dilettante

9117 Dilettante or Generalist

Although I have been dedicated to my career throughout my life, paradoxically the immediate object of this dedication has varied quite significantly over the period.

I can't remember that I had any particular ambitions much before I became a teenager. I guess my only ambitions, chosen for me by my parents and in particular by my mother, was to ‘get on academically’. Thus, even as a toddler, I remember my mother talking about the ‘scholarship’ -- the way to get academic awards and rewards.

In my teens, however, I started to develop some ideas. At one stage, for a brief moment after I had seen a lot of ballet on television, I even wanted to be a ballet dancer. I have always hankered after some form of creative endeavour and, later when I left school, I would very much have liked to be a film director. It was only much later in my life that I did anything at all artistic, and that is being an author.

For most of my teens, however, the tacit ambition which ruled my life was that of being a scientist. More specifically, based on my reading of books about astronomy, I wanted to be what is now called an astrophysicist. I was fascinated by the mechanisms which had created the galaxy and our solar system. My route to this, however, was always through the more general subject of physics. Accordingly, I was dedicated to physics; to extent that I chose to study physics at Imperial College rather than science in general elsewhere.

In going to Farnborough, I was -- on the other hand -- indulging my interest in engineering. I had become fascinated with the design of rocket engines: and thought that was what I was going to do at Farnborough.

All of this was superseded when I fell in love with economics in the sixth form at school. I should say, though, that I had been interested in business for a long time. I was very involved in the company set up by my parents and Uncle Bill -- G&M Chemicals. I talked, and thought endlessly, about this; and quite often saw my future as an entrepreneur, though it is not clear how this meshed with my intention to become a scientist.

But, once I had stumbled on Samuelson's undergraduate textbook in the sixth form, I was hooked. I was by then committed to going to Imperial College but, at the time, it was my intention to follow this up with a degree in economics. Eventually I realized that I wouldn't be funded by the government for second-degree -- so that disappeared out the window. Instead, I tried to get a Harkness Scholarship to study at Harvard Business school. I didn't get the Harkness, but I got into Harvard and was prepared to invest something like £30,000 in order to attend that institution. It would have been a good investment. The problem was that Harvard -- in the small print -- said they wanted me only after I had undertaken five years of working in business. When that time came along I had family, so was much less able to afford it. In particular, though, I had already run businesses with turnovers into seven figures; where the classical Harvard MBA approach involved case studies where you simulated such businesses. I reckoned my real-life experience was already better than this. In any case my career was already developing well without an MBA.

Thus it was that I came out of Imperial without any really clear intent. Whilst at Imperial, based on my work with the International Relations Club and anti-apartheid movement, I had dreamed of working for UNESCO in the Third World. That was never to be at that time, for I had a living to earn; though of course some 30 years later I was finally to achieve this impossible dream in Ethiopia. As a result, I decided that I wanted to move into management, this being as near an entrepreneur as I could get. I did the rounds and nearly got onto several management training programmes, but ultimately I ended up at FCB in an advertising agency. However, that was no bad move, since agencies were then the very trendy start of any career.

I moved from there to brand management and marketing management, as that was the career set out for me once I had chosen marketing. It is worth admitting, at this stage, that much of my subsequent career has in fact been the result of serendipity. I have opportunistically capitalized on directions that have been thrust on me by outside events.

My move to BTR and general management was, though, still in line with the career path to senior management. My move out of this into IBM, on the other hand, was definitely not part of any plan. Indeed, IBM was in many respects marking time; while my family grew up. Even then, however, I took the opportunity to become a local councillor and to develop my career in this direction. My eventual escape from IBM, was of course forced on me -- another change due to outside circumstances.

Equally my move to the Open University was a lucky break. It was something I had definitely wanted to do, but had never expected to have the opportunity. Even more serendipitous was my working in Ethiopia. With my involvement in international diplomacy at such a high level, it more than met my dreams as a student. But, again, it was pure accident -- I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

My work with the Futures Observatory was, on the other hand, something that I had been following for most of my life. I had been fascinated by science fiction in general, and futurology in particular, for a number of decades. Even so, it was serendipity that it all came together with the course -- B885 -- at the Open University Business School.

The final denouement, being forced out of the OU -- might be considered a low point. On the other hand, it has at least provided me with the time and resources to bring together this book. So, in some rather perverted sense it might be considered to provide a happy ending!

Looking back on my career, indeed, it was made out of such a series of opportunistic spurts -- interspersed with equally dramatic failures. It has, though, covered the whole gamut of jobs, across almost a complete range of industries. Indeed, the jobs I have undertaken at various times have been:

Advertising

Baby foods

Biomedical equipment

Biscuits

Blood banks

Computer retail

Computer software

Computer-based training

Consultancy

Footwear

Government ministries

Higher education

Hospitals

Household cleaners

Laboratories

Lifelong learning

Local government

Mainframe computers

Market research

Medicine

NGOs

Personal computers

Pharmaceuticals

Pipe tobaccos

Print Media

Promotion

Research

Retailing

Rubber manufacture

Supermarkets

Television receivers

Television media