On the lighter side of things , we ask the industry experts what makes them tick . . . .

I was fortunate to be asked by two of Silicon Valley ’ s top CEOs , HP ’ s Carly Fiorina , and Cisco ’ s John Chambers , to build and lead internal disruption incubators . The purpose was to drive cultural and business model change as fast as possible across both of these US $ 50 billion plus corporations . They were formed with the full empowerment of the CEOs and staffed with in-house radicals determined to change the company that they work for . It wasn ’ t easy but it was successful as change grew from within and was ultimately embraced . Change is threatening to the status quo , and you learn a lot when you are the CEO ’ s in-house rebel .

What first made you think of a career in technology ?

When I was 15 years old , my school received a generous gift of a room sized old mainframe computer from Ferranti in Manchester . In hindsight , its computing power was probably on par with that of the first Fitbit . Nonetheless , I eagerly immersed myself in programming using , would you believe , paper tape ! Technology captivated me , and I found myself spending countless hours exploring its complexities . This passion eventually led me to pursue a degree in computing and science , where I discovered my love for problem-solving . I ’ m in my 60s now and still fascinated by all thing ’ s tech – you never lose your inner geek .

What style of management philosophy do you employ with your current position ?

I believe that if you recruit the right people , inspire them with a compelling vision , and treat them fairly and with respect they will achieve great things . It ’ s a nonmicromanagement approach I learned with HP at the start of my career . It worked pretty well for them so who am I to argue ?

What do you think has emerged as the technology trend of 2023 and why ?

2023 will be the year when everything changes in the world of IoT . A perfect storm of market conditions – the growing threat from the hyperscalers , greater investment in edge technology , the incremental growth of private networks and 5G – all change the dynamics of connectivity . We are entering a world in which IoT is set free . It will be designed around sophisticated global use cases , unrestricted by the limitations of regional connectivity providers . One of the major factors driving this disruption is the emergence of the eSIM – a new breed of SIM on a chip that can be programmed to connect to any network as opposed to our 40-year-old model on network locked plastic SIMs . This will shift the power from the regional mobile network operator ( MNO ) to the enterprise allowing them to control the connectivity rules via a new breed of mobile virtual network operators ( MVNOs ) who are cloud native and MNO agnostic .

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