The Algorithm Age

At 15, Simon Squibb’s dad died suddenly, leaving him homeless , out of school and unable to find work. Then, he had a brainwave that turned his life around . ‘I was so desperate to get out of this situation I was in,’ he tells . ‘I walked past a big house that had a really messy garden, and thought maybe they’d pay me to tidy it a bit. So I knocked on the door saying I had a gardening company (which I didn’t) and amazingly, the guy who answered was like “alright, how much?”. ‘I just picked a number out of thin air – £200 pounds a month. Then he shook my hand and that was my first ever deal. Suddenly I was a gardener with a gardening contract.’ Fast forward three decades and that same entrepreneurial mindset has made him a millionaire , with 19 companies under his belt alongside a bestselling book, What’s Your Dream? You may know Simon from social media , where his brand of gonzo-style angel investing has earned him an army of loyal fans (who he calls d...

Brian Peckrill, head of the McGowan Charitable Fund, says ethical leadership is essential. He told BI that organizations that invest in their people do better in the long term. This article is part of " Culture of Innovation ," a series on how businesses can prompt better ideas. As artificial intelligence promises to accelerate the speed at which many businesses can move, it could leave less time for focusing on ethics and values. Yet forgoing those discussions is a risk companies shouldn't take, said Brian Peckrill, executive director of the William G. McGowan Charitable Fund, a family foundation focused on what it describes as compassionate philanthropy and ethical leadership — the idea that there's more to consider than just the bottom line. William McGowan was the founder of MCI Communications, a telecom company whose legal fights with AT&T preceded Ma Bell's 1984 breakup on antitrust grounds....