Patrick Dixon

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For the Irish cricketer of the same name, see Patrick Dixon (cricketer)
Patrick Dixon

Born 1957
London
Occupation Futures studies
Spouse Sheila
Children Four

Dr Patrick Dixon is a business thinker and futurist. His Web TV site [1] has more than 10 million unique users. He is Chairman of Global Change Ltd,[2] author of twelve books (455,000 printed in 23 languages) including Futurewise and Building a Better Business, has spoken to audiences in 50 nations, has given hundreds of radio and TV interviews on major issues and trends, and has been ranked as one of the 20 most influential business thinkers alive today.[3]

Contents

[edit] Medical Career

Patrick Dixon studied Medical Sciences at King's College, Cambridge and continued medical training at Charing Cross Hospital, London.[2] In 1978, while a medical student he took a sabbatical (the first of many) after founding the IT startup Medicom, selling medical software solutions in the UK and the Middle East, based on early personal computers. After qualifying as a physician he cared for those dying of cancer at St Joseph's Hospice and then as part of the Community Care Team based at University College Hospital, London, while also continuing IT consulting part-time.

In 1987 he was asked as a specialist in care of the dying to advise on the management of those with AIDS, and was deeply shocked by the poor treatment, prejudice and discrimination that many with AIDS were experiencing from hospitals, clinics and community services. In 1988[2] he launched ACET (Aids Charity), following publication of his first book The Truth about AIDS, which provoked media debate by challenging many commonly held assumptions about HIV. This book anticipated the unfolding catastrophe that has since hit many nations in sub-Saharan Africa. ACET grew rapidly, providing home care services across London and other parts of the UK, as well as a national sex education programme in schools, reaching more than 450,000 students. Within the first three years, ACET programmes had also been established in Uganda, Romania and Thailand. Many other country programmes followed, all of which are now independent agencies, managed by their own national teams.

ACET is now a decentralised Alliance of independent AIDS care and prevention programmes in places such as the UK, Ireland, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Thailand, India, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine and Russia.[4]

Different country operations are now spawning their own partnerships and project relationships in many other nations. Although heavily involved with his wife Sheila on a day to day basis in supporting the Alliance, with several international partner visits each year, Dr Dixon has not treated patients for a decade. Their company Global Change Ltd provides much of the administration for the charity in the UK as well as helping to support country projects.

[edit] Business Trends Analysis and Consulting

Patrick Dixon advises many multinationals on global trends and risk management, drawing on material in his books Futurewise and Building a Better Business which in turn are based on comprehensive research.

Through the 1990s he wrote roughly one new book every year, covering a wide range of issues and trends including risk management, digital society, geopolitics, consumer shifts, health care, biotechnology, social issues, politics and business ethics. Several of these achieved significant media coverage and resulted in many invitations to speak to multinational corporations about future challenges.[2]

In 1997 he was invited to be a Fellow of the World Economic Forum at Davos, where he presented the Six Faces of the Future described in the book Futurewise. This led to further requests for lectures, seminars and consulting, particularly from banks and insurance companies, but also including energy, travel, tourism, manufacturing, distribution, pharma, telecom and IT companies. By 1999 he was teaching on a range of business school programmes, and his web TV site had become an often quoted source.

Most of his work is with the senior teams of larger multinationals, as well as their clients, helping them identify new business opportunities, and to develop new strategy responging to new technologies, rapid changes in customer expectations, demographic shifts, competitor innovation and changes in emerging markets. He also works with corporations on other issues such as corporate ethics, corporate responsibility, winning the war for talent, team leadership and motivation. He is a frequent contributor to radio / TV current affairs and news programmes around the world, commenting on a wide range of trends, with a cumulative audience reach of more than 400 million people.

His thesis is described in the opening sentences of Futurewise:

  • "Your company may have a reputation for brilliant leadership, outstanding innovation, clever branding and effective change management, but the business could fail if the world changes and you are unprepared."
  • "The larger the corporation, the greater the risk that you are flying blind."
  • "Institutional blindness is a major threat to the future of all corporations."

Futurewise describes Six Faces of the Future (FUTURE) which will impact every large business: F ast, U rban, T ribal, U niversal, R adical and E thical.

His most recent book Building a Better Business is a guide to management, marketing and motivation, covering issues randing from team leadership and change management to corporate governance, branding and marketing.

  • People will only follow you if they see you're ahead, are convinced you know the route, trust you, and want to get there too.
  • Life's too short to sell things you don't believe in.
  • The future of marketing belongs to honest information, accurate data and clear claims based on truth.
  • Every product and service is sold on the promise of a better future. The purpose of business is to deliver on the promise, and profit is the reward for doing so.
  • Business strategy is the battleplan for a better future.
  • You can have the greatest strategy in the world, but what is the point if no one cares?
  • Connect with all the passions people have—for themselves, their families, their communities and wider world—and they will follow you to the ends of the earth, buy your products and services with pride, and may even be willing to work for you for next to nothing.
  • When you have been close to death it makes you think about life.
  • Give people a convincing reason and they will lay down their very lives.
  • All the most powerful speeches ever made point to a better future.
  • You cannot have strong leadership without passion.
  • Mission is at the heart of what you do as a team. Goals are merely steps to its achievement.

[edit] Intellectual Capital

Patrick Dixon is well known for his relaxed attitude to his own intellectual capital,[2] chosing to give almost all of it away online in the spirit of Wikipedia. Hundreds of recent presentations are available for free access, together with hundreds of articles, over 50 videos of which some are an hour long, and the entire text of six books - more than a million chapters downloaded.

  • Trying to protect or copyright your own management ideas is a last-century nonsense: absurd and illogical. Even if you could do it in a web-based world, why bother? The only ideas really worth having are those which make the world a better place, and such ideas only reach their potency when widely released to influence and shape our future. Real genius is not just having an idea, but knowing how to apply it to a person, a group, an organisation or an audience.

[edit] Family

Dr Dixon is married to Sheila, with four grown up children, and lives in London where the family is active in local church and community life.

[edit] Books

  • Building a Better Business - Profile Books published 2005
  • Futurewise - Harper Collins 1998, 2001, Profile Books 2003, reprinted 2004, 2005, 4th edition 2007
  • The Genetic Revolution - Kingsway 1993, 1995 (free online)
  • The Truth about Westminster - Kingsway 1995 (free online)
  • The Truth about Drugs - Hodder 1996 (free online)
  • The Truth about AIDS - Kingsway / ACET Int. All. 1987, 1989, 1994, new edition 2004 (free online)
  • AIDS and Young People - Kingsway 1989 (free online)
  • AIDS and You - Kingsway / ACET Int. All. 1990, new edition 2004
  • The Rising Price of Love - Kingsway 1994 (free online)
  • Signs of Revival - Kingsway 1994, 1995
  • Out of the Ghetto - Word 1995
  • Island of Bolay - Harper Collins - airport bookstall novel / thriller
  • Cyberchurch - Kingsway 1996

[edit] Articles

[edit] References and external links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
  1. ^ globalchange.com - free online books, videos and presentations
  2. ^ a b c d e Ciaran Parker, The Thinkers 50. Praeger Publishers, 2005. ISBN 0-275-99145-8
  3. ^ http://www.thinkers50.com/?page=2005 Thinkers 50 2005
  4. ^ www.acet-international.org
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