Fifteen years ago, Lisa and I attended an unforgettable ‘Night with Barry Humphries‘ at the Regal Theatre with a few friends. Having just graduated with my MBA I was back teaching full time and for some reason I was not enjoying it anymore. I didn’t know why, but I was getting around to the notion that a...Read More
A sign above my desk says ‘if you’ve never made a mistake, you’ve never made a decision‘, which I like not just because of the clever use of double negative, but more due to the dig it gives to those who cannot get off the fence or those who tend to over analyse or even lampoon others for...Read More
[slideshare id=35465689&style=border:1px solid #CCC; border-width:1px 1px 0; margin-bottom:5px; max-width: 100%;&sc=no] On Thursday night I gave a presentation on ‘Naming your Startup‘, (see slides here, or above) to the Perth Founder Institute. In many ways, the name of your company can mean everything, and nothing. You could name it “Blaghhh” or “Twitter” or “Google” or “Snapchat”...Read More
It was a wintry English day in late 1988, and I took my A-Level class to the Westminster Hall in London for an Economics conference. On the bill was the the shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer (Treasurer) John Smith, but he could not make it on the day, so his very young looking 35 year old parliamentary private...Read More
We love stories. We are wired for stories. Over the generations, we learned from our elders as they used stories to widen our eyes and make us listen and remember. And so information was passed on through the ages. I get out to quite a few presentations these days, and in the past few weeks alone have...Read More
I was genuinely flabbergasted. I’d never felt like that before or since, and now, 14 years later, it brings to mind all those fake awards night acceptance speeches where the humbled actors/actresses do their best to express surprise for their win. What do you mean surprise? You were in the final 5, and perhaps the...Read More
I was recently interviewed by Business Because, a network for MBA graduates. You first studied in the UK – which country are you originally from? England; I lived there for 26 years before moving to Singapore (7 years) and then arrived in Perth in 1997 – 17 years ago. I was an Economics teacher by training...Read More
A dearly departed former cricket coach of mine used to turn up to training, survey the scene and pronounce “C’mon boys, get organised, we’re not here for a haircut!” We would all groan and start our stretches. “Not here for a haircut” has become a favourite saying. I use it a lot. It’s quirky and...Read More
On Thursday morning I attended an excellent AmCham event, with Lloyd Smith of Gerard Daniels speaking on the topic of ‘Becoming a CEO’. I first met Lloyd across the parent interview table at a school I taught at 15 years ago, as a sponsor of our MBA alumni association and also at various UWA events....Read More
Sales can be an emotional roller coaster. Some of the best sales people I have met do not get overly emotional about it, and treat it like a numbers game. Then again passion is good, belief is good, and this cannot come across if you are are merely some semi-robotic sales machine. People need to...Read More
