Jim Lawless

Jim Lawless believes that speed is a critical competitive advantage; optimising for adaptability

and accepting uncertainty is how we win in volatility.

He works behind the scenes with CEOs and their senior leaders to re-architect how decisions are

owned and made throughout the organisation, allowing for speed and uncertainty; learning and

unlearning, and encouraging correct decisions and actions to deliver the strategy – even when

errors are made in the early phases.

His client list includes Apple, Microsoft, Diageo, Bayer, BAE Systems, Novartis and VW Group. He

is the author of the global bestseller Taming Tigers (Penguin Random House).

He has delivered keynotes on his DARE Loop framework and Second Strategy architecture to well

over a million people across five continents and is ranked among the world's leading business

speakers by Global Gurus.

Jim’s credo is that performance and change are extremely emotionally testing for the individual

and for those who would lead them, with discipline, through uncertainty to bold new ambitions.

They are not academic pursuits or cascaded strategy decks.

He tests his frameworks at the extreme edge. He became the deepest freediver in British history in

just eight months with a dive to 101 metres on a single breath; he moved from non-rider to

televised jockey in twelve months.

Both were deliberate applications of the DARE Loop methodology. Both ran alongside his day job

and his most important role, fatherhood.

As a speaker, Jim leaves behind a precise, practical and simple map that audiences use to

navigate uncertainty, swapping ownership and action for hesitation and escalation, for many

years after the event.

As an architect of strategy implementation, he walks beside clients to create tangible success

stories, together.

Jim worked as a City of London commercial solicitor before moving into high-performance and

change. He was elected a Fellow of the UK’s Royal Society for the Arts in recognition of his

business writing.