Category: Uncategorized
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What is a neural net anyway?
In early 2017, I was recovering from an illness and had some time on my hands. I like to learn new things (“smash myself into new ideas”) and the papers were full of articles about artificial intelligence. “Neural Nets” were mentioned all the time and I read that: “they mimic the workings of our brains”.…
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Values Driven Business
In 2019, I was creating an ai tool called ux-insight. It can help businesses get high quality feedback on the applications they deploy for their customers. I wrote this blog about the importance of values and as ux-insight is now a wholly owned proprietary technology used by us here at The Digital Transformation Squad, I…
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All things come to those that wait…
In about 1975, I was sitting at the kitchen table with my dad and he was listening to the radio. I heard the presenter say that in 1626, a dutch businessman had bought Manhattan Island for a bag of trinkets. I didn’t really know what Manhattan Island was but I’d heard of it. I knew…
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Monte Carlo or Bust!
…or Forecasting Sales using Randomness. This blog is also available as a video and you can see it here: In 2015 I was running a technology services company and for their own completely legitimate reasons, one of our largest clients told me they needed to reduce the team size by about 90% (and could be…
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What is business agility? And why should I care?
This blog is also available as a video and you can see it here: I was talking to a friend a few weeks ago and they were feeling a bit frustrated about a new programme at their work (a really well known UK national company). I listened carefully while they explained how HR were trying…
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Are values in business our fair weather friend?
When I was in Warsaw in 2015, I met a lady called Zofia Dzik and about 18 months later, she asked me if I would speak at a conference she was organising. The subject is very close to my heart and so of course I agreed. For those that might not be certain, a “fair weather friend” is someone…
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Lessons in life from an ai agent
I’ve always been passionate about data and the way it can help drive our businesses forward. A few years ago I took the next logical step with a deep dive into ai. It was part of my personal programme of smashing myself into new ideas (a key ingredient in our ability to innovate on demand). I…
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Five tools for innovation mastery
It’s a curse or a blessing but I’m unable to switch off the part of my mind that searches for new and better ways of doing things (spoiler alert: it’s a blessing!). As a young boy on the farm, through school and university and in all of the jobs I’ve ever done, the search has…
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Value for money
A version of this article was first published in The Parliamentary Review which is a guide to best practice for industry and is co chaired by Lord Pickles and Lord Blunkett. Achieving outstanding value for money cuts across every part of operations, from procurement to HR and everything in between. The optimal use of every…
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Award entry for European CEO Magazine 2017
A couple of years ago, someone nominated me for an award in The European CEO Magazine. I’d never heard of the magazine before and they asked me to submit my answers to five questions as part of their judging process. I enjoy writing so it didn’t seem like much of a hardship. A few days…
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What is this DevOps thing?
In late 2014/15, I was interested in the concept of DevOps. There were a lot of inconsistencies in the published material so I went on my own journey of discovery to clarify my thoughts. I published this blog in February of 2016. It focuses more on the philosophy or mindset that will lead to a…