The world's No.1 podcast dedicated to all of maritime and naval history. With one foot in the present and one in the past we bring you the most exciting and interesting current maritime projects worldwide: including excavations of shipwrecks, the restoration of historic ships, sailing classic yachts and tall ships, unprecedented behind the scenes access to exhibitions, museums and archives worldwide, primary sources and accounts that bring the maritime past alive as never before. From the So ...
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Welcome to Transforming Insight, the podcast for anyone who has the ambition to transform their Insight team and create an Insight-driven organisation. Your host is James Wycherley, chief executive of the Insight Management Academy, and the author of Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams. In the Transforming Insight podcast, we not only explore all 42 secrets outlined in the Transforming Insight book, but we also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, ...
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Eyewitness: Captain Avery and the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates
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This year we are launching a new strand of the podcast on eyewitness testimony, in which we bring you the most extraordinary primary sources – history as told and written by the people who were actually there. Today we start with one of the most atmospheric of all maritime sources, one that transports you directly back to the creaky decks of the ag…
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It is a little known and extraordinary fact that over 300 years ago the Inuit made crossings from Greenland to the Orkney Isles and northern Scotland. The journey across the hostile North Atlantic is over 1200 miles. Their traditional craft were made of nothing more than skin, bone and driftwood. The literature of Scotland, particularly in relation…
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But the topic that’s resonated most for us personally and many of our members has been Insight team wellbeing and the ways we can all identify and help our colleagues to manage stress. Emma’s conversation with new IMA associate Lara Meyer, recorded and shared at the July Insight forums and now available for all members to watch on the IMA website, …
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Lifesavers: How Conflict Innovation Can Build a Better World
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We find out about an exciting project run by the Imperial War Museum which explores how conflict has driven innovation in science and technology. Sponsored by Lloyd’s Register Foundation, the project aims to discover how conflict has accelerated innovation, and how this has impacted on the world we live in today. Science and technology are the key …
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Episode 53: Transforming Insight at Lloyd's Register
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In this episode, we dig into the transformative power of integrating various disciplines within data analytics to answer complex business questions. Drawing from Caroline's experiences at Prudential and Lloyd's, we discuss how combining data analytics, client research, marketing, and competitive intelligence can lead to more comprehensive and impac…
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King of the Beggars: The Extraordinary Life of Billy Waters
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Billy Waters was born into enslavement in 1770s New York, before becoming a sailor in the royal navy. After losing his leg in a fall from the rigging, the talented Waters became London’s most famous street performer, celebrated on stage and in print. Towards the end of his life he was elected 'King of the Beggars' by his peers. Waters died destitut…
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Episode 52: Building commercial foundations
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If we want to transform our Insight team’s commercial impact, we need to build a commercial foundation for our work. What does that look like? What are the first steps? And how can we make it easier for ourselves by helping our colleagues adopt a commercial mindset? Please listen to find out more! Topics Discussed Core stats and a business blueprin…
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Today we hear from Douglas Robertson. In 1971 Douglas’s father, Dougal, a retired merchant navy sailor turned Staffordshire dairy farmer, sold his farm and bought a yacht. He planned to sail around the world with his wife, daughter and three sons. Douglas was then sixteen and today casts his mind back to that fateful voyage. He recalls in great det…
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We hear about an exciting project to save and record accounts of shipwreck survivors. The project's goal is to raise awareness and understanding of the experiences of those who have been unfortunate enough to experience shipwreck. This is crucially important at a time when familiarity with life at sea is diminishing and there is a noticeable absenc…
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Episode 51: Optimising impact through commerciality
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Over the last 20 years, there has gradually been more focus on commercial thinking in Insight teams, and some organisations have made notable progress. But 400 Insight leaders have taken part in the IMA’s capability benchmarking in the last 5 years, and commerciality remains the best practice territory given the lowest scores. In today’s episode I …
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Sea Monsters Part 2: The Eyewitness Accounts
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An entire episode dedicated to historical accounts of sea monsters! In the last episode we learned how sailors' encounters with sea monsters inform us of a changing world and link themes of religion and science with exploration of the natural world and safety at sea. In this episode we hear what they actually had to say, in their own voices. We hea…
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Episode 50: Transforming Insight at Nestle UK
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Topics Discussed A look back at Carolina’s past roles (2:30) Seminal moments in Carolina’s Insight career (11:50) Learning from transformations at PepsiCo (14:50) Being a driving force for transformation at Nestle UK (16:07) Building capabilities in the team to be bigger than the sum of the parts (25:37) Developing the plan for a transformation ini…
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In this episode we hear about the extraordinary and long history of sailors coming across monsters from the deep. It’s a complex and fascinating topic intimately linked with the human experience of sea, but for historians it exists as a strand of knowledge and experience which runs alongside developing ideas of faith and developing understanding of…
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Episode 49: Respecting the rhythms and rituals
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Today’s episode looks at the fourth pathway, process, and this one is a bit different because it starts not with the Insight team, but with the rest of the organisation. Whether we like it or not, senior decision-makers, like consumers, will have their own ways of making choices. In our companies, that might mean committees that meet each month or …
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In December 1941 HG-76 sailed from Gibraltar to Britain and was specially targeted by a wolfpack of U-boats whilst, in a rare example of German inter-service cooperation, the Luftwaffe pounced from French airfields. In Gibraltar and Spain, German intelligence agents had known every detail of HG-76 before it had even sailed. Nonetheless, the convoy …
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Episode 48: Improving your Insight team's reputation
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In today’s episode, James and Lisa look at the reputation of our Insight teams, and how we need to manage it carefully to enhance our positioning. It’s a bit like our companies obsessing about customer experience so that individual interactions don’t undermine their corporate brand: we can say what we like about the purpose of our Insight teams, bu…
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Smugglers, Pirates and Terrorists: Maritime Crime and Security
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Recent conflict in the Red Sea caused by Houthi attacks on commercial shipping has brought the subject of maritime crime and security into focus. In this episode Dr Sam Willis speaks with Christian Bueger, Professor of International Relations at the University of Copenhagen, Director of the SafeSeas Network for Maritime Security and author of the i…
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The Dreadnought Hoax is one of the most fantastical events of all naval and maritime history. In 1910 four white English people – three men and one woman – pretended to be members of the Abyssinian royal family, complete with black face make up, false beards and magnificent robes, and were given a tour of HMS Dreadnought, the most powerful battlesh…
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We also see this as a time of team change, with lots of restructures, some redundancies, and a loss of people with years of experience. In response, the most successful Insight teams have doubled down on commercial thinking and influencing skills. Finally, we look at leaders’ roles in guiding their team members through change. Lisa provides a perso…
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Episode 46: Transforming Insight at Coca Cola Europacific Partners
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Topics Discussed Hazel’s journey to becoming Associate Director of Insights at Coca-Cola EP(1:38) Enabling colleagues to self-service their data needs (5:02) Three-pronged approach to drive a more Insight-led business (8:31) Hazel’s approach to team management and Insight leadership (21:06) Collaborating with agency partners for success (25:10) Wha…
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Episode 45: Increasing the awareness of Insight
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There’s no point developing detailed brand concepts if nobody has heard of our companies in the first place. And the same is true for our Insight teams. So in this week’s episode, I’m going to suggest that whilst we should certainly reflect on our Insight team brand, we should also recognise that we often simply need to promote awareness of Insight…
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Episode 44: Transforming Insight at Transport for London
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Topics Discussed Renate's journey to leading the Insight Team at TFL (1:50) Navigating the team through a re-org (4:21) Annual goals, priorities and team collaboration (10:04) What is Renate most proud of her team achieving? (14:15) Maintaining the heightened profile for the Insight team post-pandemic (17:05) Challenges and success of a leadership …
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In this episode we visit Vrak - The Museum of Wrecks in Stockholm. Nowhere else in the world are there as many well-preserved wooden wrecks as there are in the Baltic Sea. People have lived on the shores of the Baltic ever since the end of the Ice Age, where they have travelled, sailed, hunted and waged war, for millennia. The Baltic has special wa…
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Episode 43: Developing the Insight team brand
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According to the entrepreneur.com website: ‘Simply put, your brand is your promise to your customer. It tells them what they can expect from your products and services, and it differentiates your offering from that of your competitors. Your brand is derived from who you are, who you want to be and who people perceive you to be.’ In our world of cor…
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The First Naval Architect: Fredrik Henrik af Chapman (1721-1808)
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In this episode we explore the extraordinary life of Frerik Henrik Af Chapman, the man considered the grandfather of naval architecture. Born in Gothenburg in 1721 to immigrant English parents, his father served in the Swedish navy before becoming the manager of a shipyard in Gothenburg. His mother was the daughter of a London shipwright. Frerderik…
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The third episode in our mini series on Maritime Sweden is a tour of Sweden's National Maritime Museum in Stockholm: Sjöhistoriska Museet. Listen in as Dr Sam Willis is guided around the museum by its curator, Jonas Hedberg. We hear about the founding of the purpose-built maritime museum in the 1930s; explore the extraordinary collection of ship mo…
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An Insight team looks outwards to an organisation’s customers and markets and shines a light on issues of strategic importance. In stormy weather, it is there to pinpoint rocks upon which the organisation might founder, and competitor companies with which the company might collide. Many Insight teams pride themselves on their ability to understand …
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One of the most fascinating aspects of Viking history is their voyages east, to Arab lands. Vikings from the geographical area that would become Sweden played an important role in the creation of the political entity known as Rus, and some Scandinavians travelled by river to Arab lands, where they traded slaves for dirhams, and to Constantinople, w…
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This episode starts a new mini-series on the maritime history of Sweden, and we begin by exploring Sweden’s fascinating naval history over the last 500 years, and how Sweden’s modern defence thinking has been shaped by its past. Founded in 1522, the Swedish navy is one of the oldest continuous serving navies in the world and its complex history ref…
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A special episode which explores the young 16 year-old midshipman Horatio Nelson's exploits on the Phipps' expedition in search of a Northeast Passage in 1773, in which he fought off a walrus. The episode is linked to an ongoing project run by St Paul's Cathedral and the University of York '50 Monuments in 50 Voices' which showcases thought-provoki…
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This episode looks at the fascinating history of sea charts, a subject crucial to the making of the modern world. The world took shape in our minds through the development of the sea chart, which in turn led to colonization, globalisation - a great mixing of the populations of the world that has created our diverse nations and complex history of to…
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In this episode… How can our teams adopt Insight tools & systems to make the communication part of our roles easier and more effective? (2.31) How can we inspire all our researchers and analysts to become Insight influencers? (7.47) Taking control of our personal brand (13.02) The importance of mapping stakeholders and allies (15.16) The organisati…
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Great Maritime Innovations 1: The Stockless Anchor
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This episode starts a new mini-series on maritime innovations, and we start with one of the most important: the stockless anchor. A Victorian innovation, the stockless anchor transformed seafaring, making it safer and simpler. The stockless anchor was a simple but clever design which presented many advantages over traditional anchors. Previous anch…
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Freak Ships of the Nineteenth Century: SS Bessemer
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This episode explores ss Bessemer (1874), known as the 'Swinging Saloon Ship.' An experimental cross-channel steamship, Bessemer was designed with a central saloon that moved on gymbals, to counteract the motion of the ship. It was designed to eliminate seasickness. The man behind the idea was the lifelong seasickness-sufferer Sir Henry Bessemer, a…
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Episode 40: Transforming Insight at Deliveroo
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Topics Discussed Looking closer at Hayley’s switch to Deliveroo (2:00) Transforming Insight culture to look more toward consumer understanding (4:48) The importance of clear objectives (10:40) Has Hayley’s view on the role of Insight changed? (14:27) The opportunities and threats of AI to Insight teams (18:48) One piece of advice Hayley would give …
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Filming The World's Best Ship Models: Stockholm
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This episode looks at Llloyd’s Register Foundation’s new project Maritime Innovation in Miniature which is one of the most exciting maritime heritage projects of recent years and a leader in terms of innovation in the maritime heritage field. The aim of the project is to film the world’s best ship models. They are removed from their protective glas…
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The Royal Navy at the time of the Great Fire of London
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The 1660s were a time of great turmoil in England. In 1666 the great fire of London had destroyed much of the country’s capital and just a year earlier the great plague had killed a fifth of the city’s population. In amongst this chaos the new King, Charles II, recently restored to the throne after the English Civil War, began to build an extraordi…
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To discuss that topic, James is joined by Debra Walmsley, one of the most inspirational corporate Insight leaders in the UK. Debra has led Insight teams at British Airways, British Gas, Saga, Halfords and now Virgin Atlantic. And she has recently joined the IMA as one of our part-time senior Insight advisers. She also has very impressive form on th…
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This episode looks at the extraordinary maritime history of Scarborough, a port town on the UK's northeastern coast. Famed for its medieval herring fair that features in Simon and Garfunkel's 1960s version of the traditional English ballad 'Scarborough Fair' it has a lesser known but significant maritime history. Once one of the largest shipbuildin…
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In this the final episode of our dramatisation of witness testimony from the British Wreck Commissioner's Inquiry, we hear from Annie Robinson. Annie was a First Class Stewardess and one of only three women interviewed at the inquiry. She was asleep when Titanic collided with the iceberg - and this was the second time she had been on a vessel that …
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The Titanic Inquiry 4: Charles Lightoller
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We continue our dramatisation of witness testimony given at the British Wreck Commissioner's Inquiry into the Titanic disaster. Today we hear from Charles Lightoller, Titanic's second officer and the most senior officer to survive the disaster. Lightoller is a fascinating character. By the age of 21 he had survived a shipwreck, a cyclone and a ship…
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Episode 38: Adopting an Insight perspective
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In his celebrated book, Factfulness, Hans Rosling said that: ‘People constantly and intuitively refer to their worldview when thinking, guessing or learning. If your worldview is wrong, you will systematically make the wrong guesses.’ Rosling founded the Gadminder Foundation, with a mission is ‘to fight devastating ignorance with a fact-based world…
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The battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944 was the largest naval encounter in history and the most decisive naval battle of the Pacific War. By its end the Japanese navy had been eliminated as an effective fighting force and resorted to using suicide attacks. The battle was a huge, sprawling affair - not one battle but in fact four separate naval bat…
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Admiral Lord Nelson, Trafalgar and Heroic Death at Sea
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On the anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar of 1805 we look at a question that is central to the legend that grew up around the events of October 1805. How did a naval officer end up with a state funeral with no precedent for someone who was not a member of the Royal Family? How was death perceived in the Royal Navy of the Age of Sail and why did…
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In this, the second of our dramatisations of witness testimony given at the British Wreck Commissioner's Inquiry into the Titanic disaster we hear from Fred Barrett, a stoker from Liverpool. Fred had been tasked with extinguishing a fire and was in one of the boiler rooms when the collision happened. If you are interested in what happened in the bo…
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What skills and attributes do the most successful Insight teams recruit for? Which do they find it most difficult to develop? And which would Lisa prioritise? Please listen to find out more! Topics Discussed Categorising Insight skills (2.28) Not accepting the status quo (5.43) The skills and attributes that Lisa would prioritise (9.03) Introducing…
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In this, the first of four dramatisations of witness testimony given at the British Titanic Inquiry of May 1912, we hear directly from Lady Duff Gordon. A First Class passenger, and one of only two passengers interviewed at the inquiry (the other being her husband), Lady Duff Gordon was also one of only three women to give testimony. Along with her…
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The sinking of the Titanic in 1912 led immediately to two major inquiries: one in America and one in the UK. The testimony in these enquiries provides a fascinating and valuable glimpse into the tragedy from the words of the people themselves who experienced it. And yet only recently have these testimonies become freely accessible online, thanks to…
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Topics Discussed The Insight leadership framework (1.50) Working on our Insight teams not in them (5.30) The Insight playbook (9.08) Introducing the 9Ps (11.21) This is episode 36 of the Transforming Insight podcast. If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes…
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The Rules and Regulations for Composite Ships
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In the archives of the Lloyd's Register Foundation is a stunning hand-illustrated portfolio of the Rules of Composite Ships. These were a set of rules regulating the construction of this new type of vessel born of the industrial revolution. Half iron and half timber, these 'composite' ships transformed maritime capability whilst at the same time ch…
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