Virtual Forum
Operating at the Edge:
When Ambition Becomes a Trap
- Friday 5th June
- 4:00pm - 5:00pm
- Virtual Microsoft Teams
Why ‘going big’ can undermine your success The cultural script for ambitious people is simple: more, harder, faster.
Your greatest asset can become your biggest obstacle. Military careers reward resilience, but in the commercial sector resilience without reflection isn’t a strength. It’s just a slower way to burn out.
High performers often live someone else’s ambition. The most dangerous career trap isn’t failure, it’s succeeding at the wrong thing.
Seeing the patterns that run your decision-making. Choosing the best path is easier when you learn about the unconscious patterns that run your life.
Expert Speakers
Alex Mackenzie
Executive Coach at Longa Ltd.
Alex is a former Parachute Regiment Captain and now an Executive Coach. He coaches CEOs, founders, and executive teams who are operating at the edge: turnarounds, hypergrowth, first-time scale, and missions that can't afford to fail.
His clients are self-directed, ambitious individuals often forged by pivotal experiences like military service or elite sport. They're driven by impact beyond money, always seeking new frontiers. They typically work with him when they feel unable to engage with their work in a way that enables them to meet their own high standards for contribution. They want their work to feel like a natural extension of who they are.
He has twenty years of commercial context that isn't theoretical: leading multi-million-dollar strategic initiatives for Walmart, Tesco, Anglo American, and Chelsea FC; building and scaling a global AI partnership with McKinsey; co-founding Row2Recovery - a social enterprise that raised £1.3M for charity by rowing the Atlantic with a crew of wounded soldiers.
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John Dee
Director of Strategy at Somerford
John served for 35 years in the British Army's Intelligence Corps before retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel in 2019. During that time he served in Northern Ireland, the Balkans, the Gulf, Afghanistan and Pakistan. After leaving the Army he joined Somerford Associates in a new post as the Strategy Director, a role that sees him straddle the public and private sector through senior stakeholder engagement, translating strategic business risk to current and emerging technologies. Whilst he does not profess to be a cyber SME, he does know the importance of information and its criticality to support the decision-maker.
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Additional Resources
Who are Somerford Associates?
We are a passionate group of people delivering innovation to our customers on their digital transformation journey.
Somerford Defence Employer Recognition Scheme Silver Award
Somerford has a long and established history of working with the Ministry of Defence as well as hiring ex-service personnel
Somerford in the Public Sector
With a dedicated Public Sector Practice and experience of working within Government and Frameworks, Somerford helps government agencies with Digital Transformation