Five Minutes With: Kerensa Jennings
REWIND sits down with Kerensa Jennings, bestselling author and Senior Advisor, Digital Impact at BT.
“Five Minutes With” is a regular feature that gives you an insight into some of the greatest minds in the immersive industry, all within the time it takes to grab a cup of coffee.
Professor Kerensa Jennings FRSA is a digital impact specialist, senior adviser at BT, a Trustee and Company Director at the Centre for the Acceleration of Social Technology (CAST), and Visiting Professor of Media, Strategy and Communications at the University of Huddersfield. She is also a bestselling author and award-winning strategist and chairs the DCMS Tackling Loneliness Network Digital Inclusion Group.
Kerensa was previously CEO of the Inspiring Digital Enterprise Award (iDEA), an international programme used in more than 100 countries, aiming to help address the digital skills gap. Before this, Kerensa spent many years as a TV producer and the BBC’s Head of Strategic Delivery. Her work on the BBC’s Make it Digital strategy earned the Innovation Enterprise Chief Strategy Officer’s Best Innovation Award. Kerensa has been selected among the most influential women in UK tech for the last four years by Computer Weekly and represents BT on boards, at major events and in the media.
What technology do you think will have the most impact on businesses over the next five years?
It’s hard to select just one. I see AI, quantum computing, and VR/MR/AR all making huge waves and even more so when they are combined. But if I had to put a bet on one, I might go for blockchain.
I’ve recently been looking at some remarkable case studies across a range of sectors and have seen how it’s revolutionising supply chains, FinTech, the space economy, and even healthcare and education. The power of decentralisation is immense, and blockchain’s ability to unlock multi-million and multi-billion savings will be increasingly attractive to businesses of all sizes. It works on a trust and consensus principle. Which, in a world fraught with cybercrime, the ongoing effects of the pandemic, and blurring borders, gives it the edge in digital transformation. I’ve read a pre-sale copy of Blockchain Impact! and found it a revelation.
What has been your biggest business challenge in the past 12 months?
There have been both macro and micro business challenges to deal with. But mostly macro. Some operational-moving programmes and initiatives which relied on physical interaction to virtual propositions. Some managerial — including redundancies as part of a transformation agenda. Some strategic — re-calibrating what we do in my part of the business through a social impact lens, and creating a value-based framework. And others more existential — as we grapple with what working life means for people as the challenges and opportunities of new ways of working are tested and worked through.
On the upside, I have been in awe of the dedication, resilience, and positivity I have witnessed across so many groups we work with — from colleagues to partners, to small businesses, to families and teachers, to jobseekers, to older, more vulnerable people and to charities and health workers. And I do feel really proud that my team delivered our five-year target of helping ten million people improve their digital skills and confidence in just sixteen months. There’s still a long way to go, but this was an important milestone. We’ve helped a lot of people when they needed it the most.
What advice would you give to your 18-year-old self?
Keep calm and carry on! Be a bit more confident and secure in yourself… things will be OK and you will be amazed at what you go on to achieve. Plus spoiler alert! You are going to become a bestselling author. YAY!
What and/or who is your source of inspiration?
I draw inspiration from all sorts of things…. sometimes something as simple as a rosebud beginning to blossom, hearing the rain, or a robin singing in my garden, will give me soul nourishment in a way I just can’t explain. I also find words, and poetry, an enormous source of solace and inspiration. Everything from Desiderata (which I read or listen to at least a few times each week), and Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet; to Charles Mackesy’s beautiful musings. I also feel inspired when I write myself… I love feeling absorbed in the flow of creating something.
“Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.” — Max Ehrmann, Desiderata
In terms of people, there are so many I find inspiring — it honestly feels invidious to single out just one. The person I think about the most and wish I could be like is my grandad. He was such a gentle, contented person. I yearn for that sort of serene, calm contentment. He used to sing ‘Scarlet Ribbons’ to me and whenever I need to be brave about something or conquer a worry, his voice plays in my head.
Just for Fun!
What one book would you take with you to a desert island?
Can I cheat and take a notebook and pen? If I could, I’d magic up an everlasting pen and a proper doorstop book I could write in. I’d use it for catharsis and creation.
If I’m not allowed to do that — then I would take a dual language edition of O’Henry’s short stories. Partly so I could relish the storytelling and the messages over and over again — and partly so I could use the time to learn a new language. Not sure which language I would pick though…maybe Spanish so I could read Pablo Neruda in the original when I get home.
What is the app or gadget that you rely on most throughout your day?
‘Notes’ on my iPhone — so I can write to-do lists, little aperçus, story ideas, and poems. I use it all day long. Every day. I also use my alarm on my iPhone which I set to remind me to break off and allow time to make tea and pop to the loo before meetings or to break my reverie when needed. I have a habit of getting very, very absorbed in whatever I am doing so if I don’t set an alarm I would miss appointments and forget to eat.
You’re having a dinner party — which three people (dead or alive) would you invite, and why?
I love questions like this. And I do seem to change my mind whenever I try to answer. Ask me next week and I may come up with a different list…. I am musing on Charles Dickens, Alexander McQueen, Grace Hopper, Thomas Carlyle… But for today, I’m going for Leo Tolstoy, Nelson Mandela, and Rainer Maria Rilke. Each of these great historical figures has made an impact on me in my life — and I would be a different person today without each of them. I would also love to hear what they made of each other, and listen in on what I am sure would be an extraordinary conversation.
Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina is one of my top two books of all time…I first read it when living in relatively isolated conditions at the top of a hill in Japan… years ago, before mobile phones and the internet connected every minute of our lives. Tolstoy’s alter ego Levin in Anna Karenina is someone I would have loved to have known. I am drawn to that kind of integrity. That book grounded me during a challenging time.
Mandela — for many reasons — there have been touchpoints in my life with him many times. Most memorably on a personal level when I made a TV programme with him when I was Programme Editor of the BBC’s Breakfast with Frost (with Sir David Frost). I got to meet him and speak with him. You could have heard a pin drop when he started dancing in the studio during Ladysmith Black Mambazo’s rendition of Long Walk to Freedom. When I lived in Paris in the nineties, ‘Demandez la liberté de Mandela’ rang out on the airwaves all the time. It was a pop song calling for Mandela’s release, using a very clever play on words which I later drew on for one of my short stories.
Rainer Maria Rilke would be there because a section of one of his letters is often used as a prose poem, and it becomes the talisman for the protagonist of my psychological thriller, Seas of Snow. Gracie reads it over and over again to draw strength and solace, to escape the traumas of her life. Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet are incredibly life-affirming and enriching. I love them. I studied Rilke’s poetry while a scholar at Oxford and have always treasured his writing. I also think he had the most fascinating life — he worked with the sculptor August Rodin for a time and developed a friendship with him, which in turn influenced his writing. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall of the artist’s studio…. can you imagine! So yes, putting Tolstoy, Mandela, and Rilke together would inspire some lively debates, I think. I reckon we could have a good go at putting the world to rights over a nice glass of something.
Whilst you’re here, is there anything you’d like to plug?
Thank you! Well work-wise, I would recommend anyone you know currently looking for work should take a look at our free resources at BT Stand out Skills. And we also have loads of free help at BT Skills for Tomorrow to feel more confident with digital and tech in both your home life and your work life.
On a personal level, I love it when people read my book. It’s a five-star bestseller. Reviews range from ‘the most disturbing book I have ever read!’ to “Seas of Snow is exceptional. Lyrical. Haunting. Emotive. Devastatingly beautiful . . . A book I will forever treasure.”
If you buy Seas of Snow from Projectis Publishing you get a personalised card from the author…
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