Post-COVID: re-organising Localism around 3 digital principles
On Tuesday, I keynoted a senior leadership session for Birmingham City Council. The session was for leaders, councillors, and senior executives – about 35 in total – to discuss post-COVID re-organisation and management. We discussed a range of pressing issues confronting the Council. These included: data trusts, data security, supply chain resilience, efficiencies, and cross-silo […]
The Invincible Company
Just released in the last few days is the latest book by Alex Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur entitled “The Invincible Company: How to constantly reinvent your organization with inspiration from the worlds best business models”. https://www.strategyzer.com/books/the-invincible-company In line with their previous books, this builds on their success with the business model canvas to explore its […]
Community and Public Service Post-COVID
On 17th April I participated in a TechUK panel of people considering the impact COVID-19 is having on local public services, together with the themes that will be very important in shaping our Place-based post-COVID future. I was joined by Paul Brewer, Director for Digital & Resources, Adur & Worthing Councils, Helen Gerling, Managing Director, […]
From Big Tech Platforms to Digital Utilities
Now published on the Digital Leaders platform, Professor Alan Brown has been considering the implications of the current crisis on digital technology platforms, and some of the lessons that can be drawn from this. Digital Leaders is a shared professional online space and face-to-face programme promoting digital transformation best practices that has a subscriber list […]
How to set up and run your own digital company for less than £50 a year!
I was chatting in the local pub with some friends the other night, and the conversation turned to the question of why we now have so many energetic young entrepreneurs setting up their own companies. Various views on this topic were exchanged (and beers consumed!). When I proudly boasted “ well, one of the obvious […]
I am a Startup
In a recent update to the executive management team in my organization, I was asked to brief them on my group’s activities and plans. We are a new team explicitly established to drive innovative offerings while working within a longstanding organization with a turnover of over £300M and more than 2000 employees (in this case, […]
There is No Such Thing as a Digital Strategy
Let me say it again. There is no such thing as a Digital Strategy. Honestly. If you think your organization needs a new digital strategy in 2019, then I’m sorry to say that you’ve completely missed the boat. It is misguided and dangerous to be creating a separate digital strategy for your organization in world […]
Does WeWork Work?
In setting up the new INDEX team at the University of Exeter, we very much see ourselves as a startup. A startup inside a big corporation. That means several important concrete things to us. One of them is that we live and work like a startup. So inevitably we needed to deal with the question […]
The Dark Side of Entrepreneurship in a Digitally Disrupted World
One of the clear consequences of digital disruption is the rapid pace of change in the tech industry. New ideas emerge, are explored, and transformed in weeks. New companies are born, scale rapidly, and morph into existing commercial entities. This has many positive aspects…but also creates some huge pressures. The case of Autonomy’s purchase by […]
