Each week Bath Business News gives a prominent member of the area’s business community the last word on our weekly e-bulletin.
This week Andy Cox, innovations & solutions director at IT services firm IPL, answers our 10 questions.
What was the LAST: 
Film you watched? Hugo – don’t know what else to say.
Book you read? Exposure: Inside the Olympus Scandal by Michael Woodford. The book gives an interesting insight into how some of Japan’s giant companies operate, the way business is carried out by different cultures and lengths people will go to to hide failure. I remember this story unfolding in the press, so to see it from the inside was particularly fascinating.
Music you bought or downloaded? The Stone Roses (20th Anniversary Collector’s Edition).
Concert or play you went to? The Blowout Sax gig in Bath, it’s a great live show performed by the students from Blowout Sax, including a couple of my colleagues from IPL.
Sporting event you attended? Bath Rugby’s home game against London Welsh. I’m a big rugby fan so I’m very pleased that IPL is one of Bath Rugby’s Official Partners. Within IPL, we run a series of Hackathons, which are voluntary events in which computer programmers, designers and project managers build prototype software in a really short space of time, to showcase the art of the possible. The theme of our next one is a mobile app for Bath Rugby, so I’m really looking forward to that.
Holiday you went on? I took my family to Croatia. It’s a part of the world I’d never been to before so didn’t really know what to expect. Having seen what a beautiful country it is I’m sure I’ll return: warm weather, fantastic blue sea, friendly people and good food, what more could you ask for?
Restaurant you ate in? I went to the Allium Brasserie at the Abbey Hotel where Wan Ping Coombes, the winner of MasterChef, recreated Malaysian street food. It was excellent food and I even bumped into some friends I hadn’t seen for 10 years. I eat quite regularly in Bath and always feel we’re spoilt for choice here.
Thing that annoyed you? People on TV who say “I want 110% effort”.
Thing that made you laugh out loud? I’m a big fan of British comedy and love programmes like the IT Crowd, but the last thing to make me laugh out loud was The Detectorists on BBC Four.
Piece of good advice you were given? People are very bad at communicating. Give them the benefit of the doubt and try to really understand what they’re trying to tell you.
Andy Cox has lived in Bath for more than 20 years. His career at systems integrator IPL has seen him doing work for organisations including the Highways Agency, Westinghouse and Nationwide, where he guided the team that built the top-rated mobile banking app. Andy now leads IPL’s innovations & solutions unit, the company’s hub of cutting-edge tools and intellectual property. Andy is also a regular judge at the Sparkies awards, which celebrate the best tech in the South West.
