Stuart Macdonald
Managing director/Grand poobah, Seric
What was the worst job you have ever had? I must have been really lucky - I have never had a job I didn't enjoy. Life is what you make it. My first business was a tuition business and I did tutor a few precocious kids, which was usually just a manifestation of their lack of confidence, so in the end it was good to take them over that hurdle and any pain was fairly short-lived.
Which actor would you pick to play you in a movie of your life? William Shatner or Nicolas Cage might work. I think their unconventional diction, uneven tempo in speech and stark inability to grasp accent would be hilarious juxtaposed with a working class Glaswegian childhood.
What do you do as your party trick? Mostly singing and dancing; it's good for the soul you know. My kids like it when I blow on the car windows and make my cheeks blow out like a puffer fish.
What is your favourite chocolate bar? You don't get a figure like this being fussy.
What has been the highlight of your career to date? Being UK runner-up in the IoD Young Director of the Year competition.
Has 2014 been a good, bad or ugly year? Ugly? Fugly! Never has there been a more starty-stoppy changy topsy turvy year since we began trading. Our strengthening in security and fraud has brought many new relationships but some progress better than others.
How would you explain the IT channel to a stranger without boring them to death? To illustrate the management skills required I'd open Kipling's If with a glass of wine, then I'd outline the dangers of over reliance on channel trend prediction with Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle over a few pints, and finish them off, as we finish off our shots, by explaining my theory about the future of margin in the channel as analogous to the life experiences of a feline friend of Herr Schrödinger's. I don't know where their understanding will be at this point, but it'll be time for dancing and I'll be just the man to show 'em how.
Aside from the channel, my dream career would be... a documentary film maker - the neglected end of the movie business. I'm looking forward to taking a week off for the Sheffield Documentary Film Festival next year thanks to a pressie from my wife.
What major issues will the channel face in 2015? Like pop, IT will continue to eat itself. The issue of recurring margin in the SaaS model will continue to claim casualties as vendors change strategy.