Freedom and four elements

During my first week of freedom I have enjoyed a slightly slower pace but have also had a few things to do on the next stage of my life. I have some roles that are continuing. I am now the Chairman of the  2020 group in Scotland, President of the Energy Institute, Vice Chairman of Maggies ( the cancer charity ) and senior independent director of Wood Group. When you write it like that, it sounds very grandiose and makes me out to be someone important but I'm still surprised that a rebel and unconventional person like me has ended up with these sort of roles. I have to give myself a good pinch every so often.

However,the best bit about this week has been going to Holyrood palace to see my son get his Gold Duke of Edinburgh award. It's a great scheme, combining four elements; service, a skill, volunteering and an expedition, and it was really encouraging to see over 300 young people get their gold award.

Many years ago....

Many years ago ( in fact more than I care to admit to! ) I attended Durham University. As a result I receive a copy of Durham First, their Alumni magazine. This edition has two articles that particularly caught my eye. 

The first is 'Durham changes the Fracking Debate' by Professor Richard Davies. I have had the pleasure of meeting Richard during his time as head of the DEI ( Durham Energy Institute ) and know he has spent a lot to time on this whole area. Fracking involves a combination of horizontal drilling and fluid injection and is a bit like Marmite in that people either love it or hate it. In 2012 Durham published a database on hydraulic fractures which was used by both side in the debate.A perennial problem for scientists I guess. One issue that excites particular attention is the risk of triggering earthquakes, following the 2.3 magnitude one in Lancashire in April 2011. Richard and his team have looked at 198 man made earthquakes since 1929. I had no idea there were that many. Anyway, fracking is not near the top as a cause. Richard acknowledges it is a risk and one that needs monitoring and researching but the evidence wouldn't support this as being the reason for a permanent ban.

The second article is called 'Ships logs and Icebergs' by Professor Mike Bentley. A lot of stuff is written about climate change but less about the actual impacts of that change. The article refers to a newly created Climate Impacts Research Centre which is looking at a range of projects such as 

-species ranges in southern Africa

-the quantity of sea ice in Greenland and Antarctica

- the impact of sea level changes on different parts of the UK.

The sea ice project includes looking at large archives of ships' logbooks which go back several centuries on voyages for trade, whaling, exploration and even rescue missions. It struck me as a creative use of one set of data for another purpose but ultimately both about survival although on different time and scope scales. 

 

Digital Disruption

My current reading is a book called Digital Disruption by James McQuivery as I'm becoming increasingly interested in the way that the digital developments have the capability of fundamentally changing almost every industry. He talks about a disrupters mindset which is, of course not unique to the digital world. Joseph Caxton was extremely disruptive when he launched his printing press. Modern disruptors naturally use IT and when combined with the almost ubiquitous communications networks we now have this is an extremely powerful combination. This blog is an example as it is all being done using technologies developed and mass rolled out not just in my life time but in that of my children. This combination has the power to change everything,  so is anything certain? 

I actually believe that one thing is. Right at the beginning McQuivery says:

"Companies used to get dominance through scale. In the first half of the twentieth century, that scale came from manufacturing, and companies like GM ruled. Later in the century, dominance came from supply chain ( think Walmart ) or information mastery ( think Amazon). But in the twenty-first century, none of these sources of scale matter. Only customers do. This is truly the age of the customer".

I agree. This is the age of the customer, consumer and citizen. The trick is figuring out who the customer is and what they actually want. As an energy guy I naturally think of this industry and suspect that the answers to my questions have not really been addressed by that industry. We still think in engineering  ( what should we build? ) and finance ( who will pay? ) terms.   Certainly the customer doesn't seem to be at the centre of energy policy development. Yet. 

The Beginning of the End

After 10 years as CEO of SSE, I stepped down at the end of last month. For over 7 years I wrote a blog called, imaginatively, "Ian's Blog". My last ever entry quoted Churchill's speech about it being the end of the beginning so I decided that if I was to start a new blog the first posting would be called the beginning of the end. 

By Saturday morning I was already missing my blog, so decided to give another one a try. I thought, the name of the previous one was particularly inspired, so I decided to keep it going under the same imaginative title. I am going to attempt to keep going with a mix of postings about things that happen to me, interesting books and articles I read and commentary on the energy world. However, I won't be commenting on SSE!

I had an emotional send off as I left the building but within half a mile of leaving, I realised I had forgotten my phone. Having vowed not to follow Arnold Schwarzenegger, and do the "I'll be back" thing, I had to go back within 5 minutes much to the surprise of everyone who was leaving the office! I then went down to the pub to really start the rest of my life.