Find Your Lightbulb

Mike Harris was the founding CEO of telephone bank Firstdirect and internet bank Egg; he created two one-billion pound businesses and was credited worldwide. In between these commitments, he was chief executive of Mercury Communications, then the main competitor to BT, where he created an iconic brand and built a multi-billion pound consumer business. He was also chairman of mobile phone company Mercury One-2-One during its early years. One-2-One was bought by T-mobile for $10 billion in 1999.He is currently chairman and co-founder of digital identity experts Garlik - a company which was created in 2005 in order to give individuals and their families more power over the way their information is used in the digital world. It has the inventor of the World Wide Web - Tim Berners-Lee - on  its advisory board.Mike is also chairman of innovation at the Royal Bank of Scotland. he was a regular speaker at mid-career MBA courses at the MIT Sloan School of Management between 1996 and 2006 and he often speaks at public seminars and runs private workshops on leadership, innovation and entrepreneurship. His clients have included O2, IBM, Colt, Intel, Oracle, Adobe and EDS.

"This is a really useful and practical A-Z of how to take a business idea and make it successful." (HotBrandsCoolPlaces.com, May 2008) "... the chapters on brand-building, culture and leadership are filled with sensible advice." (Management Today, May 2008)

• Acknowledgements viiiIntroduction 11 Living the dream 32 Star in your own soap opera 173 Critics who count 374 Making million-pound ideas 535 Find funding 816 Know your ends from your means 1077 Brand and reputation matters 1318 Creating a powerful culture 1519 Leadership and the edge of reason 17110 The smart risks principle 19911 Hot teams 21312 Powerful stuff: the principles in action 235Bibliography 255Index 257