The business world is changing

In today’s digital world, nothing replaces the human touch! We are living in interesting times where purpose, transparency and effectiveness are the basic criteria for high performance. The red thread throughout my career has been development and growth.  Contact me via e-mail and let me know what do you think?


Are you prepared to go that extra mile and really live your dream, in order to inspire and impact the community that you serve? For the majority of organisations that I have interacted with, then the answer is “NO”. Organisations of the future will have to focus on their customers by telling great stories which resonates and helps their customers to remember the details and share them within their networks.

“Without data you’re just a person with an opinion.”

— W. Edwards Deming

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Survival of the fittest

In the western world we have been conditioned to look out for ourselves and we are judged on individual performance. When for example, we do well in exams or in our work, we are rewarded with awards, promotions and increased wages. People may be rated individually, but what can we do to align and more in the same direction? How can we connect and collaborate on a level where we are looking at that common mission?

As you know I am a huge football fan, so it makes sense to use a football team analogy. A football team consists of a goalkeeper, defenders, midfielders and attackers, they are all doing their jobs in different ways but at the end of the game, they all want the same outcome - to outscore their opponents and win the match. You can do things differently, you can have different skills but you are moving in the same direction and that is the way we want to behave when we are part of a team. What I try to do is get everybody to work towards the organisation's common mission. My work revolves around growing your influence and building trust with your colleagues. Contact me via e-mail for a meeting or a team building workshop.

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This is a journey

Somebody once told me years ago, the greatest motivator is fear, and he meant in business. People need to be afraid of you and afraid that they are going to lose their job, otherwise they won’t do what they need to do. I think that’s terrible way to treat people and I don’t that’s for anyone. You want to work, you work for it, and you want to work for other people with the same conditions.

The most exciting part of life is learning, and being a better listener, being a better partner, being a better father, being a better leader, being a better friend, being a better colleague. We should all aspire to never be satisfied with where we are and always try to be better. I’m fully aware that things in business do not change overnight. It’s a momentum, it’s like exercise, it’s like parenting. It’s hard work and you don’t always get to see the results of all that labour, stress and sacrifice, but you get these little glimmers that you realise it’s all worth it, and that’s the point.

I don’t think it’s possible to overstate the importance, and the power, and the potential of creating a work environment where people feel valued and respected and have the opportunity to be fulfilled in their work. And it makes no difference whether you’re in the service or manufacturing business, at the end of the day everyone wants to be part of something. And if you give me an opportunity to play a meaningful role, I’m going to give you 150%. When you know somebody trusts you, it’s like you are raising your game to meet their expectations of you. And any organisation powered by people who care and are cared for is a lot better place to work, it’s a better place to buy things from, it’s just a better place.

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Prospect theory

The Prospect Theory was developed by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky in 1979. It’s a behavioural model (psychology theory) that describes how people make decisions when presented with alternatives that involve risk, probability and uncertainty. See video below for a one minute explanation.

People usually make decisions based on a perfectly rational evaluation of the potential gains and losses that are associated with that decision. The pain of losing something is stronger than the pleasure of gaining something. Our risk tolerance are different based on the decisions we face. When we are speaking about possible gains we tend to be risk averse, in other words, we will choose options that provide lower expected returns and more certainty. Whereas when the decision is about potential losses we tend to be risk seeking. Which means we will accept the lower than expected value as long as we feel we have some potential to avoid losses.

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Smart kids are not always cool

I was born and raised in London, my parents came from Jamaica and I have been living in Copenhagen since 1997, so I’m always fluctuating between those worlds. I come from the inner city and have seen so much misguided entrepreneurial spirit on the streets. I have met bright, smart hustlers, entrepreneurs who don’t realise their essential product is risk. They have to deal with employees, profit and loss, some of them are extremely sharp and would thrive in the corporate world, but in reality they are not going anywhere because they don’t have the right frame of reference. Inner city kids don’t have access to capital, they have not experienced any world other than their own, they feel isolated and not engaged in the broader community. And from these humble beginnings is why a sub-culture develops.


Anything that is not marketed is not going to be purchased!
You can never become a great communicator if you only understand your own material and not make it relevant to your audience. Connecting is the art of the game. Communication is about connecting with other people and in order to do that you have to listen, learn and understand that your preferences, culture, ideas and concepts are not the only ones on the planet. And if you are going to be effective at meeting more people, you have to be broad enough to at least embrace the notion of how they hear what you are saying. There’s a huge difference between what you intend to communicate and what’s being heard. You have to become bilingual and learn the language of the hearer. Contact me via e-mail for guidance on the survival techniques required to sustain the things you love.

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Are you investing for the future?

It’s easier not to trust people as then no one can disappoint you. The problem is that you end up living a life where you don’t trust anybody and you never end up doing the work you want to do. On top of that our culture has brainwashed us into believing that we need to fit in and we need to work in a factory and we have to buy the most popular items. Boring…

Are you driving large and complex projects independently with many stakeholders involved? Do you have experience from working within a consumer-oriented business, for example, FMCG, retail or branded consumer goods? Contact me via e-mail to arrange a meeting about identifying your strategic challenges and developing solutions to ensure well-planned execution and full implementation.

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