Dave Stewart: putting ideas into action

Here’s part two of my interview with Dave Stewart (you can catch part 1 here). Dave has just co-authored a book ‘The Business Playground: where creativity and commerce collide’. He is president of his very own ideas factory Weapons Of Mass Entertainment that develops ideas for music, TV, film, products and brands. Dave also consults for Nokia as their official Change Agent but is still very active as a musician and producer. This month saw him in Nashville recording a solo album and also working on a new album for Stevie Nicks.


In ‘Putting Ideas Into Action’ Dave talks about implementing ideas, ideas spaghetti, relinquishing control, how to get ideas noticed and the lessons he’s learnt from his experience in Eurythmics. He also talks about what drives his ideas and who inspires him.


A key takeaway is the importance of partnering to make your idea happen. That means relinquishing some control but as Dave says: “I’d rather have 10% of something that took off than 100% of something that was still on the table”.





Thanks to Dave for his time and for Kori Bundi at Weapons Of Mass Entertainment in LA for doing the colour correction.

Getting students fired up about business

Robert-Jon Eckhardt (@Eckie) follows me on Twitter. He’s an industrial design student in the Netherlands and posted a video question to me about how business planning can be alienating and does not engage students interested in entrepreneurship. His video references a entrepreneurial website from his university that fails to engage interest. Here’s his question:

And here’s my response below:

Business success does not have to be about long term planning; it’s about making ideas happen. Yesterday a prospectus for a business school landed in my in-tray. It’s full of courses on business planning, strategic planning, management and leadership. But where’s the course on implementation? Isn’t getting your idea out there the important bit? However sexy your five year plan may look like, your business will succeed or fail out in the real world.

Is it time for your very own business revolution?

Here's a 'manifesto' I created for Courvoisier's 'Stories From The Frontline', a newspaper produced by Courvoisier The Future 500. It's my ten tips tips on how to revolutionise your business processes and cause a beneficial storm (click on the image to view):

Note: I'd like to credit 'have a dream, not a mission statement' to Kevin Roberts, Saatchi & Saatchi.

How Tom Watson MP rediscovered his inner rebel

Tom Watson is the Labour MP for West Bromwich East and was a Parliamentary Secretary at the Cabinet Office until he resigned in 2009. Tom was the first MP to start a blog, he’s an active campaigner on digital media (he spoke out against the Digital Economy bill) and is one of the most prolific politicians on Twitter.

Tom recently read my book ‘Juggle! Rethink Work, Reclaim Your Life’ and has just posted a review on his blog (that you can read in full here). ‘Juggle!’ encourages readers to reframe their work lives around their passions, staying authentic to their dna. Tom reviewed his personal interests and political priorities and found they had been wedged apart by the conflicting demands of parliamentary life. So ‘Juggle!’ forced a rethink:

“I’m fascinated by the capacity of the Internet to change lives and bring down empires. I’ve had a lifelong love of video games since first spinning a 10p coin into a Space Invaders machine at the Silver Blades ice rink in Birmingham on a school trip. And the government – the one that I had been a minister in, were doing something crass to the digital world in a last minute stitch up with the Conservatives. In the spirit of the juggle I rebelled and focused on a policy area I enjoyed and believed in. Now I’m inundated with offers to talk and write about the policy area I love. So thanks Ian.  You helped me rediscover the inner rebel and life is good”

Thanks Tom. Rediscovering the inner rebel is always a good thing…

( picture of Tom Watson by Benjamin Ellis)