Chris Warburton ¦ ROStrategy.com

On Being Useful

It’s been a busy few weeks – juggling multiple deadlines and tasks, all seemingly top priority and all needed yesterday. It reminded me of the old in-tray exercise – once a staple of job interviews and assessment centres. If you ever went through a recruitment process in years gone by, you might remember it. You’d be handed a pile of papers and asked to prioritise them under time pressure. It was all about how you handled competing demands in a… Read more

Creating Space

This past week, I was back in Manchester for the PSR event, discussing how we can better use data and collaboration to support customers. The weather was glorious, and even the moon popped out to advertise Premier Inn later in the evening. As with quite a few events recently, I spent some time front of house chairing, helping to keep things running along. It can be a busy time, and also challenging, juggling responsibilities for content delivery while also making… Read more

Quiet as a… Cat

Sad news last week, my cat died.  She lived to a grand old age, had a good life, and it was not unexpected… So, although it was sad, it was more melancholy than tragedy, and she will certainly be remembered fondly. Now all of this happened just before the long weekend and like many of these things, although they are something you know has happened, life is busy, had just just have to get on with things without thinking about… Read more

Maintaining Modernity

If you haven’t been recently, it really is worth the trip. I’ve just returned from another visit out East.  Flying back to Heathrow, walking across the linoleum worn by the endless stream of feet and wheeled suitcases—is always a bit of a reverse culture shock. But this time, I felt it even worse. Every time I go to Asia, I’m struck by just how modern the infrastructure has become. It really is truly world-class—new, advanced, and incredibly well-designed. Deeply impressive.… Read more

Beyond the event horizon

The other week, I was asked to review a scientific article, providing a topic explanation all the way from high-level concepts to the latest cutting-edge research. As is often the case with these things, it became quite technical by the end, with plenty of references, footnotes, and citations crediting information gathered from elsewhere. Outside the topic itself, the arc of the explanation was also interesting. It followed an inverted pyramid shape—starting with general, well-known concepts, before delving deeply into specific… Read more

Outlandish Predictions 2025?

After New Year, but before that first Monday back at work, we enter a twilight zone. There is nothing more to celebrate… the mince pies, still stacked high, are on sale… and it can be easy to be just kicking around the house. For many, of course, this is a great time to get out, head to the January sales, do jobs at home or even dare I say some DIY. Others are happy to get the jump on work,… Read more