Winning

I’m not a winner, I never have been.

I’ll be 50 in a few months and as far back as I can remember I haven’t won anything of significance. I didn’t win in any sports at school, didn’t do especially well academically, and certainly in what is so often a deeply competitive adult world I always find myself coming somewhere between second and last. I’ve come second in several job interviews, in one case actually getting the job when the preferred candidate said no.

For a while this lack of winning bothered me but some introspection identified two main reasons behind my lifelong habit of being the best loser.

1. I don’t have a psychological need to win. I’m often surrounded by very competitive people who can get really frustrated if they don’t win. I’ve never really cared that much. I’m much more interested in taking part than in winning.
2. I’m actually not very good at anything. For a brief time in my 20’s I could escape from handcuffs faster than anyone else in the world but other than that brief moment of pointless excellence I’ve learnt that my real skill is being moderately competent at lots of things. It’s not really a super-power to be proud of but it is quite useful when presented with something that needs doing.

That I’ve just won a Director of the Year award from the Institute of Directors is all the more surprising. Except of course, that it’s not an award for me, any more than an Oscar for Best Film is an award for just one person. It’s a reflection of the work of many, many people. Director of the Year is an award for all the people of Delt. The real credit goes to our founders, our clients, our board members and our staff.

There is nothing more satisfying than being able to help people do amazing things. That’s even better than winning, though in all honesty, having now tried it, I do prefer it to coming last.

Giles Letheren – Chief Executive Officer

Delt Awarded A Patent
1st April 2019

In line with the Delt vision of Helping People Do Amazing Things I am very proud to be able to announce the award of our first patent. We recognised almost 2 years ago that we needed to move beyond the provision of services into the design of hardware. This patent is the result of that effort.

In a spirit of driving innovation a skunkworks team was formed, pulling together the very best people in our company. We debated the setting of stretch objectives and, taking a bold leadership position, I determined that we would set something new and out of the box. Something we called ‘over-stretch objectives’.

The vision was simple. To design and build a laptop computer that was:

• Extremely low cost
• Incredibly low power consumption
• 100% recyclable
• Lighter than any comparable device
• Significantly reduced support complexity
• Not just a foldable screen (yes, we thought of that first) but a foldable keyboard too

Not content with just the hardware, we needed new software too. Open Source has been done before so we stepped up to the plate with a vision of Open Box Software.

It’s been a long and difficult journey, not without its challenges. None of the first designs were eco enough for Nick F. Steve Jobs would have been proud of the incredible speech Kev B gave around poor boot performance that sent us, heads hung in shame, back to the drawing (board), yet again.

But after all this work, this morning marks a new direction for Delt. We now Help People Build Amazing Products.

Giles Letheren – Chief Executive Officer

More Girl Geeks!
Thoughts on International Women’s Day

I’ve had the dubious honour of working on a long term basis for, at the last count, 14 different employers in several very different industries. It’s about evenly split between the public and private sector and the US and UK. I’ve worked for two people called Giles, the 9400^th most popular boys name. What are the odds? Better apparently than the odds of working for a female boss, because there is only one of those. That’s not right.

I’ve always wanted to work somewhere where your role was determined by what you did and how you did it, not who you are or who you know. Delt is that place.

The last time I posted on social media on international women’s day I was criticised for saying we needed more girl geeks. At the risk of doubling down I’m going to say that again. We want, we need and we’ll keep looking for more girl geeks. Our work experience cohort this year sees 12 students coming to sample life in the workplace but only 1 application came from a young lady. We want more brilliant woman at all levels of our organisation, especially in STEM roles.

We’ve just advertised for two new non-executive directors to join our board. This time, half the field of very capable applicants are not men. That’s brilliant. Watch this space to see who we appoint but I’d put money on not regretting writing this blog.

Photo Credit: Pete Johnson

Giles Letheren – Chief Executive Officer