In this episode of The Purposeful Strategist, Belden Menkus speaks with Jeroen Douglas, Director General of the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA), about what it takes to hold together a global movement of around a billion members, and why the cooperative model may be better suited to the coming decades than its low profile suggests.

Founded in 1895, the ICA is the global voice of the cooperative movement, representing roughly three million cooperatives across more than a hundred countries. In their conversation, they discuss:

• Why Jeroen sees cooperatives as the largest enduring alternative to shareholder capitalism and attributes their resilience to the practice of distributing wealth to the community before profits.

• The ICA’s new Practice, Promote and Protect strategy, including the challenge of raising capital without compromising cooperative identity, and building a sovereign cooperative cloud as an alternative to big tech.

• How worker-owned models for app-based companies are emerging as a credible answer to the gig economy.

• How Jeroen keeps a movement spanning rival nations and rival politics united, and why he believes cooperatives are "builders of peace," able to disagree and still collaborate.

ICA: https://www.ica.coop/

Menkus & Associates: https://www.menkus.com/

Supported by Norman Broadbent: https://www.normanbroadbent.com/

Belden Menkus is the Managing Director of Menkus & Associates, a senior strategic advisory practice that provides strategic clarity for businesses with a public remit, where scrutiny is high, governance is complex, and the answers aren’t obvious. His McKinsey training combined with more than 30 years working at Board and ExCo level gives him both the analytical rigour and the relational experience that complex, high-stakes leadership situations demand.

Belden hosts The Purposeful Strategist, a weekly podcast. It explores how senior leaders bring purpose to life through strategy and reflects the same questions that drive the consulting work.

In this episode of The Purposeful Strategist, Belden Menkus speaks with Dr. Philo Daniel, Chief Executive Officer of LPA Group, about leading the transformation of a specialised engineering business.

LPA Group is an engineering specialist in electronic and electro-mechanical components and systems, serving transport, aerospace, defence and infrastructure markets. Philo joined as CEO at the start of 2025 with the goal of redirecting the business.

In their conversation, they discuss:

· The ‘One LPA’ vision: Philo’s first move was to combine four quasi-independent divisions into a single functional structure. On this, she discusses how a rebranding is helping the new culture to stick.

· A strategy for doubling the business in three years: organic growth to a point, then an acquisition of significant scale.

· The vertical integration dilemma: Philo weighs having a sovereign supply chain against the commercial reality of competing with businesses that have offshored.

· STEM, apprenticeships and the skills pipeline: why Philo sees outreach to schools and colleges not just as giving back to the community, but as a structural necessity for businesses like LPA.

· Philo’s experience since joining LPA: being a first-time CEO, the shift from large corporate to smaller listed business, and the importance of both listening and taking decisive action.

LPA Group: https://www.lpa-group.com/

Menkus & Associates: https://www.menkus.com/

Supported by Norman Broadbent: https://www.normanbroadbent.com/

Belden Menkus is the Managing Director of Menkus & Associates, a senior strategic advisory practice that provides strategic clarity for businesses with a public remit, where scrutiny is high, governance is complex, and the answers aren’t obvious. His McKinsey training combined with more than 30 years working at Board and ExCo level gives him both the analytical rigour and the relational experience that complex, high-stakes leadership situations demand.

Belden hosts The Purposeful Strategist, a weekly podcast. It explores how senior leaders bring purpose to life through strategy and reflects the same questions that drive the consulting work.

In this episode of The Purposeful Strategist, Belden Menkus speaks with Steve Boam, CEO of Develop Consulting, who shares a bold vision for productivity in the UK.

In their conversation, they discuss:

· Why Lean is fundamentally about people and process, and how these principles can be applied far beyond the car factory floor, regardless of scale or speed of production.

· How Develop works shoulder to shoulder with clients to transfer knowledge rather than simply handing over a report.

· What Lean thinking offers UK healthcare: designing care around the patient rather than the institution, and helping the NHS meet its productivity challenges.

· Why worker empowerment means flipping the pyramid: putting the person doing the work at the top.

· Why middle management is often a sticking point for change, and what to do about it.

Develop Consulting: https://develop-consulting.co.uk/

Menkus & Associates: https://www.menkus.com/

Supported by Norman Broadbent: https://www.normanbroadbent.com/

Belden Menkus is the Managing Director of Menkus & Associates, a senior strategic advisory practice that provides strategic clarity for businesses with a public remit, where scrutiny is high, governance is complex, and the answers aren’t obvious. His McKinsey training combined with more than 30 years working at Board and ExCo level gives him both the analytical rigour and the relational experience that complex, high-stakes leadership situations demand.

Belden hosts The Purposeful Strategist, a weekly podcast. It explores how senior leaders bring purpose to life through strategy and reflects the same questions that drive the consulting work.