We Made It Happen!

Available now: order today!

We are delighted to announce the launch of our new book, Making it Happen: Lessons from the Frontline of Strategy Execution – a book that delivers what it says on the cover. At Skarbek, we believe in diversity of thought and the importance of opening our minds to creative ways of doing things in a new world where old ways don’t offer all the answers. As such, we bring to you a cross-section of compelling stories from which to glean actionable insights into the successful implementation of your strategy. Each is from the hard-earned experience of exemplary individuals in an array of very different fields – the military, government, education, medicine, the arts, business, and exploration. It has been inspirational to meet, interview and scribe the stories of the exemplars featured in this book. And we hope inspirational for readers to learn that every one of us has it within us to make a difference.

A book for people who want to make things happen, by people who made them happen.

The Skarbek team are available to deliver inspiring talks and workshops on the challenge of strategy execution. Click here to contact us.

Click here to see highlights from the event.

Click here to view an interview with the Author Rebecca Stephens.

Click here to request an excerpt from the book.

About the author

Rebecca Stephens is a journalist, writer, lecturer, and mountaineer. She was working for the Financial Times Group when she was commissioned by the parent paper to write a series of articles on Everest base camp, got hooked, and four years later returned to Everest and became the first British woman to climb to the summit. The following year she went on to be the first British woman to climb the Seven Summits, the highest peak on each continent. She is a principal consultant of Skarbek Associates Ltd and has written several books including The Seven Summits of Success with business writer Robert Heller, published by Wiley.

Contributors include:

• Design engineer William Allen revealing just how things are done inside NASA. It was Allen’s team that put the rover Perseverance on Mars and he shares insights on the pursuit of excellence through collaboration and collective learning through mistakes.
• Mountaineer Nimsdai Purja on developing his 100% mindset to smash the existing record to climb the world’s 14 x 8,000m peak in just short of 8 years – in an astonishing 6 months and 6 days. And then to make the first winter ascent of the Savage Mountain K2 without supplementary oxygen.
• Dr James Morrow and his common-sensical business approach to reforming the NHS, while keeping the patient front and foremost and not spending one extra penny from the public purse.
• Ballerina Tamara Rojo on turning the English National Ballet on its head and wowing audiences and financial sponsors alike.
• General Sir Michael Rose on clearing a path through the fog of civil war and getting food to people starving on the streets of Sarajevo, in 1994.
• Sir David Wright on the bringing together of two fundamentally different cultures to create a single department in government.
• Sir Tim Brighouse on lifting inner city schools from sink school status to outstanding, through change of language, raising aspiration, and inviting schools to learn from one another.
• Emma Bridgewater of polka-dot mug fame on building a brand and saving a pottery.
• Jens Festervoll and Stein Petter Aannerud of Norwegian oil and gas giant Equinor on creating a small, disruptive group within a traditional company to persuade their seniors to adopt digitalisation as an essential step towards renewable energy.
• Dame Helena Morrissey on founding the 30% Club and winning over those in positions of influence to put gender on the agenda and ensure three in every ten board members of FTSE 250 companies are women, just as a start.
• President of GSK Consumer Healthcare John Clarke on making the implementation of strategy a strategy unto itself, and doubling growth within five years.

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