Category: Themes

Project achievements this week included: - concluded handovers - briefed head hunters on my replacement And also: - survived the leaving drinks - said goodbyes - took a couple of days off Next week: Thames Valley Park and a new chapter

When, six or so years ago, I was trying to work out what I wanted to achieve next in my career. At the time I drew a picture, which consisted of a team of twelve or so people, sitting together in an office in the centre of town, happily working together with majestic views over … Continue reading Things I am going to miss: the team

Cold sales calls are, it seems, an occupational hazard of being the Head of IT in a mid-sized organisation. I've continued to take them because, just occasionally, serendipity dictates that the right supplier will happen to call on the right day. The hit rate is very low, though. Most of the people doing the calling … Continue reading Things I'm glad to see the back of: crap sales people

I was in conversation with Douglas, Imagination's European MD at lunchtime yesterday about life. These sort of conversations happen when you've announced you are leaving a company. One of the things that we talked about was the way in which the automotive industry has become obsessed with carbon output as a metric to describe the … Continue reading Tyrannical numbers

Project achievements this week included: - selecting a company to find my replacement - handing over relationships at Tru, Hitachi Consulting and Apple - debrief on file sharing services in the cloud - handover of the yellow card project - my last reference call for Google And also... - good catch ups with @andrewdotcom, @kelfish, … Continue reading Weeknote 43 – my last full week at Imagination

I am very proud of a wealth of things that we have achieved at Imagination since I joined in 2008. Not least is the strong set of supplier relationships that I have been able to build up. There are key "manufacturing" level providers like Adobe, Google, Microsoft and even (this will come as a shock) … Continue reading Things I am going to miss: building relationships with suppliers

To most people, IT is like what is portrayed in The IT Crowd. Having an office in the bowels of your company's building doesn't do much to help shatter stereotypes. In my career to date, the team that I have worked in that has had the best relationship with the people it served was the … Continue reading Things I'm glad to see the back of: basement living

If you have never been to the Imagination offices, try to find the opportunity. Converted from two old school buildings (so I have been told) back in the late 80s, the Store Street offices sit around a huge, five-storey atrium. Because it is also part of Imagination's product portfolio as a space available for hire, … Continue reading Things I am going to miss: 25 Store Street

Through almost all of my career I have worked in mixed Microsoft/Apple environments. It has become a challenge for me in the past three years like never before. I'll try and deconstruct why: Consumerized (not commoditized) My time at Imagination has coincided with the blossoming of Apple as a fully fledged consumer product manufacturer (rather … Continue reading Things I'm glad to see the back of: supporting Apple

In conversation with a few people in the past couple of weeks, I have joked that my biggest fear about my new job is having to go back to using Microsoft Office. The thing is, I'm not even only half joking. The experiences of the past 18 months have given me a view of not … Continue reading Things I am going to miss: Google Apps