The Pulse: Driving Measurable Outcomes: AI Strategy, Team Performance & Inclusive Transformation - April 2025
This month at S&S, we're celebrating 9 years of transforming how organisations deliver change while looking toward an AI-powered future.
In this edition, gain actionable insights from our "Unlocking AI's Business Value" virtual event on moving beyond experiments to embedding AI for tangible outcomes. Our Chief Change Officer Adrian Stalham reveals how MissionHub.ai delivers 25-50% faster execution by scientifically balancing team dynamics for optimal performance.
Discover why the most successful transformations now extend beyond organisational walls to engage your entire ecosystem, and access practical leadership frameworks from our CEO Community in our latest Orange Paper.
We're championing inclusivity on International Girls in ICT Day, while our thought leadership on retail transformation, leadership transitions and ecosystem collaboration continues to shape industry conversations.
Enjoy!
Unlocking AI's business value: A practical guide for leaders
Our Senior Consultant Archie Cobb and Community Development Manager Sarah Williamson hosted transformation leaders for an engaging discussion on turning AI potential into practical business value.
Our virtual event revealed transformation leaders are increasingly confident with AI fundamentals but still navigating the critical gap between experimentation and embedded, value-generating implementation. What we discovered:
🔶 AI confidence is growing rapidly — When asked to plot their confidence, attendees reported significant growth over the past year, positioning themselves toward the more confident end of the spectrum while acknowledging implementation challenges remain.
🔶 Real-world applications are diverse — Leaders shared how they're currently applying AI across their organisations in areas like software development and CAD QA, content creation and copywriting, meeting documentation and voice transcription, HR documentation and policy development, as well as research consolidation and knowledge transfer.
🔶 Common implementation challenges persist: Participants highlighted recurring obstacles including security concerns and intellectual property protection, balancing innovation with appropriate governance, poor alignment with business outcomes, demonstrating value realisation beyond the hype and addressing adoption resistance alongside cultural readiness.
Three essential insights for transformation success:
1. AI is a transformation driver, not just technology — It's fundamentally changing how organisations deliver high-value, outcome-led work
2. Forget 'go-live' dates — Success requires pervasive integration throughout operations, culture and ways of working
3. Close the strategy-to-execution gap — Through tools like MissionHub.ai, we're helping translate strategic AI goals into practical implementation
Missed the event? Swipe through the carousel for key highlights from our discussion, and if you're looking to transform how your organisation approaches AI, get in touch with our experts. We'd love to continue the conversation.
Building high-performance teams: The science behind mission success
Our Chief Change Officer Adrian Stalham reveals the science behind truly high-performing teams and introduces MissionHub.ai—our revolutionary approach to team formation and optimisation.
🔶 Team dynamics trump individual brilliance: Building on Google's Project Aristotle research, we've confirmed that how people work together matters far more than individual expertise. While most organisations focus solely on skills and availability when forming teams, our research shows this misses the critical dimension of team compatibility.
🔶 Finding the performance sweet spot: Our AI-powered platform analyses communication patterns, decision-making styles and conflict resolution approaches to create teams balanced between consensus and challenge. Too much agreement stifles innovation; too much debate prevents delivery. The sweet spot is where high performance naturally emerges.
🔶 Beyond formation to sustained excellence: MissionHub.ai guides teams through their entire journey—from onboarding new members and creating team charters to facilitating 360 feedback and measuring psychological safety. This ensures teams maintain their high-performance state while delivering on their mission.
🔶 Measuring what matters—value throughput: True productivity isn't about doing more things faster; it's about delivering meaningful value. Our approach shows remarkable results: 25-50% faster execution, higher success rates and significantly improved employee engagement—without spending on traditional engagement initiatives.
For organisations navigating complex transformation challenges, this combination of mission-based working with AI-driven team optimisation offers a competitive advantage that turns strategic intent into measurable business impact.
Beyond the organisation: Why engaging the wider ecosystem is key to successful change
Our Consulting Client Director Leila Callaghan and Client Principal Sibbs Singh examine why modern transformation must extend beyond internal teams to engage your entire ecosystem.
🔶 From isolation to interconnection: Traditional change management confined within organisational walls is becoming obsolete as successful transformation increasingly depends on engaging a broader network of suppliers, customers, regulators and even competitors.
🔶 Co-creation drives adoption: When stakeholders actively shape change rather than merely receiving it, implementation success rates soar—as demonstrated by NHS digital records adoption and IKEA's circular economy journey, where collaborative approaches replaced top-down mandates.
🔶 Technology as ecosystem enabler: AI-powered sentiment analysis, predictive analytics and digital platforms are creating unprecedented opportunities to detect resistance early, provide targeted support and enable real-time contribution from across your network.
🔶 Framework for collaborative success: Breaking down barriers between leadership, business units and delivery teams through cascading metrics and empowered cross-functional teams creates direct links between strategic objectives and downstream execution.
For organisations navigating complex transformation, this perspective offers practical approaches to harness the collective intelligence of your entire ecosystem—moving beyond transactional relationships toward co-created solutions that are more relevant, sustainable and enduring.
From kitchen table to boardroom: Inside our CEO Community reunion
Our CEO Community reunion at Birrane House brought together senior leaders for conversations that seamlessly blended executive-level insight with refreshing authenticity.
Through the engaging discussions, several powerful themes emerged:
🔶 Resilience in uncertain times: Leaders shared candid strategies for navigating economic volatility while maintaining organisational momentum and purpose.
🔶 Evolving talent dynamics: The conversation explored how workforce expectations continue to shift, requiring new approaches to attraction and retention that balance flexibility with performance.
🔶 Technology and human connection: Executives discussed the delicate balance between technological advancement and preserving meaningful human connections both internally and with customers.
🔶 Multi-generational leadership: Participants exchanged perspectives on harnessing diverse generational viewpoints to drive innovation while maintaining cohesive culture.
What makes these gatherings uniquely valuable is their kitchen-table familiarity—creating an environment where executives can speak openly, listen genuinely and share experiences without pretence or posturing.
Our commitment remains creating these rare spaces where leaders step away from daily pressures to gain perspectives that simply aren't available in typical business settings. The consistent feedback confirms what we've always believed: authentic conversations amongst executives generate insights impossible to find elsewhere.
The evolving role of leadership in uncertain times
Our latest Orange Paper distils powerful insights from our CEO Community reunion on navigating today's unprecedented business complexity.
Rather than theoretical concepts, we've captured the practical mindsets and behaviours that truly separate high-performing organisations—approaches backed by McKinsey research showing adaptive leadership generates 50% higher shareholder returns.
Leaders consistently tell us they're seeking the balance between driving necessary change and preserving what makes their organisations special. Our framework addresses this tension directly, offering a practical approach to building sustained competitive advantage while maintaining cultural integrity.
Download our Orange Paper to discover the leadership capabilities essential for today's transformation challenges—insights drawn from executives who are successfully navigating this journey themselves.
Celebrating International Girls in ICT Day
We're celebrating International Girls in ICT Day and its theme of "inclusive digital transformation." This global initiative inspires young women to lead in our digital world.
The message echoes our consultant Siobhán Nuzum's recent reflections: "It's important we have both male and female support around us—when beginning careers, during them, and when giving back to empower female voices."
At S&S, we're committed to environments where women thrive in digital transformation. We know diverse teams don't just support individual growth—they create better solutions for everyone. Through our communities and client work, we're actively building a more balanced digital future that harnesses all perspectives.
Happy birthday S&S!
This month we celebrate our 9th birthday—a journey from ambitious vision to thriving change community!
We're incredibly grateful to our clients who've trusted us with their most important challenges, our talented colleagues and associates, our partners who amplify our impact, and our vibrant communities driving innovation.
As we reflect on nine years of transforming how consulting delivers value, we're even more excited about what lies ahead. The emerging landscape of AI and increasing business complexity creates unprecedented opportunities to reimagine work, and we're committed to helping our clients become truly Intelligent Enterprises.
Thank you for being part of the S&S story. Here's to many more years of meaningful impact together! 🚀
S&S in the press 🔶
Our team has been sharing insights on the latest developments in technology and business transformation. Here's what we've been talking about in the press this month.
Nostalgic retail brands hold powerful emotional currency, says S&S Consulting Partner Jacqueline Shakespeare: As Topshop potentially returns to high street, successful retail transformation requires balancing digital innovation with emotional brand connections rather than purely digital-first models. This strategic blend of heritage with forward-thinking represents the transformation approach needed for retail brands navigating changing consumer landscapes and revitalising beloved names with authentic customer connections.
Can Airbnb become the "Amazon of travel"? S&S Chief Change Officer Adrian Stalham analyses the platform's ambitious vision: Despite £11.1bn in earnings, transforming from popular platform to industry titan demands more than growth metrics. Adrian's analysis explores Amazon-inspired expansion strategies, risks of the "everything app" approach to brand identity and how Airbnb's measured AI implementation represents both its most prudent and potentially dangerous strategic decision.
Unilever's dramatic leadership shift signals tension between transformation pace and cultural sustainability: Adrian examines Unilever's replacement of CEO Hein Schumacher with "human tornado" Fernando Fernandez to accelerate turnaround strategy. Stalham contrasts sustainable "understated, empowering" leadership approaches against "cut-throat, results-now" styles that deliver quick wins but risk cultural damage. The board's preference for decisive action over cultural integration represents a significant leadership gamble whose success will only become apparent gradually, offering valuable lessons for transformation leadership across sectors.
Tech Talk & Business Buzz: The headlines ⚡️
In this section of The Pulse, we bring you some of the month's biggest headlines and must-read stories from the worlds of technology and business.
Some M&S stores left with empty shelves after cyber attack: M&S continues battling operational disruptions after a cyber attack left some food shelves empty and forced online ordering suspension since Friday. While contactless payment issues are resolved, the retailer's £1.2bn online platform remains offline during a key summer shopping period. M&S expects shelves to normalise within days but full operations won't resume until week's end, with analysts predicting profit impacts as customers shop elsewhere during the disruption.
OpenAI Adds Shopping to ChatGPT in a Challenge to Google: OpenAI is launching integrated shopping functionality in ChatGPT that will allow all users—signed in or not—to receive AI-powered product recommendations and purchase items by clicking through to merchant websites. The new feature leverages ChatGPT's existing billion weekly web searches and personalises recommendations based on user preferences and online product reviews from across the web, including editorial sites like WIRED and forums like Reddit. Unlike Google Shopping's paid placements, OpenAI claims their current results are purely organic, though they're exploring various affiliate revenue models as they prioritise user experience—potentially contributing to the company's ambitious target of $125 billion revenue by 2029.
Trump looked unbeatable on the economy. Then he launched a trade war: Despite campaigning on promises to lower costs for Americans, President Trump has spent his first 100 days focused on implementing tariffs that economists warn will increase prices on everyday goods. The resulting market turmoil has erased billions from retirement accounts and turned voter sentiment sharply negative, with recent polls showing 50% of respondents believe the economy has worsened since his inauguration. White House officials insist short-term "pain" will yield long-term benefits through reshored manufacturing, while anxious Republicans pin their hopes on passing tax cut legislation to offset rising costs before next year's midterm elections.
Thanks for reading. Until next time!
S&S 🍊