Dominic Cummins – Hero or Villain?
21/08/2019

It is highly unlikely anyone has missed the media coverage of Boris Johnson’s advisory team, and Dominic Cummins’ role within it, in Number 10. Equally, there will be millions of people who saw The Uncivil War, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, about the 2016 BREXIT campaign broadcast earlier this year. For the benefit of doubt, Cummins is on the left above and Cumberbatch on the right – that’s no comment on their politics!
Cummins came to our attention long before – in 2013 to be precise – while working for Michael Gove at the Department for Education. He wrote a seriously pertinent article about the dire state of our education system in the UK, and the way it churns out clueless Oxbridge PPE educated politicians and leaders of our country. The article can be found here:
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/from-quarks-to-odysseus-a-modern-education-zjndpsqzztx#
He also runs a blog (some of the articles are dated, but I suspect he’s a bit busy right now!) with a similar theme running through each article. At the heart of the theme is the lack of leaders’ abilities in data driven decision-making – in fact their lack of abilities in understanding data in the first place, preferring instead to rely on centralised authority and animal wiliness. He restricts his critique mainly to the political establishment, but, we have found, his comments are equally pertinent to Public and Private Sector organisations as well.
Here’s an example of one of his blogs:
In our travels, we’ve come across many organisations where good work is being done regarding, let’s call it, “Data-driven insights”. Only, in many cases, the leadership team seems to believe this is for the “operational” guys, while the leaders continue to make decisions based on experience and opinion!
How are significant decisions regarding spending, operating models, IT, recruitment, training, risk management etc. – how are they made at the senior levels in your organisation?
Would Dominic Cummins be a hero in the executive suite – or a villain?
Categories & Tags:
Leave a comment on this post:
You might also like…
Trace Evidence – How the smallest clues can make the largest difference at a crime scene.
When arriving at a crime scene, there are often signs or physical evidence such as hairs, fibres or shards of material that are often integral to solving how a crime was committed or providing critical ...
Safety and Human Factors in Aviation MSc student Joao Paulo talks about his passion for aircraft safety
Joao Paulo Costa Antunes De MacEdo is studying for an MSc in Safety and Human Factors in Aviation. Here, he talks about what led him to become interested in studying aircraft safety, how he is ...
Resource trial: Access government policy documents with Overton
Library Services has set up trial access to Overton until 16 April. Overton contains over 7 million policy documents and guidelines from over 31,000 organisations across 180+ countries. The database includes grey literature from leading ...
Life as a MSc Automotive Engineering Student at Cranfield University
I chose Cranfield University, because of its immense industrial connections and the depth of the modules. Before accepting the offer, I had a chat with a few alumni about their life here, both academically ...
My Experience as a C4D Scholar
How the C4D Scholarship made it possible for me to study MDes Design Thinking at one of the most prestigious universities in the world; Cranfield! I first found my interest in Design while in ...
Marketing sustainability claims: How to avoid greenwashing
As businesses strive to market themselves to best appeal to today’s sustainability-conscious consumers, it is perhaps inevitable that claims will be made that don’t necessarily give the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the ...
Love it, thanks David, a good read again
Chris