Author: Simon Sole

Simon had three related careers: military engineer/intelligence analyst, entrepreneur and finally film maker and investor in technology companies. Highlights of the Army career included teaching at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, engineering in Bosnia and Northern Ireland, Pakistan Command and Staff course Quetta, lots of mountaineering (Alps, Peru and Alaska) and finally two periods on exchange with the Canadian Army firstly in Vancouver then Ottawa latterly as an intelligence analyst. There was then an entreprenurial decade building Exclusive Analysis (EA) which forecasted violent and political risks. EA's niche was a managed global source network and very specific forecasts about world events. Principle client value came from rich-data pricing models for the insurance industry to which EA was the biggest provider of political intelligence. In 2012 Exclusive Analysis was acquired by IHS (now IHS/Markit) In addition to running Bandoola Productions, Simon is a Non Executive Director at Lowe and Fletcher. He invests in and/or advises a range of companies with digital offerings, including; Gift Wink, Sandpit, Deepcrawl. Areas of advice includ: structuring a sales process, the value of brand and building robust code that clients actually want. Bandoola Productions has completed two feature films Containment and Road Games. Soldier of Empires is currently our main project. Simon has degrees from RMCS (Maths and Physics); MA in War Studies from the University of Baluchistan and an MPhil from Downing College, Cambridge in International Relations. Present hobbies include riding a BMW motorbike, cross country skiing and sculling. He lives in Hereford and Chelsea during the week with his wife Jacquie who is a student at SOAS. Club is Sohohouse.
Written by Simon Sole

The Magic of Systemised Sales

I was completely floored by the question ‘How do you sell?’. It sounded silly and the answer obvious. Even when the question changed to ‘What is the buying journey for your potential customers?’  I still had no idea. Too often the answer is “Magic”- being short hand for ‘sales tumble from my relationships because I […]

Written by Simon Sole

Invading Countries;Seizing Markets.

Start ups seize markets much as military invasions seize territory.  Once markets are acquired, like territory, they have to be governed and this requires new types of people. First ashore are the special forces who are highly creative, operate informally, and follow very little process. They are multi-talented and do everything important really well and […]

Written by Simon Sole

Leadership and Management Tips for SME CEOs

The Short Version There are two separate executive functions; Leadership and Management.   Leadership causes people to do things they might not have done.   Management is the efficient allocation of limited resources   Acknowledging that Management and Leadership are different is useful for any Executive. Executives tend to manage too much and lead too little, […]

Written by Simon Sole

Checklist for entrepreneurs seeking funding.

Pre-Amble Hopefully, these questions make meetings between entrepreneurs and investors more efficient. According to ‘Crossing the The Chasm Marketing and Selling High Tech‘ by Geoffrey Moore startups have to cross three ‘Chasms”.  These questions are grouped by chasm. Definitions Chasm One: Idea to Prototype. This chasm covers those who have an idea or maybe lots of ideas. […]

Written by Simon Sole

The End of Experts?

Knowledge is changing. Facts, even obscure facts are readily available, so expertise, based on factual knowledge has diminishing value. Expertise, based on understanding, is more robust since it allows The Expert to interrogate and then structure mountains of easily available facts intelligently, but that expertise is based on a style of thought. What is also […]