Career

I’ve been taking a few weeks of semi-vacation in South Africa and I’m in a reflective mood, so please forgive the indulgent tone of this post. I’ve been thinking about what an awesome industry I work in, and some of the people who have been moving it forward over the last few years, at least for me. I wanted to take a moment to appreciate them. If you haven’t come across any of the following topics  I encourage you to explore further. At the very least you should be following these folks on Twitter.

I am delighted to announce my new independent consulting company, Dan North & Associates, which has the handy abbreviation of DNA. Take a look around the new website - I’d love to hear your feedback and suggestions, especially in terms of the direction I’m taking. Going independent has been on the cards for a while now, and the timing feels right after successfully carrying out a Lean transformation programme with my current employer, DRW Trading.

I’ve been in the IT industry for about 20 years now, and for nearly the last 8 years I’ve been a consultant with the rather excellent ThoughtWorks. Being anywhere for that long in our industry is quite uncommon, and to spend that long in a consulting role, with all the travel and disruption that implies, is even more so. I’ve had a fantastic time with ThoughtWorks and I feel I’ve grown tremendously during the time I was there. Eventually something had to give though, so at the end of last year I decided it was time to try something else.