"The IoD is a case study in how to navigate change"

Though her potential wasn’t fully recognised at school, she has drawn on her neurodiverse strengths to create a successful business and works with a number of charities, including the King’s Trust, exploring how technology can shape our future.

I was told I was ‘thick’ at school but what they failed to see was a clever mind that just works differently – I am neurodiverse and dyslexic. I felt very alone and this got worse when I was eleven and found out I was adopted. I felt a lot of shame, but the time I spent alone allowed me to look inwards on life and become fascinated by how things worked and technology.

I skipped university and began working with tech companies including Apple during the time of Steve Jobs. Throughout my career I have remained my authentic self. I’m not someone who puts up a veneer to appear a certain way. When I lost my parents, I realised that life is short and took the decision to step out of corporate life and start my own business. This was the turn of the millennium, and I wanted to make my life count, to dream big. I called the business Novacroft, after my mum’s beloved labradors, and used my inheritance to build a database platform to help Public Sector organisations process applications.

First time around I didn’t get it right and I lost the money. However, I persisted, and 27 years later, 68 million people using public sector services have benefited from my transformational systems, which have simplified and digitised processes. I experienced a lot of prejudice in those early days, but I powered through those barriers because my purpose was strong.

Technology is a double-edged sword. On the one hand it has the potential to solve some of humanity’s biggest problems, and on the other hand it has created a transactional culture which is in danger of making humans irrelevant to the planet. Business needs a game plan to navigate this uncertainty.

This means always looking at the future – planting yourself three years or more ahead. I use storytelling with my team to imagine possible futures, thinking through how the world and our business could evolve, so we’re ready for any scenario. I like to bring diverse people together within my business and I am delighted to see more organisations recognising that we can only solve difficult problems by accessing creative minds that think differently.

To plan ahead organisations should use scenario planning to recognise what they do know and acknowledge the key uncertainties. By applying these factors, they can determine scenario options and actions to move forward. Older organisations should guard against being reliant on cherished legacy systems. Just because a system is still functioning, it shouldn’t stop you from investing in new, automating technology.

Future jobs will have a digital bias and in 2019 I set up the Charity Forum to bring together individuals and organisations, including the Executive Director of People & Culture at WWF-UK, to help address some of these issues. However, while technological progress is inevitable I believe it could allow for us to return to some more traditional ways of living. If used right, tech and AI will be applied to tackle inconsequential but time consuming tasks, allowing for humanity to do more of what we love and solve the big problems.

I have been an IoD member for almost 20 years and watching the organisation transform has been like a massive case study for how to navigate change. It is now an inclusive organisation which recognises that business should have a higher purpose beyond making money. I am excited by how it is representing UK business with government, and I was delighted to host a panel at Leicester University early this year as part of the Better Director series. I’m proud to be a judge for the IoD Director of the Year awards and am looking forward to being involved in lots more ways.