I’m ranting again. I’m railing against the machine. I’m banging on and on about those issues that keep tripping us up, the rocks in the stream that disrupt our flow, the sand in our shoe which causes us to limp and the pea under the mattress that gives us a restless night’s sleep. We had … Continue reading Unfolding plans 13 – I’m railing against the machine
Unfolding plans 11 – In the future all business will rely upon technology.
It was an interesting meeting with Durham BID. Their offices are in the centre of Durham, just next to Greggs in case you are wondering. BID stands for business improvement district and they have the role of trying to improve the lot of the businesses, all four hundred and sixty of them, within what is … Continue reading Unfolding plans 11 – In the future all business will rely upon technology.
Unfolding plans 10 – Durham is the ideal place to site your data centre
I’ve been told that Durham is the ideal place to site your data centre. It’s something to do with the ambient temperature. You don’t need air conditioning - you just need to open the doors. Those of you down south paying over the odds for expensive cooling take note. We’ve been applying this principle in … Continue reading Unfolding plans 10 – Durham is the ideal place to site your data centre
Unfolding plans 8 – coming together isn’t just about doing things
The work with our neighbours is taking shape. It would be easy to talk about the projects that are underway. They are tangible, they can be measured and they can be accounted for. We have several up and running. They are big and meaty and it will be great when we see them through to … Continue reading Unfolding plans 8 – coming together isn’t just about doing things
Unfolding plans 5
The country needs a public sector. I’m not going to argue about how big it should be or what the right proportion of the gross national product is. I will leave that to others and there are many of them better able than I am to speak on such matters. It needs to be somewhere … Continue reading Unfolding plans 5
Unfolding plans 3
I’ve restructured our Senior Leadership Team meetings. Today we did something that I’ve wanted to do for some time but never got round to it. We had our first meeting entirely dedicated to the customer. It was a sales meeting or a commercial meeting or a focus on growth. I’m going to take this as … Continue reading Unfolding plans 3
Unfolding plans 2
The English language is a funny thing. Nearly every word has both a positive and a negative connotation. Take the word flexible for instance. As an adjective it can mean capable of being bent or susceptible to modification or adaptation. As an adjective there is a whiff of the sinister. I can take something that … Continue reading Unfolding plans 2
A year of work in progress – day 223
Day 223 – 24 December 2014 So here it is, the last working day of my year and so the last day of this blog. I managed to get there without missing a post and without running out of things to say. Sometimes the words tripped off the ends of my fingers and there were … Continue reading A year of work in progress – day 223
A year of work in progress – day 222
Day 222 – 23 December 2014 Writing a strategy is hard because I lack a basic skill. Concentration. I just can’t do it. I find it really hard to sit for hours focussed on the same thing. My mind starts to wander. There are three things I can cite in my defence. One: A strategy … Continue reading A year of work in progress – day 222
A year of work in progress – day 220
Day 220 – 19 December 2014 Have you ever imagined what it would be like to navigate in space? I mean deep space. Back here on Earth in a sort of Euclidian way it is easy. We can safely assume that getting from B to A is just the reverse of getting from A to … Continue reading A year of work in progress – day 220