AI innovation for enterprise events
An interview on CaptionHub Live — real-time, zero-latency AI subtitling that opens live events worldwide to bigger, more diverse audiences in up to 130 languages.
MultiLingualRead ↗
Writing
The archive
Briefings on AI, markets and media, earlier policy commentary, and a shelf of press cuttings. Newest first.
Articles and essays
Nailing your company messaging with the message pyramid
Most companies have plenty to say. What they usually haven't done is decide which part matters most, and the message pyramid is a simple way to force that decision.
Sales-led vs product-led vs hybrid: choosing the right GTM motion
Few decisions shape a B2B SaaS company more than its go-to-market motion. It determines who you hire, how you price, what you build and how fast you can grow. Yet many companies choose a motion based on trends rather than fit.
Pipeline coverage ratios: what 3x actually means
"We need 3x pipeline coverage" is one of the most repeated rules in B2B sales. It is also one of the most misunderstood. Used blindly, it can leave teams either overconfident or chasing pipeline they don't need.
Account-based marketing on a small budget
Account-based marketing (ABM) is often associated with expensive platforms, intent data subscriptions and large teams. But the core idea – focusing effort on a defined set of high-value accounts – works just as well for a team of two or three.
Pricing is a GTM decision, not a finance decision
In many B2B SaaS companies, pricing is set by finance or the founders and then handed to sales and marketing to execute. But pricing and packaging shape almost every part of go-to-market – from who you target to how deals are run.
Shortening the enterprise sales cycle
Enterprise deals are slow by nature. Multiple stakeholders, security reviews, legal negotiation and budget cycles all add time. But much of the delay in a typical enterprise deal is avoidable.
Net revenue retention as a GTM metric
For years, go-to-market in B2B SaaS focused almost entirely on new logos. Today, net revenue retention (NRR) is recognised as one of the most important indicators of long-term growth – and it belongs at the centre of the GTM plan.
Designing expansion plays that don't feel like upselling
Expansion revenue is one of the most efficient sources of growth in B2B SaaS. But poorly timed or generic upsell attempts can damage trust and even increase churn. The best expansion plays feel like help, not a sales pitch.
RevOps for scale-ups: the minimum viable stack
As SaaS companies grow, the temptation is to solve every problem with a new tool. The result is often a bloated tech stack, disconnected data and a RevOps team that spends more time on integrations than insight. Scale-ups need a minimum viable stack first.
How AI agents are reshaping the SDR role
The sales development representative (SDR) role has long been the entry point into B2B sales. With AI agents now capable of researching accounts, writing personalised outreach and handling early responses, the role is changing fast.
Rockets, models and a $60 billion IDE: the six months that changed the AI map
Anthropic hits $47 billion annualised revenue and files a draft S-1. SpaceX IPOs at a $2.4 trillion market cap while losing billions on AI. And a $60 billion IDE deal that will define where enterprise AI's centre of gravity actually sits.
A great year for YouTube — and the battle lines being drawn in AI
Media distribution concentrates over YouTube, AI consolidates rather than corrects, Anthropic closes a $13 billion Series F, and re:Invent goes all-in on agents. Notes from a frantic conference season.
GPT-5 looms as the trillion-dollar arms race accelerates
OpenAI hits a $12bn run-rate with 700m weekly users, Anthropic chases a $170bn valuation, and the capex arms race reshapes both finance metrics and the climate debate.
Europe's digital sovereignty alarm
With US hyperscalers controlling two-thirds of Europe's cloud, Brussels is finally sounding the alarm. On EuroStack, 'sovereignty washing', and the stories that prove it can be done.
Browsers, Grok's meltdown, and Nvidia's $4 trillion
OpenAI and Perplexity take the browser fight to Google, Grok melts down then ships Grok 4, and Nvidia becomes the first company ever worth $4 trillion.
The AI-native company and AI's energy bill
Less 'quiet revolution', more 'industrial rave'. On companies shipping in days not months, AI's doubling electricity appetite, and Nvidia's march toward $4 trillion.
The Godfather's warning: Hinton, blackmail tests, and the safety window
On the solstice, a reflection on Geoffrey Hinton's escalating fears — and a week where top models resorted to blackmail in tests and Big Tech kept slashing staff.
Claude 4, Veo 3, and the data land-grab
A week of frontier launches and the rising value of real-world data — Meta's $29bn Scale AI bet, Clay at $3bn, and a Bank of England holding pattern.
HAL's heirs: shutdown-defying models, Veo 3, and a $6.4bn hardware bet
Models refusing to shut down, OpenAI buying Jony Ive's hardware startup, Anthropic's revenue tripling in five months, and Google's wild new video generator.
From vibe coding to vibe capitalism
A Saturday-morning idea shipped to the team by Monday, no dev resource needed. On the tooling underpinning hyper-growth, GTC 2025, and a word on public ownership.
Scrapping NHS England: a brief history of funding and public structures
Abolishing NHS England is politically symbolic — but the history of NHS reform suggests big, frequent restructures rarely improve outcomes. Why public services are not cars.
Musk, DOGE, and the week in AI
Running the public purse is not running a manufacturing company. Plus DeepMind robotics, Anthropic's $3.5B raise, China's 'embodied AI', and VC consolidation.
The Anthropic Economic Index, brain-to-text, and a rocky market
Anthropic opens up data on AI's impact on labour, Mira Murati launches a lab, Meta decodes unspoken sentences, and Palantir tumbles. A week at the economics–AI intersection.
AI is error-strewn: when over half the summaries get it wrong
A BBC study found most AI news summaries riddled with errors. On hybrid models, the open-source pivot, Arm's gamble, and whether we're outsourcing our minds too fast.
Sora, Synthesia and the synthetic-media step-change
Text-to-video is here, AI presenters are reshaping corporate comms — and a question worth sitting with: how much of the drudgery in creative work is the art itself?
AI models: a new contender emerges
DeepSeek's R1 — trained for ~$5.6M — wiped nearly $1 trillion off the market in a day. The Sputnik moment, the chip fallout, and tighter export controls.
Voice, video and the enterprise: notes from LocWorld and NAB
Voice and speech are the hot space of the moment. On the end of AI anxiety in big enterprises, the murky law of synthesised voices, and why LLMs are getting worse at chess.
Identifying AI-generated content: SynthID from Google DeepMind
Google DeepMind ships watermarking that's imperceptible to humans but detectable by machines — a small, important step for provenance in a synthetic-media world.
A note about intelligence
LLMs are bounded by the edges of our own language. A reflection on what 'intelligence' even means — plus interoperability, edge models, and a shout-out to founders.
Apple Intelligence, Meta's open-source gambit, and the desktop AI tools changing how we work
Back from IBC in Amsterdam: a model battle royale, a semiconductor power struggle, and why Granola won over a hard-to-impress team without anyone having to sell it.
The doozy AI summer continues
The arms race hasn't slowed — an EU AI Act, an Intel bloodletting, a benchmark shake-up, and the question everyone's asking out loud now: is this a bubble?
A large week for large models
Meta's Llama 3.1 makes the case for open source, Cohere raises $500M for enterprise AI, Mistral goes Large again, and OpenAI takes aim at search. The arms race is well underway — to what end?
Occupy London: A space for real debate
I visited Occupy London at St Paul's for the second time in as many weeks last night. It was the most exciting thing I have been part of for a long time.
Time for a revolution?
The International Labour Organisation today reported that the world faces a second and deeper jobs recession, which could lead to further social unrest — as seen in…
New global realities: Asia Pacific
A recent business trip to Perth, Western Australia offered a vivid snapshot of the region's momentum. Western Australia is buzzing with growth. New mining explorations…
Causing a splash: maritime industry rejects EU emissions trading scheme
The shipping industry is the latest sector to challenge the EU on its inclusion of maritime activities in the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme. Following the…
Living below the line: what would you hunger for?
Last week my husband and I attempted to live below the poverty line, currently defined by the World Bank as living on less than $1.25 (approximately £1) per day. For…
Desperate oil junkies in search of the final fix
Recent press reports have carried interesting and frankly alarming news about oil exploration. It seems that the boundaries for exploration and exploitation are…
Riots, the aftermath: I predicted a riot
The government called the riots sheer criminality. Some local youth leaders condemned them as 'nothing more than a thief's mentality'. These descriptions may capture…
Boris Brush's brooming army: does big clean-up equal Big Society?
The courts are creaking, the politicians are politicking and the dust is settling in the aftermath of an extraordinary week of civil unrest — or what some consider…
Big is not always best
On a homeward flight from Dubai on a new Airbus A380 — the world's first double-decker commercial jet liner, with 509 seats — I find myself sitting among a small…
Well-being: taking its place on the global stage?
This week, the UN General Assembly called on member states to pursue public policies that give greater consideration to the importance of happiness and well-being in…
Turbulence ahead: airlines and the EU emissions trading scheme
The EU Emissions Trading System, which began on 1 January 2005 covering energy-intensive industrial installations, is being extended from January 2012 to include air…
Pensions Bill 2011: retiring at 60? Dream on
The Pensions Bill is currently going through Parliament. The first key reform is an increase in the State Pension Age, raising the age at which women begin to receive…
Government IT: it doesn't have to be so hard
The Institute for Government recently published System Error: Fixing the Flaws in Government IT — a comprehensive and much-needed attempt to catalogue why government…
The Alternative Vote: yes or no?
The vote is a remarkable thing. It is key to a free and fair society. On 5 May 2011, voters have the chance to decide whether to keep the First Past The Post system or…
Eric Pickles: disconnected and not caring for carers
Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Eric Pickles has a mantra: councils do not need to cut frontline services. Instead, they should cut senior…
Carbon offsetting: is the price right?
A visit to a project in northern Nicaragua run by Taking Root, a Canadian non-profit, offers an interesting insight into carbon offsetting. The organisation uses…
Practitioner's perspective: how will pay cuts impact policing and crime?
There are perhaps two issues here, and I simplify because you could write a dissertation on each. The first is the impact of cuts on the number of officers and staff —…
Arts cuts: all change — or is it?
Three years ago it was hardly imaginable that Regularly Funded Organisation (RFO) status would be abandoned. Being an RFO did three things: it guaranteed a fixed level…
Adult social care must abandon targets and deliver the spirit of personalisation
As the financial year draws to a close, Adult Social Care Departments are pulling together their activity data: counting assessments and reviews completed, packages of…
Fukushima fall-out: who is Japan's friend now?
Faced with a devastating earthquake, an overwhelming tsunami, an unforeseen and potentially life-threatening nuclear fallout, huge social upheaval and a resulting loss…
Are the public fairly represented in our political system?
2010 was a good year for advocates of greater gender and minority representation in Parliament. Of the 650 MPs elected, 143 (22%) were women — the highest number and…
Practitioner's perspective: police cuts
A former Assistant Chief Constable of a British police force writes on the realities of police cuts.
Vocational education: Professor Alison Wolf comments
Professor Alison Wolf is the Sir Roy Griffiths Professor of Public Sector Management at King's College London, specialising in the relationship between education and…
Measuring the value of culture
The new Measuring Cultural Value programme — funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Arts and Humanities Research Council, and the Economic and…
Vocational education: failing our future
Academic education is not the only route our children can take towards a better future — nor should it be. Yet it appears we are letting them down when it comes to the…
Seeing the wood for the trees
2011 is the International Year of Forests, a UN initiative celebrating forests for people. As well as providing a vital carbon sink, unique habitats for biodiversity…
January 25 Revolution, Egypt
For the past month, the world — and particularly Europe and the US — has been watching events unfold from Tahrir Square in Cairo. The January 25 Revolution, a…
Cuts to the arts
29 March 2011 is the day that arts organisations which receive regular funding in England will learn their fate, as Arts Council England implements the 29.6% cut…
Time to act
The play Greenland does the message justice, limited only by the realities of theatre: it is not broadcast free of charge to every school and family on the planet, and…
UK makes changes to Control Orders
The government announced changes to terrorism control orders, replacing them with what it described as 'significantly increased resources for surveillance'. Critics…
Fitter, healthier, happier, more productive
Governments have for some time been paying more than lip service to the idea that GDP may not be the most effective indicator of social progress. We can compare the UK…
Control Orders: complex decisions for Coalition and society
As we progress as a society it naturally becomes harder to balance higher expectations of civil liberties with the requirements of national security.
Poll: should we have Control Orders in the UK?
Should we have control orders in the UK? Options: Yes / No / An amended form of order.
A question of economic or strategic necessity?
The Thatcher government replaced Polaris with Trident. Just before that decision was taken, the Commons defence select committee announced it would hold an inquiry…
Value for money, or the Emperor's New Clothes?
Apparently £1.2 billion will be spent on maintaining the deterrent beyond its shelf-life to allow for the deferred programme and the savings outlined in the…
Trident: Parliament can't account for multi-billion spend
The cost of long-lead items for replacing Trident — in plain English, the big contracts for years of work — cannot be accounted for, according to Liam Fox, Defence…
Blair on Trident: how nuclear doctrine is decided
As 2010 sees the exit of the Labour government, the public can turn to the autobiographies of Blair and Mandelson for a reminder of the past thirteen years. Blair…
New Labour 2: the Scottish contingency
Some people believe that the decision on Trident owes more to defence of the coalition than to defence of the realm.
Conservatives get it wrong again
In the past week, contradictory answers have been given in Parliament regarding long-lead contracts for the replacement of Trident. On one day the government stated…
SDSR: if you're going to make an omelette…
If you're going to make an omelette you need to break some eggs — or in this case, put them back in the cupboard and go hungry whilst they go off.
The SDR is dead, long live the SDSR
The Strategic Defence and Security Review 2010 was published this week. Part 3 covers the nuclear deterrent.
Deciding to delay: a decision on replacing Trident pushed past 2015?
According to media reports this past week, the Coalition may announce a delay to the decision to replace Trident until after the next election, currently scheduled for…
National Security Council: last chance saloon?
The NSC, chaired by the Prime Minister and deputised by Nick Clegg, is meeting for the final time today before the government expects to publish its SDSR, which will…
Wrong, wrong and wrong again: British press continue to misreport the cost of replacing Trident
This is not an argument for scrapping Trident on cost grounds — it is simply an attempt to point out how inaccurately the press continues to report the cost of…
Coalition confirms go-ahead for Trident replacement
That is why we will maintain Britain's nuclear deterrent and will go ahead with the Trident replacement programme," said Liam Fox, Defence Secretary, on the final day…
What nuclear weapons do other countries have?
This post sets out which countries hold nuclear weapons, divided into four categories: Nuclear-Weapon States, Non-NPT Nuclear Weapons Possessors, States of Immediate…
Defence Committee reports SDSR is being rushed, putting objectives at risk
We conclude that mistakes will be made and some of them may be serious.
Coalition in dodgy waters on decision to delay Trident replacement?
The BBC reported on 16 September 2010 that a row had broken out about the decision to delay Trident replacement. Will the Coalition seriously consider such a delay…
A tough timetable for tough decisions
The timetable to build the successor nuclear deterrent is very much reliant on the current submarine industry — one dominated entirely by BAE Submarine Solutions, with…
Press cuttings
James Jameson wins LocWorld's 16th Process Innovation Challenge
Named 2024 Innovator of the Year – Europe at LocWorld51 in Dublin for CaptionHub Live — real-time, zero-latency AI live-subtitling in 130 languages.
LocWorld — Process Innovation ChallengeRead ↗
CaptionHub launches AI-enabled real-time subtitling app
CaptionHub Live brings no-latency, fully synchronised multilingual subtitling to flagship events in 90+ languages.
BroadcastRead ↗
Reaching for the Starlings: 15 health and fitness entrepreneurs to watch in 2021
Named among 15 UK health and fitness entrepreneurs to watch in 2021, in partnership with Starling Bank.
Great British Entrepreneur AwardsRead ↗
The new fitness app that lets you book any class in London
A review of Rise Today, the on-demand marketplace that lets you book any fitness or wellbeing session in London — boxing to barre, PT to Pilates — from one app.
HealthistaRead ↗
A vital link in high-speed growth
The UK's HS2 project could offer Chinese rail manufacturers a foothold in developed markets.
China Daily AfricaRead ↗
What can companies learn from the Thomas Cook report?
Justin King's report into Thomas Cook's failings — following the death of two children at a Corfu resort — gave 50 recommendations for the travel industry.
Health & Safety MattersRead ↗
Comment: the auto industry cannot leave operational risk to chance
With GM employing 212,000 people across 396 facilities and VW spanning 118 plants worldwide, the difficulty of maintaining visibility across global third-party supply chains is acute.
Automotive WorldRead ↗
In the spotlight: health and safety
Operational risk in a global cement industry enjoying record growth — from the Lafarge–Holcim merger to the WBCSD's new reporting standards.
World CementRead ↗
Germanwings, 9/11 and the law of unintended consequences
On the Germanwings disaster and the cockpit reinforcements introduced after 9/11 — when a security measure designed to prevent one catastrophe may have enabled another.
IFSEC InsiderRead ↗