User:GJW
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Gavin Wilson | |
|---|---|
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| Occupation | Editor and market analyst |
| Nationality | British |
| Subjects | IT, marketing, strategy |
Gavin Wilson (born 20th February 1959) is a British writer and intelligence analyst for IBM. He is also a director of IBM UK Pensions Trust.
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[edit] Education
Wilson is the elder son of John Wilson, writer of books on the law of marine average and former partner in Richards Hogg International. Gavin spent his childhood in Radlett, Hertfordshire, but went to boarding school at Edge Grove and later won a scholarship to Oundle. Between 1977 and 1980 he was an exhibitioner at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, studying under Dr Jim Murray and graduating with an honours degree in Mathematics. In 1982, he studied for the Certified Diploma in Accounting and Finance at City of London Polytechnic. In 1987 he was awarded an MBA from the London Business School, where he was taught by Andrew Likierman, Sir Jim Ball, Gary Hamel and many others. Around 2001, he was awarded the Diploma in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing.
[edit] Marketing at IBM
Wilson started at IBM as a systems engineer, later becoming a lecturer on IT networks, and country product manager for the System/36, System/38 and AS/400. In 1998 he joined IBM's market intelligence unit to advise the company on its investments and competitive strategies. Since then he has published a series of regular internal publications, including weekly.400, eServer observer, Northings and Top Bits, along with BeeP, a monthly magazine for IBM business partners.
His research interests include:
- The two-dimensional depiction of market situations, including the use of proximity mapping to illustrate adjacent markets, and
- The problem of reconciling a simple table of estimates, so that the sum of the squares of the percentage alterations to each cell is minimised. In the example below, two column totals (in red) are incorrect. Which cells do you change, and by how much, so that every total is correct?
| Market Estimates | North | South | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hardware | $2 | $3 | $5 |
| Software | $1 | $3 | $4 |
| TOTAL | $3 | $7 | $8 |
[edit] IBM pensions
Since 2002, Wilson has been a director of the IBM UK pension trust, helping to steer the organisation through a difficult period in which the employer needed to limit its liabilities, while requiring employees to increase their contributions to the defined benefit schemes.
[edit] Other interests
- In the 1980s, Wilson was captain and secretary of the IBM London Chess team. In 1988 he invented the chess opening called the Kingston Defence -- 1.e4 e6 2.d4 f5?! -- and published a monograph on the subject in the following year.
- In bridge, he designed the Claygate 1NT opening bid, which requires 12-14 points, no void and no suits containing more than five cards. (This arose out of his dissatisfaction with the uncertainty created by bridge writers who say that a suit repeated at the two-level probably means a six-card suit.)
- The advantage of the Claygate 1NT is that it enables opening suit bids at the 1-level to mean either at least six cards in the suit (confirmed in opener's second-round re-bid), or a strong hand (15+ points) and at least four cards in the suit bid.
- The disadvantage is that the 1NT bid itself could conceal a 5-5-2-1 shape.
- Sadly he cannot find a partner with whome to play this system; nor does the EBU's Orange Book allow 1NT this meaning at the club level. He remains a member of Claygate Bridge Club.
- Wilson was treasurer of Thames Ditton Lawn Tennis Club from 2005 to 2006.
- He is a Top 300 reviewer on Amazon.com and a Top 100 reviewer on Amazon.co.uk. In 2000, the BBC rejected his sitcom idea, What They Don't Teach You at the Trellis Business School, at second reading.
- From 1981 to 1984, Wilson was a territorial member of the HAC, eventually rising to the rank of trooper.
- In recent years, he has taken A-levels in law and philosophy.
[edit] Reference
- Wilson, Gavin (1989). Crack the Frutch: How to Play the Kingston Defence. Kingston upon Thames: Phnumpic Press. ISBN 0-9514103-0-X.
- Wilson, Gavin (2000). hindsight.400 -- the weekly.400 review of 1999 Yearbook. Basingstoke: IBM.
- Wilson, Gavin (2001). Kind of Blue -- the IBM eServer observer Millennial Yearbook. Basingstoke: IBM.
- Wilson, Gavin (2002). Tin. The IBM eServer observer 2002 Yearbook. Bedfont: IBM.
