President, SYPartners
Tom has spent nearly 15 years at SYPartners helping great leaders build great companies. He advises CEOs and executives on the work necessary for long-term change to take root, and leads SYPartners’ consulting business. Tom has worked with the CEOs and executive teams of many clients, including American Express, Ann Inc., AT&T, Blackstone, Brown Shoe, Celgene, Citigroup, Deloitte, eBay, GE, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Target, and Under Armour. His work involves helping executives come up with their personal stories and frames for transformation—so they can find a path forward in uncertain times and set a vision for their companies.
Tom began his career in writing and communications in Asia, then followed his curiosity for business and economics by becoming a business strategist, first at Siegel and Gale in New York, then at Sapient. He has traveled extensively and written for business magazines including The Economist, Wired, andTime. A native Brit, Tom holds an MA in Modern and Medieval Languages from Cambridge University in England.
On the show, Tom spoke about his work with innovative companies – why are some more so than others, and what holds back some companies from being more innovative? One topic Tom discussed was how work with the physical environment of work can help with improving work itself. With their clients, SYPartners try to create certain feelings and types of action with settings that subtly cue expectations for yourself and others in order to improve workflow, meetings, and so on. They find that work in the physical environment can significantly improve collaboration and creativity.
