SELF-OPINIONATED. AREN'T WE ALL?

"Reptiles" my Latin master used to shout at us.

I was schooled at a state grammar school.  A relic of a bygone age.  He certainly was.

But it was his deputy who hit the truth.  In my end-of-term report he said of me aged 15 "He is self-opinionated".

Maybe he could see Twitter ahead.  Many folk on Twitter are self-opinionated.  I'm no exception.  Guilty as charged.

But then many of us have the experience to be worth sharing.  Here's mine from my post on this blog's objectives:

"You’ll have to excuse that my trumpeter has been furloughed.  I’ll have to blow my own!

 
Education

I studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge, specialising in chemistry, spectroscopy and biochemistry.  I find the science of this virus and its effects fascinating.   I’ve become an ‘armchair virologist’ and epidemiologist with an interest in all the virus’s consequences, be they social, medical or financial.

In university holidays I worked in a commercial laboratory, harvest-picker on farms, a hod-carrier on a building site, and as a postie.  I met many different people, which gave me a good start in understanding the broad range of people in the UK.


Career Foundations

I decided to pursue a career in business, and qualified in finance.  In those early years I worked with a wide range of organisations from a small bookshop to the construction of the Thames Barrier, from a family-run care home to quoted companies.

Final exams prizewinner, confident in finance, commercial matters, performance management, taxation, basic law and IT.

I joined a biotech, became the Head of Finance, and helped lay the foundations for it to join the FTSE100.  That gave me first-hand experience of drug development, and working with top scientists.


From the archive
I then joined what is now a Big4 consultancy (then a Big8), doing a lot of work in public sector financial planning and the various aspects of IT, including security and privacy,

Experience in businesses from local to national such as Guinness and British Gas, and multinationals such as Sony, Siemens and HP.


Subsequent Career

Over the last 30 years I have developed a wealth of experience and success in solving problems and implementing solutions.  This has been in a wide range of organisations from tiny start-ups to FTSE and multinationals.

I’ve been a pioneer, inventing novel solutions and was one of the first to make use of opportunities in using the internet.

I've written nearly 100 articles on technical subjects for my professional institute.  This blog is like an extention of that work.   I've also appeared on BBC TV and radio, on different occasions pre-recorded and live.

I’ve doubled profits for some buisnesses, including  a care home,  and solved intractable problems for others. All confidential, of course.

This has often involved looking at an organisation from every conceivable angle, for every department and external stakeholder.  Together with every level of staff, from the CEO and CFO managing the business to middle managers and the more junior personnel carrying out the work.

Looking at the detail whilst keeping an overview.  Managing projects, heading up task forces and leading strategy steering groups with the CFO at FTSE level.


RELEVANCE TO COVID-19

My 360 degree approach to solving problems means my skills and experience are ideally suited to addressing the wide-ranging challenges of COVID-19.  Especially with my scientific background.

I often share mainstream views, including serious criticism of much of what the UK government has done.  But my experience can mean I will sometimes hold views contrary to the mainstream.  Here’s some examples:":

Onwards and upwards!




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