science

Hans Snook

Hans Snook is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Hans Snook rather than just read about it. In short: Hans Roger Snook (born 1948) is a British businessman, best known for his time as the founder (with Graham Howe) and chief executive of British mobile phone company Orange. Early life Snook was born in 1948 to a German mother and a British father in Dissen, Lower Saxony, Germany.

Key takeaways

Hans Snook belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Hans Snook to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Hans Snook from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Hans Roger Snook (born 1948) is a British businessman, best known for his time as the founder (with Graham Howe) and chief executive of British mobile phone company Orange.

Early life Snook was born in 1948 to a German mother and a British father in Dissen, Lower Saxony, Germany. The family emigrated to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in 1957, where Snook later attended the University of British Columbia.

Career He then began a career in hotel management, which led him to Calgary for six years. In 1983, he set off on a round-the-world trip, which was cut short when he arrived in Hong Kong and became chief executive of a wireless paging business (which subsequently became part of the Hutchison Whampoa Group). In 1992 Snook was despatched to the UK where he closed Hutchison's Rabbit CT2 phone network and directed efforts to developing the UK's fourth mobile phone network. On 28 April 1994, Orange was launched. Within five years the company had developed an enviable reputation as well as a growing international presence. In October 1999, Mannesmann of Germany purchased Orange plc, in a failed attempt to challenge Vodafone as the world's leading mobile phone company. This set off a chain of events which resulted in France Télécom taking ownership of Orange, and in 2001 Snook stepped down as a special advisor to Orange. His public involvement since then in the UK telecoms industry was as chairman of Carphone Warehouse between 2002 and 2005. On stepping down from this post he was appointed non-executive chairman of Monstermob Group plc, the ringtone company. From 2002, Snook was a director of The Diagnostic Clinic Ltd, providing health screening linked to alternative medicine, and its parent company The Integrated Health Consultancy Limited. Both companies entered liquidation in 2012 with aggregate debts of £8.6 million, of which £7.2m was owed to Snook.

Personal life Hans is divorced from his first wife Etta Lai Yee Lau. He is now married to Helen Seward. They live in Marbella.

See also Peter Erskine (businessman), founder of O2 Chris Gent, founder of Vodafone

References

External links Guardian interview, Terry Macalister, 23 August 2003

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Hans Snook

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Hans Snook claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Hans Snook before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Hans Snook ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Hans Snook

In research: Hans Snook appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Hans Snook in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Hans Snook is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1948 births, British businesspeople in the telecommunications industry, British chief executives in technology, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Hans Snook outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Hans Snook in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Hans Snook means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Hans Snook out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Hans Snook in simple terms?

Hans Roger Snook (born 1948) is a British businessman, best known for his time as the founder (with Graham Howe) and chief executive of British mobile phone company Orange. Early life Snook was born in 1948 to a German mother and a British father in Dissen, Lower Saxony, Germany.

Why does Hans Snook matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Hans Snook?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Hans Snook.