The Challenge Culture

‘The Challenge Culture is a must-read for employers and employees alike, and promises to get ideas for long-term success percolating.’ – Robert Kraft, chairman and CEO of the Kraft Group

‘Nigel’s career, vision and humanity are very refreshing’ – Claude Littner, former Chief Executive of Tottenham Hotspur and author of Single-Minded: My Life in Business

Challenge is essential for survival and sustained success in today’s volatile world.

We live in an era when successful organisations can fail in a flash. But they can cope with change and thrive by creating a culture that supports positive pushback: questioning everything without disrespecting anyone.

Nigel Travis has forty years of experience as a leader in large and successful organizations, as well as those facing existential crisis – such as Blockbuster as it dawdled in the face of the Netflix challenge. In his ten years as CEO and Chairman of Dunkin’ Brands, Travis fine-tuned his ideas about the challenge culture and perfected the practices required to build it. He argues that the best way for organisations to succeed in today’s environment is to embrace challenge and encourage pushback, rather than reject them. Everyone – from the newest recruit to the senior leader – must be given the freedom to speak up and question the status quo, must learn how talk in a civil way about difficult issues, and should be encouraged to debate strategies and tactics – although always in the spirit of shared purpose. How else will new ideas emerge? How else can organisations steadily improve?

Through colourful story-telling, with many examples from his own experiences – including his leadership in turning around the fear-ridden culture of Leyton Orient Football Club -Travis shows how to establish a culture that embraces challenge, achieves exceptional results, and ensures a prosperous future.

PRAISE FOR THE CHALLENGE CULTURE:

‘Nigel Travis has hit the nail on the head. Collective brilliance can only come from challenge and he proves this throughout his own leadership journey. Entertaining, edifying and exactly right.’ — Manley Hopkinson FRSA FRGS, author of Compassionate Leadership

Women, especially young women, in today’s world need to understand the importance of challenging authority and speaking up to share their point of view. The Challenge Culture brilliantly explains how to do it. (Nicole Lapin, author of Boss Bitch and Rich Bitch)

‘A must read for all people leading organizations in these turbulent times!’ (Larry Bossidy, former chairman and CEO of Honeywell International, coauthor of Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done)

‘This book not only takes you inside [Nigel’s] businesses, but inside the mind that challenged them to thrive. If you can use 20% of what he’s suggesting, you’ll be ahead of the game. Use 40% and you can blow the doors off.’ (Mark Goldstein, former chief marketing officer of BBDO Worldwide)

‘Dissent is not disloyalty but can be the spark for innovation and the safeguard for integrity. … Conformity kills creativity and subverts justice and The Challenge Culture is the antidote to a contagion of conformity across sectors.’ (Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld, Lester Crown Professor of Leadership Practice, Yale School of Management)