Events Calendar

A professional networking forum, our Enigma events regularly bring together senior business executives and influential industry figures with direct experience of the challenge of implementing large scale technology and business change.

In 2009 we focused on some illuminating topics such as leadership challenges in recessionary times, collaboration and innovation, and customer service, improving the customer experience to gain competitive advantage. These events were attended by our Enigma sponsoring partners, DAV customers, industry influencers and academic institutions - Cranfield School of Management and Henley Business School.

Our programme for 2010 will continue to explore topics that our clients tell us are likely to present the main challenges for their businesses in the year ahead.

Forthcoming Events

16th June 2010:

Topic: Decision making in an era of complexity

Venue: Conran's BlueBird Restaurant, Chelsea

We are living in an age of uncertainty where the interconnectedness of things means it is increasingly difficult to make sense of one's environment, and outcomes are unpredictable. This new order of 'complexity' is presenting business with a huge challenge to survive, one that requires us to 'think and act anew'.

In a recent article for the Harvard Business Review, Dave Snowden, founder and CSO of international research organisation Cognitive Edge, perfectly illustrated the nature of the challenge we face. He said: 'In a complex context right answers can't be ferreted out. It's like the difference between, say, a Ferrari and the Brazilian rainforest. Ferraris are complicated machines, but an expert mechanic can take one apart and reassemble it without changing a thing. The car is static, and the whole is the sum of its parts. The rainforest, on the other hand, is in constant flux - a species becomes extinct, weather patterns change, an agricultural project reroutes a water source - and the whole is far more than the sum of its parts. This is the realm of 'unknown unknowns,' and it is the domain to which much of contemporary business has shifted.'

Against this backdrop, business leaders must learn to embrace uncertainty and understand how to turn it to their advantage. But to do this they must arm themselves with the right methods and tools. Cognitive thinking is a new way of seeing the world. It reveals solutions gained through participation and what is known as emergence, i.e. where solutions can't be imposed but rather arise from the circumstances, helping to drive real time decision making and strategy, creating an upsurge of new ideas and innovation. This participative approach generates data, insight and understanding that traditional methods cannot deliver. It is radical, liberating and no longer preventative, which up until recently is how business thinking has tended to be. The process is dynamic and is best described as 'Darwin's adaptation - as the environment changes so we change and evolve'.

Our next Enigma roundtable will cover this fascinating topic and we will be joined by Dave Snowden, founder and CSO of international research organisation Cognitive Edge, who will kick-start and participate in the discussions about decision-making in the context of complexity science. Taking this concept and applying it in business terms means that leaders can make sense of the complexity that surrounds them and take contextually appropriate action that enables their organisations to evolve - rather than being constrained by typical strait-jacket business approaches and processes.

Key issues we shall discuss include:

• What is Complexity Science and how does it impact today's business environment?
  
• Why traditional management approaches no longer provide the insight business leaders need?
  
• What can be done to make sense of such an unpredictable business landscape?
  
• Mediating management information is common practice but how does this increase the risk of ill informed decisions?
  
• How does 'safe-fail' and 'resilience' win hands down over 'fail-safe', and 'robustness'?
  
• In the face of such complexity how can you spot emergent trends that will give you first mover advantage?
  
• Why do smaller, highly trained groups of interoperable people, referred to as 'crews', offer the key to greater productivity?
  

Guests will have the opportunity to express their views, find out more from senior-level industry peers and hear what a number of customers have to say. For more information on the event please contact Paula Elliott on 01189 001132 or email Paula at paula@c8consulting.co.uk.


Previous Events

Quality is consistently listed as one of the top competitive priorities for all businesses and has become a prerequisite for global success. While the significance of quality has been emphasised over the years, the contribution of quality to business performance has been largely unexplored. In light of the UK recession has the short-term attention moved onto speed-to-market, cost reduction and other concerns and so is quality suffering as a result? And if quality remains such a foundation for success, how is it being applied in the light of inevitable business change that many organisations are facing as they reshape in order to take advantage of the upturn?

Following an introduction from author and inspirational speaker, Leon Kreitzman, these were the questions considered at the last Roundtable, held on 11th February 2010, at Conran's Sartoria Restaurant in London.

The Roundtable led by DAV Managing Director Charlie Mayes and DAV Chief Operating Officer Andrew Moore, featured guests from Marks and Spencer, KCom, Chartered Quality Institute, BCS, IIT EMEA, Spirit of Creation, Adept4, Noggin and the UK Innovation Initiative.

To read the complete Roundtable report, please download 'Defining and Measuring Business Excellence' by clicking on the adjacent link.