118th of 100

Today's coffee companion helps other businesses be better. We talked about: how contracts and standard Ts&Cs are struggling to catch up with the way in which software and consulting now operates, especially when it comes to IT the 3D chess of working out the potential impacts of standard Ts&Cs how ultimately it all comes down … Continue reading 118th of 100

117th of 100

Today's second coffee companion is a former CEO. We talked about: the complexity of delivering services as a housing association the various silos that exist within HAs and the resulting system silos that occur Clocks and Clouds Mayonnaise and airliners The scalability of transactions How interactions can't be scaled without turning them into transactions The … Continue reading 117th of 100

116th of 100

Today's first coffee companion is a colleague. We talked about: recent short breaks the dark history of 20th century Central Europe living in Germany the opportunity to work in another country and where we would and wouldn't work or live how a big telecoms company decided to try to build their own iPhone New York … Continue reading 116th of 100

Weeknote 650: at scale

This week I have learned: the joy from being able to guide a group of people through a day. But also the deep-rooted insecurity that comes with that - was it right, was it enough, did it have any impact? being able to make adaptations at the last minute is really important. Fluidity in timing, … Continue reading Weeknote 650: at scale

115th of 100

Today's coffee companion is an expert in cloud. We talked about... our journeys over the time since we first met in the early 2010s the experience of working with tech investors due diligence of technology where the smart money is going when established companies go all in on known solutions to unknown problems how Gen … Continue reading 115th of 100

114th of 100

Today's second coffee companion is a master of copying. We talked about: being an outsider giving up on marketing gigs the experiences of breaking hierarchies and running an employee-owned business how the experience of the healthcare service would be greatly improved if we could interact not with clinicians but with project managers who were there … Continue reading 114th of 100

113th of 100

Today's first coffee companion is involved with the Centre for Computing History in his spare time. We talked about: the Spark the Change conference where we first met being heckled by a robot the absence of social science understanding in so many senior business leaders (particularly when it comes to the group rather than the … Continue reading 113th of 100

112th of 100

Today’s second coffee companion is a former colleague. We talked about: A busy week How much I’m enjoying working at Equal Experts the trouble with waste knowing which fights to pick with parents taking chances to travel home local authorities and spending cuts having an office self-driving cars how much of sci-fi has actually come … Continue reading 112th of 100

111th of 100

Today's first guest is a CIO for a events company. We talked about: having not really met in person despite not living far away from each other at all the evolving nature of the events business how things have changed since COVID recruiting people better than you admiration of people who can work a room … Continue reading 111th of 100

Weeknote 649: travel

This week I have learned: that Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, is a prepper. Something I picked up when listening to the fairly stodgy biography of Elon Musk by Walter Issacson. At first impressions, preppers to me feel like they have the worst view of humanity. That they lack trust in others, and in preparing … Continue reading Weeknote 649: travel