Ian Lockwood
Career so far: Twenty-five years in Her Majesty's Royal Navy, rising from the ranks to the dizzying heights of a commission officer, with a specialist interest in IT. On leaving the Royal Navy, I was a self-employed communications consultant and worked for Redstone Communications. I was subsequently hoodwinked into being employed by Taylor Made Computer Solutions after what started as missionary service. I'm really enjoying it, though.
If you could be anyone else for a week, who would you be and what would you do? I'd be in charge of the Red Arrows Display Team and have a real hoot. A UK lady paid £1.5m at a charity event to fly with them and it would be neat to raise some more money for worthy causes my week.
What would you have as your last meal? Starter: Smoked salmon on brown bread, with a drizzle of lemon. Main: Yorkshire pudding, O'Hagan's sausages and spicy onion gravy. Sweet: A second helping of the main. Dessert: Angelina Jolie. Wine: A large glass of decent Rioja supplied by Alistair Gibson of Hermitage Cellars fame since he knows my taste in wine and also works for Taylor Made.
What is the best corporate jolly you have ever been on/taken partners on? Ten days in Kenya representing the Navy Squash Team, followed immediately by seven days in Hong Kong, representing the Tri-services [Navy, Army, Air Force] Squash Team.
Do you see the cloud as a threat or an opportunity? A massive opportunity. Taylor Made has always focused on providing strategic advice to our clients and then positioning itself to fulfil those requirements. Going from providing on-premise, centralised solutions to moving into a data centre environment and cloud offerings has been an easy step. Sure, it has required some remodelling of our business processes, but it hasn't been an overnight shift, so it has happened smoothly - and it's still ongoing.
Have any of your predictions come true this year? That the IT industry would continue to tie itself in a knot over the marketing hype surrounding cloud - and that hasn't finished yet.
What do you see as the channel's biggest challenge in 2011? Avoiding a knee-jerk reaction to changes in the market brought about by the refocusing of Microsoft as it plays catch-up with Google and Apple.
What is the best part of your day? Getting a smile out of our finance director.