I learnt this morning of the sad news that Colin Barnden had passed away. I thought it only right to acknowledge my debt to the quality of his Independent analysis and his research into the area of DMS in automotive. 

He was the expert in this area. Many financial analysts would acknowledge that, I’m sure. Even he once joked that his knowledge was “Inch wide and mile deep” in this area.

I myself went to him for information/analysis many times – indeed, on occasion in the past he wrote pieces on Safestocks. 

I can’t claim to have know him other than in a professional capacity as a technology analyst but his intelligence and honesty shone out every time I heard him speak or read an article he’d written. 

He himself wrote this on Safestocks back in 2019 and it’s typically honest and forthright: “My role is to make an argument but it is up to everyone to make their own individual decisions about how they think things will play out. No one has a crystal ball.”

For my part, I think he was clearly proven correct about DMS and its importance in the auto industry, and much else besides. 

He’ll be sorely missed by me and many others for the insights he regularly delivered. But that loss pales into insignificance when you consider what his untimely death means for his family.