Before the consultancy: sales floor to chief executive
The problem
A distribution business modernising how it sold, researched and reported, at a point when most of that was still being done on paper.
Not a technical engagement, and included because it explains something clients notice: I have sat on the other side of the table, holding the budget.
Four years at a distribution company, moving from sales representative to key account manager, then to research and development for the FMCG range, and finally to chief executive for the last year. The digital side of the business ran through all of it.
The lasting effect is on how I talk to clients. When a technical decision is really a commercial one — and it usually is — I can frame it in the terms the person signing the invoice actually thinks in, because I have been that person.
The outcome
Four years from sales representative to key account manager to research and development manager to chief executive, with the digital side of the business as a constant through all of it.