The digital revolution is dramatically affecting our personal and professional lives with both positive and negative effects. Whilst the effects are hard to predict and difficult to control but we can, and should, focus on the outcomes that we want to maximise. We have to decide what the point of digital is, decide why we […] Read More…
A year or so into my career at BT, I decided I would study Marketing. I thought it might be useful as we moved into a deregulated market and competitive environment (this was some time ago – my diploma was from the plain old Institute of Marketing, before it became Chartered). I loved it. It […] Read More…
There are more opinions on leadership than you can wave a stick at. So here’s another one. This is how I view leadership. As leader, I see my role is to create an environment in which the people I lead can thrive and perform to their very best; and then to make sure they are […] Read More…
This is the mantra of the Wayra Academies set up by Telefonica. They have set up 13 accelerators in 12 countries around the world in this unique initiative, seeking to realise new ideas and create a wave of new start-ups (180 and counting). (Declaration: I am a mentor at Wayra UK and board advisor for […] Read More…
No, I don’t mean that they are all eco-warriors, climate activists, tree-huggers or sandal-wearers (although I suspect many are of a greenish-hue, methodically sorting out the rubbish into the correct bins every week and buying their friends goats for Christmas). I am not referring to the general environment. I mean the specific environment that is […] Read More…
“If I’d have asked people what they wanted, they’d have said a faster horse”. People (well, geeks and start-ups types) love to trot this quote out about Henry Ford. He didn’t use market research or focus groups, he saw a need people didn’t know they had. It shows what a great visionary he was. Only […] Read More…
Today is the end of Teletext as the last analogue antenna is switched off. It’s a digital death and many of us (well, the old ones) are reminiscing at the wake, remembering how we used it, talking about watching the screen all Saturday afternoon to keep up with the football scores, and telling a few […] Read More…
When I left corporate life I didn’t really know anyone outside of the companies I had worked in. I didn’t have ‘a network’ of much substance. So, I went on ‘the circuit’ and set about building one. I didn’t know what I wanted to offer either. I had done many different things in my career […] Read More…