Stephen Bungay has been embedded in the business world for his entire career. As a management consultant, Stephen has built an excellent reputation coaching senior managers in strategy and leadership, and has brought about transformational change at the top some of the world’s leading companies. But what happens when your broad set of interests (he studied modern languages at Oxford and has a doctorate in philosophy) alters the typical career trajectory and leads you to pursue new passions alongside the “day job”?

While in his mid 40s and mid-career, Stephen Bungay took time off to write not one but two books about military history, despite never having been trained as an historian. He pursued a passion, answered a calling and then channelled that experience, weaving his mastery of military history into creating an unusual and pragmatic take on strategy and its execution. From here we went onto launch his successful leadership coaching workshops.

His is a fascinating story on how taking an alternate path resulted in an original, profound and thorough approach to business that is far away from passing management fads as you can get. Drawing on the Battle of Britain and then later, the African campaign of Alamein, Stephen draws together conceptual frameworks, common sense and inspiring examples to show how to move from strategy to successful execution.

Stephen offers an interesting perspective on business and leadership, as well as an inspiring personal story which will leave you asking yourself, “why wait?”.

The evening will include a drinks reception.

 

About Stephen Bungay

After graduating from Oxford and the University of Tübingen, West Germany, Stephen worked for the Boston Consulting Group for a total of seventeen years.  He then ran the commercial operations of a Lloyds-based insurer before subsequently becoming a Director of the Ashridge Strategic Management Centre from 2001-22.

He has taught on executive programmes at several business schools and is a regular guest speaker at the Royal College of Defence Studies in London.  He has published articles on a range of business topics in journals such as HBR and is in demand as a conference speaker.

His first book on military history, The Most Dangerous Enemy – A History of the Battle of Britain, published in 2000, has now become the standard work on the subject.  A second work, Alamein, appeared in 2002.  Since 2004, he has been making regular appearances on television history documentaries.

His book about strategy execution, The Art of Action – How Leaders Close the Gaps between Plans, Actions and Results appeared in 2011.  An updated tenth anniversary edition was released in the summer of 2021.  Some of its key concepts have been being applied in a wide range of companies ranging from start-ups to major corporates and have featured in international conferences.

More recently he has worked on the most effective ways of developing strategy in an environment of high uncertainty.   He recently launched a new website about the subject, https://www.agilestrategy.co.uk/

He now works as an independent consultant and speaker.  Stephen’s basic approach to strategy and strategy execution is outlined on his website, www.stephenbungay.com.