Every now and then I update my Bio

1. ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST

2. IN THE DAYS OF THE KINGLY COURTS, THERE WAS ALWAYS THE FOOL You know, the funky guy, evading a certain and horrific death. Doing so by constantly staying a small yet critical step ahead of everyone around him. He did so in such a way as to appear ever so ‘umble in the presence of these plainly greater beings.

3. At your pleasure check out this definition of the Fool… “The Fool is the spirit in search of experience. He represents the mystical cleverness bereft of reason within us, the childlike ability to tune into the inner workings of the world. The sun shining behind him represents the divine nature of the Fool's wisdom and exuberance, holy madness or 'crazy wisdom'.” “On his back are all the possessions he might need. In his hand there is a flower, showing his appreciation of beauty. He is frequently accompanied by a dog, sometimes seen as his animal desires, sometimes as the call of the "real world", nipping at his heels and distracting him.” “He is seemingly unconcerned that he is standing on a precipice, apparently about to step off.”

4. S0, WHAT KIND OF FOOL AM I?...Well, what I do is to question, listen and then challenge my clients - these greater beings - a little. Actually a lot. Then with large white canvas and my 21st Century Pens in hand, I create something visually and verbally representative of what I hear them say. ANDWHATTHEYMEANT!

5. DOING THIS BEFORE THEIR VERY EYES Typically they are the most senior teams within large Corporations and Governments. They are dealing with very challenging issues. So my job is also to challenge - and of course - encourage the teams to stretch, break through and properly define their higher ambitions. Really!

6. INGLORIOUS MEETINGS

7. AARGH…!

8. MEETINGS ARE THE DEVILS OWN WORK

9. I’m where I am today out of sheer frustration. This all kicked off when, as a client myself, I couldn't get correct, or just impartial advice, about anything. At all. Ever. GRRRR…!

10. I GOT ALL OF OUR FOLKS TOGETHER… We got ourselves into meeting rooms armed with all our thoughts and ideas and documents and, and then we – and, then… WE BROUGHT IN THE EXTERNAL ADVISERS… DOUBLE GRRR…! DOUBLE GRRR…!

11. Something dawned on me…

12. I saw that I COULDN’T DESCRIBE THE REQUIREMENT properly because I actually didn’t know what it was. How could I? I didn’t have the full picture of my own organization - how could I state it in a way that the real requirement was ever likely to get fixed. WHO KNEW?

13. EVERY ONE, EACH NEW ADVISER - they all seemed to have their angle, their 'axe to grind’ something to sell. Something to defend. Then DISASTER struck - one day I realized I was an equally big part of the problem. FOOL

14. I realized that my ‘thing or bit’ was CONNECTED to other ‘things’ and ‘bits’. They were vital – and they were outside of my control - in other parts of the firm. Anything might happen and it USUALLY did. SLIDING DOORS I SIMPLY COULDN’T FIGURE IT OUT. NOR GET THE WHOLE DARNED THING LINED UP!

15. THERE WAS NO WHOLE THING! There was no way we would ever win. We each had our own aims and objectives. Our own business cases. Our own language. We spoke it daily. We winked. We each had our own silo of activity. We defended it. We put up walls. We built our empires. We were built that way. AND SADLY NOT MUCH HAS CHANGED

16. WE KILLED BILL The whole messy charade of strategic thinking, problem solving or even ‘innovation’ was just so achingly dull that I became neurotic. Surely these were meant to be the vitally inspiring meetings!? Weren’t they?

17. APOCALYPSE NOW (Coffee at 10-30) Meetings became off-limits to sensible folk. Declared a disaster zone. Too toxic to touch. They were the stuff of legend. People WOULD watch us as we’d enter the front line of the board rooms knowing we were into combat. They watched knowing some may never come back. Close friends waved white handkerchiefs, tied yellow ribbons. They all had sad looks in their eyes.

18. MEETINGS, BRAINSTORMS, RETREATS. Call them what you like. They were mostly utterly catastrophic ridiculously expensive, embarrassing - to most attendees and HIGHLY dangerous - in my experience. Sorely MISSED OPPORTUNITIES in my opinion.

19. FOOL I was infected with the DEVILS Power Point. “I watched sad, decaying; bedraggled administrators hunched in corners capturing the evil sniggering of incoherent data hissed at us from increasingly menacing people. It became a major preoccupation for me.” I didn’t want to turn up and so eventually I didn’t.

20. OK. ENOUGH

21. THINK

22. I CHALLENGE THINKING! With huge respect to my clients, I push them to search deeper inside themselves to think differently. Perhaps that little bit harder. The fool in me insists that I always ask those crazy questions. “How...?” - “Because...?” - “Why…? and “So that...?”

23. The really interesting thing is that – increasingly – my clients ask me to come along and do this more often because actually they like to know the answers themselves. I find this all very encouraging.

24. VISUALIZE THIS

25. AND THIS… I'm fortunate in being able to visualize ‘on the fly’ – and I love it. Developing concepts at high speed - interpreting ideas from people's ‘live’ conversations.

26. AND THIS…

27. AND THIS…

28. STOP… On the 1st January 2001 I decided to do something about it all – to shine a light on it - pump up the volume… … I created Group Partners

29. And before all that…?

30. The 1990s | CEO, MCW. ROCQM and then RMG International, each part of WPP Group plcI left Acorn Computers plc, in 1988, after many great and highly informative years. I got away with a lot. I left shortly after Olivetti bought the company - to run my own integrated communication and strategic consultancy in London. MCW – Marketing Communications Workshop - it was acquired by WPP in1996. This business developed strategy and implemented complex informational and communication programs for some pretty impressive enterprises. At MCW we were responsible for many large scale campaigns including the entire Euro96 Football Championships and the global strategy for SAP. The consultancy also created major and award-winning marketing and strategic programs for IBM, Ford, Oracle, Benetton, Philips, Microsoft, Xerox, Time Warner, Sony, and more. It’s a long story.

31. The 1980s | Head of Marketing, Acorn ComputersI joined Acorn to run the communications marketing and brand strategy and in the early 80s launched the BBC Microcomputer. Fun. Crazy. During my time as Head of Marketing the turnover of the business grew from $2m to $240m. Very little if anything of that was due to me. Acorn Computer was also the business that created the highly successful Arm Technologies effectively one of the UK's most successful technology businesses. This is also a long story.

32. The 19??’s| Crazy FunSomewhere before, during, in between, on top, underneath, throughout and after all this I ran mobile disco’s, night clubs, did rock festivals, saw the Pink Floyd play lots of times - I think. I painted drew, skulked around a fair bit, I would sit, stand. Fall over. I learned to drive fast, sail, fly, run fast, stay up all night and do lot’s and lot’s that I cannot possibly talk about here. But by now you have a vivid enough picture.

33. The 1960/70’s | Schooling stuffLatterly I attempted a Foundational and Degree course in Fine Art at Hogarth College of Fine Art, Cambridge, England. It was complicated. Before that – I did A & O levels galore at The Royal Hospital School, Holbrook, Ipswich, Suffolk, England, Europe, Earth, Milky Way. This was a fine school for the sons of Royal Naval Officers. Before that – Strange early forms of education at King Henry the V111 Grammar School. Somewhere in England. I was probably beaten. I certainly played the fool.

34. THE A TO Z OF GROUP PARTNERS | http://bit.ly/br7MWQRAMBLING ON STUFF |http://bit.ly/6TWpsmWHAT WE DO - IN 1 MINUTE | http://bit.ly/cDbkQzWHAT WE DO - IN 5 MINUTES | http://bit.ly/by4q7TEASY GUIDES - HOW IT ALL WORKS | http://bit.ly/byzr32WHAT’S ON OUR MINDS? | http://johncaswell.posterous.com/FOLLOW US ON TWITTER | http://twitter.com/johncaswellFOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK | http://www.facebook.com/GroupPartnersTHINKING: There’s an App for that! - 4D™ GROUP PARTNERS | WEBSITE: http://www.grouppartners.netquot;Helping our clients avoid solving the wrong problem really well"_______________________________________________________________