In this one-off special of the Core Insights Podcast from Warwick Business School, we’re doing something a bit different. Core Insights has teamed up with the Lead Out Loud team to dig deep into one of the most talked-about — and often misunderstood — topics in business today: leadership.

Marking the release of the Core Insights Magazine: Leadership Edition, we brought together two leadership voices who bridge academic theory and real-world experience:

·       Associate Professor Dimitrios Spyridonidis, an expert in leading change at Warwick Business School

·       Sanjiv Patel, chair of the WBS UK and Europe Alumni Network and founder of Sanjiv Speaks, a platform for leadership coaching and mentoring

Together, they explore what it takes to lead with impact in today’s fast-moving world — and why traditional ideas of leadership don’t always hold up.

They cover:

·       Why leadership isn’t about having all the answers, but asking the right questions

·       How meaningful change starts beyond the boardroom

·       The mindset shifts that help leaders navigate uncertainty and inspire action

Whether you're leading a team or looking to make a difference, this episode offers practical insights and fresh thinking.

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Core Insights host Trevor Barnes talks to Jonothan Neelands, Professor of Creative Education at Warwick Business School, about his that work helped Coventry to develop its winning bid to become UK City of Culture in 2021.

The City of Culture programme, and events such as the Commonwealth Games held in Birmingham in 2022, are seen as individual successes. However, the UK currently lacks a major events strategy to maximise the benefits of future events.

Professor Neelands reveals how a framework for measuring the impact and the value of major events can help to make events more inclusive, maximise the benefits for the UK economy, and ensure a lasting cultural and sporting legacy.

Read more on the subject:

Five steps to improve the impact value of major events

Why measuring social impact is good for business

Increase the odds of success in digital transformation

For more articles on Strategy and Organisational Change straight to your inbox sign up to Core Insights.

Learn more about strategy on our Executive Education four-day courses at WBS London at The Shard.

In the final episode of this seven-part series in conjunction with the Gillmore Centre for Financial Technology we are looking at Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), and how they will work alongside cryptocurrencies. It has been argued in some quarters that the introduction of CBDCs will spell the end of cryptocurrencies. And that day seems to be drawing closer with CBDCs up and running in China and other central banks working out their own solution. Sure, it might make cryptos less relevant as a form of payment, but are they really that anyway? Most are so volatile as to be useless as a currency and are treated more as an investment asset. This episode will explore what the future will look like with CBDCs in operation and cryptos flying around. Will there be a crypto winter and cryptos disappear? Or will they work alongside each other and how? Host Natasha de Terran is joined by David Skeie, of the Gillmore Centre for Financial Technology, and Rhomaios Ram, CEO of Fnality International, a consortium of banks exploring applications for Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology.

Find out more about the Gillmore Centre for Financial Technology.

Join the Gillmore Centre for Financial Technology's mailing list for access to free events where industry leaders, world-leading academics and policymakers will discuss topical issues and fintech innovations.

Read more on the subject:

Are cryptocurrencies any closer to ending central banks' control?

Five ways a digital pound could change our world

Why would central banks want to issue digital currencies?

For more articles on Fintech and Finance and Markets straight to your inbox sign up to Core Insights. 

In this latest episode of a seven-part series in conjunction with the Gillmore Centre for Financial Technology we are looking at blockchain's potential impact on banking. Blockchain has been billed as potentially a huge disruption to the financial system, removing the middlemen for instant transactions. Recently JP Morgan announced it is using blockchain in India and bypassing SWIFT - the global system used by banks to transfer payments - and there are others like French investment bank BNP Paribas, which has announced it will begin looking at how blockchain can be applied to its currency funds and for order processing. While the Nasdaq stock exchange has said it is working with blockchains to "reduce the time, costs, and points of friction across the capital markets." So where is all this heading? Will it be the end of exchanges and SWIFT? Host and former financial journalist Natasha de Teran discusses these questions and more with Ram Gopal, Director of the Gillmore Centre for Financial Technology, and Martin Walker, Banking & Finance Director at the Centre for Evidence-Based Management.

Find out more about the Gillmore Centre for Financial Technology.

Join the Gillmore Centre for Financial Technology's mailing list for access to free events where industry leaders, world-leading academics and policymakers will discuss topical issues and fintech innovations.

Read more on the subject:  

How blockchain is being used in supply chains 

Can smart contracts function in an unpredictable world? 

How AI will accelerate financial democratisation

For more articles on Fintech and Finance and Markets straight to your inbox sign up to Core Insights. 

In this fifth episode on fintech with the Gillmore Centre for Financial Technology we look at Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) standards, which have become important to all businesses, especially as, according to the CBI, two-thirds of investors take ESG factors into account when investing in a company. Yet accusations of greenwashing are plaguing the ESG movement, while some companies have cottoned on to their importance and manipulated their ESG statistics to attract investors. So can their numbers be trusted? Who are the true ESG companies that are taking their societal responsibilities seriously and transparently and not just gaming their numbers? Trust is hard to find, but perhaps AI can help sort this out. Join host Natasha de Teran as she explores the issue with Isabel Fischer, of the Gillmore Centre for Financial Technology, and the founders of ESG analytics firm Rho Impact; Seth Sheldon, Chief Scientific Officer, and Noah Miller, Chief Advisory Officer and Head of ESG Advisory Services.

Find out more about the Gillmore Centre for Financial Technology.

Join the Gillmore Centre for Financial Technology's mailing list for access to free events where industry leaders, world-leading academics and policymakers will discuss topical issues and fintech innovations.

Read more on the subject:

Five steps for companies to deliver the UN's Sustainable Development Goals

Three steps to devising social value measures for investors

Leveraging artificial intelligence to address climate change: Financing, implementation and ethics

For more articles on Fintech and Finance and Markets straight to your inbox sign up to Core Insights. 

Since the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX - a centralised exchange or CEX - the popularity of decentralised exchanges, or DEXs, such as Uniswap or Orca, has soared. But which type of platform will win in the battle for crypto trading? What are the pros and cons of the different types of platform? And will it just be cryptos being traded in the future or other financial assets like real estate? This episode will explore the merits of CEX and DEX and seek to answer the central question - which one is safest to use? CEXs have more regulation around them, but DEXs are supposedly more secure thanks to smart contracts. Join host Natasha de Teran as she explores the topic with Olga Klein, of the Gillmore Centre for Financial Technology, and Amit Chaudhary, former Head of DeFi Research at Polygon and now Co-founder of web 3.0 product developer ChainSolid Labs.

Find out more about the Gillmore Centre for Financial Technology.

Join the Gillmore Centre for Financial Technology's mailing list for access to free events where industry leaders, world-leading academics and policymakers will discuss topical issues and fintech innovations.

Read more on the subject:

Polygon vs Ethereum – which platform is the future for the rise of DEX?

How decentralised should DeFi platforms be?

How would regulations stop another FTX scandal?

For more articles on Fintech and Finance and Markets straight to your inbox sign up to Core Insights. 

In the third episode of this special series on Fintech with the Gillmore Centre for Financial Technology we look at decentralised finance, or DeFi. It offers financial instruments without relying on traditional intermediaries such as brokerages, exchanges, or banks by using smart contracts on a blockchain. It could be revolutionary and take out a lot of costs that banks like to add, plus anybody can become a ‘bank’ and start lending money or cryptos, getting better rates than on the high street. But there are concerns around regulation and fraud and more; hurdles that seem pretty high to get a public weaned on the safety of high street banking to move to DeFi. This episode explores how DeFi goes from niche to high street with host Natasha de Teran being joined by Kalina Staykova, of the Gillmore Centre for Financial Technology at Warwick Business School, and Erica Stanford, Founder & CEO of Crypto Curry Club, and author of Crypto Wars: Faked Deaths, Missing Billions and Industry Disruption.

Find out more about the Gillmore Centre for Financial Technology.

Join the Gillmore Centre for Financial Technology's mailing list for access to free events where industry leaders, world-leading academics and policymakers will discuss topical issues and fintech innovations.

Read more on the subject:

What does DeFi need to go mainstream?

How are interest rates set on DeFi platforms?

How decentralised should DeFi platforms be? 

For more articles on Fintech and Finance and Markets straight to your inbox sign up to Core Insights. 

In the second of this special series on Fintech with the Gillmore Centre for Financial Technology we look at cryptocurrency regulation or the lack of it. The crypto world has frequently been described as the Wild West, while the collapse of the FTX exchange with investors losing billions of dollars and founder Sam Bankman-Fried convicted of fraud, means regulators and regulations are closing in. What will this look like for a market that crosses borders? How will they work? Will they dampen investor enthusiasm for cryptos and innovation? These questions and more will be discussed by Luigi Cantisani, of the Gillmore Centre for Financial Technology at Warwick Business School, and Steven Murray, Head of IP and Technology Disputes at HCR Law. Join host Natasha de Teran as they discuss how regulation can help or hinder cryptocurrencies.

Find out more about the Gillmore Centre for Financial Technology.

Join the Gillmore Centre for Financial Technology's mailing list for access to free events where industry leaders, world-leading academics and policymakers will discuss topical issues and fintech innovations. 

Read more on the subject:  

How should governments regulate stablecoins and cryptocurrency?

How would regulations stop another FTX scandal?

Why would central banks want to issue digital currencies?

For more articles on Fintech and Finance and Markets straight to your inbox sign up to Core Insights. 

The first in a new seven-part series on Fintech with the Gillmore Centre for Financial Technology, join your host Natasha de Teran, a former financial journalist and author of The Pay Off: How Changing the Way We Pay Changes Everything, as we explore the world of digital currencies. Most central banks around the world are looking at introducing a digital currency or a CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency), including the UK’s Bank of England. Indeed, China has already started experimenting with the digital yuan piloted in more than 20 areas. So, how will CBDCs change how we bank? Will we still need commercial banks? Will a digital currency help central banks control inflation? These questions and more will be answered by Jeremy Leake, Senior Advisor at the Bank of England, and Ganesh Viswanath Natraj, of the Gillmore Centre for Financial Technology at Warwick Business School.

Find out more about the Gillmore Centre for Financial Technology here and join its mailing list for access to free events where industry leaders, world-leading academics and policymakers will discuss topical issues and fintech innovations here. 

Read more on the subject: 

Why would central banks want to issue digital currencies?

Five ways a digital pound could change our world

Central banks may use stablecoins as route to CBDCs

For more articles on Fintech, and Finance and Markets straight to your inbox sign up to Core Insights here. 

Nigel Driffield, Professor of International Business, has become a much sought after expert in foreign direct investment, leading the West Midlands strategy to attract investors from overseas and then Coventry and Warwickshire as the district sought to recover from the pandemic. Here, Professor Driffield reveals to Core Insights host Trevor Barnes the key policies and levers regional and national governments can use to attract foreign investment, creating jobs, boosting productivity and the economy.
Read more from Professor Driffield on inward investment:
What is the key to levelling up the British economy after Brexit?
How policymakers can win the global war for talent
Change Maker: Bringing jobs and prosperity to the UK

Read more about Finance and Markets:
Five ways a digital pound could change our world
Why boards with a big age range are better at reining in CEOs
Why central banks need to understand behavioural science

For more articles on Finance and Markets sign up to the Core Insights newsletter here.