The Business & Sustainability Programme: Cambridge Seminar
An immersive four-day residential programme for senior leaders navigating market transformation and accelerating change.
Dates: 22-25 November 2026
Duration and format: Three and half day residential seminar
Location: Cambridge, UK.
Fee: The standard residential Cambridge is £7,995. For more information visit the fees page.
The pressure on leaders is intensifying, but the space to act feels narrow
Businesses are operating in an environment of unprecedented disruption. Technological advances, geopolitical shifts, resource constraints, evolving customer expectations and changing regulatory landscapes are reshaping industries and redefining sources of competitive advantage.
In this context, traditional approaches to strategy and leadership are no longer sufficient.
Leadership in this era requires building organisational resilience to withstand disruption, while also shaping the conditions and deploying innovations required to strengthen competitive position and long-term market viability.
The Cambridge Business Transformation Programme helps senior business executives build the insight and capabilities needed to lead through disruption. Combining Cambridge and industry insight, innovation and a trusted peer network, it gives leaders the space to assess, set direction and develop the strategies to shape their organisations and the future markets they will depend on.
How the programme is delivered
- Immersive 4-day seminar. A focused residential experience away from operational demands, enabling strategic reflection and cross-industry engagement.
- Faculty and expert led. Engage with leading academics, industry leaders and practitioners at the forefront of business transformation and innovation.
- Live case studies and applied learning. Unpack real-world challenges, dilemmas and opportunities applying insights directly to your own organisation.
- Peer learning and exchange. Test thinking with a curated group of leaders facing comparable decisions, enabling rigorous challenge, insight and shared problem-solving.
- Action-oriented. Leave with concrete priorities and practical actions to take back into your organisation.
Key themes
- Navigating the forces restructuring global markets: drive growth and adaptability in your business amidst energy and resource security concerns, supply chain disruption, geopolitical realignment, rapid innovation developments in AI, computing, and financial technology, climate and social risks.
- Implementing strategies for a resilient business: move from compliance, reputation and incrementalism toward future-fit innovation and competitive transformation.
- The architecture of market-making: align your business's commercial performance with rapid industry transition, leveraging blended capital structures, risk-sharing mechanisms, and pre-competitive collaboration.
- From individual conviction to organisational action: close the gap between leadership awareness and organisational action, especially for multi-market businesses with highly complex behavioural and institutional dynamics.
- The role of leadership in navigating the transition: how senior executives and investors can build the personal credibility, institutional authority, and coalition-building capability to drive ambitious strategies, shape enabling market conditions, and sustain momentum through complexity, political headwinds, and organisational resistance.
This programme is fantastic in giving the broadest global overview possible on all areas of sustainability, and to be honest, business.
Chris Foy
CEO, Equity Insurance
The faculty of sustainability experts delivering the programme
Each programme is facilitated by an expert faculty of business and policy leaders, academics and influential thinkers.
Craig Bennett OBE
Chief Executive, The Wildlife Trusts; Honorary Professor of Sustainability and Innovation
Craig is recognised as one of the UK's leading environmental campaigners and received an OBE in 2026 for services to the environment.
Munish Datta
Director of Sustainability, Specsavers Group and CISL Fellow
Munish leads global sustainable business strategy at Specsavers and advises on climate, nature and social impacts. As a CISL Fellow, he supports leaders navigating complex sustainability challenges.
Karen Hamilton
CISL Senior Associate
Karen brings more than 30 years’ leadership experience in sustainability, innovation and business. Formerly Global VP Sustainability at Unilever, she now advises leaders across sectors.
Who should apply
The programme is designed for senior executives and decision-makers within organisations
- C-Suite & Top Management: Founders, Managing Directors, C-suite executives, and Board members.
- Strategic Leaders: Heads of Departments, Business Unit Leaders, Functional and Division Leaders, Strategy and Transformation Leaders, Innovation and Growth Leaders, Senior Investment Professionals, Senior Public Sector and Institutional Leaders
Recent attendees have come from organisations such as ABN AMRO, Anglo American, IKEA, Lloyds Banking Group, Nestlé, P&G, the European Investment Bank, the World Bank and various government departments, all seeking strategic insight and a deeper understanding of global trends.
Submit your application or get in touch to nominate a colleague via email who meets the above criteria and we will share materials with you to forward on.
Please note that you will need to complete the online application form in one sitting, so please ensure that you have all required information with you.
The content was inspirational, evidence based and practical. As a direct result, I have identified a number of actions that I will take forward in my leadership
Jo Green
Chief Officer, Performance and Innovation, Scottish Environment Protection Agency
How do we deal with participants from the same industry?
The seminars provide a safe space for delegates to share and co-explore challenges and ideas relating to their personal and professional context. All discussions are treated as confidential and are conducted under the Chatham House Rule. For some of the more sensitive conversations, attendees from competing organisations are allocated to different syndicate groups, however, there is nothing to prevent these individuals engaging in active debate and sharing of ideas – in our experience, delegates appreciate the opportunity to interact with their peers on a shared agenda.
Fees, terms and conditions
The residential programme fee is £7,995(VAT-exempt), which includes tuition, learning materials, accommodation, activities, meals and membership of our alumni Network.
Download terms and conditions
