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It’s important to take a position which lets you look at the bigger picture  

Neil-Crockett
Disruption can lead to changes in the way the whole market works, believes Neil

Should Be the Business turn out to be just another “programme” delivering a set of outputs to the business community then Neil Crockett, former chief digital officer at Rolls-Royce, sees a very definite ceiling for the whole endeavour.

If, however – and this is where he is excited – it becomes a “movement”, then that is a very different proposition that could positively affect the UK as a whole. “If it sparks off an enthusiasm that brings in people who come with their own ideas and then do their own thing so that it all becomes ‘viral’ and scales up, then Be the Business could be transformational,” he added.

It turns out that Neil has spent much of his career contemplating how, exactly, to inspire people to think bigger like this. “People need to want to do it,” he believes. “If you’re in leadership, your job is to make people enthusiastic – and unless you can bring people with you, then it just won’t happen when you leave the room.”

With his career having recently entered its fifth decade, Neil brings lots of “scar tissue” to the Be the Business Fellows programme – the bruises of multiple battles. “I think that’s really significant,” he commented, “because it’s more important to learn from your lessons than talk about your victories.”

He has expertise in marketing, business development and finance – as well as an awareness of technology and how it can be applied to maximise value to a business. “I can help people to adopt tech in a way that gets innovation to their business successfully,” he said.

Having started out in the late 1970s as an accountant, Neil soon made a career switch and moved into sales at Xerox – though he readily admits that he has no idea how to fix a photocopier. “I’ve always been much more interested in what technology can do and what business impact it has as opposed to how the technology works,” he commented. “But I’ve always been very careful to make sure that whenever I set up teams that I have a brilliant technologist with me. Whilst I understand technology, I think my role is to work out how it’s applied, how it brings value, and what impact it can have.”

There are far too many CEOs of tech SMEs, he feels, that become embroiled in the nitty gritty of what’s under the hood – when they should be looking at their business through a lens with a wider angle. “It’s something I learned when I was at Rolls-Royce,” he said. “You’ve got to step off the dance floor and stand on the balcony. You need to take a position which lets you look at the bigger picture of things.”

For the UK as a whole, the bigger picture right now, says Neil, is all about facing up to economic disruption because of Brexit, lack of demand because of the coronavirus, and finding the right talent to enable businesses to do new things.

“Also,” he added, “I think we need to realise that we all work in the same economy. We’ll only get stronger if we all try and find ways to keep energy coming into the sector.”

Neil is former chief digital officer at Rolls-Royce and has also filled senior roles at Cisco Systems and Compaq Computers. From 2013 to 2016 he was the CEO of Digital Catapult, a national non-profit set up to accelerate innovation across the UK, and he is currently a board advisor for Monolith AI. He is also on the board of trustees at children’s charity Barnardo’s and is a member of the Innovation panel for the Queens Awards for Industry.

Quick-fire questions

Who is or who was your business inspiration?

The person that was probably most impactful is (former Cisco UK and Ireland CEO) Phil Smith. In terms of his people approach to leadership and cultural approach, he was very inspiring.

What would be your personal productivity tip?

We all start the day with the easy things first, which is natural, but after that warm-up exercise the next task has got to be the most important thing of the day. We also need to try and understand our rhythms. I’m not particularly good just after lunch, but I’m really good first thing in the morning and last thing at night. Be aware of your body rhythm because we’re not just robots.

What do SMEs need to watch out for right now?

Disruption is a big thing. Throughout my career I’ve met people at different times saying, “We’re protected because we have this contractual or legislative or structural advantage”, but what you’ve got to be watching out for are complete disruptions of your business model. It’s not just about manufacturing something cheaper; disruption can lead to changes in the way the whole market works.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

It was from my dad and it was “You’ve got two ears and one mouth”. And also – and I can’t remember who said this – someone once said that if you’re a leader, you need to make people want to do it. It’s obvious, isn’t it? Unless you can bring people with you and with enthusiasm, then when you leave the room, it won’t happen. All of the people who were my inspirations have had the ability to get people to want to do it – that’s the magic dust of leadership.

If you had gone down a completely different career path, what would you like to have been?

I like a good debate, so I probably would like to have been a barrister. When I left university my career was at the point where I could either join an EU course in Italy for political analysts, or go into accountancy, and I went to accountancy – so I could also have ended up being a political analyst and involved in politics in some way, which would have been an interesting, different world.

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