Q&A with Amicus CEO Sir Peter Wall

Why is leadership important?

Leadership is a critical ingredient to the way our society functions – the way people interact, the way they work together and the way they get their ambitions fulfilled. Leaders are the catalysts for the way that groups of people function together to get things done, whether for good or evil.

How does your time in Amicus compare with life in the military?

As a soldier I was a leadership practitioner, albeit always learning more about it. Now I’m an adviser on leadership, supporting others to improve, drawing on that military experience. A lot of leadership ideas read across from the military to the commercial world very well. At Amicus we relish the opportunity to be a critical friend to leaders facing key challenges and it’s a great privilege to see them derive benefit from our support and mentoring.

Who inspires you and why?

I am fortunate to have been inspired throughout my career by role models who are appealing and decent people, with flair for their jobs and great interpersonal skills. The type of people who are easy to trust and, in a military sense, people you would fight for. On the other side of the account there are those who are less easy to follow because you sense they are in it more for themselves than for the wider good, and they don’t necessarily bring that sincerity and care for their people that builds trust.

What are you currently watching on TV?

Mr Bates vs The Post Office. It’s a brilliant example of sincere leadership based on sustained commitment and courage to do the right thing, taking on an organisation that had clearly lost its moral compass over time, despite multiple opportunities to come clean. The sort of unbelievable behaviour that might make you question whether corporate institutions can continue to hold their position in the world.

Have you learned any leadership lessons from sports?

Yes, extensively, especially in my younger days. Team sports, for example, compare quite closely with life in the military. They depend on skill and courage, fitness and commitment, endurance and resilience and the will to succeed. They also happen to be an excellent vehicle for leadership development in a “safe” environment.

I was very lucky to get into modern pentathlon (as well as playing rugby) and whilst it is primarily an individual sport, it calls for excellence in 5 different disciplines in a tight timeframe. The big lesson there is that the unexpected always happens and you must put that behind you, pick yourself up and go onto the next event and try to recover the situation. So, for example, you may draw a horse in the riding event that means you don’t get round the course very well and get a low score. Then find the resolve to get up the next day and do your best although you are already at a significant disadvantage. That was probably the thing that put me on the pathway to individual resilience that I have taken out of sport into the work environment. These are all the reasons why the military puts so much emphasis on sport to condition the training of the mind as much as the physical development.

What do you like most about working in commerce?

You are always on operations and it’s intensely competitive. A lot of people get a buzz, like I do, from competition and the thrill of the contest, and some people also thrive on the stress that is associated with managing risk, and they find uncertainty a great stimulus. Others of course would run in the opposite direction, but it takes all sorts, and as leaders it’s our job to get the best from everybody.

What attracts you to the work that Amicus does?

The buzz I get from Amicus comes from getting to know a new organisation quickly and having to win the trust of the senior team so that we can execute our advisory role. There are always interesting surprises and challenges that can seem either risky or insurmountable; somehow, we always manage to find solutions that really help those organisations understand themselves better and work out what they're going to do differently. Examples of these changes might be to their structure, behaviours, leadership styles, and ways of working to improve their performance - that's what it's ultimately all about.

What do you think makes Amicus different from other leadership consultancies?

We base all our activity on our own practical experience so essentially, we're practitioners rather than consultants. This gives us an ability to cut quickly to the nub of the problem and establish rapport and trust with the key leaders. Then I think it's about our ability to innovate and extemporize when we're running our workshops and interventions. The results we can achieve are remarkable.

What are you most looking forward to with Amicus in 2024?

Growing the business. I love building the budget and exploring the new ideas that we're going to pursue to diversify our offering and be more successful commercially, whilst maintaining the uniqueness of our offering. Once you're an Amicus client you're always a client and re-engaging with clients that you know well and helping them tackle their latest challenges in a rapid and positive way that gives them confidence and uplifts their performance is very satisfying.

How do you find being a non-executive director?

In my experience being a non-executive director comes in two distinct forms. You’re sitting on someone else's bus, you're not the driver, and you can contribute to the journey by asking questions, giving your best advice, and passing on experience, none of which is terribly arduous and can be quite satisfying.

That all changes drastically when you find that the businesses is in crisis for whatever reason, maybe facing the threat of insolvency, and suddenly you have to get much more actively engaged to help the executive dig itself out of what could be a very threatening situation. All sorts of vultures start circling to sell you their advice with exorbitant fees or snaffle up the remnants of the business for a song, and you have to help steer the business back on track.

I've had experience of both modes and whilst the latter is exciting and you learn a lot, I think on balance I prefer the steady state, and it’s certainly kinder to the business. No matter how well you think your company is running don’t think these sorts of crises can never happen to you – they can emerge from nowhere.

What projects are you working on currently?

We are broadening our offering for SMEs, such as PE portfolio companies, looking at due diligence and value creation through the leadership and people lens, which is the Amicus niche. There’s scope for enhancement here in every business, without fail.

Another thing we're doing is using our combined experience of non-executive board positions to put together, with some other partners, a board effectiveness review offering, which we know is important. Every now and then every board should seek external advice to make sure that it's performing as well as it thinks it is. It’s hard to be objective about yourselves and bias always creeps in so external validation is key. We think that's going to be really good use of our own board experiences alongside our leadership offerings for executive teams and leadership development programmes.

What leadership advice would you give to your younger self?

First of all, establish the closest rapport you can with the people you're responsible for by finding a point of emotional contact - something you've got in common - that transcends your working relationship. This gives you a chance to grow mutual respect and trust faster. Then I would improve my communication ability by focusing much more on the way my messages are likely to be heard rather than just putting them out on my own terms. I would also consult much more widely with my team when pulling operational plans together to get better ideas and their buy-in. Finally, I think it’s good to be more pensive about how effective I was as a leader that day and what I can learn from my own mistakes, and perhaps the occasional success. Most leadership development happens from our own experiences.