Everywhere I look, there are ads marking Mother's Day. Mostly they conform to stereotype: flowers, jewelry, perfume. Not a lot of books. Not many computers. Few tools. Little that's useful.

Britain is famous for being great at inventing and poor at commercializing.

In our house, Mother's Day is every day. Father's Day, too. In our house, parents count. They do important work and that work matters. One day just doesn't cut for us.

All businesses and jobs depend on a vast number of people, often unnoticed and unthanked, without which nothing really gets done. They are all human and deserve respect and gratitude.

One of the sad truths about leadership is that, the higher up the ladder you travel, the less you know.

A great deal of creativity is about pattern recognition, and what you need to discern patterns is tons of data. Your mind collects that data by taking note of random details and anomalies easily seen every day: quirks and changes that, eventually, add up to insights.

Making those around you feel invisible is the opposite of leadership.

I'm all for ambition and stretch goals. I set them for myself. But leadership isn't the same as cheerleading. Believing in something is a necessary but absolutely insufficient condition for making it come true.

The medical profession is - and knows itself to be - endemically conservative and conformist.

The truth won't set us free - until we develop the skills and the habit and the talent and the moral courage to use it.

Speaking is what most people work on. They forget the thinking and the breathing and instead try to occupy space with sound.

British innovation in design, in the creative arts, in engineering and manufacturing is world class.