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​Robin Speculand
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Best Selling Author,  Global Pioneer & Expert in Strategy Implementation
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Robin Speculand

Best Selling Author and Strategy Specialist. Robin Speculand is a global pioneer and specialist in strategy implementation and is driven in assisting leaders to successfully execute their strategy. He is the founder and Chief Executive of Bridges Business Consultancy Int and the creator of the Implementation Hub portal, the first portal in the world dedicated to strategy implementation. Robin is the first author in the world to publish three books on implementation. The international bestselling book Bricks to Bridges – Make Your Strategy Come Alive, set the benchmark for new thinking in his field.

Robin’s innovative approaches have been featured in such media worldwide as BBC World, CNBC and Forbes. A TEDx speaker and educator for Duke CE, IMD, and Singapore Management University, he is also a Harvard-listed and award-winning case study writer. In 2021, Robin was co-nominated with Piyush Gupta, CEO of DBS Bank, for the Thinkers50 Ideas into Practice Award. In 2021 and again in 2022, he was awarded the Business Strategist Singapore title and is included in the Top 15 list of Global Gurus.

In 2014, Robin recognized how digital transformations presented different challenges from previous strategy implementations and turned his focus to supporting executives in this perilous journey. That year, two of his clients, the world's best bank and the world's largest luxury company, both became early adopters of digital transformation. In 2018, he conducted research with nearly 2,000 leaders across three continents, resulting in the publication of this highly acclaimed business white paper:
Transforming Your Company into a Digital-Driven Business.

Robin Speculand lives and breathes strategy and digital implementation. He
supports C-Suite and Boards in transforming their organizations and is well
known for his innovative approaches.

He is one of the world’s most prolific writers on the subject, having published six books that include his latest, the Amazon number one bestseller World’s Best Bank – A Strategic Guide to Digital Transformation and the Strategy Implementation Playbook: A Step-By-Step Guide.

Robin has pioneered a number of breakthrough methodologies and techniques that feature the Implementation CompassTM, a proprietary framework built on
the eight areas for excellence for execution; Ticking Clock© Model, a framework for creating a digitally driven organization; Digital Maturity Index, a self-assessment that reveals a person’s level of digital maturity; and the Digital Best Practices Benchmark.

A leader today needs both the ability to formulate strategy and the skills to execute it. The current global drive toward imbuing implementation as an organizational competency stems from the right strategy and the ability to implement it as a worldwide business differentiator with tremendous payoff.

Robin Speculand is a global pioneer and expert in strategy implementation. He is the founder and CEO of Bridges Business Consultancy Int, creator of the Implementation Hub, and author of three books on implementation (two are international best sellers) including his fourth book, Excellence in Execution – HOW to Implement Strategy.

Robin is driven to transform the strategy implementation approach globally by inspiring leaders to adopt a different approach. His work begins when his clients are crafting their strategy and are starting to think about implementing it. He guides them through the implementation journey and provides them with the knowledge, tools and templates to succeed where so many fail. These include Bridges’ Implementation Compass™—a proprietary framework for successful implementation—as well as access to the Implementation Hub —the first portal in the world dedicated to strategy implementation with its 500+ resources, and IMPACT, a toolkit with a structured approach for implementing actions in 90 days.

In 2000, Robin left his position as Citigroup Regional Vice President, Corporate Bank, Asia Pacific, to start Bridges, a specialist in strategy implementation. Since assisting its first client, Singapore Airlines, Bridges has worked with governments, multinational corporations and local organizations across five continents to achieve Excellence in Execution.

Robin is one of the most prolific writers and thinkers on implementing strategy. An international bestselling author, his books include Bricks to Bridges – Make Your Strategy Come Alive, which set the benchmark for new thinking in his field and Beyond Strategy – The Leader’s Role in Successful Implementation, John Wiley & Sons. His pioneering work has been featured in strategy journals, international print and electronic media including the BBC UK & Global, CNBC, Financial Times, Sunday Telegraph and the Singapore Straits Times. He is a sought-after speaker at strategy and international business forums.

Robin is an educator for Duke CE and adjunct faculty at the Office of Executive and Professional Education in Singapore Management University. Outside of work, he’s a die-hard ironman athlete.

Keynotes

Strategy Implementation Challenge Keynote : You have created the strategy and now you have to implement it. You go from discussing it with only the top leaders to sharing it with the whole organization and giving people direction. Strategy is about making the tough choices; implementation is about taking the right actions.

Nine Uncommon Practices for the New Business Landscape Keynote : Organizations are at greater risk and pressure due to business model disruption than any other time in history. They can no longer rely on yesterday’s success for tomorrow. This is leading to new ways of working in a new landscape. This engaging and entertaining keynote highlights what just a handful of successful leaders are doing differently.

The Presentation
These uncommon practices are the latest thinking from our client work and research. It includes, 1. how to achieve your strategic objectives by doing less, not more and 2. how you need to provide people with choices for higher engagement, and 3. how to constantly review in order to create a rhythm.

Each of the 11 uncommon practices are explained using examples, stories and research and are:
  1. 90-day chunks – why action items should only be set in 90-day compartments
  2. Structure your success – provide a framework for your leaders to follow through the implementation journey
  3. Make choice your collaborator – allow your people to choose the right actions as it increases fivefold they will take the right actions
  4. Less is more – when you ask people to do less, more is achieved
  5. Communicate throughout – don’t let the communication dissipate after the launch
  6. Abandon yesterday – you can no longer rely on yesterday’s business to deliver tomorrow’s revenue and must look at disrupting the business today
  7. Point out what’s right – most leaders only point out what’s wrong, not what’s right. Requiring a balance.
  8. Review rhythm – conduct regular reviews at all levels across every part of the business
  9. Implementation never goes according to plan – one of the few absolutes in business

Excellence in Execution Keynote : The current approach to strategy execution is not working as more implementations fail than succeed. We need a different approach and different thinking. This extremely informative keynote is packed with useful tips and highlights what leaders need to address to achieve excellence in execution. It feature examples from other companies, stories and research on how to implement your strategy.
Leaders understand the importance of strategy execution but are still missing the methodology to succeed. Achieving excellence in execution is a competitive differentiator that, when achieved, has tremendous payoffs, because it’s not easy to do. This keynote provides an overview of what leaders need to consider doing.

Leaders are responsible for crafting a winning strategy and then involving and leading the rest of the organization in its execution. They need to start the execution planning during the strategy planning (not after). They also need to create the right conditions for execution and guide people through the journey to demonstrate their commitment and sincerity.

To assist leaders in translating the strategy from the top level to the ground level, the “Three Broad Themes of Execution” are introduced, (1) Create Awareness, (2) Build Excellence (3) Follow Through.

Organizations have to consider the speed at which they need to execute the strategy – the Strategy Cadence. This is a critical part of the execution, as is leaders driving the right actions across the organization. This keynote highlights how this can be achieved.

It also addresses the execution juxtaposition, reallocation of resources, how take your people over the wall, importance of follow up and business model disruption.​
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ROBIN SPECULAND VIDEOS

ROBIN SPECULAND BOOKS

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Seminars & Workshops

Strategy Implementation for Leaders Seminar - (one-day)
Leaders need the ability to craft a winning strategy and the skill to implement it. But only a few have both.
The challenge is that leaders have been taught how to plan but not how to implement. This is reflected in the high implementation failure rate.
Introduction
No leadership team walks into a conference room and declares, ‘‘Let’s create a bad strategy!’’ Each member of the leadership team thinks the strategy is good. But only when a successful implementation follows can this team be proven right.
Since 2000, this foundation course has come alive for over 25,000 leaders worldwide, providing them with an awareness and understanding of what strategy implementation is, why it is so difficult to achieve and how to avoid the most common mistakes.
To create a strategy, the best minds in the organization come together. They devote their time, energy and effort to identifying ways they can outplay the competition, increase customer loyalty and improve shareholder value. Yet despite their best attempts, more than two-thirds of strategy implementations fail.
It is even more acute that leaders know the reasons why implementation fails yet they habitually repeat the same mistakes!
Customers notice the implementation of your strategy, not the strategy itself!Putting the spotlight firmly on implementation, this highly researched and informative seminar prevents you from repeating mistakes by providing you with a framework to guide your organization’s implementation.  As well, it provides assessments on your organization’s readiness to implement and then identifies corrective action.

Strategic Thinking for Leaders Workshop - (two-days)
The average life of an organization has been reduced by 50 years in the last 50 years. In the 1950s, it was 67 years; today, it is 17 years, and the impact of that 50-year difference is immense.
Leaders now need to be increasingly more aware of their strategic landscape, conscious of their business operating model and constantly thinking strategically. This dramatic change in business transformation is affected by artificial intelligence, algorithms, augmented and virtual reality, nanotechnology, and other new technologies. Many companies race to adopt digital transformation while others run a race to stay in business.
Strategic Thinking for Leaders is a thought-provoking, tools-enhancing workshop that explains how to become more strategic in your thinking while managing the day-to-day business.
During the workshop, you learn the tools and techniques for advanced strategic thinking and applying them through a simulation called The Chocolate Factory. This workshop encourages group discussion and learning from mini case studies, examples, stories and videos.

Digital Conversations - (one-day)
  • No conference tables – learn in an agile environment
  • No printed workbook – receive an e-workbook
  • No fixed agenda – fluid format to dive into what’s needed to achieve the stated outcomes
Digital Conversations’ singular focus is to assist leaders in transforming their business organizations so they can strategically leverage digitalization.  This enables the organization to deliver greater value to their customers and shareholders. It has evolved from the worldwide digital research and engagements of Bridges Business Consultancy.
The Conversations during the one-day session focus on implementing and measuring digitalization and its impact on an organization’s culture, employees, technology and customers.
This uniquely designed course aims to deliver maximum value by being agile to the participants’ needs. On entering the room, they won’t find round conference tables with white tablecloths, workbooks and a fixed agenda in place but, instead, a free-flowing conversation that addresses their digitalization questions and requirements.
The environment and course design reflect how organizations need to reinvent themselves to adopt digitalization. Initially, some participants might feel uncomfortable with this arrangement. This is intentional! Any discomfort felt here is nothing compared to the discomfort required to transform into a digitally driven organization and to avoid the 84% failure rate.
Adopting digitalization is not optional for organizations; it’s compulsory. But the extent and speed at which it’s adopted depend on the organization’s markets and strategy. Recognizing this, Digital Conversations features interactive discussions provoked by sharing a model, methodology, case studies, hard-hitting facts and by challenging current perceptions.
It’s not about having a digital strategy but  executing a strategy in the digital world.This workshop leverages a wide range of methods, videos and tools to build a meaningful and engaging experience. Theory is combined with practice, lectures with experiential learning and individual reflection time with group discussions and case studies. Neuroscience research and puzzles are employed and secrets of digitalization shared.

New Book - Excellence In Execution

​HOW to Implement Your Strategy

Robin’s latest book presents leaders with the how to adopt the right mindset, toolset and skillset to execute strategy. It provides the tools, techniques, tips and uncommon practices required to both build your execution plan and deliver on your strategy promises.