How do you reinvent an institution without losing what makes it valuable?

The BBC has spent more than a century adapting to new technologies and changing audiences. At Future Forum, Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer John Curbishley joined Oli Barrett MBE to explore what meaningful transformation looks like – and why knowing what to stop doing can be just as important as knowing what comes next.

John Curbishley arrived on the Vision Hall stage carrying a piece of BBC history: one of its original radio microphones, borrowed from the organisation’s archive.

It was a fitting starting point for a conversation about innovation. Founded in 1922, the BBC has navigated the arrival of television, digital broadcasting, streaming and social media. Now, it faces another period of profound change as AI reshapes how audiences discover and consume content.

The mission stays. The methods change.

For Curbishley, the BBC’s founding purpose – to inform, educate and entertain – remains as relevant as ever.

He argued that trusted news, British storytelling and public service content are increasingly important in a fragmented, globalised media landscape.

But fulfilling that mission means meeting audiences where they are.

Alongside developing its own services, including BBC iPlayer, the BBC is expanding its presence on third-party platforms such as YouTube and experimenting with new distribution opportunities, including Spotify.

The challenge isn’t simply to protect established services. It’s to ensure that public service media continues reaching new generations.

Innovation means knowing what to stop

One of Curbishley’s clearest observations concerned the difficult choices behind organisational transformation.

Launching something new is often easier than deciding what should end. At the BBC, even long-established services with smaller audiences have loyal supporters who value them.

But preserving everything comes with its own risks.

As Curbishley explained, organisations must weigh the immediate discomfort of change against the longer-term danger of becoming irrelevant.

You can’t transform an organisation with a PowerPoint

Asked how to bring thousands of colleagues through change, Curbishley emphasised the importance of evidence, honest evaluation and listening.

Successful transformation requires engaging the people who understand an organisation best – in the BBC’s case, its journalists, programme makers and other specialists.

But listening must eventually lead to decisions.

He also distinguished between changes that can be tested and reversed, and major commitments that are harder to undo. Experiments with content and platforms can provide valuable learning without requiring permanent decisions.

The important thing is not to wait for perfect information before acting.

Why partnerships matter

Curbishley’s final point was particularly relevant to Future Forum.

Asked which transformations the BBC could achieve without outside help, he struggled to identify any.

From independent production companies and musicians to educators and scientists, collaboration is fundamental to the organisation’s work.

His message extended well beyond broadcasting: transformation isn’t something leaders can deliver alone.

It requires the confidence to experiment, the judgement to make difficult choices and the willingness to work with people beyond your own organisation.

For an institution more than a century old, perhaps the greatest lesson is that staying true to your purpose sometimes means changing almost everything else.