found Interregnum, a publicly listed technology merchant bank, among many other business ventures.  Today he is Chairman of Nigeria's largest electronic payments company – Interswitch, a member of the Board of Huawei (UK) and he serves on the Board or advises several high-potential private companies.  He is also committed to public service having served on the Boards of an NHS Trust, a major social housing group and IPSA (the body established by Parliament to end the MPs' expenses scandal).  Currently, he is Chairman of Shaw Trust, a £200m charity helping the chronically unemployed into work and the Aleto Foundation supporting undergraduates from backgrounds like his to thrive at University.  In 2010 he was awarded an OBE for services to London's homeless and was knighted in the 2018 New Year's Honours for services to business and philanthropy. Ken received his Honorary Doctorate from Kingston University in the same year for his contribution to diversity in business and the non-profit sector.

Abstract
Cracking the Ee-Or Conundrum

"We live in the Age of Disruption. Traditional industries from Advertising to Zookeeping are faced with a Darwinian tech-driven battle between evolution or extinction. Look no further than Amazon vs. the High Street, Airbnb vs. lodging or Tesla vs. motor transport for proof that the old order is doomed.

My generation's expectation that life in business meant travelling a straight line between recruitment and retirement is no longer an option; not because of the Millennial addiction to change but because the established regime is crumbling.

But what to do about it?

Firstly, whether you want to work for someone else or start your own business it's important to be able to differentiate between the world's disruptors and their prey – the disruptees.  

Secondly, comes the realisation that survival and prosperity require much more than ambition.  Chutzpah is a necessary but insufficient component of survival in the Age of Disruption.

Finally, as military history has taught us through the ages, there is a 100% correlation between victory and the adequate execution of a strategy.  And, in my experience, strategy must start with a measurable mission objective. 

In Cracking the Ee-Or Conundrum I will explain:

• The Age of Disruption's fundamentals;
• The two cultures which make up the Yin and Yang of successful business; 
• The missing ingredient; and
• A quick way to define that measurable mission objective

For further information about this event:

Contact: Lucy Williams
Email: l.williams@kingston.ac.uk