Regular readers will know Cyril Gates' articles for Futures. They were always witty and insightful. Sadly Cyril died of cancer just as his last article was being circulated.

Allison and his children miss him tremendously and so do his many friends, including us. Phil Hayes speaks for us all.

He is perhaps the only man who could make me laugh just thinking about him whilst gathering my thoughts for an obituary. Cyril was a true original, one of the most creative and original thinkers I have ever met. He prided himself on being an ‘upside-down’ thinker, and often that produced big laughs.

How many of us would collect all the negative feedback we had received whilst working as a manager at the BBC and use these insulting quotes to publicise his new consultancy business? When Cyril launched ‘SPLAT!’ he created a mini-brochure, which featured highlights of insults received.

“He is at the barmy end of management!” (concluded one appraisal).

“I am both repelled and patronised by his mediocre sloganeering” (ranted a letter to the BBC’s in-house paper, in response to Cyril’s groundbreaking attempts to engage the corporation in customer service).

As a manager, when interviewing, he would refrain from asking questions about the candidates’ past – he only wanted to know what they might want to do in the future. When training staff he would employ only high-impact methods, such as outdoor courses on leadership in the Lake District wilds.

Cyril was endlessly witty, but witty with a point. With regard to his passion for customer service he once wrote, “If you want to improve your own sex life try improving someone else’s!”.

Cyril was also a very generous man. A short personal story...

I first met when I worked at the BBC, and had the inspiring but slightly scary privilege of acting as his trainer on a leadership course. Cyril later appointed me as ‘Team Coach’ to his management team (executive coaching was virtually unknown in the UK at the time).

When I left the BBC in 1994, he rang me two days later and suggested meeting for a cup of coffee. He asked about my plans and I told him I was starting my own freelance consulting practice –- bold words at a time when I had no clients and no prospects! It took me a while to realise that Cyril was offering me a year’s retainer for work yet to be defined – would I mind very much just sending him a monthly invoice? – An offer made so quietly and unobtrusively it took me a while to twig what he was proposing

I was able to attend the recent, very moving memorial service at Buxton with my colleague Alan Rogers. Those who attended were treated to numerous anecdotes from Cyril’s rich and adventurous life. Many of these stories were about his very successful TV and theatrical career, though several featured examples of his immense physical and moral courage – he once carried an unexploded bomb to safety!

We also learned more about what a loving and loved family man he was, and how inspirational he was to many colleagues, inside and outside the BBC, where he spent much of his professional life.

There isn’t space here to do even small justice to Cyril’s many talents and achievements. From our perspective he was always a terrific friend, client and, later, colleague and a source of great inspiration.