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Do you have a team that’s helping you get to the next level? If you're aiming for a senior leadership role, do you have a "village" to support you? Just like athletes don’t prepare for the Olympics alone—they have sponsors, nutritionists, coaches, and even people we rarely hear about—leaders need their own support system too. Every senior leader I’ve spoken to or listened to has had some, if not all, of the following: 👉 Organizational sponsors and mentors who helped them navigate the path forward. 👉Coaches who guided them in building inner clarity and self-awareness. 👉Household help—cleaners, personal assistants, babysitters—giving them back their most valuable resource: time. 👉Personal trainers, because when your body and mind are your greatest tools (and potential blockers), taking care of them is essential, not optional. 👉A supportive partner. Unfortunately, research shows that women promoted to top roles face higher divorce rates than men, especially in more traditional couples. Good news - gender-equal partnerships seem to fare better. 👉A strong network—both personal and professional. Since 80% of opportunities come through networking, having a network at the right level is crucial for opening senior leadership doors. 👉Leader identity and personal brand—which may require its own team, from public speaking coaches and stylists to social media managers. The biggest difference I see in aspiring leaders is that many feel like they have to "do it all" themselves. But leadership is a deeply human and social journey. So, how are you building the team that will take you there? or are you just keep working hard hoping it will take you to the next level? #leaderdevelopment #coaching

Human attention is going to be the world's scarcest resource. Marketers, are you ready? Remember when building software was the hard part of building a company? AI is changing that. Tools like Replit's AI Agent, Claude's latest model, and OpenAI's just-launched model, Strawberry, make building software much easier. Code gets cheaper. As software floods the market, human attention is the new scarcity. Distribution gets harder. In this new world, the ability to grow an audience is more important than the ability to launch new features. You need to: - Double down on personality-led content. Featured can be copied. Your voice can't. - Focus on turning your customers into your best marketing channel. In a world of AI, authenticity wins. - Find your unfair advantage in marketing and exploit it relentlessly. When everyone is the same, your unique edge is your lifeline. Welcome to the age of attention economics.

Introspection and self-awareness are extremely important for a leader. Because leadership is a journey, which evolves over time and is fueled by the interactions I have, is shaped by the successes and the challenges I encounter and is linked to the evolution of our company’s strategy and ways of working. A couple of weeks of holidays and a recent meeting with UCB leaders gave me a unique chance to exchange opinions and reflect on what I currently see as fundamental elements for effective leadership: ✅Find your purpose: Understand your values and what drives you. Make it concrete: define how you bring value to your stakeholders, such as colleagues, patients, and your community, and set clear goals to track your progress. Stay focused on your strengths and core expertise. ✅Collaborate with others: Team up with diverse groups - colleagues, peers, actors from your ecosystem - to augment your abilities, to partner with talents of a different skill sets, to seek out new tools and platforms. Listen attentively to everyone's perspectives, expectations, and challenges. And - extremely important in today's world - learn to factor in the world's evolving dynamics, understanding the interconnectedness of economics, society, politics, and the environment. ✅Evolve and adapt: The only constant is change, and innovation keeps that pace blistering. As society and individuals change with each passing day, it's critical to stay open-minded and always strive to learn, unlearn and relearn. If you're unsure about the best approach, don't be afraid to show vulnerability. Remember, authenticity and personal values are your best guides. I hope these reflections will inspire you, or just make you think and search within yourselves. I'd love to hear your thoughts, so don’t hesitate to share them. After all, leadership isn’t about ‘I’, it’s about ‘we’. And ‘we’ can always learn from each other. #leadership

Have you heard of "pointless places"? As a byproduct of the high street retail crisis, there are abandoned spaces everywhere. All in need of a vision. But what if these places could be revitalised, without a set purpose? Something I read about recently was the concept of a ‘"pointless place" in Bombas & Parr’s future of P-Leisure report. A place that defies traditional purposes but acts as flexible, transient canvases for creativity and community. Not confined to a single use. Why can’t your local abandoned pizzeria be temporarily transformed into an art gallery or a music venue for a pop-up gig? There’s a broader movement away from overly curated environments toward spaces designed for emotional and psychological resonance. We’re seeing boundaries between work, social life, and leisure blurred and I believe the concept of a pointless place that also blurs its boundaries of existence fits into that. Because life is messy. And sometimes the best experience you could have is the one you didn’t expect. So a potential solution for all the abandoned spaces we have is to be less restrictive on what they can be used for. Less permanent in the occupancy we expect. And to celebrate them as spaces not for a set purpose but for the infinite possibilities they offer. I speak a lot about this kind of stuff with Kevin Haley - what do you think? PS - How cool would an Oasis gig be at an abandoned pub?

How has someone helped you in your career? I’m just back from visiting our new Philips Innovation Campus in Bangalore, which we opened almost a year ago. In addition to other colleagues across India, nearly 5,000 colleagues work on the campus, with the average age being just 28. The campus is buzzing – great energy, lots of talent and big ambitions, just like India. As you may know, India has ambitions to become one of the world’s leading AI hubs. And they’re well on their way. There’s so much happening and a real sense of opportunity and excitement. We were lucky to be joined by Indra Nooyi, member of Philips' Supervisory Board and renowned business leader. She spoke openly about her career journey and how mentors have played an important role along the way. Indra emphasized the importance of mentoring those you see potential in and being generous and engaged with those who choose to mentor you. It resonated with everyone, including me. Actually, it made me think of all those people who have been (and are) willing to help guide and challenge me, and even just listen. And of those I get to do the same for. For example, one leader early in my career urged me to take on a big assignment. It meant moving and change and facing the unknown. He knew it would challenge me and be the best teaching ground, but without his push I don’t know if I would have taken the step. I learned so much and I’m forever grateful that he went out of his way to challenge me. I wanted to share this as we kickoff 'Own your career' days at Philips, where we're focusing on empowering colleagues to drive their career journey. 👉 I know many of us have these stories and so I’d love to hear how someone helped you in your career.