I switched off half way through Keir's speech this morning. I couldn't watch any more.
It felt like watching a ham sandwich get wet in the rain.
He isn't a disaster in the mould of Liz Truss or Boris Johnson. He just isn't a prime minister at all. He is a bloke in the wrong job looking over his shoulder to lead the country.
There's a golden rule when you coach people for media. You never mention the competition unless you absolutely have to.
Keir and his team spent most of their September conference talking about the threat of Reform rather than their vision for the country. They talked more about what would happen in four years if people voted for Reform than how they would enable growth here and now.
And then, he did it again in this morning's speech. I couldn't believe it.
If you talk more about your competitors than your own brand, plans, products or services, you give the competition free airtime. You also tell your audience that the competition is worthy of the comparison.
Keir is doing Reform's marketing for them. He needs a communications advisor to tell him to focus on his own job rather than what the other team is doing - especially as the ruling party. This is basic.
The one skill you need as a political leader is the ability to make a good speech. If you put Keir next to King Charles last week, the chasm between them is galactic.
The CEO takeaway: every minute you spend talking about your competition is a minute you aren't selling your own proposition. If you find yourself defining your business by what the other lot are doing, you've already lost the room.
You do you.
Dan Ilett is a specialist in CEO storytelling and growth advisory. His work has shaped $1bn in closed deals. He has advised IBM, Google, Microsoft, Cisco, Cognizant, Equinix, UK Government, Virgin Money, SEB and many more.
He has coached Fortune and FTSE CEOs on the commercial narrative, the speech and the media handling that surround the highest-stakes moments: crisis, change, product launches, growth milestones, fundraises and exits. He chairs the City CIO Club, a private network for technology leaders.
He came up through journalism, writing for the Financial Times, Economist Group, Daily Telegraph, New York Times and a string of tech publications. He went on to launch his own, founding Greenbang (cited by the UN and European Commission) and CoinDesk, where he was founding editor. He has also worked in FTSE transformation, commercial delivery and digital media companies, shaping governance and controls.
With AI such a hot topic, he edits and publishes The Executive Summary, an enterprise AI, growth and business life, a weekly briefing for 2,000+ CEOs.
