Technology transformation fails because organisations treat it as a technical problem. It's not. It never was.
I'm the person who diagnoses the real problem. Thirty years across government, financial services, life sciences, and retail. FBCS. Treasurer, BCS Ethics Committee. MSc Psychology (Distinction).
I walked into a life sciences company where revenue growth had stalled after four consecutive years of double digits. Everyone said it was a technology problem. It wasn't. The dev teams had deskilled, lost confidence, and couldn't deploy properly. I promised the CMO monthly deliveries, didn't say what. Devs started seeing their work connect to business outcomes for the first time. Growth came back. The tech stack barely changed.
At a FTSE 250 I brought five brands together under a single delivery function for the first time. Nobody could see what anyone else was doing. Then the Ukraine invasion happened and our entire digital operation depended on one Ukrainian partner. I set direction: people first, operations second. Stepped back and let the permanent team lead what needed their relationships. Sourced alternatives in parallel. People safe. Systems secure. Business with choices it didn't have before.
In government I wrote governance principles for agile delivery that are still published on GOV.UK twelve years later. Coached the team that replaced paper driving licences for 40 million people. Led a 150-person cross-supplier team delivering a digital service managing the distribution of £2.7 billion in annual levy funds.
The pattern is always the same. The presenting symptom is technology. The underlying condition is human.
beò
I co-founded beò to measure what nobody else is measuring: what AI tools actually do to the way people think, decide, and collaborate. Every organisation deploying AI can tell you adoption rates and satisfaction scores. Almost none can tell you whether the quality of thinking has changed. That's the gap beò exists to close. The founding research established that standard measurement tools in this field don't capture what they claim to. We're building new ones from the ground up.
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If your organisation has a technology problem that isn't really a technology problem, let's talk.
The short version
MSc Psychology (Distinction), University of Strathclyde. Visiting Researcher, University of Strathclyde, 2020-21. BSc Computer Studies. Data Science for Executives (Columbia via edX). Quantum Computing (Linux Foundation). GDS, Cabinet Office, HMRC, ESFA, Abcam, Cognizant, Travis Perkins, Cybersafe Schools, JP Morgan, American Express, BBC, Barclays, Tesco, Sky, The Guardian, Royal London, Ordnance Survey. Agile Alliance sponsor, AXELOS contributing editor, PRINCE2 Agile contributor, CTO Craft panel member. Keynote speaker.