It's Not Always Right to Be Right

A breakthrough guide to the real lessons of business

Have you ever noticed that individuals of brilliance often fall short of their true potential? Great ideas, concepts and initiatives seldom break through the sea of business mediocrity. As a senior international leader with over 30 years corporate experience, Hamish Thomson has discovered that true transformation and breakthrough comes from personal insight — derived not from intellect or technical mastery, but from experience and observation of real-life occurrences.

It’s Not Always Right to Be Right offers unique business and leadership insights, teachable models, and practical advice on what one needs to do differently to achieve desired results. Writing in a casual, autobiographical style, Hamish shares the key experiences and hard-won lessons that enabled him to drive significant change when all the right ways of doing things didn’t work. Packed with fascinating true-to-life stories and powerful, often counterintuitive lessons, this invaluable guide:

• Distills a lifetime of business wisdom into a single volume
• Offers honest business and leadership lessons drawn from a long and successful corporate career
• Features learning messages, practical steps, and shareable strategic models and frameworks to help you make a tangible difference where it counts
• Provides strategic models that can be used to frame discussions and drive change in individuals, teams, and entire organizations

It’s Not Always Right to Be Right is a must-read for anyone starting out in the business and corporate world, for anyone in the middle of their career looking to break through to the next level, and for senior leaders seeking to improve performance and drive meaningful change.

Purpose: What’s in it for you? vii

Introduction: Good, but not Great ix

1 Law, Logic and Relationships 1

2 Drains and Radiators 17

3 The Man Who Used to Smile 33

4 Results Are Nice but Awards Matter 47

5 It’s Not Always Right to be Right 59

6 Noticed, Remembered, Understood 73

7 Ever Heard of Harry Redknapp? 89

8 Bad Bosses Are Great Bosses 107

9 The 3 A’s (and one critical E) 121

10 It Only Hurts When You Write the Cheque 143

11 Get a Life 147

12 What Would Margaret Thatcher say? 165

13 Bring On the Grilling 177

14 The Hardest Part of a Decision 195

15 Culture Doesn’t Matter 207

16 Constant Dissatisfaction 223

17 The Authentic You 241

18 Who is Writing Your Agenda? 253

Close: If Not You, Who? 267

Index 271

Hamish Thomson is a CEO, board and startup adviser, consultant, speaker and investor.
A New Zealander by birth, in his 30-year career, he has been a successful Regional President and Global Brand head for Mars Incorporated (UK, Australia and Chicago), a senior marketing and sales lead for Reebok International (England and the Netherlands) and a fresh-faced account executive in the London advertising scene. He lives in Sydney, Australia, with his wife and three children.
www.hamishrthomson.com

CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS

Joydeep Hor, Founder and Managing Principal, People + Culture Strategies, Australia.

Leif Stromnes, Managing Director, Strategy and Innovation, DDB Australia.

Jon Burgess, Founder and CEO of Kwan Management Consultancy.

Matt Austin, President and GM, Hasbro Inc., Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Fiona Dawson, Global President, Mars Food, Multisales and Global Customers.

Julien Lemoine, Managing Director and VP, CLM BBDO, Paris, France.

Jane Allen, Founder, Maritana Partners, Australia.

Jack Jefferies, Global Leadership Executive Adviser, Colorado, USA.

April Palmerlee, CEO of the American Chamber of Commerce, Australia.

Fabian Dattner, Founder of the Dattner Group and CEO of Homeward Bound.

Ashok Vasudevan, Co-founder and Chair of Tasty Bite, and CEO of the Centre for the Spread of Affordable Wellness, Singapore.

Karen Lawson, award-winning growth and transformation technology leader, food and travel journalist.

Christina Keilthy, CEO of The Strategic Thinking Group, Singapore.

Nick Tucker and Ben Bars, CEO and Co-founder of We Are Unity, Sydney, Australia.

Oli Morton, Chief Customer and Operations Officer, Kellogg's, Chicago, USA.

Juan Bautista Martin Alonso, President of KIND International, New York, USA.

Nicholas Petrie, change expert, leadership practitioner, organisational consultant, Austin, Texas, USA.

THERE ARE SOME PEOPLE WHO LIKE TO BE RIGHT. EVERY SINGLE TIME

In their minds, there is always a winner and there is always a loser.

Deep down, very few of us like these people. And yet, often we work for them, we work with them and perhaps we even identify as one of them.

At times, I have been that person. It does not make me proud.

True success comes from humility, compromise and connection.

As a former Regional President and Global brand head for Mars Incorporated (UK, Australia and Chicago), a senior marketer for Reebok International (England and the Netherlands) and a fresh-faced account executive in the London advertising scene, Hamish Thomson reveals that breakthrough and transformation come not from intellect or technical mastery, but from experience and observation of real-life occurrences. And sometimes the best solutions are the most counterintuitive.

It's Not Always Right to be Right offers learning messages, practical steps, and shareable strategic frameworks to help drive change in individuals, teams and entire organisations. Including commentary and critique from 17 leading international business experts—leaders of global industry, diplomacy and advocacy—this seminal guide offers applicable lessons, robustly tested.

Whether you're just starting out in the business and corporate world, in the middle of your career looking to break through, or in a global leadership position seeking meaningful change and exceptionalism, this guidebook will put you on the path to true business and personal success.