Steve Tappin

Steve Elliott Tappin was born 5 September, 1966 in Harrowgate, North Yorkshire in England[1] Tappin was the eldest of three children. Tappin says he was heavily inspired by his father, who he considered a maverick entrepreneur. He earned an MBA from Cranfield University, UK.[1].

Tappin began his career with the chemical company ICI, on a management training scheme. After he left, Tappin was mentored by Sir John Harvey-Jones, who as chairman, made major changes to ICI's business.[1] In his late 20s and early 30s, he worked for KPMG, PA Consulting and Heidrick and Struggles. It was here he noticed these global professional services firms faced similar challenges to the major corporations they advised. This motivated Tappin to devoted his life to coaching CEOs on how to improve their leadership.[2] In 2000, Tappin created a global growth and corporate venturing consulting firm, Edengene, which helped British Telecom set up BT Broadband.[3] Under Tappin's leadership, Edengene was awarded "Best Small Business" and "Gold Medal Award for Client Work" from the Management Consultancies Association. In 2005, Tappin established a consulting firm, Leaders Reloaded, to provide a coaching service for CEOs.[4]

Since 2008, Tappin has been the founder and CEO of Xinfu - an award-winning global CEO and leadership consulting firm. Xinfu has worked with companies such as Reckitt, Newcrest Mining, Virgin Group, LinkedIn, Telstra, easyJet and Informa.[5] Using the Four Quadrant approach, consultants work in both a 1:1 capacity and with teams to raise self-awareness, define a North Star, create authentic fellowships and assist companies to deliver outperformance.[6]

"Through Xinfu, we are paving the way for high growth companies to become extraordinary and we are pinpointing the Fortune 500 CEOs, political leaders and cultural icons who we think will have the most impact to change the world."[4]

Tappin spent many years visiting Chinese entrepreneurs and building relationships in a notoriously difficult forum for Westerners to break into. Eventually he managed to become the first Westerner to be invited into the Chinese Entrepreneur Club (CEC) as an honorary member and eventually had the privilege of presenting to its members several times.[7]

Tappin has been invited to be a keynote speaker at prestigious global forums, such as the World Retail Congress, SuperReturns, HRTech and Leaders in London/India. He has shared the stage with entrepreneurs like Richard Branson and Jack Ma where he has spoken on the current state of leadership, as well as shared his work on ‘CEO Types’.

As of April, 2022, Xinfu changed its name to Beyond Unity. The reason for the change was due to the company seeking to have a name that reflected its global reach. A core theme of Beyond Unity is about bringing together and unifying leaders and teams, and working to take them even further to outperformance and achievements they never felt was possible.

In 2008, Tappin co-wrote The Secrets of CEOs – 150 leaders on business, life and leadership with Andy Cave. The updated edition includes interviews with 200 CEOs including: John Browne, Baron Browne of Madingley, Ben Verwaayen, Michael Dell, Narayana Murthy, Liu Jiren, and Carolyn McCall. Richard Branson wrote the foreword for the book.[6] The book explores leadership best practice in the corporate world, finding balance with your personal life, as well as Tappin’s theory of ‘CEO Types’ - a classification of CEOs into the following leadership styles:

• The Commercial Executor
• The Corporate Entrepreneur
• The Financial Value Driver
• The Corporate Ambassador
• The Global Missionary
• The People’s Champion
• The Professional Manager

The series featured Tappin hosting interviews with CEOs, sharing CEO best practices and the latest advancements on the global CEO agenda. It ran for eight seasons.[8] The format consists of several short films, plus associated web articles for BBC World News TV, BBC.COM, BBC Capital and BBC News online. Previous interviewees include: Richard Branson, Jeff Immelt (GE), Liu Chuanzhi (Lenovo), Ryan Holmes (Hootsuite), Sir Martin Sorrell (WPP), Walter Robb and John Mackay (Whole Foods), Guo Guancgchang (Fosun), Wang Shi (Vanke), and Paul Walsh (Diageo).[5] Several episodes have featured specific CEOs and their organisations including WholeFoods (USA) and FoSun (China).

Using his connections in China, Tappin managed to gain access to over a hundred of China's top business leaders in collaboration with the Chinese Entrepreneur Club (CEC) and captured his experience in his book Dream to Last - Secrets of Chinese CEOs.[9]

The book was published by the Beijing University Press in 2015 in partnership with the China Entrepreneur Club, and featured interviewees such as:

• Liu Chuanzhi, Founder, Lenovo
• Guo Guangchang, Founder, Fosun Group
• Li Shufu, Founder, Geely Holding Group
• Wang Shi, Founder and Chairman, Vanke
• Charles Chao, Chairman & CEO, SINA
• Li Dongsheng, Founder, TCL Group
• Wang Chuanfu, Founder, BYD
• Huang Nubo, Founder, Zhongkun Group

The book’s foreword was written by Sir Martin Sorrell, founder and CEO of WPP.[10]

In 2021, Linton and Tappin created the ‘Beyond Incredible Group’. ‘BIG’, as it became known, is a leadership program and global network of influential and inspiring leaders.

Some of its inaugural members include:

• Anthony Scaramucci; former Director of Communications at the White House and founder of SkyBridge Capital
• Steve Foots; CEO of Croda International, providing Pfizer vaccine ingredients
• Chloe Targett-Adams, Global Director of Race Promotion, Formula One
• Gianfranco Zola; Italian and Chelsea football legend
• Peter Arvai, Co-founder and Executive Chairman of Prezi[11]

The purpose of BIG is to assist leaders to reach their highest level of awareness and use the network to achieve their ‘Highest Callings’. Each year, the BIG members meet at a retreat to further develop and strengthen their network. The program also features 1:1 sessions, Groups sessions and the learning of unique meditative techniques.

The criteria for a person to be considered for BIG follows the ‘Four Is’:

• Influential: they must already be in some position of leadership or influence.
• Integrity: they need to be an individual that conducts themselves with a strong sense of integrity.
• Inspiring: have the ability to inspire others.
• Incredible: show glimpses of the level of ‘Incredible’, described in detail in The Awareness Code.[12]

In 2021, Tappin co-authored with Wayne Linton the book The Awareness Code. The book was released by Bloomsbury on 28 October 2021.[3] 'The Awareness Code' features a map of the human experience that breaks it down into 10 unique level of consciousness, with each level being made up of 10 'tiles' that further articulate the level. There are six levels that make up 'lower awareness' (60 tiles) and four levels that constitute 'higher awareness' (40 tiles). There is also a level called 'Beyond Incredible' above the primary 10 levels that features tiles such as 'Doing the impossible', 'Mastery' and 'Profound'. The book also features the '24 Keys' that are tools to assist the reader in lifting their own awareness from lower to higher awareness, as well as different levels of mind (Thinking, Witness, Wisdom and Unity mind) and a tool on balancing productivity and rest (RUDE and RAW). The Awareness Code received over 50 testimonials from corporate leaders, entrepreneurs, sporting icons and cultural figures, including:

• Dame Sharon White, Chairman of the John Lewis Partnership and Second Permanent Secretary at HM Treasury
• Margo Georgiadis, Former President and CEO, Ancestry
• Paul Drechsler CBE, Chairman of International Chamber of Commerce and former president of the Confederation of British Industry.
• Angus Kinnear, CEO, Leeds United F.C.
• Julia Ingall, Chief People Officer, ManyPets
• Kevin Sinfield OBE, Defensive Coach for Leicester Tigers, Former Captain and Director of Rugby for Leeds Rhinos
• Andy Penn, CEO, Telstra, Fortune 500 Company
• Michael Vaughan OBE, former England cricket Captain and Commentator
• Joe Baolin Zhou, Co-Founder, CEO & CEdO at (Shenzhen) Singularity Education and leader responsible for setting up Harvard in China
• Ian McGarrigle, Chairman, World Retail Congress
• Stephen Murphy, Former Group Chief Executive, Virgin Group
• Justin Langer, former Head Coach and player, Australian men’s cricket team
• Harriet Green, Previous CEO & Chair of IBM Asia Pacific
• Dr Frank-Jürgen Richter, Founder and Chairman Horasis: The Global Visions Community
• Steve McClaren, Former England Manager & Senior FIFA consultant

Tappin and Linton have also created an ‘Awareness Code’ application for both iOS and Android. The app features over 200 videos that further explore the tiles, as well as guided meditations for each tile in higher awareness. There is also a feature that allows users to give others feedback based on their higher and lower tiles.[13]

• 'Best Leadership of a Mould-Breaking Firm globally across the professional services industry’ at the MPF Awards for Management of Excellence 2018[14]
• ‘Best Global Leadership Coaching and Consultancy Company’ - Global Brands Magazine 2021[15]

Tappin contributes to Wellness Gateway Australia by supporting subsidised sessions in Soul-Focused Psychotherapy and has donated 100% of the proceeds of The Secrets of CEOs towards cancer research.

• Xinfu