When I lived and worked full-time in Britain in the 70s, “Victorian” was an epithet for hidebound, prudish and old-fashioned thinking.  That’s all changed in the last year or two; the Victorians are sexy!

Britons have eagerly accepted recent academic reappraisals of the Victorian era.  Self-reliance and enterprise were very strong features of Victorian Britain.  Engineering, science, law, commerce, education, health care;  you name it, the Victorians radically transformed it.

It might be nostalgia for a time when Britain was great. Or, if overheard conversations on the train are any guide, there’s a reawakening of entrepreneurial and creative spirit among the middle class, for many decades chained to the organisational employee treadmill.  I’ve heard several people, and not just on the trains, say that they’re fed up with not having control of their work life, their savings and their opportunities. The chat about becoming self-employed or starting a business is higher than I’ve ever heard before.  That’s strange in a recession, but maybe the disenchantment over recent events could have triggered a sea-change in British culture.

The spirit of Isambard Kingdom Brunel lives on.

I hate procrastination.  The name of this weblog is taken from my hero Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s personal motto “En Avant“.  For him and me, it means “Get going!“  Despite that, I chuckled when I heard comedian Michele A’Court chatting on the radio yesterday, suggesting that when people procrastinate, doing anything other than the task they are avoiding, sometimes good things happen, new ideas invented, and so on.  Even if I disagreed with her tongue-in-cheek theme, I liked her closing quip:

“Procrastination.  Put it on your To-do List.  Just not right now”.

Over at design blog Snap2Objects, they’ve compiled short profiles of 70 designers who shaped the world, “… a huge compilation of the most important product designers, graphic designers, architects and other great professionals that made part of our history contributing to the evolution that we see today in each field“.  It’s a very eclectic list - naturally, IKB is included - but, despite its length, no doubt misses out some of design’s great names.  Even so, it’s well worth perusing when you’ve got the time.

Here are a couple of samples (pity my layout design skills aren’t up to the task):

Manolo Blahnik Shoe Designer (1942-)

Working alone without assistants or apprentices, MANOLO BLAHNIK (1942-) is solely responsible for the design of every one of the thousands of shoes that bear his name. He has dominated shoe design since setting up in business in London in the early 1970s.

Norman Foster Architect (1935- )

NORMAN FOSTER is an architectural phenomenon; responsible for a dozen or more of the key buildings of the last 30 years, but also as the founder of perhaps the most financially successful architectural practice of modern times.

Hard on the heels of my LEGO article comes this: “2 Much Caffeine“ has used LEGO to recreate the well-known image of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, standing in front of the shipyard anchor chains for launching the SS Great Eastern. Maybe Lego could add a Brunel series to its new Architecture collection, or even create a Great Engineering collection.  I’d be a buyer!

Sydney Padua at 2D Goggles, the creator of the Lovelace and Babbage comic, has developed a new character - my hero, Isambard Kingdom Brunel!

Brunel was like the Wolverine of the early Victorians.  He was short, ripped, had big sideburns, smoked 50 cigars a day, AND KICKED EVERYONE’S ASS!!

Here’s a semi-serious question.  Do bridge designers allow for the weight of all the coats of paint a bridge will acquire in its lifetime?  The accumulated weight of 30 or more coats of paint on a large structure is considerable.  More seriously, will your design - whatever it may be - cope with the product lasting for a very long time, possibly way beyond anything you might intend?

 ‘We do not take Isambard Kingdom Brunel for either a rogue or a fool but an enthusiast, blinded by the light of his own genius, an engineering knight-errant, always on the lookout for magic caves to be penetrated and enchanted rivers to be crossed, never so happy as when engaged … in conquering some, to ordinary mortals, impossibility.’
–The Railway Times

It is Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s 203rd birthday, and to mark it, I thought I’d look at one of my hero’s failures.  Oh yes, he had them.  Contrary to what commentators with perfect hindsight might have you believe, you need to take risks to be a successful entrepreneur and innovator, and sometimes those risks go wrong.

By 1844, Brunel was highly respected and admired for his Great Western Railway, his steamships Great Western and Great Britain, and his wonderful bridges and tunnels.  He began work on his next project, a new railway in South Devon, England.  Because of the rugged terrain - always challenging for railway route design and motive power - he decided to adopt a radical technology developed by Clegg and Samuda. Instead of self-propelled steam-engines to move rail wagons, they used air pressure from a pipe laid along the track. A fixed air pumping station at either end of a short railway track in Ireland created a vacuum in the pipe ahead of the train. One wagon was attached to a piston inside the pipe, and the air pressure difference moved the piston and the train forward.  The system was very powerful, meaning steeper gradients could be climbed, and the trains were very quiet and clean.

Unfortunately, Victorian materials were not up to the task.  The connection between the piston and the train passed through a slot which ran the length of the pipe. To maintain vacuum, the slot was covered by a greased leather flap which the connector pushed put of the way as it moved forward.  Unlike in Ireland, the flap quickly deteriorated in Devon’s warm coastal air, needing frequent repair and disrupting train schedules.  Also unlike the short Irish track, the much longer South Devon railway needed multiple pumping stations. Because of vacuum loss through the flap and not knowing when the next train would enter its section of track (a telegraph was not initially installed), each pumping station ran far longer than planned, consuming more fuel and requiring more maintenance.  Instead of being competitive with conventional rail operations, Brunel’s Atmospheric Railway cost 3 times as much to run, and switched to conventional self-propelled steam-engine traction.  Of course, the newspapers of the time lambasted Brunel for this failure.  Brunel shrugged, and moved on to his next venture.

Air-powered public transport is an idea whose time may yet still come.  MDI in France has developed a range of vehicles driven by compressed air, including a road train. Ahead of your time as usual, Isambard. Happy 203rd birthday.

Here’s something for engineers, photographers, architects and historians. Robert Howlett - the young photographer who created this iconic image of engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel - died 150 years ago in December 1858, probably due to the chemicals he used in his work. In the early days of photography, the ever-innovative Brunel commissioned Howlett to photograph his constructions and create a slide show which Brunel used to make presentations to investors and the public. Plus c’est la meme chose, plus ça change! Another young photographer, David White, has recreated Howlett’s camera and re-shot some of those photographs. Click on this link to visit the BBC and watch White’s narrated photo-essay. It certainly got my day off to a good start.

I was in Bristol yesterday (Thursday) and spent the afternoon visiting the SS Great Britain, designed by my hero Isambard Kingdom Brunel and launched in 1843. Brunel conceived his ships as extensions of his Great Western Railway, linking London to Bristol and on to New York.  His second ship, the Great Britain, was revolutionary in its size, its construction strength and materials, its engine, its screw propeller, its adjustable sails and masts, its rudder and even its iron lifeboats.

Just take the propeller, for example.  Brunel originally designed the ship as a sailing vessel, with steam-driven side paddles for propulsion in unfavourable winds.  However, when he saw an experimental screw-driven river launch, he immediately recognised its superior power and steering abilities. He explored and tested various design alternatives, and redesigned his ship and its engine to use this new technology, never before used on a large vessel.  Brunel’s design was so good that modern screw propellers are only a few percent more efficient. Unfortunately Victorian materials couldn’t cope with the power it generated, so after a few voyages, a slightly less efficient design had to be adopted - an experience familiar even to modern mechanical and materials engineers!

The story of the ship’s long life is as fascinating as its conception, progressing from being the world’s first modern passenger liner, to emigrant ship (33 years on the Britain-Australia run), cargo windjammer, and finally floating warehouse, only to be scuttled in the Falklands in 1937 (for safe-keeping), before being re-floated 33 years later and returned to her birthplace in Bristol, where she has been partially restored to become one of Britain’s top tourist attractions (UK Museum of the Year 2006 and English Large Tourist Attraction of the Year 2007).

Great design often embodies big objectives and bold innovations. And like much truly great design, the Great Britain is also beautiful. Whether you’re fascinated by history, technology, design, ships or just looking for an interesting day out in Britain, take the opportunity to visit the SS Great Britain. You won’t be disappointed.

In honour of Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s 202nd birthday today, I’m reposting why he’s my hero:

Everyone needs a hero - not because your hero is perfect, but because he or she has some admirable qualities or achievements which can inspire you to greater things. My hero is Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

Brunel was a 19th century engineer who built the Great Western Railway, the best railway of the times. He built the Great Western, the Great Britain and the Great Eastern - the largest steamships of their age. He built great bridges and tunnels. He made things happen, and his works still stand today as examples of innovation, design, entrepreneurship and execution. In an extensive national poll accompanied by in-depth BBC TV documentaries in 2002, Brunel was voted the second greatest Briton of all time.

Brunel seems to have always been around in my early years. My parents’ families lived near the GWR at Hayes and Hounslow (the local pub was called the Great Western). I studied Computer Science at Brunel University in London. My early career in the UK was at both ends of the GWR - near Paddington Station and Bristol - and Brunel’s constructions were nearby.

Brunel’s life story is as fascinating as his work. The more I learnt about the man, the more I identified with his sense of ethics, his egalitarian elitism, his setting of grand goals (not just his works themselves, but why they were built) and his ability to achieve them.

This weblog is titled after his personal motto ‘En Avant’ - which means “Get Going’. Anyone who knows my leadership style knows that I want to get things going, get started, start delivering value. It will come as no surprise that my private companies (Isambard Ltd and Isambard Investments Ltd) are named after him. I have a small but growing collection of Brunel books, pictures, DVDs and souvenirs. My car number plate is ISAMBD (which has most personalised-plate translators completely stumped).

I even have a life-size banner photograph of the great little man hanging on my study wall - the only place allowed by my family! Top hat, 3-piece suit, cigar, and muddy boots - what an icon!

This blog is named En Avant, after the personal motto of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the 19th-century engineer (and my personal hero). En avant is a French phrase with several meanings, including Charge! and Forward pass, as I learnt in France recently. In Brunel’s case, it meant Get going!

In an article urging people to “Just do it,” Jamie Quint wrote that,”Rarely do people regret things they did in life more than things they wished they had done.

I can relate to that. Apart from remorse for unintentional hurt I have caused to others, my regrets are never about wrong decisions, or things that didn’t work out, or investments that bombed. That might sound like chutzpah to some, but you need a little to have the confidence to make decisions quickly. No, my regrets are about things I didn’t try. Mind you, I don’t dwell on them - what’s the point?

When things go pear-shaped, and they will sometimes, it’s easy to get demoralised by the stress and tension of the situation, but in the grand scheme of things, “This too shall pass“. Life goes on, and you’ll have learnt from the experience.

By all means identify and manage your risks, but don’t be paralysed by them. If you’ve got an idea or a dream, En avant - get going!

Everyone needs a hero - not because your hero is perfect, but because he or she has some admirable qualities or achievements which can inspire you to greater things. My hero is Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

Brunel was a 19th century engineer who built the Great Western Railway, the best railway of the times. He built the Great Western, the Great Britain and the Great Eastern - the largest steamships of their age. He built great bridges and tunnels. He made things happen, and his works still stand today as examples of innovation, design, entrepreneurship and execution. In an extensive national poll accompanied by in-depth BBC TV documentaries, Brunel was voted the second greatest Britain of all time.

Brunel seems to have always been around in my early years. My parents’ families lived near the GWR at Hayes and Hounslow (the local pub was called the Great Western). I studied Computer Science at Brunel University in London. My early career in the UK was at both ends of the GWR - near Paddington Station and Bristol - and Brunel’s constructions were nearby.

Brunel’s life story is as fascinating as his work. As I learnt more about the man, the more I identified with his sense of ethics, his egalitarian elitism (the subject of another post one day), his setting of grand goals (not just his works themselves, but why they were built) and his ability to achieve them.

This blogsite is titled after his personal motto ‘En Avant’ - which means “Get Going’. Anyone who knows my leadership style knows that I want to get things going, get started, start delivering value. It is no coincidence that I was a very willing sponsor when Fronde decided to really take on Agile Project Management and Agile Development (which I say is just En Avant brought up to date).

It will come as no surprise that my private companies are named after him. I have a small but growing collection of Brunel books, pictures, DVDs and souvenirs. My car number plate is ISAMBD (which has most personalised-plate translators completely stumped). I even have a life-size banner photograph of the great little man hanging on my study wall - the only place allowed by my family! Top hat, 3-piece suit, cigar, and muddy boots - what an icon!

Blame Rod Drury and Tapio Sorsa for this. I started reading blogs to see how our name change at Fronde had gone, and I found myself joining in all sorts of discussions. Rod was too polite to call me a blog-hog to my face, but I know what he was saying when I wasn’t there. Tapio thought it was great profile. Anyway, the consensus was that I should start a blog of my own, so blame them.

I intend this to be a business-oriented site, touching on topics like:

• General business thinking (strategy, marketing, leadership, operations, etc);
• Industry, trade and the economy;
• Technology business (rather than technology itself);
• Comments on my companies (that are relevant in a personal blog);
• People, places and practices I think worth noting (for better or worse);
• Articles, speeches, etc. that I want to share.
• Reviews and events in which I think you might be interested;
• Isambard Kingdom Brunel (you’ll have to read my posts for that one);
• Education (a particular interest of mine);
• Thoughts and ravings on concepts and issues that catch my fancy;
• Other stuff that might be relevant to a business blog.

This blogsite is titled after Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s personal motto ‘En Avant’ - which means “Get Going’. Anyone who knows my leadership style knows that I want to get things going, get started, start delivering value.

Thanks to Tapio, Mike and Andrew for getting this built for me. I don’t have a clue how it all works - but I don’t need to. Hey, I’m a ‘big picture’ guy! Isn’t technology great? Also, thanks to Unlimited magazine and Matt Grace for the flattering photo.

Again, welcome, and I hope you find it worth visiting and joining in the conversation.

Some background information on me

I’m the CEO of Fronde Systems Group Ltd, a leading NZ-based IT services business. We design, build and operate industrial-strength business transaction and payment systems which connect the world to your business and your business to the world. With around 200 professionals in Wellington, Auckland, London and Singapore, we plan to expand into Australia and North America.

Other current activities include:

• Owner and director of Isambard Ltd and Isambard Investments Ltd, my private companies. Venture investments include Surveylab and Compudigm.
• Non-executive member of the NZ Tertiary Education Commission, which is the principal funding agency for post-school education, training and related research.
• Talking on business strategy and related matters - which led me to starting this blog.

Previous activities include:

• CEO and co-owner of telecommunications equipment maker Deltec Communications Group (HiTech Company of the Year 2000, sold to Andrew Corporation in 2001).
• CEO of mid-size electricity company Electra.
• Strategy consulting partner at Ernst & Young.
• Several boards associated with the above companies plus economic development agencies and government taskforces.

Later on, I’ll post my CV and other background information.