Knowledge democratisation, by Shaun Millican, Head of Technology sector and Business Advisory partner, Johnston Carmichael

A quick internet search for “knowledge democratisation” will come up with a plethora of articles and quotes concerning the benefits of knowledge sharing – knowledge equals knowledge squared, knowledge is power, knowledge sharing is power squared, etc.

In our own business, the effective sharing of knowledge is central to what we do. Knowledge comes in many forms and encompasses technical skills across the many disciplines in which we advise - including digital skills, soft skills, and experience, which are all essential to developing as a professional adviser. Internally, we share knowledge and insight to help our professional development, leverage our skills, and deliver better outcomes for clients.

Our education system is of course all about knowledge sharing and the Covid-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented challenges in a sector which was already under strain.  The issues are of course varied and complex, but with a shortage of teachers, particularly in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects, perhaps we need to think differently about how we deliver the curriculum. 

There is a clear shortage of digital skills in Scotland and the only long-term solution is the education and upskilling of our young people. Attracting STEM graduates into the teaching profession will remain challenging when there is a wealth of potentially more lucrative opportunities and we need to recognise that and use technology so that all schools have an ability to teach effectively, irrespective of whether they have a specialist in that subject. Digital Skills Scotland, set up to bridge the digital skills gap in this country, is an excellent example of using remote learning to improve employability prospects and address a shortage of digital skills. 

Digital is now all pervasive across the business spectrum and in the world we live in; it is not simply the preserve of companies in the technology sector. We need everyone to have the opportunity to learn in this area and making knowledge available across our education system is critical to that.

The same principles should of course continue to apply beyond education. The Scottish Government is committed to implementing the recommendations of the Logan Report, and the formation of so-called “tech scalers” across Scotland is one of the foremost recommendations. It is anticipated that these tech scalers will be centres of excellence, providing best-in-class knowledge and insight to founders with the aim of supercharging the ecosystem. 

However, we also need to recognise that tech entrepreneurship will continue to thrive outside of the tech scalers and there are already excellent programmes delivered across Scotland with obvious examples being Michelin Scotland Innovation Parc, CivTech, Opportunity North East, BioCity, EMEC, HIE Northern Innovation Hub as well as university campuses across the country. 

Some companies participating in these programmes will have the opportunity to participate in a tech scaler, but for whoever is successful in tendering to deliver these programmes, it would be nice to see an initiative which allows the information and insight to be shared across the wider ecosystem, to ensure knowledge parity for all.

An edited version of this blog ran as an op-ed in The Scotsman

New economy, by Nick Freer

In a ten-year stint with one of Europe’s top corporate communications firms in London - Maitland, which is now part of the international network AMO - our client roster numbered pre-IPO and stock market-listed companies, global brands and, latterly, around the time of the much chronicled dot-com period in the late 1990s, technology startups.  

While Macdonald Hotels and Morrison Construction were among my own Scotland-headquartered clients, I was also a member of small teams of consultants who advised organisations like Deloitte, NatWest, Sainsbury’s, the BBC, Westfield, private equity firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice, the National Exhibition Centre, and a financial technology venture that was acquired by media giant Reuters before the dot-com bubble burst.  

Now a decade on from founding my own PR agency based in Edinburgh, the similarity in the business sectors we advise is quite striking.  Somewhat crudely, you could describe the client base as ‘old economy’ and ‘new economy’ - so a legal firm or bank being in the former category, and a software company in the latter.  

In 2011, revered American venture capitalist Marc Andreessen penned his now famous “Why Software is Eating the World” op-ed in The Wall Street Journal.  Fast forward ten years, and the lines are blurred between what is an old or new economy business - we now have online banks, technology platforms allow goods to be delivered to our front door, and smart devices mean manual tasks can be controlled by a mobile app on our phones. 

Smart devices are front and centre for one of our newer clients, Filament STAC, or Smart Things Accelerator Centre, that recently launched from a base in Glasgow.  The pioneering industry-government partnership is aimed at producing Scottish Internet of Things (IoT) companies capable of scaling and competing on a global level, with a 3-year target to create more than 25 IoT companies supporting around 750 jobs, reporting revenue in the region of £750 million, and cohort companies raising investment in excess of £100 million. 

A couple of weekends ago when we did a client photo shoot at Heart of Midlothian FC , with Hearts’ Innovation Centre running one of the digital skills for young people initiatives supported by Digital Xtra Fund.  

Dragging our daughter along for the photo shoot, we were shown around the ground and kindly offered tickets to the game later that day.  Given our daughter had plans that afternoon, I did a quick offspring swap back at the house so our football-mad 7-year old son could watch his first ever live game.  In the taxi back to Tynecastle, I explained to the boy that you don’t always get goals at football matches so not to expect too much.  

When Hearts scored in the first five minutes, then added a second after twenty, my son simply looked up at me and shook his head.  Fair play.  

An edited version of this blog ran as an op-ed in The Scotsman

Shaken, not stirred by Nick Freer

After eighteen months of the pandemic, I tested positive for Covid last week.  While the medics in my family tell me it was something of an inevitability and I’ll now build strong antibodies, it was still a shock to the system after all this time.  As a bordering obsessive-compulsive disorder candidate at the best of times, evidenced by the fact that I carried hand gel around pre-pandemic, I’ve been a relative hermit the last year-and-a-half, while playing things by the book when it comes to ever-changing guidelines.  

My symptoms were pretty rough given I’ve been double-vaccinated, and definitely knocked me sideways for a few days.  I lost my sense of taste and smell too, which I can attest to being a weird one, and I noticed another somewhat less common symptom which was a general feeling of being a bit sorry for myself.  

 A lot of emails and messages these days are prefaced with “hope you are well”, and I decided to be quite up front in most of my replies -  “well, actually, I’ve got Covid but otherwise doing okay” etc.  I got some nice emails back from clients and contacts, asking how the family and I were faring. 

The upside to the whole episode, if there is such a thing, has been a series of small acts of kindness from friends and neighbours since they found out we had returned a few positives (our two kids tested positive at the same time as me, with my wife a few days behind us) - our French friend Letitia dropped pastries at the door one morning, my wife’s Swedish pal Hanna brought a box of craft activities round for the children, our German friends Leah and Ingo posted us a designer candle from Hamburg, and my buddy Raj left a bottle of Malbec at the front door after I had joked by group text that our wine stocks were running low as we self-isolated.  

I was curious to look into the figures on Covid now that I had the bloody thing and, according to John Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, generally considered to be one of the top sources of data on Covid-19, as of mid-September over 225 million people have contracted the virus worldwide.  And, in the UK context, I’m one of over 7 million registered cases.  Not wanting to feel like a statistic, I decided that was enough number-crunching and went to make a cup of tea. 

One much less disconcerting data-related story I came across last week was about an Edinburgh-based data scientist who compiled a study of how far James Bond has travelled in each 007 movie, timely with the latest Bond instalment No Time to Die about to hit the big screen.  Richard Carter, a data scientist with Amazon in Scotland’s capital, worked out that Daniel Craig has already surpassed Roger Moore (Moore’s trip to space in Moonraker is excluded) by 739 miles with a grand total 71,064 miles travelled.  

Right, I’m off for one of the vitamin-packed smoothies a nutritionist recommended for post-viral recovery - shaken, not stirred. 

This blog ran as an op-ed in The Scotsman on Saturday 18th September 2021

The rise of impact investing, guest post by Alastair Davis, CEO of Social Investment Scotland and co-founder of SIS Ventures

When SIS Ventures launched just a few years ago, impact investment as a category was still very much on the fringes - an emerging asset class still not on the radars of many investors. Fast forward to 2021, the market has reached roughly $715 billion in assets under management, according to the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN). In short, impact investment has finally hit the mainstream, underpinned by several major economic shifts. 

First, we know that issues such as climate change, racial injustice, poverty, and support for under-represented groups have been posing problems for governments for many years. We also know that there is a huge funding gap in meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. However, arguably the biggest trigger for the growth of impact in business has been the global COVID-19 pandemic which has shone a light on the need for business to play a bigger role in helping to address society’s biggest challenges.

Cue the rise of business with a mission and/or purpose. While shareholder capitalism has enabled much progress for the way we tackle some of these issues, it has at the same time struggled to address many of other challenges – primarily due to the demands of meeting immediate shareholder expectations for returns. 

Yet when companies fully leverage their scale to create a positive impact on society or the environment, the benefit can be significant. The pandemic has been a case in point. Many businesses have risen to the challenge at a time when society has been most in need, whether through industry collaboration to accelerate vaccination development and production, or through businesses pivoting to supply hand sanitiser and PPE to meet unprecedented demand.  

Operating within this new economic reality, SIS Ventures now has an opportunity to take a leading role in both supporting innovative mission-driven business ideas and attracting the capital to be able to make a real difference. 

To date, we have invested in a portfolio of eight businesses, all focused on making a significant social or environment impact. One of these businesses is Trojan Energy, established with the aim of ensuring everyone benefits from the energy transition. With a strong focus on enabling the uptake of renewable energy, Trojan Energy developed the Trojan EV Charging System. This system deploys a lance technology that can be removed when not in use, benefiting vehicle owners without driveways, pedestrians and councils. Its technology has the potential to have a major impact on meeting carbon reduction targets, by accelerating the roll-out of infrastructure which will enable greater use of electric vehicles. 

As we look ahead to COP26 later this year, ensuring that we support innovators such as Trojan Energy is absolutely crucial if we are to meet ambitious goals for net zero and sustainability.

That’s why SIS Ventures is also involved in a project helping to fund some of the great business-led social solutions emerging from higher education. As the fund manager of Impact 12, SIS Ventures is working with twelve universities from across the UK to accelerate the development and success of impact-led social ventures spun out of universities. It will support social ventures with innovative finance tailored to their needs, including equity investment and debt. The fund will also provide access to timely and expert mission-aligned finance and impact support.

While we all continue to grapple with the bigger issues facing our societies and economies, we should be confident and optimistic that the emerging wave of mission-driven businesses can play a huge role in making the world a better place in which to live, work and play. As impact investors, it is our duty to ensure that there’s an amply supply of financing to support their ambitions. With supply and demand working in concert, we’ll be seeing and hearing a lot more about mission-led business in years to come.  

This blog ran as an opinion piece in The Scotsman on Saturday 28th August 2021

From big bank to tech startup, guest post by Stellar Omada CFO Zoe Lee

The month of May marked my one year anniversary at Stellar Omada, a year like no other in so many ways.  In joining a fast-growing technology startup from a large bank, I knew I was taking something of a leap, but then again I’ve always believed in grabbing opportunities when they come along. 

After studying to become a chartered accountant, roles with RBS, Aegon and Sainsbury’s Bank set me on a definite path in financial services and banking.  Thinking back, Sainsbury’s Bank was the place where I felt my career and personal development really took off and this was all down to the opportunities that were presented to me during that time.  I was delighted to be selected for the bank’s ‘Stepping into Leadership’ programme and I also owe a lot to the fantastic managers and mentors I had during that period.  They gave me the confidence to bring my own style to the job, pushed me to try new roles and embrace any challenges that came my way.

Whilst my financial services experience underpins being the chief financial officer (CFO) of Stellar Omada, because we’re a startup there are so many other tasks that I have the opportunity to get involved in - from marketing and PR, legals, client-facing meetings and the development of our people.  At a startup, it really is all hands to the pump and the fifteen months I’ve spent here has undoubtedly been the steepest learning curve of my career.  

People development is integral to everything we do at Stellar Omada and that comes from the top in the form of our founder and managing director Colin Frame.  We’re passionate about developing young talent and, for me, it’s about giving back and supporting others in the way that I’ve been supported throughout my career.  Our people truly are our business, so their wellbeing and development is always at the top of our agenda.  

We want to build one of Scotland’s most successful technology firms, headquartered here in Edinburgh and we’re on course to hit £100 million revenue in the next five years - so, of course, the financials are important too!  

Since joining Stellar Omada I’ve developed a strong passion for raising awareness of Women in Technology.  What I’ve quickly realised is that a career in technology can take many different directions – you don’t have to be a developer or coder to be in the tech world, there are lots of other great less tech-focused roles too.  For women considering a career in tech, I would say not to be intimidated by the subject matter or the gender gap, be confident in your core skill set and the value you can add, and remember you don’t always have to be technically-minded, the key thing is to be willing and open to learning.  

A career in technology and the move to a startup wasn’t something that I had in my career plan, however I can thoroughly recommend it.  The move for me has been the best change in my career so far, and underscored my belief in being brave and jumping into new and exciting opportunities. 

An edited version of this blog ran in The Scotsman on Saturday 21st August 2021

Scotland ideally placed to reinvent the future of work, guest post by Gib Bulloch, author of The Intrapreneur: Confessions of a corporate insurgent and Founder of the Craigberoch Business Decelerator

For much of my adult life, the Scottish and British economies have been heavily dependent on North Sea oil. For the next half century, it needs to be something different. 

Thankfully, huge investment is being focused on renewables to wean the UK off its dependency on hydrocarbons. Wind, wave and tidal energy are likely to play a bigger role than solar. But there may be another source of renewable energy that Scotland can tap into and turn into economic advantage. Imagine if we could channel the renewable energy of people towards tackling global challenges like climate change, by reinventing the places in which they work.

Rural Scotland has experienced changing fortunes. In particular, the Island of Bute declined from a thriving seaside town in the 1950s and 1960s to its hotels being sold and repurposed as care homes. As a result, many young people who grew up in the Bute community left the island and headed for the bright lights of cities such as London or beyond - myself included. Ironically, a similar exodus is now happening in city centres where talented individuals are moving out to improve their quality of life.

Now, I firmly believe that the pandemic may turn rural Scotland’s supposed Achilles heel of solitude and isolation into a comparative advantage. Indeed, a recent report by Visit Scotland claimed that 53% of visitors to Scotland in 2020 were motivated by a desire to “get away from it all and have a change of environment.” Clearly, employees want more than a binary choice of work in an office versus working from home.  Might they value the opportunity to sometimes work from a different home?

Change is already underway. During recent trips back home, I’ll often hear a rich variety of accents in the local bars or find myself bumping into interesting artisans, talented artists or craftspeople who have chosen Bute as their base. A vibrant and integrated Syrian refugee community adds to the diversity. No wonder Bute’s property market is booming.  

As the future of work undergoes its metamorphosis, I believe young business professionals could be the next demographic to be drawn to the tranquil, natural beauty of the west coast of Scotland. And if UK based corporates want to attract and retain their expensive talent, the onus will fall on these big businesses to create working environments in which their people can be creative and productive. Right now, employees often feel disengaged and burnt out as the hidden pandemic of mental health creates a crisis of meaning and belonging in the workplace.

Crises can present opportunities as well as threats. As Glasgow hosts the global elite at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP26, the Craigberoch Business Decelerator a few miles “doon the watter” on Bute is hosting a variety of business professionals from across the world. They will be enjoying a Decelerator Lab—a series of immersive workshops––or prototyping a new model of hybrid working—residencies on Bute that we term “co-being.”  Participants can keep pace with the day job while choosing from a menu of activities—ranging from meditation and yoga through to guided nature walks. 

In the debate around work-life balance, the scales could tip in rural Scotland’s favour. We may find the bright lights of London, New York or Edinburgh become slightly dimmer for the next generation of young business professionals.  

An edited version of this blog ran in The Scotsman on Saturday 14th August 2021

The difficulty is learning people-facing soft skills in a virtual world, guest post by George Mackintosh, founder of global software business Eggplant and Director of Papple Steading in East Lothian

As someone who sold video conferencing systems in 1990 and set up a conference call service in 1992, I’m well qualified to talk about the inadequacies of virtual meetings! Even back then, I’d sketched out a “hierarchy of meetings” conceding that nothing betters a face to face. On reflection, maybe I shouldn’t have sold out of that business and instead waited to scoop the pandemic opportunity! But we all have to ask the question: how would you rather interact with people in business? I’d say person-to-person – physical always trumps virtual in my book.

Our experiences since March 2020 have changed the way we work and how business is done. In part that’s good: fewer commuter miles, less emissions, greater productivity, and improved wellbeing. But what’s being lost? How do you build team cohesiveness, brainstorm, agree strategy, solve problems and negotiate shared goals?

Our corporate big shots are having a tough time coming to terms with this virtual world. While some seem to be having an identity crisis – “this business is running without the power of my personal charisma” – others are deeply worried about productivity and togetherness. But woe betide the boss who tells ‘em to get back in the office 5 days a week - just think of the former head of KPMG. Given recent press reports, perhaps different though if you head-up masters of the universe Wall Street Firm, Goldman Sachs. For most post-Brexit managers, a certain delicate touch is required when handling precious and scarce human resources. So how do you (metaphorically) bang heads together?

Well, not in the office. Think about it. You’re in a team of 10 and you agree to work Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Others will work Thursday and Friday. Hey, they can't all come in now because we’ve downsized our office accommodation. So, no chats over the water cooler and no sitting by Nellie. Remember that old British colloquial phrase? Yes, learning the job by observing how an experienced worker does it. We’re not talking about blue collar industries. They have to go to a real workplace. We’re talking about the white collar lot: accountants, salespeople, HR managers. How will they learn their soft people-facing skills? I know many business chiefs are worried about this. IBM was a great promoter of home working as they slashed back on regional offices. A decade of declining revenues and a lower share price proves that hasn’t worked out well as was hoped.

One possible solution? Spend more time on taking time to go off-site. Plan team meetings, executive summits, off-site partner meetings. And how can this be budgeted, if money was the only factor in making this decision? Easy: businesses will be spending less on office space and they’ve succeeded in offloading office incidental costs to their home working employees such as photocopier ink and staples. Find a place, plan a sensibly distant date and regularly bring your teams together. Embrace the countryside. Squeeze into the 2 or 3 or 4 days the sort of things that made office life fun. That’s spending time with colleagues, sharing and solving challenges, hearing things from the horse’s mouth, doing activities and breaking bread together. Make this something the team does more than once a year. They deserve it.

Watch this space, by Nick Freer

I had the pleasure of visiting IBM’s global internet of things (IoT) headquarters in Munich in 2016, during a trip to Bavaria organised by former Scottish trade representative to Germany and Austria, David Scrimgeour.  One of IBM’s senior guys showing us around that day was a Scot, who asked me what experience I had of working with IoT companies back in Scotland.  

At that time, I was advising former University of Edinburgh light technology spin-out PureLiFi, but it was the only company that immediately came to mind on the Scottish scene.  Fast forward five years, and the global IoT market is motoring, its value set to reach over $1 trillion by 2024.  It’s important that Scotland gets a spot at the table and grabs a decent portion, rather than only the crumbs.    

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been planning for two press announcements that should help stamp Scotland’s ticket to the IoT big dance.  This week, Glasgow-headquartered R3-IoT secured a £3.1 million investment led by New York-based venture capital firm Space Capital, which invested alongside Scottish National Investment Bank.  One small step for Scotland’s already fast-growing space sector, one giant leap for Allan Cannon and Kevin Quillien-founded R3-IoT.   

The company’s digital platform combines satellite, cellular, IoT and data analytics to provide organisations with data services from any location - important when you consider that 90 per cent of the planet lacks traditional communications infrastructure and many industries have operations in remote or challenging environments.  

Space Capital’s managing partner Chad Anderson sees Scotland as “the perfect testbed” for R3-IoT’s technology and “huge demand” for the company’s services in global markets.  We were pleased to see great take-up of the announcement, including in the US space press, which has got to be a cool industry to cover as a journalist.  And if you were a space hack, surely you would consider having “to infinity and beyond” on your business card. 

Next week, an initiative will be announced, one we are supporting on the media front, that aims to amp up the IoT sector here and deliver globally competitive IoT companies based in Scotland.  As they say, watch this space. 

Another homegrown Scottish IoT-enabled company we have been working with recently is Dave Hughes-founded Novosound, which celebrates its third anniversary this year and is now selling its Kelpie and Belenus non-destructive testing (NDT) products, named after mythical Scots legends, to large aerospace and energy companies worldwide.  Novosound completed its latest investment round towards the end of 2019, growing its team and honing its product development since then.  

On Scotland’s tech ecosystem, and its prospects to become an IoT powerhouse, Hughes remarks:

“Emerging from the coronavirus crisis, the IoT sector is in a far better place than most others due to the impact of Covid-19. This is accelerating the demand for increased safety and efficiency from remote monitoring, which is where IoT really shines. We’ve seen around 10 years of progress in the last 18 months.” 

“As a country that prides itself on innovation and is home to top universities and innovation centres, Scotland has the necessary foundations to establish itself as an innovative global leader in the IoT space.” 

An edited version of this blog ran in The Scotsman on Saturday 31st July 2021

Highland fling, by Nick Freer

My wife and I have been holidaying in Scotland regularly since before the kids, in fact when I think back Scottish vacations have been a fixture right through the years, so I’ve not really felt like I need to describe a summer holiday here as a ‘staycation’.

Heading up to Sutherland in north-west Scotland earlier this month felt like more of a Caledonian adventure than usual though, a part of the country I haven’t travelled to for over a decade.  Since then, the North Coast 500 has become a thing and the staycation factor was in evidence with the sheer number of camper vans on the roads as we left Inverness, drove over the Black Isle and made tracks through Ross and Cromarty before arriving in Assynt.  

South of Lochinver, the majesty of Stac Pollaidh and the surrounding peaks are breathtaking, but it was the beaches of Sutherland we fell in love with most - in particular, those dotted in the coves between Scourie and Kinlochbervie.  We felt fortunate to have good weather for most of our stay, but I would still recommend a wetsuit when taking a dip in the Atlantic.     

Of course, part of getting away from it all, wherever you go on holiday, is about, well, getting away from it all.  It was something I had a chat with a client about before we left, as he is big on the importance of mental health on the entrepreneurial journey.   

My holiday moment of really getting away from it all came on a day when the the sea fog came in and obscured the coastal mountains.  I plotted a trail run from Kylescu, along Loch Gleann Dubh and into Glean Dubh, the ‘Black Glen’.  As I entered a world of lung-busting pain up a path that rose steeply from the loch, I passed a sandstone boulder the size of a small house and yearned to go further into the dark glen.  

It was then that I felt the call of the hills, but my ageing knees disagreed, so I turned to retreat and struggled back to camp.  On a rocky trail with sweat in my eyes, I couldn’t take in the scenery to any great extent, but the heather was a purple blaze to my right as the deep loch stirred on the left.  It was then that I felt a moment of what I think might have been serenity, unless of course it was simply down to a low blood sugar level.    

Later that day, over an ale at Newton Lodge above Loch Beag, I met a retired hotelier who had driven the 26 long miles (you could only guess at the amount of passing places) from his home on the tip of the peninsula “just for a pint”.  Like many of the locals we met in Sutherland, he was not a fan of the North Coast 500, mainly because of the lack of infrastructure spend invested to handle the increasing hordes.  

However, as we found out during our stay, Sutherland’s land mass alone means it’s never too hard to get away from the madding crowd. 

An edited version of this post appeared in The Scotsman on Saturday 24th July 2021

Protecting your mental health on the entrepreneurial journey, guest post by Rich Wilson, CEO and co-founder of Gigged.AI

As a child I always planned on being an entrepreneur, not sure where this goal came from. However, if you had said to me 3 years ago that I would be writing this article as a founder of an exciting tech start-up I don’t think I would have believed you.

After graduating from Bell College with a BA in Business (after much help from my mother when I was asked to leave for poor attendance) I moved to Germany to sell cars on a military airbase in 2005. This was a great experience, mainly as it made me realise that building an inclusive and supportive culture is so important especially as the focus on that team was solely to compete with your teammates at any cost. While visiting family back in Scotland I was asked to meet a recruitment company in Leith. After a 3-hour grilling, I walked away knowing that this was the company for me. I knew nothing about recruitment but had a good feeling about the people I met even though my dad seemed less impressed on the drive home with my lack of understanding of my new career.

So, in January 2007 I joined Allegis Group as a Technical Recruiter. I didn’t realise I was joining a $14b company which is the largest privately owned staffing company in the world. This turned out to be a pivotal move for me where I learnt about the contingent staffing industry working with amazing people who taught me so much. I won EMEA Recruiter of the year at the end of 2007 mainly due to my relentless work ethic on calls and meetings as this was before LinkedIn or recruiting software was prevalent. In 2008 I was promoted into my first leadership role as Allegis Group and TEKsystems grew exponentially in Europe. Over the course of 12 years I was lucky to lead some of the best recruiters and sales people learning so much about leadership and culture along the way. Our teams excelled and we won new clients and created new products. In 2014 I was given the opportunity to lead a new office from scratch in Glasgow and build a new team. This was the hardest thing I have ever done but also the most fun I had working with a driven team of people. The support of my amazing wife was pivotal to this success. 

However, in 2018 I suffered from serious burnout which derailed me. This was a result of chronic stress caused by my relentless work ethic (I even had Relentless on large letters in the office). At this stage I was physically and mentally at my lowest point and had to make serious changes. I decided to take some time out which involved learning MMA, meditation, ice baths and a life changing trip to Japan. I started writing about my mental health story and was lucky to join This Is Me Scotland to raise awareness of workplace mental health. At this stage I decided I needed to learn more skills and was lucky enough to join the skills advisory board of The Data Lab and also join Gartner. These opportunities allowed me to meet fantastic people and learn so much about more about building high performance teams, digital products and data strategies.

Over the last 15 years I have realised I am passionate about connecting people to opportunities and this is where the idea for Gigged.AI came from. Myself and my co-founder Craig had a vision during the pandemic to use Artificial Intelligence to make contingent hiring easier for companies and talent. This involved late nights and weekends during lockdown to take this from an idea in a notebook to an exciting start up. These experiences have made me realise the importance of wellness, delegation and hiring a passionate and diverse team who you trust to do great things. These traits will be at the heart of the Gigged.AI culture. It’s been a long road to being an entrepreneur but I am proud to now realise my childhood dream of starting a business from scratch!

An edited version of this post appeared in The Scotsman on Saturday 17th July 2021

From Germany with love, guest post by David Scrimgeour MBE

I moved to Munich in 1990 and have never ceased being impressed by the power and scale of business and the resulting opportunities in Germany. But my UK clients – unfortunately - rarely shared my enthusiasm. However, in the last three years the German Government’s trade and investment agency GTAI has been registering a steady increase of British companies enquiring about setting up subsidiaries. What has changed and is this a trend or only a knee-jerk reaction to current trading difficulties?

2019 saw some concerned businesses making last minute efforts to rent Dutch warehouses or even establish operations there to benefit from the investor-friendly tax environment. Traditionally the Netherlands has been the first port of call for UK companies expanding to “Europe” so this cannot be seen as a new development but rather as an intensification of past practices caused by the impending border controls. What is new, though, is the extension of cross-border activity into the world’s fourth largest economy.

My decision to make a life in Germany was because of a woman from Bavaria who is now my wife. And, after thirty years, this is very definitely my first home, Scotland being our second. I have spent a chunk of this time working on projects and ideas to connect business between the two countries. Mostly, this has not been very rewarding financially, mainly because of the huge cultural differences in the way that business is done. It was the occasional exceptions and the small successes that made me keep trying - similar to playing golf when I think about it!

The number of companies from the UK expanding to Germany hit an all-time record of 185 in 2019. The main attraction now is not only accessing this market but in having a continental European operation which opens up trading opportunities across the EU. In my experience this is new, it is a strategic emphasis recognising the realities of doing business in multiple markets and, above all, taking a long-term view of business development. This appreciation of realistic timescales is absolutely key to succeeding here and it has been missing. 

Ironically perhaps, the split from the EU has caused decision-makers in companies of a certain size to consider the question: “what is our strategy for Europe?”. The result of that thought process has usually been the realisation that there is no strategy! We are currently advising a London-based online services pure play which has hit the ground running in Germany and has generated fantastic revenue from day one. Now the owners are following up with a strategic expansion of their operations in Europe from a German base. Having existing customers here is a prerequisite for establishing a subsidiary and hiring local staff.

And I am very pleased to report that we have just started to advise a great Scottish company that has been doing business here for decades and is now taking the plunge. And I am convinced that there are many more companies to follow and am very much looking forward to watching them thrive in this fantastic market.

An edited version of this post appeared in The Scotsman on Saturday 17th July 2021

Postcard from EIE21, by Nick Freer

EIE21, one of Scotland’s top tech conferences which has been connecting startups with investors since 2008, took place last week with thirty-five companies pitching for investment to investors who were beamed in virtually from across the globe.  

Kate Forbes MSP, recently appointed as Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Economy, and a former digital economy minister, opened proceedings with an address to conference in which she said that “tech is my most exciting portfolio” and that Scotland is “global tech’s best kept secret”.  

After a stirring start from Forbes, Scottish Enterprise’s interim CEO Linda Hanna covered growth potential, accessing markets, scaling, and picked out EIE alumnus company Cyan Forensics and ClinSpec Diagnostics as two portfolio companies who are delivering “innovative solutions to global problems” from a base in Scotland.  

Sir Ronald Cohen, chairman of the Global Steering Group for Impact Investment, quoted a Harvard Business School report citing 1,800 companies being responsible for around $3 trillion worth of environmental damage.  “Something is fundamentally wrong with our system”, said Cohen, adding that, “Adam Smith’s concept of the invisible hand of markets can become the invisible heart of markets” and that “the 2020s will be the decade of the ‘Impact Revolution’”.  “Transparency by companies has become a new human right”, said Sir Ronald, “both the good and the harm they create.” 

Alex Joss, a key member of the UK team at this year’s COP26, said all businesses now realise the risks of not having their “house in order” when it comes to environmental impact.  One of the fancied startups on the day, OnGen, which develops online tools for SMEs to measure their carbon footprint and save energy costs, made a timely pitch not long after Joss’s address, although ultimately the pitch of the day honours went to data protection startup ionbrurst.

Good humoured science commentator Quentin Cooper compered the fireside chat with storied entrepreneur Mike Welch, who got up at the crack of dawn in his sun-soaked office in downtown Miami.  Focusing on the arc of Welch’s career, Cooper reminded the online crowd of how Mike went from being an unemployed tyre fitter as a teenager in Liverpool to running one of the world’s largest tyre retailers, US-based Tirebuyer. 

Lesley Eccles, HelloRelish founder and previous co-founder of FanDuel, talked about her last appearance at EIE in 2016.  “We had just raised $250 million, valuing FanDuel at $1 billion, but we were battling on so many fronts behind the scenes at the time.”  Eccles continued: “The number of startup horror stories I know would scare you.  How many of us have experienced a two-month runway before you run out of cash, losing employees, a stock market crash when you’re just about to sign a term sheet.”  Eccles added: “Post-FanDuel, I spent a lot of time reflecting and processing.  What defines success for me?  I realised it’s not about making lots of money, not even about building a huge company, it’s about relationships in this short life.”  

Wellbeing and mental health in 'startup world' is one of the themes that has been examined in this year’s EIE Scottish Startup Survey, the findings of which are released next week. 

An edited version of this blog ran in The Scotsman on Saturday 19th June 2021

Employee power, guest post by Trickle CEO and co-founder Paul Reid

The power employees have to drive significant change within organisations is remarkable.  

Just ask Brewdog or Ted Baker, both well-known consumer brands who made headlines when former employees decided to speak up publicly in numbers, against the negative culture and way they were treated by those organisations.

Employee Activism is becoming a defining feature of the modern workplace, and it can either work for or against your organisation.

The recent open letter published by former employees of Brewdog describing an alleged “culture of fear” has shone a light on the power of employees.  

There is a shift happening from the industrial period where employees were considered “resources” and bureaucracy was invented to control them in an attempt to deliver consistent and measurable performance, to our new world where there is a greater expectation of respect and trust from employers – as well as an element of freedom to contribute, flex and be creative as people work hard to help the organisation deliver against its corporate goals.

Every day within organisations, employees are naturally and energetically talking to each other about their experience in the workplace – the good, and the bad.  This gives leaders of organisations a choice to make: whether to tune in and actively listen, engage and act on the information and suggestions being made; or to leave these conversations confined to the watercoolers, canteens or private WhatsApp groups.

The choice of actively listening and engaging with your employees leads to empowerment.  A positive force that arises from truly caring about employee experience, and being able to demonstrate that you work together with inclusivity, transparency and agility at the heart of your day-to-day operations.

Alternatively, failure to listen can lead to employee activism against the organisation.  The negative force that can arise from disengaged employees disgruntled that their wellbeing is not being actively considered or nurtured by the organisation.

Actively listening and engaging employees provides massive opportunities to work closer together - to deliver improvements to both employee experience and the performance of the organisation.  It’s a win-win.

The alternative is having far less awareness of emerging issues, and the risk that small niggles will grow into significant problems, with employees making their voices heard through leaving, negatively influencing other employees, or potentially speaking out in public against the organisation.  As we have seen, this can lead to significant brand and reputational damage.

My experience from working with organisations both large and small over the last 25 years, is that to really thrive and perform at an optimum level, it is crucial to establish a culture where people are encouraged to speak up, engage and improve together every day.  

Employees are going to talk regardless – it’s natural.  Harnessing these conversations and improvement opportunities internally is surely far preferable to employees eventually speaking out against the organisation via the numerous public-facing platforms that are readily accessible to us all.

Consumers increasingly make spending choices based on brand reputation, purpose and social impact, so now more than ever its key to embrace employee empowerment – to use their expertise and passion to help your organisation optimise its performance, grow and adapt to the relentless pace of change that has become normal in our modern world.

An edited version of this blog ran in The Scotsman on Saturday 26th June

Scots gambit to get kids into chess, by Nick Freer

The oldest surviving complete chess sets date back to the 12th century and were found on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland and, in slightly more recent times in 1882, the Edinburgh Chess Club became not only the oldest chess club in Scotland but one of the oldest clubs in the world. 

While Scotland has a clear history of playing the game, arguably chess has lost its way in this country against its continuing popularity in many parts of the world.  Enter stage left Gareth Williams and Andrew Green, Williams the co-founder and longtime CEO of online travel site Skyscanner and Green the nation’s only full-time chess coach.  

Today, the online chess tournament being staged by Green with the backing of Williams will see over 600 Scots kids from Dingwall to Dubai play in competition for prizes totalling £10,000, the largest prize fund of its kind anywhere in the UK.  

The aim of the game, so to speak, is to get more kids into playing chess  in this country.  Securing government funding would help. Most European countries receive public funding for chess in schools and the lack of funding is one of the factors at the root of the problem in Scotland.  

The benefits of the game to kids are well proven.  Research points to the educational benefits of chess, including around cognitive and emotional skills, maths and problem-solving.  And with chess increasingly played in an online environment without language barriers, it’s never been easier or cheaper to get into the game - no need to keep replacing the chess sets in the school cupboards when a bishop and a few pawns go missing. 

From a campaign point of view, it has been great to work with Andrew, Gareth and the team to get the story out there and featured in the national media.  The mainstream UK press hasn’t taken much of an interest in the game, to the extent that when the World Chess Championship took place in London in 2018 there was relatively little coverage of the event. 

We brought in social media agency Sunshine Communications to support the campaign, and the Jenny Emslie-led outfit who have offices in Edinburgh and London have done a great job of amplifying the story via social channels. 

Unsurprisingly, the kids have been the real stars of the show, not least a 10-year-old from Edinburgh who has been putting fabled Grandmasters to the sword in competition play.  On a personal level, I was pleased to get our daughter into playing the game under the expert tutelage of Andrew Green himself.  With kids spending so much time on devices these days, chess can certainly be seen as ‘good gaming’ in comparison to many of the so-called shoot ‘em up games available online.  

Some say The Queen’s Gambit has helped to put chess back on the map, and perhaps the Netflix series has made chess cool to those who didn’t previously see it in this light, but it’s great to see Andrew Green and Gareth Williams put real building blocks in place in the hope that they can help to grow the game here.

An edited version of this blog ran in The Scotsman on Saturday 12th June 2021  

Transforming and idea into a successful venture is hard, guest blog by Varun Nair, co-founder of Two Big Ears and former Head of AR/VR Audio Software at Facebook

Transforming an idea into a successful venture is hard. It takes tremendous energy, constant iteration from failure, and good timing. In 2013, I co-founded Two Big Ears, a company that developed audio technology for virtual reality. Facebook acquired it a few years later and took me on a journey to Silicon Valley and back. 

In 2011, I moved from India to study at the University of Edinburgh. That is where, by chance, I met Abesh Thakur, my co-founder. We both had taken a break from our careers in India to study and were keen to try something new.

Inspired by our work at the University, we formed an audio-focused games company. While we juggled jobs and built prototypes, we realised we were better technologists than game designers. We did not know where to start and found support around us. University pitching competitions helped us communicate complex ideas and connect with the ecosystem. Help was available at every turn, from office facilities to immigration advice. Raising investment helped focus all our time on the business. 

It took us many months, more prototypes, countless conversations, and lots of dead ends to end up targeting the virtual reality market. Everything then became about making it work. A few years later the opportunity of an acquisition was a surprise, but not to the people around us. The timing was critical, the virtual reality market was taking off and even a difference of a year would have resulted in a different outcome.

In hindsight, the events stack up to form a good narrative, but building a workable business is a winding path with unforeseeable pitfalls. An overnight success is always many years in the making and requires a strong support network. Our relationships – with customers, competitors, the local ecosystem – made the biggest difference. Constantly measuring the market and relentless focus on customer happiness maximised our chances.

The lessons we picked up then were critical in a large company. Building teams that make technology for billions of people required new skills, but the startup experience of putting people relationships and experiences first made all the difference.

I recently moved back to Edinburgh to start new ventures. While it is getting easier to start a company outside of large clusters like Silicon Valley, these clusters have a lot going for them: strong competition, a high bar for success, and access to capital. While Edinburgh is not yet a large ecosystem, the ingredients for growth exist and there has been significant progress. There is more diversity in the kinds of businesses and the people behind them. Getting to a point of predictable success also requires the ecosystem to learn from failures. Failure builds up a remarkable reserve of creativity and strength. Fail early and often, apply those learnings quickly, and try again. 

In 2013, the thought of founding a company, having it acquired, and working in one of the largest tech companies seemed impossible. The journey of a startup can be daunting and filled with failures, but also with opportunities to learn and grow. It takes constant iteration and lots of help, yet, it is not impossible.

An edited version of this blog appeared in The Scotsman on Saturday 15th May 2021

A game-changer for Scottish-European trade, by David Scrimgeour MBE, formerly the Scottish Government’s investment representative in Germany and now working as an energy consultant in Munich

For British companies and economic development agencies the world of trade and investment with Continental Europe has changed dramatically since the beginning of 2021. Unfortunately, there is little or no awareness in the UK of the significance of these changes. For Scotland, with its claim to being more pro-European than the other Island nations, this will mean a radical change of mindset if cross-border business activity with mainland Europe is to be maintained. And we must become much more proactive in promoting Scottish strengths.

As a Germany-based consultancy we have, over the years, organised numerous events and trade missions here for Scottish organisations. In Spring last year we were planning a multi-sector trade mission from the Highlands to Munich which then had to be postponed due to the pandemic. Recently, I spoke with my contacts at Munich Chamber of Commerce - Europe’s second-largest Chamber after Paris with over 400,000 member companies – about the possibility of organising the mission this year or next. The answer was clear: “keine Chance” - no chance.

Over the last five years since the Brexit referendum most German companies with business interests in the UK have been preparing for an unknown outcome and investing time, money and human resources. BMW, for example, had 200 permanent staff working for years on scenario planning. This uncertainty impacted heavily on trade between the UK and Germany. Between 2015 and 2020 exports from Germany to the UK decreased by €22 billion (£19 bn) ie from €89bn to €67bn, a drop of twenty-five per cent.

It is vital that we realise that this massive loss of revenue for tens of thousands of German companies has dealt a powerful blow to trust in the UK as a reliable business partner and safe location for investment. The chambers of commerce in Germany also have a huge and continuing workload of enquiries from their member companies about trading with the UK, hence the reaction of the Munich Chamber.

A new economic development strategy is urgently necessary if Scotland will continue to benefit from business with Germany. We need to identify those future opportunities where the impacts of the UK’s exit from the EU are less significant and where our business partners also see potential for growth. 

I was approached recently by the Baden-Württemberg Government on behalf of a regional automotive cluster seeking contact with the Aberdeen Region. The German automotive industry is being forced by EU legislation to reduce carbon emissions and is exploring the use of green hydrogen as a fuel. The cluster managers knew about Aberdeen’s expertise in mobility applications for hydrogen and are keen to share knowledge and to develop joint projects, also with EU funding.

Another field which has great potential is the space industry. Bavaria is one of the leading space clusters in Europe and Scotland offers satellite manufacture, satellite launch capability as well as downstream data services. A trade mission on space would, I believe, be welcomed with open arms by our Bavarian friends.

An edited version of this blog ran in The Scotsman on Saturday 8th May 2021

Young people spark retail investing revolution by Iona Bain, co-founder of Young Money Agency and author of Own It! How our generation can invest our way to a better future

Over the past year, we have seen nothing short of a retail investing revolution. Investing platforms have reported record numbers of new customers, with the average age of investors edging ever-downwards. Young people are discovering the world of investing for the first time, and what an entrance they’re making. Whether it’s fighting the hedge funds in the U.S. or driving the green investing agenda closer to home, our generation is shaping stock-market dynamics in a very real way.

 Millennials and gen Z are often lauded as more socially and environmentally conscious investors, at least in comparison to older people. But we’re no angels. The data suggests we’re increasingly attracted to so-called ‘meme stocks’ like Tesla, with its questionable governance, and energy-intensive cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. 

 Many young people eschew traditional advice like ‘spread your risks’, ‘invest for the long term’ and ‘look at the fundamentals’. They’re liable to jump on bandwagons, triggered by social media’s lightning speed and enfants terrible like Elon Musk, who can make or break fortunes with a tweet. Research by the Financial Conduct Authority last month found beginner investors are far more likely to follow trends, their gut feeling and cocky influencers, rather than conventional investing wisdom.

 The traditional financial sector is starting to worry that the next generation is being lost to get-rich-quick schemes, and a gambling mentality. I share that concern. But we need to understand the young investing phenomenon, rather than rush to judgement.

 Firstly, who can blame young people for chasing high returns? Given the rough economic deal they had even before Covid came along, with quantitative easing enriching older, home-owning citizens at the expense of young renters, no wonder young people look at dire savings rates and want to do better. They feel investing offers a chance to grow their money in real terms. Their instinct is spot-on – they just need to channel it in a more sensible way.

 And to be fair, we don’t teach young people about investing and pensions. That’s why I wrote my new book – to educate a generation curious about the stock-market. Otherwise, young people, priced out of financial advice, will simply go online to get their information, often from snake oil salesmen telling them what they want to hear.

 We will all make mistakes in our investing journey. What matters is learning from them. But we also need to equip young people with the information that will enable them to spot scams and evolve into patient, thoughtful investors. 

If you’re starting out, look for ways to manage your risks, such as through diversification. Only invest directly in companies if you can commit to the research. Once you have put together your portfolio, leave it alone, save for some rebalancing and profit-taking here and there. If something sounds too good to be true, it is.

 Learn how to manage your investing brain. Over-trading, exposure to one or two volatile assets, panic when markets fall…all this can lead to serious problems, both financial and mental. Research has shown traders who experience big losses early in their career have symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. 

 The young investing revolution is to be welcomed. But we need to give young people better help and guidance so they don’t have to learn about the realities of investing the hard way.

 This blog ran as an op-ed in The Scotsman on Saturday 1st May 2021

Fledgling startups take flight, by Nick Freer

The EIE team has been running Scotland’s top tech investor programme since 2008, highlighted every year by a conference that brings investors to Edinburgh from across the globe.  On the day, Thursday 10th June this year, 36 companies will pitch for investment from seed level to later stage funding. 

We have had the privilege of supporting the EIE guys for a number of years, and there have been so many great memories along the way.  You get to see early stage companies at close quarters, some of whom end up going on to great success.  Often, the companies are in what can be described as a fledgling stage - and you wonder if they will ever take flight.

At EIE in 2016, FanDuel co-founder Lesley Eccles recalled how the founding team engaged with over a hundred investors before one, venture capital firm Pentech, committed to back the company alongside the Scottish Investment Bank.  The rest of FanDuel’s story is well documented, including around the fantasy sports startup achieving a $1 billion valuation, or unicorn status, in 2015.  

A year before, in August of 2014, EIE ran an event in Glasgow at Team Scotland’s headquarters when the Commonwealth Games were taking place in the city.  I can still remember the sweltering heat outside and the windows wide open to let in air.  One of the twelve companies featured on the day was Two Big Ears, founded by University of Edinburgh graduates Varun Nair and Abesh Thakur. 

Varun and Abesh had founded the company eighteen months previously, and while Two Big Ears’ audio technology software for virtual reality games had only been launched three months before, it was already at the forefront of its field and big tech companies in the US were starting to take notice.  In 2016, Facebook acquired Two Big Ears and Varun and Abesh moved from a small office above a Chinese restaurant in Edinburgh to Facebook’s Frank Gehry-designed headquarters in Menlo Park, California.  

I caught up with Varun, who recently returned to Edinburgh, last week and I look forward to him writing about the Two Big Ears journey in this column in the coming weeks.  

The EIE21 Scottish Startup Survey, now in its fifth year, was launched this week and for the first time the survey is open to startups outside of the EIE alumni network.  This year, the survey asks startup founders questions around how they have faced up to the pandemic, new ways of working, if funding plans have been affected, what kind of government support has been accessed, Brexit, hiring strategies, measures put in place to deal with wellbeing, physical and mental health during remote working, and plans to return to the office.  

When we spoke to Amiqus CEO and founder Callum Murray as we were pulling the survey together, Callum pointed out that after the year that has just passed, protecting your team as a startup founder has perhaps never been so important.  Yes, Murray remarked, startups are inherently about growth, but sometimes you need to push the pause button when people feel under pressure.  

This blog ran as an op-ed in The Scotsman on Saturday 24th April 2021

Empathy isn't just about being nice, it should be a stone-cold business strategy, by Andy MacMillan, CEO, UserTesting

According to a recent Washington Post story, more than 2,000 scientific papers were published about empathy in 2019—just one sign of empathy’s emergence as one of the hottest topics of conversation in society.

We’ve all talked so much about empathy in recent years for a simple reason: We’re afraid we’re losing it. Economic disparity, political divisions, and technological isolation have all taken a toll on our sense of connection and caring.

The pandemic, social unrest, and other sources of extreme stress in the last year are raising urgent new questions about how we can be more compassionate toward and understanding of each other.

For businesses, empathy seems to have become not just a value but a paradigm governing nearly every aspect of the operation, from marketing strategy to employee engagement to corporate citizenship.

That’s certainly a very positive trend. But as empathy has come to indicate so many things to so many people—one of the scientific papers I mentioned earlier noted 43 different definitions of the term—I’m wondering if its meaning is becoming muddled.

There are many flavors of empathy in the world, and one that particularly excites me is its relevance in a business context—i.e. how empathy can be brought to bear to make customers’ lives better and easier.

As UserTesting’s CEO (and I think of that acronym as standing for both “chief executive officer” and “chief empathy officer”), I believe empathy is critical to organizations serving their customers better through a deep, emotional, human understanding of their needs and wants, their likes and dislikes. It’s about complementing the abundance of data in the workplace with the realization that our employees, our customers, and our stakeholders are actually people.

A perfect storm of factors is making it absolutely necessary that companies be able to put themselves in customers’ shoes and experience their products and services as their audience does.

One, the internet has given consumers more information, choices, and easy access to competitors than ever before in history.

Two, social media has become word-of-mouth on steroids for customers airing their experiences with a brand, good or bad. 

Three, digital commerce tends to create distance between companies and their customers’ actual experience, making it easy to lose sight of the human beings involved.

All of this demands that businesses must do more than try to be empathetic to customers—they must make empathy a real business strategy.

That involves going beyond guessing at customers’ attitudes or relying on data analytics and surveys to try to extract insights. It means seeking out human insights to gain non-numerical, first-hand knowledge of customers’ real emotions, goals, and behavior. UserTesting helps companies do that.

In a way, empathy means having enough respect for customers to make the extra effort to get inside their heads, and then, in every single interaction, to deliver what they want.

This kind of empathy should be every company’s true north where customers are concerned.

This blog ran as on op-ed in The Scotsman on Saturday 10th April 2021

A data-led approach to people and performance, by Andragogy.co managing director Anneli Ritari-Stewart

Businesses, like top performing athletes, need the sense of excitement and hope that comes from having a clear route to achieving their goals.

Last year, I won my first ever physique competition through a meticulous approach to training. I found hope and mental resilience by improving and developing despite the pandemic. 

It helped me drive growth for Andragogy.co, an educational technology and managed learning business. We developed partnerships with the Marketing Society Scotland and the Institute of Data and Marketing (IDM) to help their members measure and benchmark skills with our Digital IQ assessment. 

I found the start of this year challenging and my sports performance suffered. Home-schooling while working is like trying to play tennis and football at the same time. A sense of hopelessness began to affect me. I was still exercising but not effectively training.

I found it tough because I felt stuck - and not just in the house. My progress had stalled because I had no specific, measurable plan to address the areas I needed to improve.

In a similar way, businesses are just as stuck. Most companies provide training. However, research shows that most are not addressing an actual measured skills gap.

Leaders should ask themselves; do we know what our skills gap looks like?

Endless Zoom meetings are putting more pressure on time than ever before. Training must be effective to ensure people spend their valuable time where it matters the most. 

I believe there are strong parallels between how we reach peak performance in sport and in business. It is crucial we provide people with data informed plans to help identify their unique opportunities to grow. 

It has been a privilege to work with progressive leaders like Calum Sutherland, Digital Marketing Performance Lead at NatWest Group who found that “Digital IQ provided valuable insights for how to best nurture my team and ensure everyone is on their optimal learning path.”

Susie Logan, Chief Marketing Officer at Royal London is another shining example of leading from the front.  The message “we are on a digital journey together” hit home when everyone, including the leadership team took the assessment. The project saw a 94% participation rate which provided a detailed overview of capabilities and areas that needed upskilling.    

Interestingly, before Digital IQ participants wanted training in areas where they were already strong. However, afterwards they wanted it in areas where they needed it to perform in their role. 

Skills assessment is just the starting point. The crucial work is the training. Experts, AI powered tutors, and gamification make learning highly effective. Yard Digital saw knowledge increase by 44% as their digital marketing team reached peak performance in just five months. 

My next goal is the British Masters Powerlifting Championships this summer. My training is addressing my weak points and builds strength to maximise my chances of performing. This has given me a sense of excitement and hope again.

Now is the time for empathetic leaders to implement a data informed approach and lead by example to cement a culture of learning. That will drive business performance. More importantly, it will provide people with a sense of excitement and hope too. 

This blog ran as an op-ed in The Scotsman on Saturday 3rd April 2021