Mike Dowson Email & Phone Number

Suffolk, England, United Kingdom

As many people say, I’m busily retired. Working part time driving a tractor on a local estate but otherwise keeping busy with hobbies (motorcycle restoration and riding) and travelling.

Bury St. Edmunds, England, United Kingdom

Responsible for the P&L of the Manual Supports product line (annual revenues of £55m) which consisted of three market leading brands. Led the development and deployment of the business strategy including new product development programmes, marketing plans and manufacturing and inventory plans.• Improved business forecasting through closer and more precise cooperation with the GlobalSales team and used this to improve the ERP planning with the manufacturing teams. This lead to shortened lead times of 15% and reduced inventories of finished goods and raw materials across two manufacturing sites (UK & Costa Rica) by 28%, to £8.6m, within 6 months. • Aligned and improved the collaboration between two separate Engineering teams in the UK and Costa Rica through process alignment and team building to deliver a single, more effective team. • Responsible for the development and launch of the Sachtler aktiv range of products (£1m investment, launched in October 2020), designed in the UK and Costa Rica and manufactured in China and Costa Rica. A very innovative product in a competitive market, it immediately grew revenues by around 20% and extended its already strong market share.• Launched product upgrades into very mature markets which generated significant growth in revenues and margins. For example the OConnor 1040 fluid head for the movie industry which grew revenues by 40% for a modest investment (<£100k) and a fast return in less than one year.• Developed, reorganised and resized my team (headcount reduction of -20%) to drive cost reduction whilst maintaining business effectiveness and improved performance.• Implemented a major review into the new product development processes using lessons learned from all functions on recent projects and drove changes to the processes to improve speed to market.

Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, Uk

Led the aftersales service business with P&L responsibility. Promoted within 12 months to take on responsibility for all global Service teams in France, Germany, Singapore, Japan and the USA.• Developed and implemented the strategy for the Service business and grew revenue by 50% from £4.2m in 2011 to £6.3m in 2016.• Grew sales of Service Contracts for corporate customers and developed this from almost zero to over £0.5m of recurring revenue, whilst providing customers with more focussed and responsive support.• Restructured the global Service team and reduced costs by 25% to deliver strongly improved margins.• Continually drove pricing of labour and spare parts to deliver margin growth of over £200k per year.• Worked with Cambridge University (IfM) to drive an overhaul of the spare parts planning, resulting in inventory reductions of over 20% whilst improving customer availability from just 75% to over 95%. • Initiated, procured and launched a comprehensive on-line parts catalogue system to provide customers with on-line buying capabilities and reducing labour required for order entry by 25%.

Sunderland, Uk

Delivered the Design Network North project under the umbrella of RTC North.

Sunderland, Uk

Delivered a new £1.4m business support project from scratch with a focus on all aspects of design, from a standing start to a position of high recognition and outstanding performance within 12 months. Methodologies and reporting systems described as “first class” by the funding body.• Generated an active membership network of over 300 businesses within 12 months through e-marketing and social media campaigns, facilitating networking and sharing of best practise.• Implemented 30 small design projects (each of around £20k design investment) which demonstrated good design and generated additional business performance and jobs for the clients.• Developed close ties with regional and national institutions, including Cambridge University’s Institute for Manufacturing and Cranfield University to deliver ready-made tools for our client businesses.

Blyth, Uk

Led a team of 34 Engineers to develop and launch new products with an annual budget of £2.6 million. • A member of the Senior Management team which drove profitable growth in sales from £32m in 1997 to over £60 million in 2007.• Drove the review of new product development practises and implemented a more thorough Stage-Gate process and a greater focus on teamwork to deliver a reduction in time-to-market in projects of 25% and dramatically reduced slip rates.• Led a review of the project portfolio of one of the German product divisions and slashed the number of running projects by 60% to focus on a balanced portfolio which would deliver successful, profitable projects. • Initiated and managed co-development projects with external partners across Europe, USA and Singapore to integrate new technologies and innovations more quickly than in-house development.• Led cross functional teams to resolve critical and complex product integrity issues, using six sigma problem solving tools and often requiring face-to-face customer visits across the globe.

Blyth, Uk

• Managed and developed a team of 30 staff and grew the Service labour revenue by 10% to £1.5m within 2 years, mostly through Service Contracts with large customers.• Improved spare parts processes for new products to improve customer support levels and to grow the spare parts business of £3 million.

Manchester, Uk

• Led all activities associated with product development and marketing for core products (backhoe loaders), delivering sales growth of 10% to over £70 million in more than fifty markets world-wide. • Devised marketing strategies which delivered European market share growth of 10% in two years.

Warwick, Uk

• Grew the sales of spare parts into African and East Asian markets by 10% to over $10 million.• Developed and delivered training courses for Dealers on Spare Parts Management which improved inventory management practises and local customer support.

Marlborough, Uk

Produced Marketing and Business Plans for small businesses involved with the manufacturing and distribution of a wide range of products and services, driving growth and process improvement.

Zedelgem, Belgium

• Developed and implemented market research projects, including face-to-face visits in UK & France. • Introduced the first PC to speed up the analysis of market data and improve its presentation to Senior Management.

B.Sc(Hons), Engineering

A Levels