Innovation is much prized.  For good reason as the last two centuries have seen change at an unprecedented pace, a pace that seems only to be speeding up.  In the race for change some have gained, some have lost.  Some brands have thrived, some have died.  Surely the single most important trait to have therefore…

In a dark hallway, I mean with no lights at all, waiting to go on stage at the IAB conference on RTA, I found myself being fitted for a mike in close proximity to Financial Times Commercial Director, Digital Advertising , Jon Slade.  He charmingly turned his back while my mike cord was threaded through…

“You could make a case that the interesting stuff the internet’s going to do to the media industry has mostly already happened.” So says thought guru, columnist, and creative director at GDS Russell Davies.  That’s not to say, as he goes on to say that you can just sit and think: “phew, we survived. Because…

I don’t know how much interest you have paid to the recent royal outrage.  Prince William has been refused a visit, essentially stood up, by New Zealand’s Maori King.  King Tuheitia’s office rejected the offer of a visit from the Royal couple on tour down under on the basis that the time allocated was too…

In my experience of management, the more senior Alpha males become in an agency, the more they are attracted to making decisions based on gut instinct.   It is one of the gender differences that I am prepared to generalise about that is apparent to me at that level.  Men like gut instincts, and snap…

The business model for newspapers – newsbrands if you like – still troubles the industry.  It remains a subject for debate, despite the fact that the audience that they delivered in the good old days is easily obtained in other media.  Yet, and yet, a desire to see recovery in the sector still permeates the…

We all know that a postcode can seriously affect the price of property.  Proximity to a good state school means some postcodes have seriously inflated prices.   We know too about the various “postcode lotteries”, which can influence health and of course likelihood to be a crime victim.  If you live on the “wrong” side…

“I bet Kevin Pietersen can’t believe he’s been kicked out of Kevin Pietersen’s All Star XI.” @mattwhatsit on Twitter   The cricket pundits are nicely split over the career of KP this weekend.   Hugh “the voice of sport” McIlvanney writing in the Sunday Times says he “should have been permanently banished in 2012”. He…

This is the mantra of the Government Digital Service, the team charged with digital transformation of government service provision.  If you’ve recently used any gov.uk site and been pleasantly surprised at the ease and simplicity of the transaction then this is the team, led by Mike Bracken, under the auspices of Cabinet Secretary Francis Maude,…

Sir Ben Ainslie, sailing supremo and Olympic medal winner – the most successful sailor in Olympic history – was quizzed on Desert Island Discs this weekend about his famous battle with Brazilian sailor Robert Scheidt in 2000.  His tactics at the time caused condemnation including from that other sporting knight legend Roger Bannister who called…

Google are famous for the intensity and rigour of their recruitment process.  It’s not easy to get a job there, and those who have done so are rightly proud of their Google-hood.   With their reputation for use of data, you would expect there to be science behind how this process works.  Well, there is. …

This May Mark Zuckerberg is turning 30. The average Facebook user is around 40.  In 1980, before Facebook creator was even a twinkle in his father’s eye, when the average Facebook user was playing happily in the school playground, an obscure academic at the University of Aston in the Midlands, wrote a very prescient book…