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"Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door." - Ralph Waldo Emerson* Good news! I’m about to be richer than Croesus. Because I have an idea for a better mousetrap. Instead of the classic wooden snap mousetrap, or those ugly blocks of plastic that glaringly advertise that you have a pest problem, I want to build a good-looking and discreet mousetrap. I’ve brought ideas like this to life before. So here we go, let the money flow. Except… I’m reall

“Perfection is the enemy of progress.” - Winston Churchill* *Maybe. He might have said this, but no one has been able to attribute it to him. It’s good enough for this article though. Saab was known for its perfectionist approach to car design and engineering. But while they obsessed on their engineering, they lost sight of the finances. Saab put so much emphasis into designing the perfect car that by the late 1990s each vehicle was selling at a loss. Saab was in trouble. L

The stench was overwhelming. In November 1854, when Florence Nightingale and 38 hastily trained nurses entered Scutari Hospital and what she described as a “Kingdom of Hell.” The British military medical system was collapsing under the strain of the Crimean War. Scutari was an old Ottoman barracks, sat over an unventilated cesspit, with broken sewers contaminating the water supply. Blood-covered soldiers lay on the floors, dying in the unwashed uniforms they’d been wearing

In 2013, Adam Grant, a young professor at the Wharton School, published a book that changed his life. He combined his own organisational psychology research with others, in a book called Give and Take, that showed that success depends heavily on our interactions with the people around us. By dividing people into three groups; Takers, Matchers, and Givers, he found that Givers were strangely both the least and the most successful. The least successful were Selfless Givers, who

In October 1976, as a torrential rainstorm pummeled the Fuji Speedway in Japan, the Formula 1 World Championship all came down to a single decision. Niki Lauda, the reigning champion and Ferrari’s lead driver, was a talented and immensely disciplined racer nicknamed ‘The Computer’. Unusually for a driver, Lauda was heavily involved in the technical development of his cars, constantly calculating ways to tilt the odds in his favour. His main rival, James Hunt, or ‘Hunt the Shu

Virgil Van Dijk is the captain of Liverpool Football Club and the Netherlands national team. During his career he has been voted the best player in the Premier League, best player in the Champions League and he was just pipped by Lionel Messi for the 2019 Ballon d’Or (the award for the best player in the world). That's amazing for a defender, because these awards almost always go to goalscorers (only three defenders have won the Ballon d'Or in seven decades). In the 2018-19

Skiing is ancient. Archeologists have found rock paintings in Central Asia and wooden skis preserved in Scandinavian bogs that prove that humans have been using skis for over 5,000 years. By the mid-1960s, the sport of skiing had become stodgy and elite. Younger people were priced out, a generational rift was opening, and innovation had stalled. Then, on Christmas Day in 1965, an inventor called Sherman Poppen went into his garage, bolted two children's skis together, and ti

In the summer of 1492 a small merchant ship and two tiny coastal vessels were being prepared for a voyage of discovery. In a final, chaotic push hundreds of men worked furiously to fill the boats with 35,000 gallons of liquid (mostly sherry) in massive leaking wooden barrels, thousands of pounds of dried beans in sacks, thousands of slabs of salted meat, and 15 tons of tasteless hard biscuits in canvas bags were wedged in any dry gaps. Every single item had to be carefully

In 1977, an American fish merchant named Lee Lantz was wandering the docks in Chile, searching local fishing boats for a new seafood product to export. When he spotted a menacing-looking, five-foot-long fish with a protruding lower jaw of needle-sharp teeth, and huge bulging eyes, he stopped dead. “That is one amazing-looking fish,” Lantz remarked to a local fisherman. “What the hell is it?” It was a Patagonian Toothfish, a ‘trash fish’ that no one wanted and was regularly th

What is your motivation? When I started my career I didn’t know what drove me. I mean I thought I did - I wanted money, and I wanted to get promoted. And this is what I focused on for the first few years in the corporate workplace. But it was a vague ambition and I didn't enjoy the pursuit. Then I figured that my motivation should be chasing happiness. But over time I realised that pursuit was also flawed. You can be very happy just sitting on a beach, but the novelty of

In the Quarter-finals of the Euro 2024 Championships, England beat Switzerland in a penalty shootout. England scored all 5 of their penalties. Each player paused after the whistle, took a deep breath and then confidently scored. Cole Palmer took the first kick of the shootout. He scored 9 of 9 penalties in the Premier League the previous season so was as close to a sure start you could get. England’s keeper Jordon Pickford saved Switzerland’s first penalty. Jude Bellingham wa

I’m busy writing a book on leadership and the mindsets of people that take the initiative. I’ve read over 100 books in 18 months around as part of the research There were some very useful ones, a bunch that immediately found their way onto the charity pile, a couple that went in the bin, and one that I’ve hate-kept (will explain later). So if you are interested in that niche bookshop section here’s my short list of recommendations. I’ve found that these books fall into 6 bu

Early in my career, my then manager mentioned in passing that I was ‘great at bouncing back’. Not the most flattering description. You have to have downs to need to bounce back. And there were others around me who were on an uninterrupted run of success. But it stuck in my mind, becasye there was truth behind the statement. Looking at my career so far, that ability to keep bouncing back has been essential. I may have needed it early, but everyone, even the initial superstars,

I’m a Liverpool Football Club supporter. When I was a boy I was a fan of the players. But it gradually dawned on me that 20 year-old’s that had focused their entire childhood on kicking balls, had nothing of any value to say. It turns out that the most interesting characters in this sporting soap opera were the managers. Liverpool have a great history of success and were an awesome team when I was a child. But for the bulk of my life they were a bang average team, except fo

Prudence and Zara are twins. They were raised in the same house, attended the same university, and started their first jobs on the same day. At that moment they’d both built up 100 knowledge points. Prudence joins a large, stable, traditional company that provides slow and steady progression within a narrow specialisation. She does her job diligently, but she waits to be taught through infrequent training sessions. Prudence steadily increases her knowledge by 1% each year. Z

Kaizen Kaizen is the Japanese term for ‘changes for the better’, or ‘continuous improvement’. It’s a business philosophy that was developed in the Japanese automotive industry during the 1960s that focuses on making numerous incremental changes to improve operations, customer satisfaction and business results. It enabled companies like Toyota to rapidly build a reputation for high quality manufacturing, mechanical reliability and competitive value, that gave them a significa

If you had a magic wand, what would you wish for? I cofounded a business called Yumpingo after we asked a restaurateur that question. They dreamed of seeing a comic book thought bubble above every customer, to know what they were really thinking. Why? Restaurants are experiences, but they had no good way to understand, measure and improve those experiences. Why? Restaurant feedback was not collecting enough objective and actionable feedback. Why? The majority of guests neve

Barcelona FC were struggling. They had won the league only once in a decade and near the end of the 1987-88 season the team were 25 points behind the leaders, languishing in 6th place. Then there was the Hesperia Mutiny. As a result of some “creative accountancy” by the management the players had suddenly been saddled with unexpected tax bills. The players and the coach openly rebelled. “President Josep Lluis Núñez has deceived us as people and humiliated us as professionals

In 2004 Blockbuster was at its peak. 9,094 stores around the world (over 800 in the UK), 84,300 employees, 65 million customers and $5.9 billion revenues. A decade later it was all gone. Blockbuster was founded in 1985. Their stores were spacious, clean and welcoming, with a wide range and availability of movies to rent. They developed the best technology to optimise inventory and make the process pain free for customers. With a great foundation they were able to aggressiv

Eleven years after declaring independence from Britain the United States government was a mess. An impotent and poorly funded central administration was failing to manage the squabble of independent states. Everyone was desperate to find a better way. But the solution was not clear. How should the public be represented? Should the representation be based on the distribution of voters? The small states feared that they would be dominated by the bigger states. Should each state