One Take with Ian Beavis

👉 The Scoop – First, Ian is a world traveler and has already been to 128 countries. Second, Ian is truly a car guy. Drives a brand new Supra, has worked for some of the most prestigious car companies… you cut Ian, he bleeds gasoline. In his free time, Ian volunteers at the Petersen Museum.

👉 Decisive Moment #1 – Left Ford Australia and joined Saatchi & Saatchi advertising in Australia. Then was offered the opportunity to go to the United States to set up strategic planning at Saatchi & Saatchi in California on the Toyota business and said “yes”, so he moved to the US.

👉 Unexpected change or event – Automated or Self-driving. “I think the thing that I hadn't seen coming really was this almost relentless drive for automated driving. I've always felt that there's a place for it, but the belief of so many OEMs that there is actually a business case for this. With the sort of technology that exists in it for people for everyday driving, I'm still struggling with it.”

👉 What did he do? – Focused on data. “What I do that is give OEMs data, because there's opinions and there's data. And I believe data informs opinions. But when you have uninformed opinions, for instance, when we're talking about AI, I tell people, I'm not frightened of AI. I'm frightened of human stupidity. That's what really frightens me. AI is fine.”

👉 About older workers – The first thing is it's not your genetic age, your actual age, it's how you think. So when you're looking at someone, don't look at their biological age, think about their actual age. And then look at their mental flexibility because that is the key. You can find people in their 20s that aren't mentally flexible.