Jason Stockwood - Reboot: A Blueprint for Happy, Human Business in the Digital Age

The tech revolution will hit us all soon. How can any organisation survive and thrive?

Headlines predict that whole industries will be decimated by Artificial Intelligence and automation. Some bosses and bankers are rubbing their hands at the prospect of cost savings and staff cuts.

But there is another way. New technology can also empower teams, fuel creativity and make people happier.

At Simply Business, twice voted the UKs best company to work for, big data and automated systems are being harnessed to generate positive growth, staff are currently trialling a four-day week in their Northampton office. In this bold blueprint, CEO Jason Stockwood named by the Sunday Times as the UKs best leader shows how any organisation can think freshly and benefit from technology by putting its people first.

Jason Stockwood is CEO of Simply Business, twice recognised by The Sunday Times as the UKs best company to work for, and he was named as Best Leader in the UK in 2016. Simply Business is the UKs leading B2B insurance broker, and is among the Tech Track 100 of the fastest-growing tech companies. It was acquired by the US insurance group Travelers in 2017 for $490m and has been accredited as a B Corporation, one of 2,000 companies worldwide that are committing to redefining how business measures success. Jason previously held leadership roles at lastminute.com, match.com, Skyscanner and Travelocity.

Jason has set out a vision for business which is more inclusive, engaging and optimistic. This is an important addition to views of the future.

Martha Lane Fox, Baroness Lane-Fox of Soho

Theorists like me may have argued for doing business in a way that promotes widespread prosperity instead of extraction, and long-term purpose over short-term profit, but Jason Stockwood is in the trenches showing us all how very possible it is to operate this way. By stressing intrinsic improvement over extrinsic innovation, Reboot focuses on how real-world competencies are the key to grounded, sustainable, and socially positive enterprise.

Douglas Rushkoff, author of Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus

Jason has pulled off a remarkable feat in this book, which crisply articulates the challenges facing the commercial world, by laying out a series of actionable steps that will make the world a better place. As a father of three young children, I hope that other business leaders can also be inspired by his ideas so that we can all help reboot the equation, and create a more compelling vision for the future.

Peter Jackson, Group CEO, Paddy Power Betfair

In a world of rapid technological change, companies of all sizes must keep their finger on the pulse in order to remain competitive. Reboot is a manual for every business leader to understand whats happening in technology, why, and most importantly, how their companies can leverage each new wave of transformation.

Pete Flint, Founder, Trulia and NFX

The acceleration of technologies and the disruption to traditional industries are well documented. How we can address those changes are less obvious. In Reboot Jason has tried to demonstrate how business leaders can take a more innovative approach to the tools and methods they can use to ensure their businesses work better for shareholders and for society.

Brent Hoberman, Chairman/Co-Founder, Founders Factory, Founders Forum and firstminute capital.

Shareholder primacy is the wrong operating system for business. Many of the best, fastest-growing, most forward-looking businesses have realised there is an alternative. They are designing a new operating system that changes everything from what leadership is, to what employment means. An operating system that redefines value itself. Jason is one of the most successful practitioners of this new operating system, and here he gives a masterclass in it. It is essential reading for anyone who is interested in what will lie behind business success in the future.

James Perry, Founder, Cook Food & B Lab UK

Countless pages have been devoted to the story of the technological forces that are inexorably transforming the global business landscape. Stockwood has written the rare book arguing that business leaders have a great deal of choice in shaping how this story will play out. Based on his experience leading tech-driven ventures, his study of the psychology of motivation, and his keen observation of the economic forces driving markets, he shows how leaders can embrace uncertainty, experiment their way to success, and build organisations that thrive by augmenting the abilities of their workers, instead of by exploiting them. I recommend Reboot to anyone who is willing to rethink the way businesses are currently run.

John Beshears, Terrie F. and Bradley M. Bloom Associate Professor of Business Administration, Co-Chair of Behavioral Economics Executive Education Program, Harvard Business School

This is a very timely, thoughtful and readable book as views on future technologies range from wild optimism to abject fear. The book makes rational arguments about why and how technological advances can be deployed sensibly for wide benefit, to businesses, their employers and customers and to wider society.

Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell, FRS, FRSB, FMedSci, President & Vice-Chancellor, The University of Manchester

Read this book and pause for thought. It sets out a vision for business which entrepreneurs can readily sign up to, with a promise of commercial and social gain for many, not the few. Authority comes from it being written by a man whos been there and done it. This has to be on your to-do list.

Emma Jones, Founder, Enterprise Nation

Is your business changing at a rate and scale like never before? Are existing norms and best practices increasingly not up to the task of dealing with todays challenges? Then its time to reboot and I can think of no person better placed to help than Jason Stockwood. Enlightened. Inspiring. And importantly, full of compassion and humanity. Reboot is the modern-day playbook for people in business today, who also want to be there tomorrow, too.

Steve Martin, New York Times bestselling author of Yes! Secrets from the Science of Persuasion

At a time where we are debating the future of work and the impact technology will have on jobs, Reboot is a timely reminder for us all of our need to revisit our fundamental approach to business and leadership. Jason highlights the need to provide greater autonomy for employees, experimentation and flexibility in order to thrive in the modern age. He showcases how business, if stewarded appropriately, can be a force for good. This requires a shift in our collective focus on the pursuit of short-term shareholder gains to a more long-term sustainable perspective, recognising our collective responsibility to wider society and the environment. Business as usual is no longer an option; its time for a reboot.

Rajeeb Dey MBE, Founder & CEO, Learnerbly

An antidote to dystopian and dated ideas about tech and leadership, Reboot is a playbook for positive deviance.

Lea Simpson, Co-founder, Brink

Jason paints a brilliantly vivid portrait of what a tech business can become when the good of people whether customers, employees or suppliers is at the heart of its thinking. It is a story that dispels fear. With disarming frankness he describes his own leadership journey, and celebrates the power of experimentation and the lessons that only come from failing. The hope and excitement the book conveys comes from the lived example of Simply Business, a powerful illustration that there is another way for business to be, apart from the dominant model of the last 40 years. And that business and society can both gain by the creation of highly successful tech business which put, meeting true human needs at the heart of their purpose.