Insights that Inspire Transformation
Explore our thought leadership and resources, designed to challenge conventional thinking and guide your organisation towards long-term value. Learn from leading research, forward-thinking theories and practical tools.
Future Normal Book
The Future Normal Book - Challenge Convention and unlock long-term value
The Future Normal Book presents a new approach to organisational transformation. The book challenges conventional business logic and lays out 8 essential questions that can help you reshape your organisation for lasting success.
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Unleashing the Power of Corporate Narrative
Insights from the World’s most Progressive Companies
In collaboration with Brandpie, we examined the world’s most progressive companies to understand how their corporate narratives influence long-term performance. This report reveals that companies with a narrative that is beyond themselves outperform their competitors.
Key insights
Between 2010 and 2024, the companies analysed outperform the MSCI world index by 30%.
Companies with a corporate narrative that enables a world we all want to live in and or tackles a challenge we face and thus inherently views the company as a tool rather than an end in itself, correlates to enhanced success. These companies perform nearly twice as others, achieving higher highs and more resilience during downturns.
Purpose Statements and Superior Performance
The Power of Purpose: How Companies Drive Long-Term Success
Also conducted with Brandpie, this research examines the impact of purpose statements on company performance. Our findings highlight how companies with clear, succinct purpose statements significantly outperform those without-both in terms of of financial metrics (ROE,ROA) and ESG performance.
Key Insights
Purpose-driven companies outperform their peers in financial and ESG metrics.
Short, clear purpose statements are more effective than long ones.
Connecting your organisation’s purpose to the problems the world faces is key to driving long-term value.
Company Values - Same or Different
Shaping the Future - Values that Matter
This review of ASX100 companies reveals the most and least popular values driving corporate culture. While values like collaboration and integrity are common, there is an opportunity for companies to lead by incorporating values like bravery, care and long-term thinking.
Key Insights
The most popular values are collaboration, integrity and excellence in the ASX100. These are also the same the world over.
To lead in stewardship and long-term value, companies need to elevate values such as bravery, care, long-term thinking.
Short Perspective Pieces to Challenge and Reflect
These short 3-5 minute reads are designed to provide you with opportunities for reflection and inspiration for your organisation. They are released on LinkedIn and also available for download below. They are released every few weeks.
The Reads
Asking the now radical questions to deliver the future normal - this piece explores change from a historical perspective, hence the image of the boss smoking in the office. Released 5th January 2025 - Download Smoking Man Coffee-Break Read
Chief Meaning Makers - Try a different model and ask a different question if you want to drive long-term value - this piece explores the role of the c-suite and the framework they use to understand organisational impact. Released 14th January 2025 - Download the Chief Meaning Makers Coffee-Break Read
A Strategy Ethic - A strategy is right when it tends to enhance our whole communities - this piece draws on Aldo Leopold’s land ethic to develop a strategy ethic for long-term value. Released 23rd January 2025 - Download a Strategy Ethic Coffee-Break Read
A New Narrative and Constant Gardening - If you want different outcomes for your organisation, you need to change the narrative and then continually align to that - this piece highlights the power of conintually tending to the corporate narrative. Released 4th February 2025 - Download a New Narrative and Constant Gardening Coffee-Break Read
Moving Past Sustainable Development to Dial in Long-Term Value - Sustainable Development is an overused term and is overcomplicated, going back to basics allows simpler logics to emerge that can unlock lasting value. Released 18th February 2025 - Download Moving Past Sustainable Development to Dial in Long-Term Value
Flip the Organisational Chart - Flipping the hierarchical chart of your organisation is a simple trick that can help provide clarity on leading by enabling others. Released 18th March 2025 - Download Flip the Organisational Chart
Noise and Music - Exploring the metaphors of noise and music allows an exploration of pacing, tempo and whether an organisation is building for the long-term or is a one-hit wonder. Released 25th March 2025 - Download Noise and Music
Pursuing Balance - Exploring the challenge of finding balance in an organisation and how it ultimately relies on the balance in our relationship with the organisation. Released 15th April 2025 - Download Pursuing Balance
Upgrade from 2D to 3D Thinking - Discusses the shift from 2D to 3D thinking that is required to enable an organisation to deliver long-term value. Released 29th April 2025 - Download 2D to 3D thinking
Coffee-Break Reads
Podcasts
Interviews about Future Normal
The following are links to podcasts where Nick Barter discussed the Future Normal book and more broadly Future Normal perspectives.
Interview with Brandpie CEO Dave Allen -Ditching Profit for Prosperity Building a Long-Term Institution Released December 2024 - Spotify Link, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts,
An Interview with the Transforming Tomorrow Team - The Future of Normal - Released August 2024 - Spotify Link, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts
AI Generated Podcasts from the Coffee-Break Reads