Reflections from The Forum: London on the habits, assumptions, and decisions that may be holding our organizations back.
We spend a lot of time talking about what needs to change in our organizations. We invest in new technologies, rethink how we operate, and push for growth. But how often do we turn that same scrutiny on ourselves?
In other words: What if some of the habits that made us successful are now getting in the way?
That question was very much on our minds at The Forum: London, where senior marketing and business leaders came together to wrestle with some of the challenges we're all facing.
What struck us was how willing people were to be open. There were strong opinions, healthy disagreement, and plenty of moments that challenged our assumptions. People shared what was working, but they were equally candid about what wasn't.
That's why we bring leaders together at Virtuosi League. Leadership can be lonely, especially when the answers aren't obvious. Having people you trust who will challenge your thinking and share what they've learned makes a difference. We certainly don't have all the answers. But we've seen how much stronger our thinking becomes when we work through difficult questions together. It's also what continues to shape our Leadership Field Guide.
Four questions from London have stayed with us.
Nobody sets out to build a bureaucratic organization. It happens gradually. Another priority gets added. Someone introduces an approval process to reduce risk. A meeting that was supposed to be temporary becomes permanent. Before long, we're spending an extraordinary amount of time navigating the very organizations we're supposed to be leading.
One conversation explored how easily priorities get lost as they move through a company. Something that seems perfectly clear to the executive team can mean something entirely different a few levels down. And we sometimes underestimate how much communication it takes for people to truly understand what matters.
There's also the question of what we expect leaders to do. We often reward people for having ideas, being involved in decisions, and staying close to the details. But perhaps we need leaders who spend more time coaching their teams and helping them focus. We have plenty of ideas. The harder part is deciding which ones matter and getting the organization behind them. That's at the heart of our Enterprise Momentum Model, which explores how leaders move from individual influence to coordinated action across the enterprise.
The stakes are rising. As AI reshapes how work gets done, even the traditional boundaries of the C-suite may evolve. The ability to lead across functions will become increasingly important, particularly as organizations rethink how they solve problems and make decisions. After all, customers don't know what department you're in, and they shouldn't have to.
There's something established companies can learn from startups here, too. That willingness to move quickly and figure things out as you go. The challenge is bringing some of that energy into a large organization without creating more chaos along the way.
Put it into practice: Ask your team where decisions routinely stall or which priorities are competing for attention. Then ask what they'd stop doing if they could. Give them the authority to change something. You might be surprised by how much progress comes from simply getting out of the way.
We had some fascinating conversations about AI in London, including one about how quickly our attitudes toward new technology can change.
One of our esteemed discussion leaders asked us to think about online dating. There was a time when people were reluctant to admit they'd met someone online. Today, it's completely ordinary. AI may follow a similar path. What feels uncomfortable or unfamiliar now could become second nature before we know it.
But acceptance doesn't mean we should hand everything over to technology.
As AI becomes capable of taking on more sophisticated work, we're going to face increasingly difficult questions about what we want people to continue owning. Strategy? Creative judgment? Decisions that carry real consequences? Just because AI can do something doesn't necessarily mean it should.
We also talked about the difference between experimenting with AI and actually changing how an organization works. It's easy to get excited about a promising pilot. It's much harder to step back, examine an entire business problem and rethink how the work should happen.
And then there's the human side of all this. People are being asked to embrace changes that could fundamentally alter their roles. Of course there's uncertainty. Leaders need to acknowledge that, be open about what they don't know and give people a meaningful role in shaping what comes next.
One idea from London feels particularly important: Our values should endure, even as our behaviors and habits change.
Change takes courage, and courage requires conviction about what matters. People need to understand what we're asking them to do differently, but they also need reassurance about what isn't changing. That's something leaders can't communicate once and assume everyone has absorbed.
Put it into practice: Choose a meaningful business problem and bring together the people closest to it. Look at how the work actually gets done today. Where could AI help? Where does human judgment matter most? And what would you redesign if you weren't constrained by the way things have always worked?
This conversation was particularly challenging for those of us who have spent our careers in marketing.
Think about how much consumer behavior has changed. Where people spend their time, how they discover brands and what influences their decisions. Creators are building businesses. Commerce is happening in places we once thought of primarily as entertainment. And AI is changing how content gets made and distributed.
Yet much of marketing still operates in familiar ways.
There was pointed discussion about whether campaign-centric planning makes sense in an environment where brands can learn and respond in real time. And why do we continue to separate creative, media and commerce when consumers experience them together?
Live shopping is an interesting example. It's easy to dismiss it as another emerging sales channel. But it can also be a way to test ideas, see what people respond to and create content that works across other platforms. The same goes for organic social. Are we giving ourselves enough room to learn what resonates before putting significant money behind it?
These are exactly the kinds of assumptions our Durable Growth Architecture encourages leaders to revisit as they rethink how growth is built across the enterprise.
Then came a more uncomfortable question.
What happens to the value of marketing leadership when AI makes so much of what we do easier and more accessible?
One perspective shared in London was that AI could force a long-overdue reckoning. Some of the activity and complexity we've built around marketing may become harder to justify. And perhaps that's healthy.
The leaders who can genuinely understand customers, build brands that matter and contribute to business performance will have an opportunity to demonstrate their value more clearly. But we'll have to earn it.
There's an interesting counterpoint to all this technology, too. As digital experiences become more abundant, people seem increasingly hungry for genuine human connection. We're seeing renewed interest in analog experiences and spaces where people can simply be together. That feels worth paying attention to.
Technology will keep changing the mechanics of marketing. Understanding what makes people care remains our responsibility.
Put it into practice: Take a hard look at one significant marketing investment. Would you make the same decision if you were starting from scratch today? What has changed about your customers that your plans haven't caught up with? And can you clearly explain the business impact you're expecting?
This was another conversation that stayed with us, particularly given the pressure leaders face to respond to societal and cultural issues.
There are moments when people expect companies to take a stand. Sometimes that expectation is entirely reasonable. But having a platform and having the credibility to use it are different things.
Where have we genuinely earned the right to lead? Where would we be more effective supporting others who know the issue better? And when might listening be the most responsible choice? These are the kinds of decisions we explore through our Cultural Credibility Leadership Model, which helps leaders think through when and how to engage.
These aren't always comfortable decisions, especially when employees or customers feel strongly about an issue.
What made the London discussion especially valuable was how grounded it was in the realities of running a business. Values are easy to talk about when everyone agrees and the economics work. The harder questions come when a commitment affects sourcing, pricing or other decisions that carry real commercial consequences.
That's when people discover what an organization truly stands for.
Transparency matters here, too. Leaders don't need to pretend every decision is simple. In fact, being willing to explain the tradeoffs can build more trust than trying to present a perfect answer.
And this connects back to something we discussed earlier in the day. Our values should give us a foundation to stand on, even as the world changes around us. But they only mean something if people can see them reflected in the choices we make.
Put it into practice: Choose one commitment your organization has made publicly. Look beyond the words and examine what you're actually doing to support it. Are the resources there? Are people accountable? If there's a gap between what you've promised and what's happening, what are you prepared to change?
We began The Forum: London with our Six Pillars of Leadership, which felt particularly relevant as the day unfolded. The fundamentals of leadership still matter enormously. But living up to them requires us to keep learning, especially when what worked before may no longer serve us.
And as we challenge ourselves to lead differently, we need to make sure we're giving our teams the opportunity to grow, too. We're asking people to navigate extraordinary change, often without a clear roadmap. Investing in their development is one of the most important things we can do to help them build the confidence and judgment they'll need. That's why programs like LEAP Essentials matter. With applications now open for our January 2027 class, it's an opportunity to give emerging and experienced leaders the time, perspective and support to strengthen how they lead.
We left London feeling encouraged. These were accomplished leaders with plenty of experience, yet they were willing to challenge their own thinking and learn from one another. There was no shortage of difficult questions, but there was also a real sense of possibility.
That's what we hope to continue building through Virtuosi League and our Leadership Field Guide. A community where we can have the conversations that matter, even when they're uncomfortable, and help one another become better leaders in the process.
The conversations in London left us with plenty to think about. And perhaps two questions worth bringing to our next leadership meeting:
What are we continuing to do because it's familiar, even though it may be holding us back?
And perhaps more importantly, what are we willing to change?