Welcome to my journal.
Get an insight into my day-to-day work and my perspective on key issues.
A Resolution to an Unhealthy Problem
In December I took the plunge and invested £4.80 in two TESCO shares. You'll know that TESCO is the UK's biggest supermarket with a 27% market share. It's a really important company to the success of the British economy: employing over 300,000 people and operating over 4,000 stores in the UK alone and selling us over £50Billion of food each year (Statistica.com 2016). As the founder and former CEO of a company supplying into the behemoth, I know what clout the company has not only in the supply chain of British retail, but in what foods we eat as a nation. It's not an exaggeration to say that the decisions it takes affect us all.
Putting Children's Healthy Weight Centre Stage in 2021
Every Child a Healthy Weight raised the curtain on a city-wide stage for this influential cast of actors to take action. The aim was, together, this cast would start to unleash a transformation so that every child has every chance to grow up eating healthily, drinking plenty of water and being physically active wherever they live in the city.
Everything is Connected
I see the people with expertise of how a specific system is created and operates, of lived experience within that system, and of research and knowledge of that system. Such people must share their understandings with others to fully appreciate their connectedness, perspective and impact on each other. And of course, there is no reason the same individual people can't be in different systems: we all live our lives in a world in which all systems connect with us every day. The trick, as I see it, is to create opportunity for people to see what is.
A Letter to my 15 Year Old Self
Last month I was privileged to be the guest on Holly Tucker's podcast series: Conversations of Inspiration. Which, in 60 minutes, covered a range of subjects centred around business being the key to solving society's issues. Listen HERE.
For the episode I'd been asked to write a letter to my 15 year old self, which I found really hard not to write as though to my children: with the faux sage advice of a father who had, like us all, actually largely stumbled his way through from growing up to getting grey hairs. I've had kind comments about it, and requests to see it written down. So, I thought I'd bare my soul and share it in audio and in black and white here. Gulp.....
Letter to the Prime Minister regarding Child Obesity
I am writing in my role as Chair of London's Child Obesity Taskforce, as I was interested to hear that we have both been considering the emerging evidence on the detrimental impact obesity has on those suffering from Covid-19. Of course, we have known for some time that being overweight or obese has a devastating impact on an individual's physical and mental health; with 11,117 directly related hospital admissions recorded in 2018/19. In 2018, in England 28% of adults were obese and 3% were morbidly obese.
Responding to the Unprecedented
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed everything: exposing the injustices and shortcomings of our society locally and globally. It has also reminded us how much we share, how deeply interconnected we are and that the decisions we take shape our reality.
It has also thrown up unique challenges to leadership. And that is why we at RFK Human Rights UK (www.rfkhumanrights.uk) brought together senior decision-makers for a webinar conversation -Responding to the Unprecedented.
Mobilising Action - The Importance of Collaborations and Partnerships
I've taken a moment to reflect on how far London's Child Obesity Taskforce has come and the partnerships we have been fortunate enough to start building. As we move with renewed energy into 2020, we want to deepen these relationships and forge new ones; helping to bring our ambitions to life and become real for London's children.
Every Child a Healthy Weight
Eighteen months ago, I submitted my first job application in over 20 years. It was a long shot, but one that I was surprised and humbled to secure - Chair of the brand-new London's Child Obesity Taskforce, convened by the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan. His challenge, in a city where nearly 40% of its children are not a healthy weight, was to identify what actions would fundamentally change this. A complex, some say intractable, but vitally important issue - the sort of challenge I relish.
Business as Usual?
It's not unprecedented to say we live in unprecedented times. Corona Virus means that we do.
The good news however, amongst all the chaos and disruption to our economy and health, is that we also therefore have an unprecedented opportunity to learn, innovate and improve the way we do things: including- perhaps especially- around business.
Could your idea change the world?
In February 2019, our inaugural competition took place at the University of Reading, with ten finalists pitching their ideas to an audience of purpose-driven entrepreneurs and business leaders, who voted for Alexander, a young man from Peru, with an audacious idea to create a quinoa and tarwi based milk from the wild slopes of the Andes.
