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Hamish Taylor    

Former CEO of Eurostar and Sainsbury's Bank, Innovation Expert, Strategy Advisor

Hamish Taylor began his career with Procter & Gamble Ltd, managing the Flash brands before moving to British Airways as head of brand management, where he led major product relaunches including the introduction of flat beds in First Class.

After his tenure at British Airways, Taylor became the managing director and later CEO of Eurostar (UK) Ltd at the age of 36, where he significantly reduced losses and drove growth. In 1999, he was appointed as CEO of Sainsbury's Bank, a role in which he innovated retail-oriented approaches to banking, significantly boosting profits.

Since 2004, Taylor has focused on advising organizations on creating customer value and achieving breakthroughs by adopting external perspectives. He has worked with over 500 organizations in 48 countries, including high-profile clients like Microsoft, RBS, and Diageo. His keynotes, which include topics like "Customer Insight," "Leadership and Change," and "MasterThief," are celebrated for their energetic, story-driven, and practical approaches.

Taylor holds several prestigious titles and awards, including Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers, Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Transport, and the “Sheth Distinguished International Alumnus” award from Emory University. He also chairs the EMEA advisory board for Emory University and serves on several boards, demonstrating his continued commitment to leadership and innovation across various sectors.

Speech Topics

Playing Reverse Football:- Lessons in making sure you take the organisation with you!

The biggest challenge we face in the change journey is to ensure employee engagement.

-How can you use the customer promise as a key leadership tool to drive focus through your team and organisation?

-Why setting the right ambition will determine whether or not you achieve breakthrough levels of innovation?

-When is it right to let go and, therefore, unlock the potential of the whole organisation?

-Great communication is, of course important but how good are you at ruthless simplicity, identifying champions, customer focussed organisational design and the make it easy model?

MasterThief:- Lessons in driving innovation and change by stealing ideas from the outside

If you want a breakthrough, look outside your current environment! From yacht designers and Disney assisting British Airways, to rugby referees in banking risk management, the need to look for stimulus outside your current environment has been at the heart of the approach Hamish has brought to organisations.

-How does the customer promise provide a new starting point for your innovation?

-How can you become a MasterThief and steal ideas from the most unlikely of sources that are highly applicable to your challenges and provide essential breakthroughs?

The Customer Promise:- Lessons in putting the customer at the heart of all activities

Changing the way you understand your customers (both internal and external) bring new insights that enable you to create a Customer Promise – a change in the definition of the business (or individual role) to a statement of customer benefit (rather than a description of your expertise.) For Hamish, this was the key to both driving innovation and creating a simple leadership tool to unlock the potential of the whole organisation.

-How do concepts such as soft insights, customer expectations, customer’s customer and the blank sheet of paper approach give new insights that enable competitive advantage?

-Why does the customer promise provide a simple leadership tool that places the customer at the heart of everyone’s work?

-What are the implications for both customer engagement and leadership?

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