Brendan Shaw "Natural ragione è di ciascuno che ci nasce, la sua vita, quanto può, aiutare e conservare e difendere (Every person born into this world, has a natural right to sustain, preserve and defend his own life to the best of his ability)." - Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron, 1353 (written during the Black Death pandemic) "Stop moaning ... playing the victim card." - Bill Michael, UK PwC Chairman in a memo to staff, February 2021 "I've just had it. They feel like we're

Brendan Shaw "We are trying to reassure people that removing all of the lavatory paper from the shelves of supermarkets probably isn't a proportionate or sensible thing to do at this time." - Dr Brendan Murphy, Australian Government Chief Medical Officer, March 2020 “I get up And nothin' gets me down You got it tough I've seen the toughest around And I know baby just how you feel You got to roll with the punches and get to what's real” - Van Halen, Jump, 1983 I

I passed a milestone the other day. I had forgotten all about it, until LinkedIn kindly reminded me in one of those sometimes annoying pop-up reminders. This was a surprise one sunny afternoon I hadn't expected. Apparently, I have been running my own consulting business for two years. (Pause .... ) After I picked myself up off the floor from the shock, I took a few minutes to reflect on this. There was a time when I would never have imagined that I would be one of those peopl

"Attitudes are contagious. Are yours worth catching?" - Australian Men’s Cricket Team slogan, 2001 tour of India. I recently attended a fascinating talk by Adam Gilchrist, former captain of the Australian men’s cricket team, organised by the Australia-UK Chamber of Commerce here in London. Gilchrist told the story of the Australian team's tour of India in 2001 when Steve Waugh was captain and Gilchrist was vice-captain. Australia toured India for a series of test and one-day

If anyone was in any doubt that culture, teamwork and leadership were crucial to good organisational decision-making and success, just ask the Australian cricket team. Here is a team of talented individuals that was, by any definition, a successful organisation. They’d won the cricket World Cup in 2015 and had just come off a very successful Ashes test series defeating again England 4 - 0. They are currently ranked 3rd best test team in the world. Today they are a team dealin