Draft:Robert Bittlestone

Robert Bittlestone, BA (03 April 1952 – 4 May 2015) was a British businessman and amateur classicist. He founded Metapraxis Ltd in 1984 and is the author of two books, Financial Management for Business and Odysseus Unbound – The Search For Homer's Ithaca.

Early life

Born in 1952, Bittlestone studied at Charterhouse School before reading Economics at Christ's College, Cambridge.

Business career

Robert is recognised as a pioneer in the role of data visualisation for financial analysis, which he developed during his time working in the financial analysis function at Vickers in the 1970s.

Motivated by the desire to improve the performance of all businesses through the better understanding of data, Robert began a consultancy with some of the worlds largest companies to assist with their creation of business intelligence from data in order to support their strategic planning. The methodologies developed for bringing together diverse data sources in a meaningful relationship laid the foundation for a groundbreaking business planning and analysis software system within his company, Metapraxis Ltd.

Initially exclusively used to support consulting activities, the software system marked a significant advancement. Robert continued his pioneering work until his retirement due to ill health in 2012. In 2010, he authored the book Financial Management for business: cracking the hidden code, complemented by the online learning course Accounting Intuition.

Interests in the Classics

Alongside his business pursuits, Bittlestone maintained a deep passion for the Classics. In 2005, he authored Odysseus Unbound – the Search for Homer’s Ithaca, featuring appendices by the philologist James Diggle and the geologist John Underhill.