Chris Nesbitt-Smith

@Robin Horsfall (I can't tag him as he's blocked me, but this is his profile https://lnkd.in/eKCsVBWi ) is a former member of the UK Military, including the SAS, and a man for whom I have hitherto had great respect. He recently (15 June 2024) posted, as he often does, on the matter of war between Russia and Ukraine. Like Robin, I am concerned about the escalation of a local war into something much larger. I therefore commented on his post: ===== my comment begins ===== I am increasingly coming to the (most likely very unpopular) opinion that Putin is doing quite well to keep a lid on it, given that a significant and increasing portion of "the West" seems increasingly determined to turn what began as a relatively minor local war into a third World War. I am reminded of General Smedley D. Butler's book War Is A Racket - https://amzn.to/3VGg0ue - because despite a cost of living crisis there is certainly a lot of western taxpayer money being generously poured into the pockets of those supplying every aspect of the equipment used here, who I am sure are all rubbing their hands in glee at their personally increased profits (both now, and to come later with the inevitable rebuilding programme). It also seems nonsensical to witter on about CO2, whilst ramping up production (to massively over-purchase if General Butler is to be believed) for a war that should never have escalated in the first place. My own opinion is that if we don't end up with World War Three, something I cannot imagine anybody outside of the globalists that will profit financially actually wants, it will be in no small part thanks to President Vladimir Putin currently taking a remarkably calm and sensible approach. ===== my comment ends ===== I hadn't expected my comment to be popular, but I had expected it to present an alternative perspective and encourage open discussion. What actually happened surprised me: Robin Horsfall (https://lnkd.in/eKCsVBWi) - a man I had once greatly respected as I said - appears to have blocked me from seeing any and all of his posts, or commenting further. I'm guessing that he probably deleted my comment too, although I can't be sure. I had expected better. I'm disappointed at what appears to be censorship by a fellow platform user. You can see the original post here: https://lnkd.in/ejskFDS9 What do you think?

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💡 Post 3 of 5 Crossing the chasm is now more about the jump from freemium to a paid tier than the jump from early adaptors to mainstream. Geoffrey Moore landed on a great phrase when he coined “crossing the chasm” as the process of moving from early adaptors to mainstream really does feel like that. For SaaS providers, another common challenge seems to be the chasm that exists between their low-cost / freemium options. The teaser you offer to get the clients ‘in the door’, the logo reference and/or the quote for the website and getting customers to purchase the pricing tier you’ve factored into your forecasting and growth plans. I see a lot of platforms doing really well on the surface, but when you dig a little the revenue distribution across the client base it is not the wonderful ‘bell shaped’ curve you might expect from the business plan, with the bulk of customers sitting in the mid-level paid tiers. What you see is more of a steep slide with a little lip at the end; with the bulk of customers sitting at the low-cost / freemium tier and a small number of clients sitting at the other end delivering the bulk of their revenue. So what’s the answer? Well, surprise, surprise, there isn’t a ‘magic wand’ response but there are some points to consider: - Invest time in the ‘upsell customer journey’ - It is as important as winning the client in the first place, but companies spend disproportionately less time figuring this out. Questions like; can you use Customer Success to expedite and drive the upgrade process? Does proactive customer support, targeted educational content, or success stories from upgraded customers, get customers upgrading - Get the value right – Have you offered too much in the Freemium offering or not communicated the value proposition of the paid tiers clearly enough? That can often mean you’re not charging enough - Customer Segmentation and profiling – Does your data, demographic data, usage patterns etc offer a profile to indicate which clients are more likely to upgrade and their readiness to upgrade. Some customers will never move beyond the freemium / low-cost tier. That’s not necessarily a bad thing if you can identify who they are and operate accordingly The chasm can be crossed one logical step at a time, but just recognise that there is a chasm to be crossed in getting clients to pay what you are expecting them to pay. #Freemium #SaaSChallenges #CustomerJourney #RevenueGrowth #CustomerSegmentation #BusinessDevelopment #SalesStrategy #EntrepreneurLife #TechStartup

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5Million for Scottish Start-up, sounds great, right ... My biggest question is: Do the people in charge of dealing with these start-ups have any form of experience of starting a business themselves? If not, then we have a problem. I have had numerous challenges over the years with this kind of entrepreneurial supporting organisation, where they simply don't understand the basic needs and challenges of an entrepreneur, and no it's not just me. I would offer the following advice for entrepreneurial development organisation that is meant to help start-ups get off the ground: - Have at least two entrepreneurs in the team, who had to build from the ground up, make sure it's a woman and man as the challenges will be different. Remember your unique challenges and needs when starting out and then offer that in your service offering. I was once offered support by one of these entities, and then just before launch time, they pulled out, (no phonecall to discuss either, just an email) stating the reason for pulling outbid because I will be charging for my services 🥴. Yes that is what entrepreneurship means. We are not a charity, we charge so we can pay the bills and eventually have a profit to leave a legacy. What would you offer as advice? #entrepreneurship https://lnkd.in/eFDhx97N

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Educate yourself with facts

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Thank you Lord Holmes for your sterling efforts to make the UK’s AI Regulation Bill a reality and for supporting the best interests of the U.K. public 🙏 The AI Regulation Bill is very much needed for all the reasons that you stated to ensure the responsible use of AI. Since the wide scale adoption of AI will only succeed in the long-term if it is done in a responsible manner 🚀 It is also commendable that you are helping the U.K. to take the lead in ensuring the adoption of responsible AI with the UK’s AI Regulation Bill. I strongly believe that this Bill will become a gold standard for AI regulation for future generations globally 🔥 #AI #GenAI #ResponsibleAI #EthicalAI #SafeAI #SecureAI #TrustworthyAI #OurAIFutures #AIRegulationBill UK House of Lords Department for Science, Innovation and Technology Information Commissioner's Office Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum (DRCF) AI Safety Institute AI Safety Hub 10 Downing Street The Alan Turing Institute Ofcom Competition and Markets Authority IBM IBM watsonx TD SYNNEX NexaQuanta IAPP - International Association of Privacy Professionals AI Time Journal The Fintech Times Sifted eWeek UK Compliance Week TechCrunch London Tech Week Fintech Week London Digital Catapult London & Partners The AI Summit AI Tech Summit Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP PrivSec GRC World Forums Data Protection World Forum Google for Startups EU Accenture Financial Times FT Board Director Programme Institute of Directors (IoD) Women on Boards UK Transpire - Global Director Network IoD Glass Ceiling Group

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UK FPTP (first past the post) electoral system vulnerabilities. Electoral Calculus is a well-regarded polling / MRP outfit in the UK. The image is their latest prediction of the most likely outcomes of the upcoming GE. It has the Tories on 23% of the vote, with a central prediction of 66 seats out of 650 (so about 10%) but with a massive range of uncertainty - anywhere between 37 and 225 of the seats. The fact that it's potentially so volatile, in terms of seat outcome, is apparently based on uncertainty as to the precise impact of Reform UK (Farage)'s 12% on sapping the Conservative vote. While in some ways I wouldn't exactly weep at a Conservative wipeout, the fact that the difference in seat outcome is *so much* more volatile than the likely overall % changes does seem to illustrate the vulnerability of FPTP as a voting system. Whichever party it is, I don't think one party winning 519 seats out of 650 on around half of the vote is a good outcome in a Parliamentary system, especially not the 'winner takes all' version which we have in the UK. This sort of system weaknesshas long been ignored when the two main parties still have representation in the 100s of seats, as it's only affected the 'lesser' parties and the two big ones seem to long for complete power without the tedium of coalition. I wrote a piece a while back noting that we've seen in microcosm already where things could end up, in the form of 2015 general election in Scotland, in which the SNP won over 90% (56 out of 59) Scottish seats in the House of Commons on just under 50% of the vote. Fortunately the existence of the Scottish Parliament and its proportional representation system kept the other parties alive and able to recover. But there won't be that safeguard in this case. And yes, of course the big parties are themselves coalitions in a certain sense, but privateish debates within Labour or Conservative factions are no substitute for public debates fronted by different parties, whatever one may think of the quality sometimes. Links: EC's main table - https://lnkd.in/etWPkX_T EC's April 2024 voter migration analysis - https://lnkd.in/ey44AZRX EC's June 2024 commentary (before today's announcement by Farage) - https://lnkd.in/eUaydqD6 2015 UK GE in Scotland - https://lnkd.in/eAUTzr27

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Only two types of people who post this type of crap - who already own a home or who are scamsters (mostly, both). She says that renting is better than owning a house and justifies it with Maths - utterly wrong Maths (details of wrong Maths: https://lnkd.in/g2UNjPVP) But, I don't even care about the numbers. There is this thing called mental peace. These finfluencers don't like to talk about it as it doesn't fit their masterclasses and sales plans. I bought my house quite early in my career and that helped me take chances with my job changes. During Covid, the same house became a source of secondary income. After Covid as the job market became really unpredictable, the same house gave me a peaceful state of mind, every single day. Add to all that, living in the same house for a long period of time allowed me to build relationships with my neighbours and it helped my son to build friendships that he enjoys so much. I doubt if an SIP could have given us any of those things. These finfluencers don't care about you or your life. All they care about is their follower count and their own revenue. So, think on your own before believing any of the crap they are peddling out there. Do what feels right for your life and your family and you will be just fine. #RentvsBuy #Home #Finance #SIP

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One of the narratives coming out of this weeks UK General Election is a question around the 'first past the post' voting system, and the games of which seats to contest for the party; and if and how to tactical vote for the voter. A quick look at the numbers show that there is a significant variation in how many votes it took to secure each Member of Parliament. From 23,605 for Labour to 485,305 for Green and 820,745 for Reform. A 2011 referendum rejected a change in the voting system, but this came after the 2010 General Election in which the top 3 parties by seats secured 88.1% of the vote. This week the top 3 parties by seats secured just 69.7% of the votes - 7 parties would need to reach 90.1% of the vote share. Rory Stewart discussed the need for innovation in our electoral system on election night. Will these numbers change the narrative on that subject? Worth a look through https://lnkd.in/eeieAfC3 who are campaigning on this. Source: https://lnkd.in/eqNHD4Zi

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In the King’s Speech, the new Labour government has confirmed it will proceed with the proposed smoking ban, first put forward by Rishi Sunak. Under the plans, the law will make it illegal to sell tobacco products to anyone born after 1 January 2009, as well as cracking down on youth vaping with stricter regulations on flavours and packaging. Read more here: https://hubs.li/Q02H3b1-0 "

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The UK needs National Service. It's the only way you can ensure 18 year olds are fully indoctrinated by nationalist propaganda. Forget a cheaper, better education. Forget a better health system. Forget creating more opportunities Forget improving the lives of millions across the UK. Instead, after forcing people to spend 18~ years in Education (which was 16 years, but they felt people needed to be in the system longer) Let's either send them to the military where they can potentially watch their friends die and be shell-shocked for the rest of their life OR force them to volunteer. That will help the economy, by building an entire work force on free labour. Imagine being so desperate for votes that you appeal to the brain dead obsession with romanticising war and youth work "ethic" by proposing forced, free labour. Imagine having a net worth of £650m and thinking 18 year olds are the problem.

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An article supported by data and facts so worth reading https://lnkd.in/eiXjvQZb

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I bet people who voted for #Labour are regretting it now. Honest manifesto? No chance. Freezing British pensioners to death, releasing dangerous criminals to prosecute social media plebs, bribery/expense scandals, hypocrisy, cronyism, raising taxes, giving away strategic military territory... and it's only been a few weeks!!! WTF state will the UK be in after 5 more years of this... heaven help the country and the British people. When I look back at the news from my home country I think back to WWII but the enemy is our own government!! Now you know why Kier Stalin didn't declare all these policies up front during the election campaign. What British patriot would have voted for all this... people would have realized that the only British party left is Reform UK. Surely this should be classed as some kind of election fraud deceiving the British people? #2029 is going to be a political earthquake bigger than Brexit. If the country can make it that far without something going horribly wrong first. Imagine British pensioners who supported the country their whole lives are lower priority than those who arrived illegally yesterday, while the politicians' faces are in the trough like the pigs from George Orwell's Animals Farm. I suspect many pensioners' parents & relatives even fought and died in WWII. This is what a broken social contract looks like. How will anybody ever trust a #Labour (or #Tory) government again.

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Thought to share this post from Lord Holmes at this stage in the game they are far too late for regulation, so we need to be ready with the defensive security. See my article out today Breaking the Barriers

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Some of the things the Brits do are just awesome. The post coding system we use here is just pure genius at work. It was developed by the General Post Office in the late 50s but a postcode has been used in some form in London since the mid 19th Century. The post code itself is in two halves. The first is the outward code - it actually represents the sorting office that the mail needs to go to so that a postman can deliver it. So, Holmfirth - where I live - is HD9 - the 9th Sorting office in the Huddersfield district. The second half of the code is a number and two letters. The number represents a small sector within the district (so often represents the post run). This makes mail easy to sort within the sorting office. The letters after group roads and streets together. Post codes also have grown to have plenty of other uses - including splitting the country up for insurance premium calculation for example. Another fun fact about postcodes - they went national in the year I was born - 1971, which was also the year of decimalisation. #funfacts #postcode

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What do you think about Elon Musk’s push to reduce censorship on X and use public scrutiny, rather than “fact checkers” to verify statements people and organisations make ? There have been some mainstream media articles recently about X and how the user base has reduced since Musk acquired the platform. Some of these were referenced in posts on Linkedin which revealed that many people have strong opinions about X which are based not on their own experiences but on comments that others have made. It seems that people develop impressions not from what they themselves see and hear but on what they are told that others see and hear. Which is fascinating as it demonstrates the principle of network mavens – and how a wider audience can be indirectly influenced simply by influencing a subset of key people in information networks. Why is this so important and what does it have to do with heat pumps ? I’ll provide the details in the comments….

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It's fantastic to see the folk over at 38 Degrees divesting of their X account! More and more organisations are leaving the platform which has deteriorated into a far-right, extremist mouthpiece. If you haven't seen it yet this expose (https://lnkd.in/eWrNcm-S) by the awesome activist group, Led By Donkeys, it is well worth a watch! If your company claims to be ethical and socially conscious, it's time to leave X too. #EthicalMarketing #ESG #DigitalMarketing

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