/ ABOUT US

IMAGINE is the curator and facilitator of The Collaborative Community. Its co-founders Sue Brooks and Peter Goulbourne also co-founded the leading RPO providers Ochre House and Cielo Talent, organisations that are widely respected around the world for championing the adoption of innovative talent management practices that deliver true business impact.

The motivation behind this exciting initiative came from insight research commissioned in 2016 by BAE Systems into Business Readiness for the 21st Century with a particular focus on the ‘human factor’. Over 70 CEOs and CHROS took part in the research which revealed a universal aspiration for exponential growth alongside a shared challenge in sustaining profitable business success. Participating organisations revealed a common context of growing complexity, increasing pace and disruption caused by the new technologies alongside a growing capability gap between strategy and execution.

There was also a common response to the challenge as businesses have sought to build new business models to deliver increasing customer value. However common to all was the recognition of the need to match their operating models to their operating environments - the culture gap. The Collaborative Community was formed as an experiment to test the value of open collaboration to co-create the new cultural blueprint, leader playbook and a platform for transformation.

"Whatever technological innovations are ahead, it’s the people that will eventually make the difference between success and failure. That’s why CEOs need a people strategy for the digital age”

Digital Age Challenges:
Future-Proofing

The conclusions from IMAGINE’s insight findings are clear:

  • To succeed in a ‘VUCA’ environment businesses must transform their cultures to value and cultivate intangible strengths
  • The advent of the Digital Age workforce demands a fundamental shift in Talent practices
  • Talent strategy is moving from the periphery to the core of business strategy and therefore needs to be owned and led by business leaders
  • We need to use advances in science and technology to build a common language, measures and insights on the people and organisation. To understand how and where value is created and the related investments and initiatives which most drive sustainable business performance
  • There is a gap in HR’s capability – a new model for the Centre of Expertise is required if it is to deliver real value to the business

IMAGINE’s Community will harness the power of cross-company collaboration to create actionable and pragmatic solutions to real-World challenges. It will be a space for Talent professionals to experiment – to be bold and innovative in an open, trusted and safe environment.