1000 fathers

The name of our company refers to a famous quote which is often attributed to former US President John F. Kennedy whose leadership quality was exemplified by his willingness to be held accountable for all his decision outcomes – be they successes or failures – and to readily admit to his mistakes and to commit to learning from them.

Quite possibly his defining moment in this respect was the failed American-backed military operation against Fidel Castro at the Bay of Pigs in April 1961. In refusing to pass on the blame for this foreign policy disaster - which came very early in his presidency - he produced a variant of this quote at a press conference and declared that he alone was “the responsible officer of government”.

Our purpose at One Thousand Fathers is to facilitate individuals, teams and whole organisations to raise the effectiveness of their decision making.

Our starting point is a recognition that the only genuine long term source of competitive advantage is the ability of people to form into effective, decision making teams that work collaboratively to learn, adapt and innovate quickly in the face of ever-changing opportunities, and that team members must be prepared to demonstrate personal leadership in these circumstances by readily accepting their fair share of responsibility for the outcomes of all team decisions - including the failures that will inevitably be experienced in the quest for outstanding performance over time.