My world: June 2021…

This is part of a series of articles where our contributors describe how they think things will look a year from now.

In truth since stepping back from a corporate role at Grainger at the end of 2017 my ambition was to hub my consulting business from my home in the Cotswolds. Up until March 2020 that seemed increasingly difficult as my client base grew not only in numbers but geographically. With clients based and investing across EMEA and the US, London was the natural place to meet, co-ordinate and use as my springboard. Despite selling the family home in Fulham so that the Cotswolds became home not a weekend retreat, we found ourselves renting an even more central flat within weeks.

But Covid-19 has changed everything. Seeing the lockdown as inevitable, my wife (who has an office in London) and I loaded the car and headed west and within two days had set up two offices from where we have both worked since.

I am almost embarrassed to admit that since the formal lockdown, I think I have worked both longer hours and more efficiently than at any time since 2017. Some of the on-line practises took a day or two to get used to but co-ordinating meetings, conversations, introductions and all forms of communication became easier. True; everyone else was in the same unchartered territory of working from home offices as far away as they could from children thoroughfares – with the purpose of keeping the show on the road.