James Curtis

Read on to find out more about James, his experience and his life outside of his consultancy work.

My typical day begins... with writing. For an hour every morning, I write about 750-1000 words, processing events from the previous day and deciding what I can do that day to improve my life, tracking my progress in the areas of sleep, exercise, recreation and creation. I then structure my day around those activities.

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My specialist subject on Mastermind would be ... Excel. It sounds so boring, but I made my first spreadsheet when I was 10 and it has been such a faithful companion throughout my life.

If I wasn't a consultant, I guess I'd be ... a Viking, as I studied Viking Studies at University.

The experience I bring to the programme is ... other than my BA in Viking Studies, I have 10 years of experience working with companies, charities and start-ups in financial planning and business planning roles.

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I think it's important for academic institutions and commercial organisations because... without universities, there would have been no research that created innovations such as the search engine, the spreadsheet, radio and television technology, computers, web browsers, the internet, the polio vaccine ... hundreds of medical advances, including toothpaste. Without some collaboration, we would all be sick, toothless people banging rocks together.

My top-tip for a startup or SME developing a new product is ... find out if someone has tried to do it before, and if it failed, find out why.

Outside of work, my favourite focus is... the volunteer community Radical Engineers, of which I'm a co-founder. We connect radical organisations working to effect systemic change with volunteer technologists.

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Connect with James:

Linkedin | Twitter | Visit his website

Find out more about Radical Engineers:

Website | Twitter

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