Former General Manager of Brands for British Airways, Former CEO of the Eurostar Group, Former CEO of Sainsbury's Bank & Revered Advisor on Customer Centricity

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Hamish Taylor is a business mogul. The former CEO is renowned for his influence on British Airways, Eurostar and Sainsbury’s Bank, as he leads companies through times of financial challenges or internal tensions. Thanks to his extensive experience and impactful career, Hamish is a popular choice on the keynote speaking circuit. He features at industry events up and down the country, sharing his advice on maximising success and minimising risk.

Hamish has been credited for his influential consultancy. Armed with decades worth of knowledge, he regularly features on the EMEA advisory board for Emory University, a position in which he earned the Sheth Distinguished International Alumni award. Amongst his other accolades, Hamish was credited with the Inspired Leaders Network award, in recognition of his innovative management style. He is also a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Transport, Chartered Institute of Bankers and the Rail Professional Business Manager Of The Year - the latter due to his work with Eurostar in 1998.

In 2004, Hamish founded his company, which enables organisations to break into different markets, by improving their productivity, quality and reliability. Prior to this, in 1999, he was the CEO of Sainsbury’s Bank, a role that saw him produce larger profits by innovating traditional banking. By running the bank more like a retail store, he was able to bring the focus back to the customer.

In 1993, Hamish was appointed Head of Brand Management for British Airways. Whilst in this position, he has been credited with developing passenger brands for the business and relaunching products like Club Europe, Club World and First Class. Hamish even introduced the iconic flatbed, which brought a touch of luxury to air travel. As an after-dinner speaker, Hamish is renowned for his unbeatable knowledge, as well as his infectious passion for brand identity and business strategies. Capable of exploring the inner workings of the aviation industry, he can cover such topics as determination and people management.

How to hire Hamish Taylor

Contact the Champions Speakers Agency to provisionally enquire about hiring Hamish Taylor for your next event, today. To get in touch, simply call an official booking agent on 0207 1010 553 or email us at [email protected] for more information.

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** We do not accept requests for autographs, signed merchandise, fan mail, birthday messages or any other non-commercial contact with the speakers or acts. Each speaker on the website may not have necessarily worked with Champions in the past but are known to perform such engagements within the industry.

Hamish Taylor's official speaking topics are listed below:

The Customer Promise - Lesson in Putting the Customer at the Heart of All Activities

Changing the way you understand your customers (both internal and external) brings 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 to 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?

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?

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?

Official Feedback from In-Person & Virtual Events

Official Feedback from In-Person Events:

"Is there such a thing as a perfect CV? Probably not, but in terms of the quality and profile of companies worked for, jobs done, education and achievement, Hamish Taylor’s takes some beating." - The Times

"One of the best presentations I have ever seen, let alone had the good fortune to Chair" - Chairman, Economist IT Directors Conference

"Hamish’s presentations crackle with energy and original insights that make even our group of top-level, seasoned, high-achieving UK business and public sector leaders think ‘Crikey: that’s inspiring! Why didn’t I think of that!?’ And these are people who it’s hard to impress…" - Chairman, The Inspired Leaders Network

"It went fantastically well, I can’t begin to tell you how good Hamish was" - UBS

"Brilliant inspirational speaker. Really enjoyed the session." - Ernst & Young

"Hamish brings an infectious energy to the table. He is enthusiastic yet very keen on hearing what you have to say hence his collaborative approach to creating a piece of work that not only is effective but truly meets the client's needs. His enthusiasm is matched with genuine experienced insights into the world of business. The work that Hamish did for the Post Office was received extremely well by the senior management audience and indeed several of whom had a ‘corridor’ chat with me raving about this guy ‘Hamish’. He has real credibility and this shines through in everything he did with us. All in all, we would do business again – it was a pleasure!!!" - Post Office