Running a service-sector firm is said to be like trying to herd cats. Brian has learned how to do it uncommonly well.

As a result, he’s a Board-level adviser for two of Britain’s largest law firms, two firms of consulting engineers, two public-sector bodies, two £100m-turnover construction companies, the UK’s leading consultancy on e-government standards, and the largest underwriting group at Lloyd’s. He guided a £2m-turnover signage company back to profit after eight years of barely breaking even, and helped the chairman of a £50m-turnover house-builder remove his chief executive in such a way that both still remain clients and friends.

Unusually for someone who deals with ‘soft’ people issues, he has a Cambridge degree in science, and he learned the realities of management in the hard-headed environment of Ford Motor Company and the numbers-focused world of the accountancy firm Ernst & Young.

He was consultant editor of The Manager’s Handbook, which has sold more than half a million copies and been translated into 15 languages.