Richard Hall
I'm a business coach specialising in remote coaching, with a background in software engineering, project and business management. Also a guitarist and cyclist for fun and fitness.
Location Rochester, Kent
Activity
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Richard Hall made a comment
It seems to disrespect all the other songs which I love for various reasons to pick just one but if pushed I would say that ‘Fix You’ by Coldplay has a special meaning to me. I was decades beyond teenage when I heard it but it creates feelings of sadness, comfort and elation in the different movements in the arrangement and lyrics in the song. It triggers...
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Richard Hall made a comment
It’s inspiring to read everyone’s thoughts about great songs. I’m puzzled by/ interested by those songs which trigger a strong emotional response through a particular mix of melody, chord choice, arrangement, lyrics, but in which the story is not obviously representative of any part of my past life. Bird on the wire, Leonard Cohen; Elenor Rigby, Beatles;...
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Richard Hall made a comment
I’m lucky to have played in weekend bands since I was at college having completely failed to get involved in music during school days but not for want of trying. Favourite genres are blues, rock, folk, Americana. I taught myself finger-style guitar using TAB from a Leonard Cohen album and still admire his songwriting. Other songs/songwriters are too many to...
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Richard Hall made a comment
I’m now semi retired and looking forward to performing music more often. I’ve had a career in engineering and business which usually means no time for music but I managed to keep up performing in live weekend bands throughout my adult life for which which I am very grateful. However, my attempts at songwriting were a long time ago and quite embarrassing. The...
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Richard Hall made a comment
Check the market first - talk to real customers. Obvious, but at the same time not simple. Did Apple ever get a request for APPs before they arrived on the iPhone? You can't innovate by only creating against customer requests but creating without checking customer interest is equally risky.
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Richard Hall made a comment
Early days for IoT. With time there will be more standardisation (particularly interfaces) to overcome the obsolescence issue, more convergent software and human interfaces (where necessary) and the result will be simple to use and highly powerful. Until then IoT is in the early adopter phase and still prone to fickle fashion shifts.
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Richard Hall replied to Alan Brown
Yes Turner was beautifully filmed.
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Richard Hall replied to Jolyon Watts
Err - surely most of those films wouldn't look that way without CGI/VFX ?
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Richard Hall made a comment
Hi I'm a Project/Business mgr in Engineering but with a lifelong interest in still photography. Currently in the process of qualifying to be an aerial drone pilot/videographer and learning about the different challenges of shooting movies to be better informed. An added benefit is becoming more knowledgeable about movies/films when discussing with my son who...
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Richard Hall replied to Elizabeth Rodda
Love the inclusion of Groundhog Day in films you would watch again ;-) - and again etc
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Richard Hall made a comment
Thanks for the overview of the development of aircraft in and beyond WW1. I would have liked more depth and perhaps one or two in depth assessments of technological innovation.
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Richard Hall made a comment
I really value the original film footage and interviews with participants/eye witnesses. Thanks.
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Richard Hall made a comment
The speed of development and the issues around attempts to control early military aircraft use seem to have modern day parallels in the use of RPAS/UAVs - 'drones' in common parlance.
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Richard Hall made a comment
Why would a University representative label maths as "boring" in the video? Surely Universities are all about knowledge.
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Richard Hall made a comment
A surprising decision - hope it works out for you. There seems to be some information about cash flow and investment to carry through the early low revenue phase missing from the information provided.
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Richard Hall made a comment
Option D - build contacts while increasing B then A. Regarding C - if festivals is a firm interest get a job in an experienced festival organisation to learn the ropes first. All these ideas can be made to work together - just a question of timing, cash flow, and experience.
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Richard Hall made a comment
Option A if continuing to be involved as a cook is the prime concern. Option C if she wants to run a successful growth business but it may be outside her comfort zone at the moment. Option B is a bit of a half way house. There are challenges with Option C but Options A and B have significant limitations to growth either immediately (Option A) or in the medium...
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Richard Hall made a comment
Key processes: capture customer requirements, design, implement, test, demo to clients, updates from client feedback, backup data, maintain staff skills, advertise, CRM.
Differences from fashion retailer: no physical deliverable, although the website delivered is still very tangible to the client; fashion re-seller has no manufacturing skills need, whereas... -
Richard Hall made a comment
How many suits were sold to Universities and Hospitals direct? There was no information so we don't know if the approaches were successful.
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Richard Hall made a comment
Option B with a view to accessing Teaching Hospitals view their existing relationships. University teaching courses will follow the trend set by the hospitals. Because selling to NHS - as with all large organisations is non-trivial. From the inexperienced, outside view they look like one big organisation. However they are actually lots of small organisations....
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Richard Hall made a comment
It's Nick's business so it is his choice to make. He gets bright grads at starter salaries and keen, cheap school leavers for unskilled roles. However, Nick's aspirations for the business might change this strategy in future. If Nick wants the opportunity of an exit in future he would definitely need to hire industry experienced talent with the potential for...
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Richard Hall made a comment
It depends on the future business plan - probably some experienced staff hires plus grads. It's important to introduce new hires in small numbers at any one time. The overhead of induction of new staff members is significant. Also too many new starts at one time can overwhelm the existing company culture.
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Richard Hall made a comment
Good choice - looks very positive.
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Richard Hall made a comment
B, C, D. Blog YouTube Online shop - staring with Amazon Affiliates
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Richard Hall made a comment
Hello, I'm recently free of full time work and considering a few options one of which is starting a aerial photography business using multicopters (drones in common use). The regulatory issues, utilisation days due to the UK weather and winning sales are key issues for this business to work. I hope to use the course to think through these issues.
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Richard Hall replied to John Roche
Hi John, I am also recently without a job and looking to start my own business. What business were you thing of starting?
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Hi Catherine - good luck with the business - you may already know about Frugi who are a fast growing organic kids clothing company: http://www.welovefrugi.com. Worth a look for inspiration.
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Richard Hall made a comment
A useful general business resource: http://www.businessballs.com
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Richard Hall made a comment
Specialized did not invent mountain biking but they did produce the first commercially available mountain bike - the Stumpjumper - which started a huge boom in mountain bike sales. They used a design team in the US, with prior knowledge of the self build bike scene in California, to design their mountain bike. They set up manufacturing in Taiwan to keep costs...
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Richard Hall made a comment
Leica cameras. Very expensive camera gear made to exquisite standards. Holding a leica gives an immediate sense of precision engineering and quality. They make pride of ownership as important as taking top quality photos and appeal to a sense of exclusivity in their marketing. Leica was also the original small, 35mm film camera and the camera of choice for...
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Richard Hall made a comment
The first that came to mind in a broad market segment were the low priced German supermarkets Aldi and Lidl - many comments have covered this competitive approach. I'd like to add the thought that the German market may have forced these companies to be much more competitive than UK supermarkets which gave an opportunity to transfer the model from Germany to...
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Richard Hall made a comment
I heard of one business that won a grant to develop an innovation but spent so much on patents that they failed to complete the prototype development and the start up failed. So, it's a balance between creating something worth protecting, and protecting it.
Also it is important to have the resources to pay for legal costs to defend IP. Without that there is... -
Richard Hall made a comment
1. Opportunity to supply air travel at the budget end of the market to the many not the privileged few.
2. Market deregulation, governments less prepared to pour money into state airlines to help them compete new operations out of market (as with Laker), availability of internet allowing direct marketing and sales cutting out travel agents.
3. Awareness of... -
I agree with this set of favourable circumstances plus the element of timing - I.e. Not too soon like Sir Freddie Laker - this gave Stelios an opportunity which he capitalised upon with swift and effective action.
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Richard Hall made a comment
Sir Richard's comment about risk management and not risking the core business seems to fly in the face of his past business decisions. His biography makes it clear that he did gamble the whole business on starting Virgin Atlantic. I believe that wasn't the last time he bet the business on a new venture from what I remember from his book. Maybe this type of...
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A great inspiration. The government should take action to correct the problems that Sir James has identified in the environment for innovation in the UK.
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The concept was first implemented by Freddie Laker well before Easy Jet was launched. Just shows that the innovation may not be an original idea but an existing idea with innovation in the implementation. Also Stelios was in the right time and place for this to work. The major airlines, who ganged up on Sir Freddie to drive his budget airline out of business...
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Richard Hall made a comment
I'm very positive about entrepreneurship but my family and close friends, for the most part, have little interest in running a business as they all have jobs, and mostly in the public sector which tends to shelter individual workers from market pressures and disincentivises risk taking. So I have little social pressure to leave my job to start a business....
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Richard Hall made a comment
Calculating risks is done by all but accepting a level of risk associated with a course if action depended upon the individual and their background, circumstances. In the case of leaving University the decision may be get a job or start your own business. Getting a job may be a safer bet for regular income whereas starting a business is inherently more risky....
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Richard Hall made a comment
I'd be interested in some ideas about how to handle a mix when ones top end hearing is going or gone.
I am wondering if band members calling for more top because their voice sounds boomy is because of their reduced hi freq hearing due to age or noise damage. -
Richard Hall replied to Malcolm Burke
At 58 I clearly have a high frequency problem too. Nothing over 8K. 30 years in bands plus motorcycling seems to have destroyed top end hearing. Have been using ear plugs for many years but it is still getting worse. I remember seeing the Groundhogs at the Marquee in the 70s and it was so loud I was not able to hear for 2 days. Ridiculous looking back.
As...
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Richard Hall made a comment
An interesting insight into this newly defined subject of web science. It will change my behaviour by making me think less about connections on social media and more about influence through finding my own voice. I was hoping for a little more tech. engineering content about how the web works but I can understand the argument to keep the course about the human...
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Richard Hall made a comment
Lots of benefits will come with the IoT but in ways we can't yet imagine. The stories about increased automation made me consider the jobs available in the future. Plenty of work for computing and electronics skilled people. However, the UK is challenged to find work for all right now and the IoT will increase the removal of manual and/or repetitive jobs and...
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Richard Hall made a comment
Go Florence. A perfect ad for the new recruitment environment. I think it works. It's going to continue to grow whether we like it or not. My view is to go with the new if it works.
Some of the comments about personal brand seem to focus on social media but there have always been personal brands. They weren't as widely viewable as they are today. A web...
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Data on my Facebook wall was mostly positive - reminds me of the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy comment about Earth - mostly harmless.
I use LinkedIn as a professional networking tool - it suits my job as a business coach well. I'm only on Facebook to keep in touch with our children. My wife is much more active on Facebook. We found out that my son was... -
Richard Hall made a comment
My personal data value from the FT calculator was low as for others here. The questions asked seemed rather hit and miss. For example the list of jobs was far from exhaustive. I would imagine that marketing and selling using personal web data is a numbers game using the power of email lists to pitch to many 'like' people based on the data acquired.
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Richard Hall made a comment
I get it - information good, too much data bad. Although all that data generated at CERN for every second of atom smashing. Finding the Higgs Boson must be like finding a needle in a continent of haystacks ! And yet - that is exactly what they did. Likewise at the bottom of mines looking for neutrinos. So maybe there is value in Big Data - we just need to keep...
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I have joined web petitions for better cycling provision and also emailed my MP several times.
My MP has always responded or had an assistant respond on his behalf. -
It's important to experience the game so becoming at least a competent player is important. This experience would give insights into the community and inform future questions. I think that it might be worth running an event to attract players to a physical location, maybe for a competition, so that research questions might be asked, maybe as part of the...
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An excellent insight. To add a personal insight to your topic my interest in 1st person shooter games was zero until my son asked me to play a collaborative game of Halo 3. The idea of working with him as a team and the understanding I gained about the skills involved made me feel closer to my son.
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Richard Hall made a comment
The majority of the people using the web in their own way to make their lives easier will only get concerned if this utility is threatened by governments or large commercial interests. When technology is used by dominant power systems it's value to protesters is not diminished if the web remains largely unregulated. Photojournalism shone a light on societies...
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Interesting data. Yes it did change my perceptions. I checked out the place I was raised in the Midlands, which I thought was fairly rough, and it has significantly lower crimes committed in Oct than where I currently live in Kent - still no violent crime, guns or drugs! I can also see why my brother and sister in law like their village (just 3 crimes compared...
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Richard Hall made a comment
Yes it's serious - I guess I'm a realist.
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Richard Hall made a comment
I'm not sure if it counts as cyber crime or there is another term to describe governments damaging other countries economies using cyber attacks. The security services indicate that this is a daily occurrence now. It should be taken very seriously.
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Richard Hall made a comment
I only use medicines from a uk pharmacy but take medical advice from many sources: doctors, pharmacists, friends, web and calibrate each one looking for commonality of advice versus my own understanding from background reading. I have lost blind trust in professionals as they are prone to mistakes which I have seen for myself.
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Richard Hall made a comment
Given the volume of cybercrime we should not get too hung up on where responsibility should lie. Users and manufacturers/suppliers and ISPs all need to do what they can to defend against attacks and the use of botnets.
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Richard Hall made a comment
The web is a very powerful platform for cyber activity of all types. It will be used by society in ways that we're not anticipated. E.g. The CERN originators didn't need to anticipate malfeasance. Society will always contain innocents, poorly equipped to defend themselves against parasitic criminals. The web will reflect that situation. Learn how to defend...
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Richard Hall made a comment
Given the limited access to the web across the world perhaps there is a self selection amongst web users contributing to social networks which makes the networks more homogeneous. 'Birds of a feather' is pertinent here. So we need to be cautious about projecting findings about online networks to the real world.
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Richard Hall replied to Pete Thompson
I share your concern but celebrities don't have zero political power. I'm thinking Bono and Geldof.
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Richard Hall made a comment
The concept of power being the production of intended effects (actions) is a good one, in my opinion. The number of followers increases the potential for power and for attracting more followers. But to measure power we need to understand how many of the followers take action after reading a tweet from this node. RT is the minimum level of action and we may...
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Network theory is clearly a useful tool to explore the behaviour of aspects of the www.
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Richard Hall made a comment
From the reading in this course it is clear that technology alone does not shape the development path of technology use by society. However we revere inventors because they have created something new, much like artists, and in doing so enabled others to potentially benefit from the adoption of the technology. Whether the technology takes root and is used...
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I don't share your opinion but in the interests of creating a supportive environment I suggest you try BLOGGER as a simple, free and easy way into Blogging: http://www.blogger.com/
If you get the hang of blogging and want to go further then many commercial blogs are built on Wordpress. -
Richard Hall made a comment
All my friends and colleagues, my wife and children use the web extensively. However, I'm not sure that this level of usage is actually typical. I'd need to see some data to make that call.
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Richard Hall made a comment
Web User - completely hooked.
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Richard Hall made a comment
My use of the web has changed my life by enabling me to work from home for a large percentage of the time. For me good broadband provision has become the most important service for the home after electricity. I use it for information (weather, mapping, routeplanning) train ticket booking, holiday booking, online banking, entertainment e.g. YouTube, job...