Managing director, Square Group
Career so far I spent one year in banking with NatWest, four years at Apple in sales and sales management for Images (UK). I was co-founder of Square Group and have been managing director for 19 years. I have been chief executive of Square International since 2010.
If you could be anyone else for a week, who would you be? Tricky one, but maybe Jensen Button. He gets to travel the world, drive the most amazing race tracks in F1 cars, gets inspiration from Ron Dennis, has meetings at McClaren and gets to see beautiful women at every race. Oh, and he earns more money than most of us could dream of.
What will next year's most overhyped industry buzzword be? RoI will be replaced with RoA for many businesses: receiver or administrator.
Has 2012 been a good, bad or ugly year? A difficult year. The Olympics kept many people away from London who would normally spend money in our stores and with our business team. Continued bad news surrounded the eurozone and there are no signs of an early end to the global recession.
What would you have as your last meal? A steak (cooked medium) in Bearnaise sauce, Dauphinoise potatoes with a nice glass (preferably a bottle) of Medoc.
What keeps you awake at night? Cashflow, two kids (and another on its way) and a dog who likes to wake early.
What piece of technology could you not be without? My iPhone.
Have any of your predictions come true this year? I didn't really make any, apart from the US topping the Olympics medal table, but who didn't see that coming?
What is the best partner/customer trip you have ever been on? Many years back Epson took some resellers to Istanbul. It was lots of fun, in an unusual city and a beating from Turkish masseurs!
What do you see as the channel's biggest challenge in 2013? Ensuring that customers continue to value good service over just price. With so many easy ways to purchase technology online like Apple, Amazon, Google and so on, ensuring our value proposition as a face-to-face, people business continues to be recognised and valued by customers is critical. More competition directly with our primary vendors will continue to be challenging, for instance Apple Stores.
