Theme: 'The failure of lite touch regulation' and 'Using the wisdom of crowds to develop consulting opportunities'

Date: Thursday 12th February 2009


Venue: The Cheshire Cheese, 5 Little Essex Street, London WC2R 3LD

Contact: Ron Cruikshank - cruickshankra@hotmail.com

We were delighted to host the first meeting of 2009 when we were educated and entertained by two speakers. 

THE FAILURE OF LITE TOUCH REGULATION

Alistair Dixon -  who has a quarter of a century’s experience in the UK Telecoms business - discussed the failure of Lite Touch Regulation in relation to Mobile Telecoms and showed that sometimes playing hardball is the only way to kick the Regulator into action.

The term “Lite Touch Regulation” entered the wider public domain in 2008 when the banking crisis was shown to result from the failure of Regulators in the USA and UK to adequately regulate the financial sectors.  However “Lite Touch Regulation” has long been disparaged term in certain regulated industries, particularly amongst the new entrants who felt that they were disadvantaged by weak regulation. It will be another legacy of New Labour.

USING THE WISDOM OF CROWDS TO DEVELOP CONSULTING OPPORTUNITIES

The presentation was given by Seppo Virtanen MSc, who has broad experience in international marketing and consulting in several sectors including ICT, Healthcare, Paper & Pulp and Media. A graduate of Helsinki University of Technology and the IMD Senior Management Programme in Lausanne, Seppo joined ActiveInspire, a Helsinki based consultancy, as a partner to drive the business development effort both domestically and internationally.

ActiveInspire started in 2001 to investigate the idea of collecting tacit information inside an organisation to support strategic decision making and are on the cutting edge of this approach within Europe. They use advanced semantic analysis techniques, artificial intelligence and cognitive mapping technologies combined with dynamic reporting visualizations to produce high value knowledge that can be acted upon easily.  The resulting Enterprise Wisdom process allows organisations to tap into tacit knowledge and inherent wisdom of their workforce through use of proven techniques such as the Delphi method, anonymity, story-telling and group evaluation. This provides management consultants with a fast, inexpensive, comprehensive and credible business needs analysis tool.