Mike Richardson

Before, during and after COVID, we live in an exploding universe of agile inspiration, yet enterprise agility remains as elusive as it has ever been for most leaders.  Why?  Because of an unbroken agility code that most leaders have never been taught. 

As we emerge from COVID, the biggest danger is that leaders over estimate their insights into true agility and their preparedness for the next phase of new and novel disruptive change that is inevitable, probably bigger, faster and sooner than we think!  Mike cuts through the complexity and hype, cracking the agility code for audiences of CEOs, Executives and their teams.  

He holds up a mirror of accountability for them to be asking themselves, "am I an agile leadership presence or a fragile leadership presence?" in the equation of their enterprise agility, part of their fragility problem or part of their agility solution?  All laced with an English accent and sense of humor for good measure.

He moves them to begin their journey from the fragile majority to the agile minority.  In these times of accelerating disruptive change, agility is the only competitive advantage which has any permanence, everything else is increasingly temporary, increasingly quickly.  To future proof our businesses, careers and lives, agility is essential.  The problem is that it is complex and the majority of people over simplify it.

He is able to have an eye-level conversation with CEOs, Executives and their teams, drawing upon the credibility of an unusual combination of deep agility experiences in 3 worlds:

• In the Real World:  Mike started his career as a Petroleum Engineer with Shell International working on onshore and offshore oil & gas drilling rigs.   Now, he loves studying other everyday agile leaders in the real world who also face the agility challenge everyday (fighter pilots, special forces, fire fighters and others), often with life and death consequences, to understand their secrets.
• In the Business World:  After an MBA at London Business School, Mike joined the Aerospace Industry as a Program Manager of complex projects, became an Executive and CEO of multiple small to-medium-sized and fast-moving businesses and ended up running the Aerospace Division of a British Public Company, Spirent plc.  Now, he loves working with CEOs, Executives and teams in a diversity of businesses across a diversity of industries.
• In the Advisory World:  Mike then went independent for nearly 20 years already, as an author, keynote speaker, facilitator, coach and board member, including 15 years as a CEO peer group Chair and Speaker with Vistage Worldwide for small-to-medium sized enterprise CEOs and Executives.  He had more than 300 members and facilitated more than 500 group meetings and 2000 one-to-one coaching sessions.  He spoke to more than 400 groups comprising 5000 members in 5 countries and was acknowledged as the thought leading agility expert for the global community of more than 20,000 small-to-medium-sized business members.

Mike is Cracking the Agility Code by sharing unique insights at the intersection of those 3 worlds, for CEOs, Executives and their teams  leading small-to-medium sized and fast-moving enterprises, companies and corporations.  He interprets the secrets of everyday agile leaders in the real world, translates them into terms relevant to the business world and facilitates CEOs, Executives and their teams to develop their enterprise agility in the advisory world.  He inspires audiences by simultaneously being provocative, profound and practical, with agile mindsets, skillsets and tool sets and revealing the myths, mysteries and magic of agility.  All with an insightful combination of stories, frameworks and case-studies, accentuated with some Britishness.

Mike has uniquely distilled ...

• The 5 Roles of Everyday Agile Leaders to help CEOs, Executives and their teams understand who they need to be in the equation of their enterprise agility as Chief Agility Officer of their business or their role in their business.  He introduces them to The 5 Attributes of Agility to Change Your Relationship With which most business people have never had any training in. In all likelihood, your audiences will not have heard anything like this before.
• Agile C2C: Conversation-Flow to Cash-Flow.  Mike distills the agility challenge doiwn to a journey orientation of conversation-flow to cash-flow revealing the challenge of agile decision making in the broader context of innovation-flow.  He frames up an Agility Operating System for organizations to be able to process the flow of innovation and decision making needed with the agility required to be future-proofed.  He outlines The 5 Steps to an Agility Operating System to drive that.  In all likelihood, your audiences will not have heard anything like this before.
• The One Advantage of a Peer-Powered Culture of Agility which has to be at the heart of an Agility Operating System.  That is the only competitive advantage we can rely upon as having any permanence these days.  Everything else is probably more vulnerable to accelerating disruptive change than we think, probably bigger, faster and sooner than our worst nightmare!  Working with two colleagues who are equally thought leading authors in the fields of Culture and the power of Peer Groups, Mike triangulates these insights for audiences and introduces them to Peernovation, tapping into the collaborative power of peer groups in the workplace to accelerate innovation.  In all likelihood, your audiences will not have heard anything like this before.

Mike is a Co-Founder of THE ONE ADVANTAGE community of practice and Advantage Peer Groups.  He was an award winning Master Chair of peer groups with Vistage Worldwide.  He has won the coveted Dale Carnegie International Leadership Annual Award twice, once in 1999 and once in 2019 (in very good company ... since the inaugural annual award in 1977, winners have included Daimler–Chrysler Corporation and its president Mr. Lee Iacocca, SAS Scandinavian Airlines, and its CEO Mr. Jan Carlson) and was also a certified Dale Carnegie Instructor. 

He is writing his second book, The 5 Roles of Everyday Agile Leaders: Cracking the Agility Code, asking the question, "why, despite all of the Agile inspiration and insights we are now surrounded by, does Enterprise Agility remain as elusive as it has ever been for most leaders?" The answer: an unbroken agility code.  His first book, Wheel$pin: The Agile Executive's Manifesto (2011), asked the question, "why, despite all of our investments in our businesses (you name it, we do it), do we still experience a lot more wheel$pin than we should?" Which can cost us a $fortune!  The answer: Agility, or rather a lack of agility. 

Mike has been speaking for 20 years and took a hiatus to work with a client during 2019/2020.  In 2018 he spoke more than 30 times.  He is known for his credibility in having eye-level conversations with CEOs, Executives and teams, holding them accountable to step up and having fun in the process with some Britishness.  He is English originally, American now, living in the beautiful Temecula Valley wine district of southern California.

Agility.  Leadership Agility. Organizational Agility. Business Agility.  Enterprise Agility.  Agile. Agile Leadership.  Agile Strategy.  Agile Execution.  Agile Innovation.  Agile Transformation.  Traction.  Wheelspin … and more!