Episode 124: 23rd July 2020

The Sport of Kings, Tom Blomfield, Monzo Bank and the art of Visual Thinking occupy our minds this week and with the help of a green screen Heather manages to transport herself to the Northern Lights.

There is no denying that on a global scale the business of Horse Racing is big money business and we have long referred to the owning, training and racing horses as a sport that only Kings (or Queens) can afford to participate in and this week we take a look behind the scenes to find out why the sport is so expensive to participate in and how difficult it can be to make any money from it.

From betting to stable lads, jockeys to transportation and prize money to stud farming there’s more to the business than first meets the eye and whether you are believe it to be a sport or a business or both it seems the Billionaires of Racing are few and far between unless maybe you want to study for a degree in the subject.

In other news there is a worrying picture emerging in the Liverpool Echo with fears that the city will suffer significant job losses as a result of Covid19. The CBI in Wales have appointed a new Chair in Kathryn Roberts and Google re enters the room with their newly packaged suite of collaborative working software.

There has been an increase in the use of Emoji according to the UK head of Slack and the BBC reports another increase but this time it is in the number of people signing up to sell Avon Cosmetics during the pandemic.

Our Discovery section this week starts with a book by Willemien (what a great name!) Brand called Visual Thinking which encourages and teaches us to get creative with our visual presentations through the use of drawing meanwhile Heather has whiled away far too much time playing with a pop up green screen which she plans to use for filming webinars and videos which she hopes will deliver a professional and consistent brand for her business. Watch this green space.

Finally we turn our attention to Tom Blomfield whose career to date can only be described as varied, fast paced and successful. Whether he is simply a man with a plan or has a great eye for ideas he is more than adept at taking an idea to market and watching it fly. From Go Cardless to Monzo to Starling Bank and beyond his story is interesting and his belief in company culture can be learned about in a Wired Smarter presentation from 2019.

In true entrepreneur style he is clearly a man who knows his strengths and when to quit. We particularly like this quote from an interview with Tech Crunch about the appoinement of TS Anil as CEO of Monzo. Blomfield says:

”I went through all the stuff I love about my job, and it was all the stuff I did in the first two or three years. I went through all the stuff that drains me, and it’s all the stuff I’ve done in the last two years, honestly. Things I think TS is awesome at.”

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