Global Services Director · Softcat plc Now booking — Q3 & Q4 2026 LinkedIn ↗
The dispatch — notes from the operating floor

The argument, as it happens.

A regular note from the operating floor of a £550M services business — what is actually changing in how services are designed, sold, delivered and led, written while it is still happening rather than after it is safe.

01 — What you get

No framework worship. No vendor breathlessness.

Most industry commentary is written from the outside — conference takeaways, analyst echoes, the same five opinions wearing different logos. The Dispatch is written from inside the work: what thousands of customer environments are actually telling us, what AI is genuinely changing on the floor (and what it is merely re-pricing), where the operating model bends, and what that means for how you lead.

One sharp argument at a time. The working notes behind the keynotes, the radar updates as positions shift, and the occasional thing I got wrong — said plainly. If it only inspires, it has failed. It should be useful on Monday.

New dispatches land on LinkedIn first, where sixteen thousand people read along and argue back. The best of them are expanded here as essays.

02 — Recent dispatches

From the archive.

All writing
Jun 2026

Most AI strategies are a detailed plan to become average, faster.

Read
May 2026

Brilliant builders, appalling leaders.

Read
Apr 2026

Once your product is software-enabled, your service model is the product.

Read
Apr 2026

The wearable that quietly delivered a thirty-minute keynote.

Read
Nov 2025

Exceptional service doesn't mean more people. It means smarter systems.

Read
Nov 2025

Have we already moved on from the smartphone?

Read
Aug 2025

Designed for agility. Built for experience.

Read
Jul 2025

Why Gen Z won't wait for your service desk.

Read
The thesis

Every dispatch serves one argument.

Software defines the service. Humans differentiate it. Shift right. The manifesto sets it out in full — the dispatches test it against reality, month by month.

Read the manifesto