1998. A small attic above Regent Street, London. “It’s not you, it’s me. You really are lovely, I just don’t think I am the right person for you.” This was how I approached the conversation with the first person I ever fired. She definitely had absolutely no idea what was…

How and when do you set your first one up? It was our first ever lastminute.com board meeting and we thought we were going to have to call an ambulance before it had even started. We heard the wheezing for several seconds before we saw the hot face of our…

How do you find a good one? “There are only three types of lawyers – able, unable and lamentable”. This quote. came to mind as the SFX drama went to court this week. …

Going public is a bit like having children. Everything changes and no one can really prepare you for it. So as I read the headlines about Arm’s and Instacart’s initial public offerings last week, I wondered how their CEOs. were feeling. Buoyed up by the success of a share price…

Building great communities Who runs the world?” Despite much evidence to the contrary, 20,000 people in the stadium yell back “Girls,” and for a moment we all believe it. That’s the power of Beyoncé, who has ended her four-month Renaissance tour this week. I was fortunate to see her three-hour…

I cannot imagine the stress of being a headteacher right now. Beyond grappling with a plummeting teacher morale, there’s the added concern of whether the concrete in your school roofmight pose a fatal risk to the children. All of which puts my slight trepidation about returning to my place of…

“It’s illegal for us to clean the kitchen of the villa”. Things had reached a new low in relations with the manager of our rental house in Spain. With every passing day, she seemed more intent on escalating the situation. …

When asked why he was taking on the seemingly impossible task of fixing Thames Water at the age of 75, Sir Adrian Montague said his family had a motto for him: “Evil when bored”. …

How my friends death reminded me of the importance of critics “In the end, what would you gain from everlasting remembrance? Absolutely nothing. So what is left worth living for? This alone: justice in thought, goodness in action, speech that cannot deceive, and a disposition glad of whatever comes.” …