His growing reputation comes as the culmination of twenty years work developing a new perspective on information
systems, stressing that the social, economic and organizational issues are more important than the technological
ones: even the very best investment in new technology can be a source of commercial risk, if the societal aspects
are not managed properly. This alternative position is having wide-ranging repercussions both in educational and
business circles in the UK and increasingly abroad. In particular he emphasizes that even the very best software
and investment in the Internet will be a total waste and the cause commercial risks if the complexity caused by
societal aspects are not managed properly.
Professor Angell acts as a consultant on the management, security and strategic impact of information systems,
to many national and international organizations and to a number of governments and the EU. Until 2000 he was a
personal advisor to the Cabinet of the Director General of UNESCO (Federico Mayor), and he has consulted for the
Russian Ministry of Science on the impact of IT on employment. In January 1998 he was invited to present his ideas
to the Malaysian National IT Council and had private meetings with both the Malaysian Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir
Mohamad and the (now ex-) Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. He has also come to the attention of some very
senior international businessmen and politicians who have invited him for private discussions about his ideas.
In May 2003 he was asked to hold number of private advisory sessions with three of the sons of Sheikh Mohammed
Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai. The CEO of Warner-Lambert once wrote to him saying that, because of a
presentation he had made to W-L senior executives in Orlando, the company was changing its whole approach to
Internet business.
He presented his ideas before the Parliamentary IT Committee at the Palace of Westminster to a cross-party
group from both Lords and Commons, and they were "profoundly disturbed" and "
visibly shaken" by his forecasts. He was nevertheless invited to be the first to give evidence to
the House of Lords Select Committee on e-commerce in Europe, where he "managed to knock the
gyroscope over."
Undoubtedly it is Angell’s radical and controversial views on the global consequences of IT that
has brought him such a high-profile reputation as a ‘futurologist’ in business circles and in the media.
January 2000 saw the publication of his book The New Barbarian Manifesto, in which he lays out his
advice on how to win in an increasingly complex, brutal and brutish world. This book is having an
impact worldwide (it is already translated into Chinese and Korean), and even reached number 5 in the
Amazon.com best-sellers list in Brazil! In April 2000 he undertook a media tour of the United States to
promote his book, with TV and radio interviews in New York, Yonkers, Washington, Chicago, Seattle, Olympia,
Dallas and Fort Worth.
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