Soft power: The Queen and Apple HQ in Battersea
Soft power: The Queen and Apple HQ in Battersea
👑 Thank you Ma,am
🍏Apple, soft power and the Queen
💼 Recovering SpAd
📽️ Season Six launch
💈 Our first substack poll
Welcome to the 75 (!) new subscribers. If you are new here, my name is Jimmy McLoughlin, a former Downing Street adviser turned podcaster. I write this notebook on the most interesting things I have seen on the future of work, jobs, technology and politics.
I have promised to some thoughts on the new Government, but with everything going on that didn’t seem appropriate, so I’ll be back in your inboxes talking about my reaction to the fiscal event on Friday.
👑 Thank you Ma,am
There is no other place to start than that of the Queen, and an attempt at a new angle or two that haven’t been covered.
With the instant nature of news through push notifications, I have often pondered whether the ‘where were you for XX moment’ has passed us by.
Will Generation Z have moments like Diana (Center Parcs on holiday) September 11th attacks (the sports pitches at school) or the 7/7 attacks (on an A-Level party in Spain)
The last one I really remember being Michael Jackson’s death in June 2009 - down in Hope Cove, Devon.
Or is it just a case of these moments have less impact when you are past your formative years?
But I think many people will remember where they were for the news about the Queen, and perhaps remember what they were doing for the entire day.
I, like many others have found the passing of the Queen a surprisingly tender moment, many friends have said it reminds them of losing Grandmother again, and my parents commented how it reminded them of their parents passing.
Ultimately she was the family member that you’d know you’d see on Christmas Day, but not have an argument with.
Let me know in the comments about your where were you for X moments, or hit reply to this email.
🍏Apple, soft power and the Queen
William Hague wrote in his Times column ‘power comes in many forms … The Crown is an asset of incalculable importance in any successful British foreign policy.’
But what impact does it have on business and economics? It is certainly not the primary benefit, but it perhaps has more impact than you might expect.
If you were to answer the A-Level question, what is soft power? And give an illustrative example? Here is my short essay attempt.
In Downing Street, one of the jobs I was tasked with would be glad handing business royalty that would pop by to see the PM, whether it be Jeff Bezos, Jamie Dimon.
What do you say in that five to ten mins that you have beforehand? You want it to be memorable and ultimately you want the meeting to go well with the PM, so the ultimate objective is to generally try to put them at ease.
Tim Cook, CEO of Apple was over to see Theresa May to talk about plans for their new HQ in Battersea which could house up to 5,000 employees.
It was a seriously big moment for post Brexit Britain, the world’s biggest company doubling down their largest location outside the USA.
He was with a couple of aides in the ante room by the Cabinet Room.
I cannot remember what line I had planned to open the conversation, probably something corny about asking for advice on best way to extend battery life on my iPhone … (although in hindsight, how I wished I’d asked for an introduction to the Head of Apple Podcasts 😂😂 )
I needn’t have worried, he was transfixed by a picture of the Queen on the wall, ‘stunning, such a beautiful picture’ in his slightly southern Alabama drawl.
He’d been watching the Crown on Netflix and turned out to have quite an appetite for British history - we were in a good spot.
So we gave him a quick tour, so much so the PMs diary secretary had to come looking for us …
We sent him a copy of the picture that will hopefully hang in Apple’s office when it finally opens later this year in Battersea.
So there’s an example of the soft power in action.
And the stunning picture by David Bailey is below
P.S. I saw Tim Cook in a bar in Palo Alto a few years later whilst studying at Stanford and went over to say hello and to reintroduce myself (It is a bit of a lifehack , if you always re introduce yourself to people, then you are never disappointed if people don’t remember you!)
He shot back with I remember, ‘the guy who sorted the picture of the Queen’
💼 Recovering SpAd
Losing your job is tough, very tough, there isn’t much sympathy out there for special advisers, but I always try and help when reshuffles and changes of Government happen.
Seeing as I am now trying to become the Martin Lewis of jobs, I wrote a Twitter thread (where SpAds and recovering SpAds spend too much of their life)
I followed it up with a more in depth interview chatting to Matt Honeycombe-Foster of Politico … helpfully saying the first thing that former SpAds should do is to stop reading Politico (for a short while at least) piece here.
Do let me know if you’d like me to come in and speak to your organisation with such wonderful tips :)
📽️ Season Six launch
We went back to our roots interviewing one of the most captivating entrepreneur stories of the last decade.
Many of you will have heard of PensionBee, but few know the story of Romi Savova behind it
A journey that started in Bulgaria and went via United States and South Africa which led to a listing on the London Stock Exchange.
If Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng are serious about a pro relentless growth agenda, their teams need to understand the story of PensionBee.
Launching the new series the day before the Queen passed was not ideal timing to put it mildly.
As always, your clicks, views, and subscriptions to our YouTube channel in the early days are much appreciated:
💈 Poll: Would you listen to audio through Substack?
Substack has introduced a new feature which allows you to insert audio clips.
The merger of podcasts and media continues!
Would it be something you are interested in?
Another new feature is podcaster poll, let’s see how easy it is to use.
🚜 Be more Frank
Love Romesh Ranganathan, and love Michael Sheen, as Wales embark on their first world cup for half a century …. spine tingly stuff.
A reminder of how ‘be more Frank’ section started here.
🚀 BGF Scale Up Week
has been a bit disrupted by the passing of the Queen, but there are still events happening later today (Thursday 22nd) There are some appearances from some of the Jimmy’s Jobs alumni like Nigel Toon of Graphcore, Tessa Clarke of Olio and big city names like Nigel Wilson of Legal & General.
You can register here.
BGF and Jimmy’s Jobs are working in partnership, if you would be interested in partnering with us, you can check out the opportunities here.
📅 Coming up …
As mentioned, in the next few weeks, we’ll be profiling some of new PMs key Cabinet players, and those that are going to be influential behind the scenes …
And we’ll be launching a new podcast ….
So make sure you subscribe or forward onto a friend or colleague who might be interested.
✍️ This notebook is not possible without …
It is the most common question I get asked on when I tell people that I am a podcaster is, ‘how do you make money?’ or even ‘do you make any money at all?
Well it is possible thanks to our various partners as listed below.
Octopus Group who have backed us all the way since Season Two
National Farmers Union
Fintech Alliance
Primarybid
BGF
If you would like to partner with us, check out https://www.jobsofthefuture.co/partnerships
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