4 min read
Rewiring the Target Operating Model: Why TOMs Fail and How to Fix Them
In consulting circles, Target Operating Model (TOM) has become one of the most overused — and misunderstood — phrases in transformation.
The journal
Everything I've written
Notes and essays on the things I work on, think about and experience — across life, adventure, consulting and technology.
4 min read
The Unexpected Leadership Lessons I Learned as a Father
People talk about leadership development as something that happens in boardrooms, training courses, and executive programmes. But some of the most important lessons I’ve learned didn’t come from consulting, digital transformation, or complex delivery environments.
4 min read
The Date Somebody Else Set: Why Migration Waits on Your Slowest Supplier
Windows 10 reaches end of support today, and a great many organisations have not finished. The operating system was never the hard part. The date an organisation can actually meet is set by whichever of its software suppliers is slowest.
4 min read
The Moment I Realised Digital Transformation Isn’t About Technology
Consulting gives you plenty of moments where a theory meets reality — and reality wins. But one project, more than any other, reshaped the way I think about digital transformation forever.
4 min read
What Working in the NHS During the Covid Response Taught Me About Humanity
There are periods in your career you look back on and realise they reshaped you in ways you’re still understanding years later. For me, that time was during the height of Covid—working with London Ambulance Service as part of the response executive team.
4 min read
The Systems Are Down. So What Can You Still Do?
A car maker's plants have now been stopped for a fortnight with its systems deliberately switched off. Continuity planning answers how quickly systems come back. The harder question is what an organisation can still do while they are gone.
4 min read
The Hardest Decision I Made as a Consultant — Saying “No” to a Renewal
Consultants don’t often walk away from renewals. They’re the validation that what you’ve done is valued. They’re predictable. They’re comfortable.
4 min read
The System Nobody Can Replace: Why Legacy Outlives Every Business Case
Everyone agrees the old system has to go, and every few years the case is written again and quietly shelved. That is not indecision. The business case for replacement is genuinely weak — and the cost of keeping it never appears where anyone is looking.
4 min read
The Project the Client Hated — Until Japan Saw It and Everything Changed
Some projects succeed quietly. Others succeed loudly. And then there are the rare ones that succeed somewhere else entirely before anyone realises what you were trying to do in the first place.