Mike Harris

Mike Harris was born in 1949 in  Dudley, an industrial town in the heart of the UK. Having graduated in 1970 with a degree in chemistry from London University he spent the first part of his career in IT at Midland bank.

In 1986 he  joined , venture funded  technology company, Space-Time Systems, as part of their Series C fund raising. Space-Time was sold in 1988 and Harris returned to Midland Bank to become founding CEO of the world’s first major telephone bank Firstdirect, which is now a subsidiary of HSBC .

Firstdirect rapidly became known for its extraordinary service and customer loyalty –  a reputation it retains to this day

Between 1991 and 1995 he was Chief Executive of UK Telco Mercury Communications (then the only competitor to BT)  where he created a new consumer business which was later sold to NTL (now Virgin Media) for £2.5bn. He was also Chairman of the start up mobile operator –One to One which was later sold to T-Mobile for $10bn.

In 1995 he moved on to the position of founding CEO of Prudential Banking plc and then the CEO of its successor, Egg – which he took from concept to a billion pound public company in just 2 years. Egg was the first major internet bank in the world and for several years had more internet customers than any other bank. It is still regarded as the most successful of the internet banking start-ups .

Following the Egg IPO Harris was credited by analysts, press and academic commentators with creating three one billion pound plus iconic brands- Firstdirect, Mercury and Egg. Having left Egg in 2005 he co-founded Garlik and became Executive Chairman. Garlik is now the UK’s leading supplier of software and  services which protect consumers  from online crime and identity fraud.  As at December 2011 , when it was sold to global data giant Experian, Garlik was operating in  the UK, the  US, Italy, Germany, Turkey and India..

Harris was Chair of Innovation at Royal Bank of Scotland  from 2005 until March 2009,  where he  supervised the establishment of  a group wide innovation programme.

Between 1995 and 2008 he was a regular speaker at the mid career MBA course at the Sloan School of management at MIT where he also supervised a number of student research projects.

Mike is an experienced and highly rated business speaker, facilitator and mentor, he can speak on topics related to innovation, strategy, leadership, culture, technology and financial services and usually designs a tailored speech to meet the needs of a particular company or conference.

“…an extraordinarily stimulating, creative and entertaining speaker.”
MIT Sloan School of Management

“I asked Mike to give a talk and then lead a discussion as part of a workshop for a group of senior leaders within a major corporate client. We needed someone who had both an amazing personal track record and could speak well to an audience who we knew would reach for their Blackberries if they weren’t riveted.

Mike was brilliant. He was engaging, insightful, funny, punchy and straightforward. He was clear without over-simplifying. He held the audience’s attention from the first minute until the last. He answered questions humbly and openly, and generated enough respect that experienced leaders were happy to ask for his advice. I really think he is one of only a handful of people in the country that could have pulled this off. It’s a pleasure to recommend him.” Strategy and Innovation Consultant

High Performance Leadership

“How do you unleash peoples’ energy, creativity and commitment whilst at the same time being rigorous about managing to stretching and at times breakthrough performance goals? A challenge that I took on at Firstdirect, Mercury and Egg and I learned a lot! Lessons I now apply to every business I work with from corporate giants to small business owners and everything in between.

Mike completely changed the atmosphere of the room – he was inspiring and the round of applause at the end of his talk was heartfelt. We can all learn from him.  BT Wholesale

I wanted to thank you on behalf of myself and the whole team for the very stimulating and inspirational presentation, and conversation over dinner last Thursday evening” M and S

Customer Engagement

“Customer is king is a mantra that has served many businesses well including Firstdirect and Egg but the rules of customer insight and engagement are changing rapidly and we need to change our approach as social media takes centre stage.

Many thanks to you for your valuable input to us and for inspiring our team. Generali

You judged the audience perfectly and gave them exactly what they’d come for.” Hardy, Bacon Club

Game Changers

“A game changer harnesses societal , technological or regulatory change to come up with a revolutionary idea which transforms an entire industry or indeed many industries.

Game changers tend to be unknown at the time they first burst on the scene.

This speech looks at the key principles successful game changers apply using examples from people I have spoken to like Gates, Jobs, Branson, Berners-Lee ; my own experience with Firstdirect, Mercury and Egg and my current experience of mentoring potential game changers in several different industries. I show how anyone can be a game changer and how any player in any industry is likely to have to cope with several game changing ideas in the next decade.

You managed very easily to bridge the age range from my grads to the more cynical and gnarled consultants with consummate ease and keeping them enthralled all the way. You gave us an excellent insight into what the future of technology and at the same time threaded in the implications on Thomsons throughout.” CEO Thomsons

Mike was fantastic. I loved the theme that he kept from the beginning right though to the end about change and doing things differently” Telehouse

Implementing Innovation

How organisations can create an environment rich in new ideas and successful innovations despite financial, organisational and IT barriers. I take a look at this from two perspectives. Firstly ,from that of someone given responsibility to create an innovation initiative in a large organisation where I draw on my experience of Chairman of the Innovation Board at RBS (2005-2009) and work I did at the Sloan Business School, MIT (1996-2008). Secondly, I look at the issue from the perspective of a CEO who wants his or her organisation to be more innovative or keep it innovative as it grows – drawing on my experiences at Mercury and Egg.

Mike has led many seminars at MIT and his descriptions of where breakthrough innovations come from are brilliant.” MIT Sloan School

I just want to say thank you for a fantastic session yesterday. The O2 guys found it very, very inspiring and are having a Mike Harris feedback slot at their mega work shop today.” The Foundation