I had a great conversation yesterday with Martin Talks over a burrito at the very good Daddy Donkey in London's horrendously rebranded "Midtown" (Holborn/Clarkenwell in old money). One of our topics of conversation was the concept of entrepreneurship in large organisations, its role and appropriateness. I don't really think of myself as an entrepreneur, although to all … Continue reading Entrepreneur, Intrapreneur, Wombling free…
Category: Themes
Neville Hobson published a good summary of an article from the HBR this morning on the subject of accelerating culture change within organisations. A point raised in the article, and highlighted by Neville, was that "There must be a clear connection between the target culture and the overarching strategy of the company." when you are … Continue reading Like yoghurt
In a bid to keep the kids entertained last night, I dug out my 17-year old Alesis QS6 synthesizer, plugged it in and let them make a horrendous racket. As I got the thing plugged in, and excitement levels were rampant, I did for a split second wonder "Will it still work?". There were no … Continue reading Reliable over time
One of the plethora of wonderful people that I met in Bournemouth at this year's Silicon Beach event was Simon White. He's formerly of the ad world, and these days thinks of ideas and then makes them happen - I aspire to such ideals. Today he wrote an article for the magazine Imperia, and whilst … Continue reading The need for Digital
At university (distressingly some twenty-odd years ago now), I quite quickly realised that I was a qualitative, rather than quantitative, kind of guy. Oh yes, I knew how to live the student dream. To explain - I studied Sociology. And in the realm of the social sciences there is a long-standing debate about whether … Continue reading Qual not Quant
I'm speaking at the European HRO Today Forum in London this morning. You can find my slides (and notes embedded) here. You can find the full #socialCEO report here: http://bit.ly/socialCEOReport
A twitter conversation yesterday reminded me of a crazy idea that had been bouncing around in my head for a couple of months. Imagine, if you will, that on his departure from Microsoft, in a last defiant act to show how much he "loves this company", Steve Ballmer were to put all of his shares … Continue reading The John Lewis of tech
So the news is that Microsoft have decided that their infamous stack-ranked performance management and rewards system is to be retired. The news comes too late for many. Whilst there will be much coverage of the change, and much discussion about how tech companies manage performance and pay their employees, I expect little of it … Continue reading Ding dong the curve is dead
IT security is a hellishly boring subject. It's riddled with nonsensical militaristic metaphor, which ends up with most people confused, scared, and none the wiser. IT security people are, as I've argued before, possibly (and undoubtedly unwittingly) the biggest part of the security problem out there. Recent hacks - the Adobe one in particular - … Continue reading For your own safety
The best thing, without a doubt, of my current madcap adventure with stamp London is that it is giving me good reason to go and spend time talking with loads of fascinating people. Last week I was lucky to grab a coffee with Andy Law, something of an ad land legend, and a terribly nice chap … Continue reading Three lines
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