As a person Steve is value driven, uses big picture thinking to identify the key issues and how the effective use of leadership can deliver success. As an engineer he is fascinated by how things work and what makes ideas, products or services successful commercially, this has followed him throughout his career where he has always looked to see how improvements can be made. To him delivery of value is key, the real objective is to beat the target, in his experience this latter objective is a missed opportunity.
He started out as a sponsored undergraduate with Rolls Royce during which time he studied Mechanical Engineering at Imperial College, London. Following successful completion of his degree and subsequent work experience he qualified as a Chartered Engineer. As his career progressed he also gained an MBA with the Open Business School which enabled him to delve more deeply into the commercial world, increasing his understanding on how Projects or Programmes were developed and approved.
His career has taken him on a journey through many industries and cultures, he has worked for a multitude of sectors including aerospace with Rolls Royce, transport with British Rail, chemicals with ICI and latterly renewables with Vestas. There were also short intervals in the IT and automotive sectors with smaller companies which also contributed to his experience. He has worked or been responsible for Projects or improvement Programmes in the UK, Europe, USA, Pakistan and Japan. Many of these exceeded their original targets, however, not all; the reasons why are very illuminating and in his view this is where the real learning takes place.
Best practice tools need to be used appropriately and the identification of what to use will be a value driven question. Over the years Steve has been involved with many best practices including Quality in its various forms, Lean, Six Sigma, TPM, JIT to name a few, where the challenge is to realistically understand the value that each brings, so that implementation becomes a long term journey of performance improvement.
From starting out as a young graduate in a purely technical role as a Structural Engineer he has moved through Project Engineering to Management and latterly served as a Construction Sales Director. Interestingly he has sat on both sides of the table, as both a customer and a sub-contractor. Responsibilities have ranged from individual Projects of up to £150m, to setting the construction strategy and performance expectations for a business where the annual value of the Projects executed was typically £1.5b.