With the business on a stable footing and a thirst for research I set out to benchmark the Display Centre against best business practice. There is so much out there to learn from and, with the SMMT mantra 'better is not good enough' ringing in my mind, I identified a whole host of opportunities to improve our business. Making the most of each has taken much longer than I hoped and we have hit our fair share of dead ends along the way. It is a never ending journey but I am proud of the way that… Show more With the business on a stable footing and a thirst for research I set out to benchmark the Display Centre against best business practice. There is so much out there to learn from and, with the SMMT mantra 'better is not good enough' ringing in my mind, I identified a whole host of opportunities to improve our business. Making the most of each has taken much longer than I hoped and we have hit our fair share of dead ends along the way. It is a never ending journey but I am proud of the way that we do business and the team which we employ. Show less

The chance to run my own business drew me away from the constraints of the Civil Service. The Display Centre had been running successfully for at least 12 years but its systems and practices needed to be brought up to date. Building and establishing back-office systems, creating a true eCommerce experience for our customers and reaching out for even more sales opportunities gave me a tremendous amount of satisfaction. The best practice which I learnt from the Civil Service stood me in great… Show more The chance to run my own business drew me away from the constraints of the Civil Service. The Display Centre had been running successfully for at least 12 years but its systems and practices needed to be brought up to date. Building and establishing back-office systems, creating a true eCommerce experience for our customers and reaching out for even more sales opportunities gave me a tremendous amount of satisfaction. The best practice which I learnt from the Civil Service stood me in great stead and the similarities between running a small business and a tank repair factory are enormous. Show less

The Civil Service is extremely good at doing things right and employs many people who work hard with the best of intentions. But there is an enormous amount of waste due to a mix of risk aversion and organisational thinking. It is true that the public sector is very different from the private sector BUT this does not mean that the former cannot learn from the latter. I found that asking 'why' and challenging the status-quo provided quick and easy wins in all of my various postings. In my last… Show more The Civil Service is extremely good at doing things right and employs many people who work hard with the best of intentions. But there is an enormous amount of waste due to a mix of risk aversion and organisational thinking. It is true that the public sector is very different from the private sector BUT this does not mean that the former cannot learn from the latter. I found that asking 'why' and challenging the status-quo provided quick and easy wins in all of my various postings. In my last job as leader of a manufacturing facility (500+ employees) refurbishing armored vehicles including Challenger 2 tanks we brought best industry practice into the Civil Service and gained enormous recognition from the world's best. Show less