Hugh Pettifer

Columnist, The Long View

Hugh Pettifer spent thirty years working in UK membership bodies, retiring as the chief executive of a mid-size professional institute, and now writes about the parts of the job that only make sense in retrospect.

His column, The Long View, is about institutional memory: what the sector did before the current tools and vocabulary arrived, which of those habits were worth keeping, and why some arguments come round on a ten-year cycle wearing new clothes. Expect anecdote, and expect the anecdote to make a point.

His standing advice to new chief executives: keep the old yearbooks. You will be surprised how often the answer is in them.