Born in London, UK in 1961, I’ve been happily married to Gisela since 2003. We live in Kaarst, a small country town about 20km from Düsseldorf in Germany.
The common thread that runs through my professional journey is introducing change. My goal is to add sustainable value to every project. Not just to get the job done, but to look beyond the usual ways of working and to seek change for the better. In other words, to see what is new and check the potential benefits; to take the best and discard the rest.
I am an aggressive early adopter of ideas when it comes to new technologies, business and marketing strategies. (Perhaps as a balance to that, I am much more “early majority” when it comes to gadgets and hardware!)
As you have no doubt personally experienced, anything new has a tendency to provoke a religious war. When it comes to creating sustainable (thick) value, pragmatism is my guiding principle . My only interest is whether I can make my customer, company, project, team or task more effective.
Of course, new ideas, technologies and techniques only have value if customers or colleagues take action, so my ability to execute on presenting new ideas, coaching and motivating people to take action has been critical to my success.
I lost count long ago of how many presentations I have given over the years. (All I know: a lot!) Coaching and motivating happen in diverse presentation settings, from 1-on-1 meetings, through formal presentations, training courses, customer briefings to speaking at industry conferences.
To sum up, I am happiest when I can share what I have learned. If you are ever in a meeting room with a whiteboard, then it will only be a matter of time before I reach for those board markers to start sharing…
My journey: programmer to vice-president
It seems a little strange to write this, but I now have acquired 30 years international experience in the software industry. I have mostly worked with Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) to build, sell and support enterprise software development tools.
It sometimes seems like only yesterday that I started as a programmer in London in 1980 writing investment programs in FORTRAN IV and COBOL on an ICL mainframe.
From there I quickly moved into consulting, working on-site with customers to complete diverse technology, business management and coaching projects, mostly in the financial services and manufacturing industries.
For the last 10+ years my focus has been on strategy, marketing and business development. During this period I have also raised funds from venture capital firms and participated in a successful private placement.
Keeping up to date with technology remains important. (I have Hacker News in my RSS reader!) On occasion I like to get my hands dirty with software and technical stuff.
Professional blogger
I took the plunge and founded my company in 2007, having wanted to found my own company for some years. ISVfocus.com Limited manages my commercial projects and acts as publisher of my blogs. Although registered in the UK, all activity is here in Germany. (If we had any staff, then they would be in Germany too!)
With 30 years international experience in the software industry (I mostly worked with Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) to build, sell and support enterprise software development tools), I launched 2 blogs for ISVs. ISV Survival (October 2007) for ISVs moving to Software as a Service (SaaS) from the on-premise business model, and paasTalk (March 2008) for ISVs evaluating Platform as a Service (PaaS).
Success in our increasingly visual business world means knowing how to get your message across on video. Although I have 30 years presenting experience, selling to camera is new to me. I therefore launched the SellToCamera blog in September 2009 to share what I discover, and to help business professionals learn to present on video.
The name SellToCamera is a good fit for a blog sharing how to sell directly to the camera and learning how to get our message across and motivate our audience to take action. Remember, we are not trying to sell our product or service directly in a short video, rather we need to sell taking action — that vital next step. If we can reach this goal in a 2 minute video, we are streets ahead of our competition (many of who are publishing boring 40-minute screencasts with clip art and sound effects!)
I founded the StoryComplete blog in March 2010 to use my 30 years of software industry experience to do work that matters: helping software companies build the skills to get off the sidelines, re-enter the game and win.
Travel and see the world
Over the years I have racked up a lot of miles on business trips. I now much prefer to work from home when possible; this is more productive and removes the down time that is inevitable when traveling.
Unfortunately, my most memorable trip was on September 11th 2001 when I was flying from Düsseldorf to Houston via New York. I was somewhere over the North Atlantic when the World Trade Center was attacked. The FAA redirected my flight to Newfoundland when they closed US airspace. We waited in a small town in Newfoundland until US airspace reopened a few days later. On arrival at New York’s Newark airport we could see the smoke still rising from Ground Zero.
Probably the most interesting trip (so far, at least) was a week spent visiting investors, customers and prospects in Tokyo. It was different, challenging and somewhat disorienting, but certainly intriguing.
Certainly the most pointless trip was to Australia to attend a meeting with a hot prospect. Sounded good, expect the meeting never took place as the prospect was totally fictitious. Turns out our business partner was a fraud. (Looking on the positive side, it was nice to see Sydney and Bondi Beach.)
And finally, what if?
If I had not joined the software industry, I might have followed my interest in sound engineering and stage lighting. At concerts I am always curious to see what equipment they are using.
I like to watch Pink Floyd’s P·U·L·S·E concert DVD to appreciate (yet again) the design that went into the stage, sound and lighting for The Division Bell tour. One day I will buy a beamer to blow this up to wall size to do the lighting the justice it deserves…
