Stephen Kelly, Steve Garnett and Sukhendu Pal

The Insight series is taking a break this week. Instead, we are bringing you a very special live event that we hosted with Funding London. The event featured three incredibly successful British business leaders. All three worked in multiple iconic start-ups and built companies generating tens of billions of dollars revenue. They created and led Unicorns before that term was invented. They started their career in Oracle when it was a start-up with a few dozen people.

After over a decade with Oracle, Steve Garnett went on to co-create two other amazing companies, Siebel System and Salesforce, with the founders Tom Siebel and Marc Benioff.

After leaving Oracle, Stephen Kelly led 3 successful turnarounds to growth as a ‘hands-on’ CEO – most recently at Sage. He is the only business leader in the UK, who ran two FTSE 100 companies. He was appointed Prime Minister’s Business Ambassador 2015-19 and is Chairperson of TechNation.

After a decade with Oracle, Sukhendu Pal went on to work for the biggest bank in the world, where he created an organisation which became a multi-billion dollar business serving the emerging markets spanning 72 countries. He then led another successful start-up and founded another.

The three are Funding London’s lead mentors and in this event they discuss how the coronavirus outbreak has forced entrepreneurs to think on their feet, rapidly pivoting business models as they adapt to the “new normal” and use technology to transform relationships with customers and staff.

Here's what we discussed during the interview:

• Steve Garnett introduction (1:30)
• Stephen Kelly introduction (2:15)
• Sukhendu Pal introduction (3:26)
• How should we reshape and rebuild great companies for the “new normal”? (4:47)
• What will be the required model of leadership for the “new normal”? (7:11)
• How do you innovate in the depths of a recession? (9:13)
• How can we rebuild public confidence in capitalism and its ability to function in a way that generates inclusive and sustainable prosperity? (14:47)
• What is the biggest challenge companies face for business recovery at this most challenging of times? (19:14)
• Can purpose and profit coexist? (23:06)
• What will leaders do to keep their teams engaged, morale high, culture intact and maintain high performance in the “new normal”? (25:26)
• In your experience, how much more successful are purpose-driven companies? (28:13)

Questions from the public

• What will this pandemic be remembered for? (35:28)
• Why should people keep companies around in the next “new normal” whose sole purpose is the enrichment of a select few? (41:59)
• COVID-19 will have a massive impact on inequality – how do you suggest we eliminate inequality? (50:33)

Be sure to subscribe to the Business Leader YouTube channel for more interviews with some of the UK’s leading business figures.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.