By the time I got the call, she was already in the Sea King helicopter. Some girls will do anything to meet Prince William. According to the eye witness reports, it was an impressive full-summersault, with a “Ben the Chef” style face plant, which are painful enough off a diving board into the sea, but on Snowdon, this is one place I like to keep my feet firmly on the mountain side. “The good news is she’s smiling, she’s a real tough character.” Jonathan reassured me. I clearly don’t have exclusivity on being accident prone. Our trips to Snowdon down at the Lake House (Castell Cidwm) are special. It is tough, and in windy conditions you have to keep your wits about you. And that’s… Read the Rest »
When we set up UKFast I could have only dreamed of a day like today. I am a big dreamer, but this was not something I’d have ever been able to visualise. Sat here on the Necker Belle with my daughters Tegan and Poppy, my wife and business partner Gail, the girl who has stood by my side throughout all the tough times, waiting for my team to arrive. You might at first think that it is easy to get carried away and think we’ve made it, but to the contrary, this trip is intended to help design the vision for the future. There is also a little holidaying thrown in for good measure, but ultimately we have a job to do. The owners of… Read the Rest »
It all started once we’d made the decision to build our own data centre. Until this point we’d leased data centres and filled 3 in Manchester alone with a significant number of racks in Telehouse, London. However the facilities are fine if you just have a few racks and pop down every now and again, however we’d grown to around 300 which requires a large team working around the clock operating in the buildings. The facilities are not conducive to a happy working environment. They are cold, noisy and uncomfortable and as we did not control the building, it proved impossible to raise the standards to those we have in at head office. We had to fight to get a kettle in to the building, then… Read the Rest »
“Rupert Murdoch has bigger balls than you Lawrence.” That was a comment from Nick Jaspen from How-Do the great online resource that keeps Manchester upto date with the latest business news and current affairs. I had described Murdoch as a dinosaur at a round table event held at UKFast. It wasn’t meant in a derogatory way at all. Find me a man who didn’t love dinosaurs as a kid. They were incredible species. The biggest, the best, the fastest, the most aggressive, they were just awesome in every way. Then one day, poof, they are gone. All we are left with are memories from people who have picked up the pieces of times gone by. There is no doubting Rupert Murdochs achievements, but I still feel… Read the Rest »
Is there a recession? Was there ever a true recession like back in the 90′s? For me it seems very different. Back in the 90′s everyone was effected. I don’t remember anyone escaping the pain inflicted by the job losses and hiked interest rates. The recent recession which was announced by Tony Blair officially before we actually were in one has felt very different for me and a great many of my customers. Yes people do seem slightly more cautious. But this is partly to do with the fact we were told we were heading for recession. I remember backing out of a property deal after the Nothern Rock crisis. Thank goodness Gail and I plucked up the courage and pursued the deal, it was… Read the Rest »
I find it amazing peoples attitude to women (from both men and women) who dress up at the Trade shows to help add energy and razzmatazz to what potentially could be a very dull event. We have been down at the Internet World trade show at Earl’s Court. The Internet is a very male dominated industry being a techy lead industry. Sadly there are not enough women in our industry. A statistic we at UKFast are doing our level best to change. Women in our work place are essential. They are great communicators and organisers, and life would be very dull without the dynamic that mixing men and women together brings. That being said, why is it that people automatically assume a pretty girl dressed… Read the Rest »
What is hosting? It is a good question. I often wonder how and why I ended up in a career so similarly named to one I had been involved with in a previous life. As an event organiser, I essentially hosted parties for businesses. It involved the ultimate in commitment and service, a degree of attention to detail you seldom see and passion to keep you striving when the going gets tough. First up, last to bed….. it is a thankless task behind the scenes of a busy event. The business I had that specialised in this field I sold to Granada at the end of the 90′s. they did me a massive favour. I stayed and learnt so much about bigger business, “how to… Read the Rest »
Jim Collins recently sent me his latest book, How The Mighty Fall, which I have not managed to prise off my wife yet. If he’d written a British version of this book, it would have to feature BA. British Airways. How on earth has the greatest British brand fallen out of the skies to such depths of despair? I asked a couple of members of the BA staff, does BA stand for Bloody Awful, after the worst experience I have ever encountered of substandard behaviour by representatives of BA. I was checking in proudly to my first class seats at the BA counter in Manchester, when I met the second rudest woman I have ever had the misfortune to meet. We had telephoned the night… Read the Rest »
A decade ago when Gail Jones (then Gail Everton) and I embarked on the journey of setting up a business on the Internet, I had no idea what lay ahead. In fact if it wasn’t for a pretty horrendous experience when trying to register and host a domain called theGallery.com, we’d never have changed direction and set up a business in the hosting arena. And I suppose it was the “bad experience” which forged the direction we took to provide the very best in service right from the outset. It was this start which also gave us an understanding of exactly how a client feels when the hosting provider goes wrong or doesn’t listen. If you are a client of UKFast and you ever have… Read the Rest »
I was recently asked by the TechTrack or FastTrack what was the most challenging thing that faced our business over the past decade. It is a difficult answer and to define one event as anyone in business will know it is a fast paced journey of peaks and troughs and no 2 days are alike. The most difficult challenge I face and continue to face is the pace I am required to develop. 10 years ago the skill set I had to set up a small business was very different to the one I now have running a multimillion pound organisation. That in itself presents challenges year after year. I know if I’d walked into a business the size of UKFast 10 years ago, I could not… Read the Rest »
