Book review: Seeing what others don’t

There is a school of scientific thought prevalent in psychology and behavioural economics that sees fact emerging from rigorous, controlled experimentation. As a result much of what we understand about the way in which we think is derived from the observation of undergraduates performing laboratory tasks. Whilst there is much that can be learned from … Continue reading Book review: Seeing what others don’t

Milking cows

I've been talking with a diverse group of people in recent months about the subject of innovation and disruption. Here are a few observations... Firstly, in terms of terminology, there's a lot of confusion. Innovation is a term that has become a bit Zeitgeist-y, as to an extent has disruption. Let's not aim for perfect … Continue reading Milking cows

Analogue memories

We're off on holiday at the end of the week, and in the last minute "what have we forgotten" hubbub of the weekend we realised that our UK driving licenses and passports would not be enough to hire a car at our destination. So this lunchtime I headed out to the nearest Post Office that … Continue reading Analogue memories

Three ways to kill innovation

So here is a scenario that is playing out in a number of technology (and non-technology) companies the world over. You've found a bit of success. You want to scale your business. You go from loosely organised, small, and working all hours to something with a bit more structure. You want to become bigger as … Continue reading Three ways to kill innovation

Steam diesel

A couple of weekends ago I spent a very enjoyable Sunday with my wife, kids, and their aunties, at the Buckinghamshire Steam Railway centre just outside of Aylesbury. As a way to keep a three and a four year old entertained for a few hours, these places are great (and this one is one of … Continue reading Steam diesel

Flying without slides…

I'm presenting tomorrow morning to an audience of which I've been advised that one of the main people "doesn't like Powerpoint". The theme of the presentation is disruption. In a spirit of self-disruption I've decided to present without slides. I might do an odd bit of the old flip chart, but no pictures. I don't regard myself … Continue reading Flying without slides…

Stamp London announce new AI CEO

Following on from the announcement that Hong Kong-based company Deep Knowledge Ventures have appointed an Artificial Intelligence as an official board member, I'm delighted to announce that stamp London are to appoint an Artificial Intelligence called Bertie as our new CEO. Bertie runs on a sophisticated algorithm that is able to predict the future with outcomes … Continue reading Stamp London announce new AI CEO

Relative value

  Last week I had the pleasure of spending some time with IT Directors and CIOs from a broad spectrum of UK organisations on board Aurora for the Spring 2014 IT Directors' Forum. It's the second of these events that I've attended, and it was noticeable this time around that in comparison to two years … Continue reading Relative value

Rushing towards the exits

One of the things that seems to be common amongst people working in start ups is the idea of "the exit". In the days before this current wave of digital technology transformation, to set up a company you needed some serious capital. To manufacture things you needed factories and hardware. To provide some sort of service you … Continue reading Rushing towards the exits

Reverting to process

There is a piece that Adrian Bridgewater has published on Computer Weekly about collaboration tools that's got me seriously concerned about the ability for enterprise software to do anything outside of the realm of Taylorist scientific management. Adrian's article looks at trends in the collaboration space that seem to be moving from focusing on humans … Continue reading Reverting to process