I was 19 when I had my first “management” role. I was promoted from Sales Negotiator to manage a branch of Samuel Rains & Son estate agents (soon after to merge and become Reeds Rains). Was I the full article? – no way, I was far from that. But did the gamble pay off for […]

Jane Fraser is an inspiration to many people, and should be to many more. Hailing from St Andrews Scotland, and graduating from both Cambridge and Harvard, today she’s the first female CEO of a major US bank (Citigroup), whose global network enables the movement of the equivalent of Germany’s GDP each day across borders, currencies and asset […]

For the past five years or so, many businesses have had one agenda item at their meetings – ‘Survival’. Now however, with improved conditions and renewed confidence, ‘Growth’ is the key focus. Whilst this is most welcome, and exciting, and above all a relief from the short term thinking of the past half decade, I’ve […]

Recently, I’ve observed several leaders who were frustrated by the lack of results they were getting from their efforts to coach members of their team. The problem wasn’t with the individuals, it was the failure to use perhaps the most important model when coaching, one introduced to me by the late, (great), business coach Ed […]

Some years ago, I went to see my Mum at her home in Sussex. The previous time I’d visited, she complained that her hearing wasn’t as good as it used to be, (albeit it still works remarkably well some years later if I say the wrong thing!), so when my car crunched over her gravel […]

Peter Drucker is attributed with saying: “….but the aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous.” If he’s correct, then could it be that the cost of sales is actually a charge marketing should incur, and if so, then what if that investment was rechanneled into marketing communications in the first place? In other words, […]

I was borderline obsessed with Thunderbirds when I was a kid. I had Thunderbird curtains in my bedroom, Thunderbird PJs, and my toy box was crammed with everything from Thunderbird magazines to plastic models. Recently, Thunderbirds have returned to my life via social media (and probably posting this will boost even more reels!), and I’ve noticed […]

I’m seeing a specialist physiotherapist for treatment to my left hand. You see, I had a trapped nerve, and this has led to losing over 80% of my strength in my hand with my little finger having almost no feeling at all. It took less than 3 months for one nerve to significantly disable one […]

Innovation has often been treated as something to do when the existing model begins to falter, or when markets dry up. This approach is no longer appropriate, indeed if it ever was. In conversation with Ian Preston, co-founder of Greenhouse OS, we identified that in order for this new CRM/Business Operating System to succeed, innovation […]