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Alexander Jay is CEO of Little Green Button, the Norfolk business behind panic alarm software used by staff in healthcare, education and local government.

Founded by Jon Witte in 2004, the company says its system is used by more than 100,000 people at over 2,500 organisations. In November 2025 it launched the Mini Green Button, a wearable Bluetooth button that lets lone workers raise an alert without unlocking their phone. He tells Business Matters why he wants workplaces to stop waiting for an incident before they think about safety.

What do you currently do at Little Green Button?

I am the CEO of Little Green Button. We make digital panic alarm and lone worker software, used in multiple sectors including healthcare, education and local government. Staff can raise an alert from a desktop app, a mobile app or a physical button, including the Mini Green Button wearable we launched in November 2025.

My job is to set the direction for the business, keep us growing sustainably and make sure we do not lose sight of why we exist, which is keeping staff safe.

A current challenge for me is changing how workplaces think about safety. Unfortunately, many people are reactive and wait until something happens, which is when an organisation goes looking for a solution.

We would much rather staff had the tools and training in place beforehand, so if a difficult situation does come up, they are protected and know how to react. Technology has made that far more achievable than it used to be, and I think we are starting to see a real change in how organisations approach risk.

Internally, a lot of my time is spent developing the Little Green Button team. That means mentoring, clearing blockers and making sure people have what they need to crack on and do good work.

What was the inspiration behind your business?

Our founder, Jon Witte, spent time with frontline workers in the early 2000s and kept hearing the same thing. They wanted a discreet way to get help from colleagues when faced with a challenging situation, ideally using the equipment they already had. Radios, expensive hardwired systems and unreliable free apps were not doing the job, so Jon built Little Green Button.

The product has come a long way since then. It covers far more use cases, devices and types of organisations than it did at the start. But the core idea has not really changed: make it easy for someone to get help when they need it most.

We are now used in more than 25 countries, which I am genuinely proud of given we started from humble roots in Norfolk. We also support a range of public-facing organisations in sectors from healthcare and education to retail, helping professionals in critical services to feel safe in their workplace.

Who do you admire?

People like Jon and my colleagues, who are prepared to put themselves out there to change something for the better. I am also lucky to have the support of a peer group of founders, leaders and colleagues who have each taught me something.

What they tend to have in common is ambition without ego. They all want to build something meaningful and push themselves and their businesses forward, but they also recognise the responsibility that comes with leading other people.

It can be a balancing act. The leaders I respect most are the ones that want the best for the company and their team, but not at the expense of their morals or wellbeing.

Looking back, is there anything you would have done differently?

I would have liked to get exposure to entrepreneurship and technology businesses much earlier. I did what a lot of people do and went to university and then into a job, mainly because those were the routes I knew and was nudged towards. If I had seen a business being built from the inside sooner, I might have done things quite differently.

It has shaped how I think about young people starting out now. There are far more options than most people realise, and often someone just needs to see an alternative before they know it is there. That is why I advocate mentoring, work experience and access to people who run businesses in my network and local community.

You do not necessarily need to know exactly what you want to do at 18 or 21, but seeing what is out there and the career paths others have taken gives you a much better chance of finding the right one for you.

What defines your way of doing business?

Putting people first. Little Green Button is where we are because of some very talented people who have chosen to build this business with us. We work hard as a team to ensure we feel trusted and supported to do our best work, something that takes consistent effort but pays off both for wellbeing and results.

It is the same with our customers. Some of ours have been brilliant advocates for the business and, just as importantly, their feedback, stories and suggestions keep pushing us to make the product better.

I do not see being commercially ambitious and looking after people as a trade-off. In my experience the best businesses do both. If you look after your people, listen to your customers and make sensible, sustainable decisions, then the commercial side usually follows.

I still face difficult decisions, but this mindset allows me to approach them fairly, with compassion and an understanding of the human impact of our business choices.

What advice would you give to someone starting out?

Make the ask. Ask for the opportunity, ask for feedback, ask someone experienced for half an hour of their time, ask if you can sit in on the meeting or take part in a new project. A lot of progress can come from simply being willing to put yourself forward and letting others know you are willing to participate.

Most people are much more generous with their time than you would think, especially when they can see you are keen to learn or trying to progress. But you usually have to ask and put yourself out there, because the opportunities and feedback do not tend to come looking for you.

Going without sleep makes it significantly harder to concentrate and learn new information, but a new study suggests a short bout of exercise may offer some of the same memory-protecting benefits as a nap for people who cannot get adequate rest, according to CNN wellness expert Dr. Leana Wen.

The study, published in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, compared two strategies for protecting memory following sleep deprivation: aerobic exercise and napping. Wen, an emergency physician and clinical associate professor at George Washington University who previously served as Baltimore’s health commissioner, walked through the study’s design and findings.

According to Wen, researchers enrolled 54 healthy adults between the ages of 18 and 35 and kept them awake for 30 hours before dividing them into three groups. One group performed 20 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous cycling at 80% of their maximum heart rate. A second group was given a 90-minute opportunity to nap. A control group sat on a stationary bicycle for 20 minutes without actually exercising.

Following those interventions, all participants viewed 150 images while researchers recorded their brain activity using electroencephalography, or EEG, without informing them there would later be a memory test. Three days later, after recovering from the sleep deprivation, participants were shown the original images mixed together with new ones and asked to identify which they had seen before.

The results showed comparable benefits between exercise and napping. Participants who exercised correctly recognized 56% of the images, compared with 57% among those who napped and just 46% among the control group. Both the exercise and nap groups performed significantly better than the control group, with memory performance roughly 21% higher after exercise and 23% higher after a nap, a difference between the two interventions that was not statistically significant. Notably, participants who napped reported feeling significantly less fatigued afterward, while those who exercised reported fatigue levels similar to the control group, despite still performing significantly better than that group on the memory test.

Explaining how a relatively brief workout could produce this effect after such prolonged wakefulness, Wen described the underlying biology of sleep deprivation. “Sleep deprivation interferes with the brain’s ability to encode new information. After prolonged wakefulness, sleep pressure builds and the neural processes needed to form memories become less efficient,” Wen said. She noted that the study’s EEG recordings suggested exercise helped counteract some of these effects, reducing a marker of neural fatigue in brain regions involved in the memory task. “One possible hypothesis is that exercise helps the sleep-deprived brain use its available cognitive resources more efficiently,” she said.

Wen noted that the 20-minute exercise session used in the study fits loosely into a broader concept known as exercise “snacking,” short bursts of physical activity typically lasting anywhere from about 30 seconds to five or 10 minutes, though the study’s 20-minute session ran longer than a typical exercise snack. She said such brief bouts of movement, including climbing stairs, brisk walking or doing squats, have been linked in other research to health benefits including improved cardiorespiratory fitness and reduced risk of cancer and dementia.

Despite producing similar memory outcomes, Wen said exercise and napping appeared to work through distinct underlying processes. “The nap changed the underlying state of the sleep-deprived brain. People in the nap group had less fatigue and lower EEG markers of sleep pressure, which is the biological drive for sleep that builds the longer someone stays awake,” she said. “Exercise did not relieve sleep pressure in the same way. Instead, it appeared to make memory processing more efficient.” She summarized the distinction simply: the nap gave the brain some of the sleep it was demanding, while exercise helped the brain function more effectively despite remaining sleep-deprived.

Wen was direct in cautioning that exercise cannot serve as a substitute for actual sleep more broadly. “No. Exercise cannot replace sleep. Sleep serves essential functions throughout the body, including regulating immune and metabolic processes and supporting many aspects of brain function,” she said, noting that a 20-minute workout cannot deliver those broader physiological benefits, even though regular exercise and healthy sleep do reinforce one another.

Wen said the findings could carry practical value for people in safety-sensitive occupations, including healthcare and transportation workers, who sometimes face unavoidable sleep loss without the time or setting for a 90-minute nap. Even so, she cautioned against overextending the study’s conclusions, emphasizing that exercise does not make it safe to drive or perform other dangerous tasks while severely sleep-deprived, and that the research did not test whether exercise restores attention, reaction time or judgment, the many other cognitive functions impaired by sleep loss.

She also cautioned that the study involved a small sample of young, healthy adults tested under controlled laboratory conditions after acute sleep deprivation, meaning it remains unclear whether similar benefits would occur following chronic sleep restriction, in older adults with medical conditions, or with other forms or intensities of exercise.

For people who find themselves sleep-deprived but needing to function well, Wen said the first priority should always be to seek actual sleep, with adults generally advised to aim for at least seven hours per night on a regular basis. When adequate nighttime sleep is not possible, she said a nap can help, and when a nap is not an option, a short bout of aerobic activity, such as a brisk walk, climbing stairs or a few minutes on a stationary bike, could offer a useful alternative before a period requiring learning and memory. She added that caffeine can temporarily boost alertness and concentration, though it does not reverse the underlying effects of sleep deprivation, and recommended eating regular, balanced meals, staying hydrated, avoiding large heavy meals that can increase sleepiness, and steering clear of alcohol, which can further impair alertness and judgment.

NEW DELHI — How often a person uses the toilet is a poor stand-in for gut health, gastroenterologists say. Stool texture, ease of passing and sudden changes in a personal routine offer better clues than a daily tally.

Dr. Shubham Vatsya, director and head of gastro sciences at ISIC Multispeciality Hospital, said healthy adults can move their bowels anywhere from about three times a day to once every one or two days. “When it comes to bowel habits, there is no one right or wrong number,” he said.

That range matches guidance from the U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, which notes that patterns differ from person to person. The institute does not define constipation by frequency alone. Hard stools, straining and a sense that the bowel has not emptied also count.

A typical healthy stool is soft, formed and easy to pass, with little or no pain. Vatsya said a healthy habit should leave a person feeling emptied. A morning visit that requires long straining is not automatically “regular,” even if it happens every day.

The more useful signal is a break from an individual’s own baseline. Someone who usually goes several times a day can still be constipated if that pattern suddenly stops. Loose, watery stools three or more times a day, or more often than is usual for that person, can meet the common definition of diarrhea used by NIDDK.

Travel, aging, a change in diet, stress, less physical activity and some medicines can shift the schedule for a short time. Persistent change is different. Vatsya said constipation can matter even in a frequent goer. He also said loose stools that exceed a person’s norm deserve attention if they last.

Warning signs sit outside the calendar. Persistent abdominal pain, bloating, blood in the stool, repeated straining or a bowel-habit change that lasts several weeks should be assessed by a clinician, Vatsya said.

Blood is not always a rare-disease finding. Hemorrhoids and anal fissures are common sources. Blood can also come from higher in the digestive tract. Britain’s National Health Service advises medical review for persistent rectal bleeding and urgent care for black or dark-red stool, which can indicate digested blood.

Diet and movement still do most of the quiet work. Fruit, vegetables, whole grains and legumes supply fiber. Fluids keep stool from drying out. Physical activity can stimulate the colon. NIDDK recommends more fiber, enough to drink and regular activity to prevent or ease constipation.

Vatsya cautioned against making laxatives a daily habit without advice. They can hide a problem and are not designed as long-term self-treatment for everyone.

The clinical question, then, is not “How many times?” It is whether the movement is comfortable, reasonably predictable for that person and free of red-flag symptoms. A schedule that has always been once every other day can be normal. A sudden swing to watery stools, or to hard pellets and straining, is the change that belongs in a doctor’s office.

Public interest in bathroom frequency has grown with wellness media and stool-chart apps. Those tools can help people notice texture — the Bristol Stool Form Scale ranges from separate hard lumps to entirely liquid — but they do not replace an exam when pain, blood or weeks of disruption appear.

Clinicians also separate irritable bowel patterns from red-flag disease. Alternating constipation and diarrhea with cramping can be functional. Nighttime symptoms, unexplained weight loss, anemia, a family history of colon cancer or onset after middle age push the workup toward tests rather than fiber tips alone. This article is not a diagnosis.

Hydration and fiber need a gradual increase. A sudden load of bran without water can worsen bloating. Insoluble fiber adds bulk; soluble fiber, in oats and some fruits, softens stool. Both have a role depending on whether the problem is hard pellets or loose output.

Medicines that commonly slow the bowel include some opioids, iron tablets, certain antacids and some antidepressants. Reviewing a pill list is part of a constipation visit. Thyroid disease, high blood calcium and neurological conditions can also slow transit.

For diarrhea that lasts, infection, bile-acid problems, celiac disease and inflammatory bowel disease sit on the differential. Three watery stools after a buffet is not the same as three weeks of urgency with blood.

Children, older adults and pregnant people have different norms and risks. Dehydration from diarrhea hits the young and the old faster. New constipation in an older adult is not something to treat only with supermarket laxatives.

Vatsya’s point is simple and easy to oversell. There is no universal daily number. There is a personal pattern, a comfortable stool and a short list of signs that should not wait. Frequency gets the headlines. Consistency, effort and change tell the story.

Will Polston is an Essex-based business strategist and performance coach who works with ambitious entrepreneurs through one-to-one coaching, masterminds and events under his Evolution Institute banner.

A former broker, he won Business Enabler of the Year at the Business Champion Awards in 2023, the same year he published his book North Star Thinking, with a foreword by Dr John Demartini. He tells Business Matters why achievement and fulfilment are not the same thing, and why direction should come before speed.

What do you currently do at Evolution Institute?

The simplest way I describe what I do is that I help ambitious entrepreneurs unlock their next level of potential, performance and purpose.

I meet entrepreneurs who have created financial freedom but sacrificed their time freedom to get it. Others finally reach the revenue number they have been pursuing for years, only to realise it has not changed how they feel. Some have built companies that are so dependent on them personally that they have unintentionally become the constraint on the next stage of growth.

What I help them do is get clear on what they actually want their business and life to look like, understand what is stopping them from creating it, and align the two around what I call their North Star: their life mission, their definition of success, rather than one borrowed from somebody else.

Sometimes that involves mindset and behavioural change. Often, it means helping someone make the transition from constantly operating their business to designing a business that can function and grow without everything having to pass through them.

I have now spent more than 7,000 hours coaching one-to-one and worked with over 2,500 business owners through coaching, events and workshops. Alongside that, I am an author, speaker, entrepreneur, investor and NED across other businesses. In 2023 I was named Business Enabler of the Year at the Business Champion Awards. The thread running through everything I do is the same: helping people transform excuses into results and live a life they love.

What was the inspiration behind your business?

There is a belief at the centre of my story that I formed when I was around 10 years old: money equals happiness.

My dad worked in London, and I remember seeing him come home tired, stressed and unhappy. He eventually left that job intending to go into business with one of my uncles. When that business did not happen, I watched him become unhappy and withdrawn.

At the same time, I had two uncles who were financially successful. One was a millionaire and one was a billionaire, and both were comfortable and happy. The conclusion felt obvious: Dad does not have much money and is not happy; my uncles have money and are happy; therefore, money must be the thing that creates happiness.

I became incredibly driven to earn. I had multiple paper rounds, washed cars, bought and sold things at school and started working as a pot boy in a bar when I was 14.

Later, I moved into broking and began achieving many of the things I had assumed would make me happy. The problem was that I still did not feel fulfilled, and that was difficult to reconcile because the belief I had built my life around simply was not producing the outcome I expected.

In 2013 I attended a personal development seminar and had what I can only describe as an eye and heart-opening realisation. I called it my lightning moment. The thing that had affected me so deeply as a child was never really my dad’s financial situation. It was seeing somebody I loved not fulfil what I believed was his potential, and seeing the impact that had on him and on our family.

That realisation changed my direction completely. What began as a journey to understand myself gradually became my mission: helping people fulfil more of what they are capable of so they do not reach the end of their lives wondering what they might have done.

Who do you admire?

I have never really approached admiration by deciding there is one person I want to emulate completely. I am much more interested in asking: what is the specific quality, behaviour or way of thinking that I can learn from?

My Uncle Mark was one of my earliest influences. When I was young, he represented possibility.

Tony Robbins has influenced me significantly through his understanding of human behaviour and his ability to communicate ideas in a way that gets people to act. Dr John Demartini, who wrote the foreword to my book, has also had a profound impact on how I think about human behaviour, values and perception.

I might admire one person’s communication, another’s leadership or another’s generosity. That links closely to modelling, one of the NLP tools I have used for many years. Rather than thinking, “I want to become that person,” I think: what do they believe, think or do that creates a result I respect, and what can I learn from it?

Looking back, is there anything you would have done differently?

I have made bad decisions. There have been failures, businesses that have not gone the way I expected and periods when I pushed myself too hard. There are, though, a few things I would tell a younger version of myself.

The first is straightforward: save and invest at least 10 per cent of everything you earn from the beginning, and treat that money as capital rather than spending money.

The deeper lesson would be to understand much sooner that achievement and fulfilment are not the same thing. For a long time, I was moving extremely quickly towards a destination without ever really stopping to ask whether it was a destination I wanted. There is nothing inherently wrong with pursuing more money, a larger company or greater success. The danger is believing those things will finally make you enough, significant or happy.

I would still tell my younger self to be ambitious. I would simply tell him to get clear on the direction before pressing harder on the accelerator.

What defines your way of doing business?

For me, it comes back to alignment before acceleration.

We live in a business culture that celebrates “more”: more turnover, more customers, more employees, larger offices, higher valuations and faster growth. But more is only useful if it is taking you somewhere you want to go.

Before getting obsessed with scale, I want to understand what the business is actually meant to create for the person behind it. How much money do they truly want? How much time? When that is clear, you can start designing a business that supports it intentionally.

Another principle is personal responsibility. One phrase I come back to repeatedly is: excuses or results, you choose. It is about directing your effort towards what you can influence rather than handing your power over to what you cannot.

I am also far more interested in transformation than short-term motivation. The work that interests me is changing the thinking, identity, behaviour and structures underneath the result, so the change lasts.

Ultimately, I believe business should create value for customers, opportunity for the people within it, and a great life for the people who own it.

What advice would you give to someone starting out?

Do not repeat the mistake I made by unconsciously adopting somebody else’s idea of what success is supposed to look like. Before you become consumed with the question, “How do I build a successful business?”, ask yourself, “What do I want this business to make possible?”

Create a North Star that is larger than a turnover figure or exit valuation.

Then get incredibly close to the problem you want to solve. Talk to customers and listen to them properly. Find out what is frustrating them and what they will actually pay to solve.

I would also find mentors earlier. Look for people who have already produced the result you are trying to create and use that to shorten your own learning curve.

Be disciplined with cash. Learn how to sell. Do what you say you will do. Protect your reputation.

Above all, do not put your life on hold while waiting for the business to become “successful”. You can create something significant and still enjoy the process of creating it. By all means build a business you are proud of. Just make sure you are also creating a life you actually want to live and love.

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Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have a beneficial long position in the shares of PDD either through stock ownership, options, or other derivatives. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Seeking Alpha’s Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.