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Hamish Taylor    

Former CEO of Eurostar & Sainsbury's Bank; Leading Expert in Innovation & Brand Management

Hamish began his career with Procter & Gamble Ltd. Holding a variety of Brand Management positions culminating in responsibility for the household cleaner portfolio (Flash brands). Following this, Hamish was a Management Consultant with PriceWaterhouse from 1990 to 1993 specialising in marketing effectiveness studies.

He was appointed Head of Brand Management at British Airways at the end of 1993, innovations there included major product relaunches of Club Europe, Club World and First Class (including the introduction of flat beds).

In 1997 he moved to Eurostar as Managing Director of Eurostar (UK) Ltd at the age of 36. His remit was to reduce the major losses the operation was suffering. After two successful years in this role he was appointed as Chief Executive Officer of Eurostar Group.

In 1999 Hamish was appointed as Chief Executive Officer of Sainsbury's Bank, a joint venture between J Sainsbury's plc (55%) and the Bank of Scotland (45%).The ability to innovate and move away from traditional Banking approaches to behave more like a retailer proved the key to the significant growth that resulted.

Since 2004 Hamish has focused on enabling organisations to achieve breakthroughs by looking outside their current environment. Processes, product and people development are all part of this mix. He has consulted or spoken for over 120 organisations in more than 25 countries including Microsoft, RBS, BAA, Camelot, Inland Revenue, Kimberly Clark, Post Office, Ernst and Young, Diageo and the Economist.

Past awards include both Bobby Jones and St Andrews Society of Washington DC scholarships for post graduate study in the USA; Presidency of the St Andrews University Athletic Union and Scottish Junior International Athlete; Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Transport,; Rail Professional Business Manager of the year in 1998 ; \"Sheth Distinguished International Alumnus\" award from Emory University and the Inspired Leaders Network award for the management of innovation.

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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