THE BREAKTHROUGH MOMENT: WHEN 100 C-SUITE REBELS RECLAIMED THEIR FIRE

The question is – where the hell were you?

100 C-Suite leaders. One secret location. Zero fucks given about the status quo.

Welcome to The Breakthrough Moment – where PerfectRebel just lit the match on a corporate revolution that's been years in the making. Aures London vibrated with a different kind of energy on March 27th – raw, electric, unapologetic. Housed in Banksy's graffiti tunnel just a stone's throw from Waterloo, the venue itself screamed rebellion. The immersive digital space pulsed with anticipation as leaders who've forgotten what it means to truly disrupt filed in, cocktails in hand, ready to have their comfortable worlds shaken.

This wasn't your grandfather's networking event. No stale canapés, no awkward small talk about quarterly projections. This was a fucking wake-up call.

When Jeremy Schwartz took the stage, the room went silent. Not the polite silence of corporate reverence – the electric silence of knowing you're about to hear something that might just save your business.

The former CEO of L'Oréal, Pandora, and BodyShop didn't come to coddle egos. He came to set them on fire.

"What got you here won't get you there," he said, delivering brutal truths about businesses paralysed by their own success. A leader who turned a failing operation into a £36bn powerhouse in just 5 years doesn't waste time on pleasantries.

Schwartz's insights cut through the room like a scalpel – high-performance teams don't happen by accident. They're built by leaders with the courage to ask uncomfortable questions and embrace thinking that shatters convention.

When Jeremy was joined by Giles Lindsay (best-selling author and Chair of the Business Agility Institute) and our own Christoph Burtscher (former CIO, CTO, and Senior Visiting Fellow at Henley Business School), the gloves truly came off.

Two PhDs and a transformation titan walk into a room… sounds like the setup to a joke, but what followed was anything but funny.

The audience – now fully locked in and properly warmed up – didn't hold back. Questions flew fast and hard:

The panellists didn't serve up pre-packaged consultant-speak. They delivered truth bombs that left scorch marks on the floor:

As the digital walls pulsed with rebellion, six essential truths emerged – the kind that separate the corporate dinosaurs from tomorrow's titans:

1. CONSTANTLY REINVENT YOURSELF Nothing stays the same for long. Leaders must continually reflect inwardly to remain at the top of their games. The earlier you learn this, the better your chances of surviving what's coming
2. LEAVE THE EGO AT THE DOOR It takes hard work, but no one likes a dick. Great leaders don't micromanage their teams into oblivion – they set the vision and clear the path. Your title means nothing if your team isn't empowered
3. ASK MORE, TALK LESS Don't be the smartest person in the room; be the person asking the killer questions. Find the youngster with the least filtered response – nurture this talent and accelerate them through the business before corporate gravity weighs them down
4. SMALLEST TEAM POSSIBLE Chief this, chief that. Where does it end? Small, highly aligned, and productive teams execute better and faster. This starts at the top. Trim the fat, scale back, achieve more. The question is, who's staying?
5. WHO IS ON THE BUS? Jim Collins famously wrote about the importance of getting the wrong people off the bus. Do this early and with empathy – it will be good for everyone. As the saying goes: "You are only as strong as the weakest behaviour you tolerate." Your team is always watching
6. FIND THE VALUE AND FOCUS We need increased agility, adaptability, and responsiveness in our teams. Innovate the way you work by building fully cross-functional, high-performing teams focused on delivering outcomes and releasing value little and often. Then set an ambitious vision and a deadline that makes people uncomfortable

The evening's electric finale was the launch of the first 30 founding memberships of The House of Rebel – an aspirational club for C-suite leaders who recognise that change is essential but complex, who know they might need to do things differently to get a different result.

If PerfectRebel is to achieve its mantra of helping businesses achieve better, faster outcomes, we need to align the C-Suite and move the conversation forward to help these inspirational leaders act. We need more Daniel Craig's Bonds, and we're on a mission to build them.

This isn't just another executive club. This is a revolution. A place for leaders who've forgotten what it means to truly disrupt – to reclaim that rebel fire that once coursed through their veins.

The House of Rebel marks the transition from PerfectRebel's "why" - " The Breakthrough Moment was about igniting the spark. Now we're building the engine that will drive transformation. Your starting point? The RebelIndex – our proprietary diagnostic tool that reveals where you truly stand. From there, it's about "reframe, rewire, reskill" – the PerfectRebel transformation methodology that's going to reshape how you deliver those better, faster outcomes.

THE GAUNTLET HAS BEEN THROWN

The burritos and rice bowls came out. The Rebel Mix playlist cranked up. Like any good illegal rave, the lights came on earlier than we wanted, and we got kicked out at 11pm. Fortunately, there was no sign of the 5.0 this time.

The Breakthrough Moment was more than an event – it was a battle cry. A reminder that bold leadership and disruptive thinking aren't just buzzwords for your LinkedIn profile; they're essential weapons for surviving the business battlefield of 2025.

The revolution is alive.

The only question that matters now is: