What is your superpower? Mine, I think, is in being organised. I have the happy knack, or the annoying habit depending upon your perspective, of being able to dismantle a heap of things to do and reassembling them into a logical set of tasks. Whenever I have something to do (and I mean almost whenever) … Continue reading What is your superpower?
Scaleup North East
The United Kingdom is ranked as the third nation in the world at starting businesses yet is ranked as thirteenth when it comes to scaleups. I learned this at The North East Growth Hub’s Scaleup North East Launch at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, in Newcastle’s Stephenson Quarter, behind the Central Station and just next to … Continue reading Scaleup North East
Sunk work
One of my New Year’s resolutions was to study behavioural economics and with this in mind I have bought myself a couple of books. Well, you have to start somewhere. The first one is ‘Misbehaving’ by Richard H Thaler and I am enjoying it very much. In the book, he talks about how people have … Continue reading Sunk work
Chair of Socitm North East
My tenure as chair of Socitm North East has come to an end. It had to happen some time anyway and with me no longer in the thick of the public sector, it is right that someone more able takes over from me. That person is Neil Arnold from Northumberland Council, who continues to be … Continue reading Chair of Socitm North East
Ethics and Carillion
The subject of ethics in business is never very far from my mind these days. I am reading Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, which gives an exciting ride through some of the pros and cons of big business and its detractors, and had my first meeting with the board of the North East Initiative on … Continue reading Ethics and Carillion
Things will find their own level
Stephen was telling me about a conversation he was having with a friend who had been in marketing for longer than he cared to mention. The subject of new media came up and his friend hit the roof. ‘Don’t talk to me about new media’, he said ‘there is no such thing - there is … Continue reading Things will find their own level
What is government?
You would think that this is an easy question yet I have asked it many times to some of the brightest brains in the region (well, university students) and it has left them dumbfounded. It seems that government, like digital, is one of those words that we use over and over again yet don’t really … Continue reading What is government?
Low Power Wide Area Network
Over the last couple of years I have been involved in a project to create a 5G test bed across the region. The idea being to put the North East at the forefront of this exciting technology, autonomous vehicles and all that. Since leaving my last role however I have stepped away from that and … Continue reading Low Power Wide Area Network
Strike
I have never been on strike, even when the councils where I worked were on strike I felt it was my duty to go into work. I was in two minds about the merits of striking then and, as I sit on a very cold platform at Morpeth station as the Northern Rail workers are … Continue reading Strike
We need to be more dolphin
Justin and I work well together. We’ve known each other for a few years now. We are developing a training course which we will be delivering in a few days as part of the Rural Cultural Business Innovation Programme. Things are going well. We have a good number of organizations signed up but the clock … Continue reading We need to be more dolphin
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 