About a year ago before Covid-19 impacted all our lives, I was walking past a tiny little artisan bakery called Holtwhites on Chase Side in Enfield (http://www.holtwhitesbakery.co.uk/) and wondered why so many people were prepared to queue outside in the freezing cold for bread! I had to find out, so I decided to queue up with them. The people queuing appeared in good spirits and merrily chatting to one another and there was this obvious vibe about the little place. After about 15 minutes queuing with the group, I got inside this tiny little bakery. Everything was beautifully presented, the bakers and their machinery is all on show, the team serving were all really pleasant to the customers. I bought a large sourdough bloomer and 6 eggs that were sourced from a local farm and headed home thinking "what a great little place but seems a tad on the expensive side". I cooked my brekkie and was blown away by the quality. The toasted sourdough was crisp on the edges and beautiful inside. The poached eggs had this orange yoke that was perfect. Hard to believe that a simple eggs-bread combo could taste so great with simple ingredients. But that's the whole point. The ingredients were top quality and served up by a small boutique team that really care about what they do. I visit every week these days. I have heard recently there is a tiny pub near me called “Little Green Dragon” (https://littlegreendragonenfield.com/) that opened after a large pub in the area called the Green Dragon closed after decades. I am reliably informed that the “Little Green Dragon” only does top quality ale from micro-breweries and the staff are great and really welcoming. I am looking forward to giving it a go in the spring of 2021 (hopefully) once we are all past Covid and we can do those things again.

Just over a decade ago I started a boutique cloud technology business with some good colleagues of mine. We took our little business on a rollercoaster but exciting journey that ultimately sold in 2018 to Hewlett Packard Enterprise. We started RedPixie with all the same drive and passion and care that the little bread maker and little pub exhibit. We hired a load of top people over the years. We took on some complex technology problems for many of our customers. We proved that we could build cloud based solutions (the right way) that could out-perform other systems at a better price point. We delivered a large migration project for a hospital trust at a break-even price because we felt they were being ripped off by a larger vendor. We won our first large project with a great customer because we simply told the truth about the real cost of the project so the CIO could go to his board just the once to secure the migration budget. We took on our projects with a confident swagger (never arrogant) because we were surrounded by a fantastic team of people (too many to mention in a blog, they know who they are). The RedPixie team always worked together the right way to get to the outcomes the customers wanted. We blended quality system engineering with quality automation and the right culture to just get things done. That is all history now and I find myself on a similar exciting journey at BlakYaks.

I am pleased to say that the little baker I love is still queued out the door. I hope the little green dragon does open again after Covid restrictions have lifted so I can give that a go too. I encourage everyone to try their own little boutiques, you may just love what you find.