Colin Bain

Managing director, K3 Retail

Career so far I've worked for Portsmouth NHS Trust, Defence Evaluation Research Agency and Shell International as a chartered management accountant. I've been with K3 Retail from 1999 in variety of roles from finance consultant/developer to project manager to operations director to managing director.

If you could be anyone else for a week, who would you be? Steve Ballmer – just to understand the long-term vision for Microsoft with the backdrop of Apple, Google and so on.

What will next year’s most overhyped industry buzzword be? Consolidation – there has been talk of massive consolidation for so long. It’s happening but not as much of a shift as you hear.

Has 2012 been a good, bad or ugly year? A bad year with lots of challenges and changes during a very difficult economy in which the variables change far too often.

What would you have as your last meal? Simply steak and chips with a nice glass of red.

What keeps you awake at night? Nothing work wise – my youngest daughter who has just turned two.

What piece of technology could you not be without? My smartphone. As much as I would love to be working without one again, it enables so much productivity I couldn’t be without it.

Have any of your predictions come true this year? Facebook has not yet been replaced by the next big thing.

What is the best partner/customer trip you have ever been on? New York – Navision Days.

What do you see as the channel’s biggest challenge in 2013? Recruitment consultants/contracting. People are obviously your biggest asset and sadly the recruiters generate a poaching situation driving up costs and disruption in business.