30 INDUSTRY INTERVIEW
GROUND HANDLING INTERNATIONAL FEBRUARY 2013 Fifty years on… Alwyn Brice caught up with Mike Doane just before his retirement.
alking with Mike over lunch not far from his Cheltenham offices, it quickly becomes apparent that here is an example of a dying breed. In January this year Mike celebrated a half century with the same company, the one he joined as an apprentice, back in 1963. Today, with a society in which job insecurity is endemic and one in which job loyalty is a thing of the past for many, it’s all very different. As it happens. Mike’s chief designer had also just clocked up a half century of service and he, too, has left the company. These facts, one suspects, say a lot about Douglas. Mike left school at 16, despite peer
pressure about further education but an interest in engineering saw him start to look about for an apprenticeship. Douglas, which was local to him, was a small, family-run company at the time, with around 60 staff. “I turned up for interview with ten or so others, and as we were shown around by the shop foreman, Bill Mills, I was greatly impressed by what I saw. There were tow tractors being built for the new Boeing 707, off-highway dump trucks, snowploughs and port tractors. I remember turning to the chap next to me and saying that I’d really like to get a job here.” As it turned out, both he and his colleague were the two who were taken on that day.
Back then, Douglas was very much a hands-on enterprise, Mike recalls. “We were making our own gearboxes and axles, for example, and then there was work on converting Bedford and AEC trucks to four wheel drive, for use in the desert. We made straddle carriers for seaports and I soon learned that around 20% of the cabs and chassis found on vehicles we produced were actually being made in-house. There was a huge variety of engineering going on and it was said that if it didn’t exist, then Douglas could probably make it. The boss, Frank Douglas, was a true entrepreneur: if he made more than two of anything, then it was time to look for new products!”
Starting at Douglas meant going back to his studies and so Mike embarked on a five year stint at the local technical college to learn new skills. Although reluctant at first he warmed to the subject and went on to qualify as a Production Engineer in 1968. Three years later he qualified as a Mechanical Engineer and then took a post- graduate diploma in Management Studies. Along the way he accrued knowledge of design and technical sales. “My first three years were spent on the shop floor. All I wanted to be at the time
was a Service Engineer. Why? Well, I used to see these fellows going off on trips and tours, and that attracted me. Three years into my apprenticeship I was asked to move into design; I didn’t much care for the idea at first but I got to like it and subsequently became Senior Designer. There was a great team at the time and every vehicle being built was different. There were plenty of challenges in those days and part of the fun was seeing things through. “Around 1979 the MD suggested that I get into technical sales or parts sales: I chose the former and soon became the manager, working with the MD and looking after the UK market.” The death of Frank Douglas and becoming part of the ML Group in 1987 were significant milestones for Mike; his background in technical sales pushed him into the limelight and it became clear that Douglas needed to mark out its future paths. “There was some reorganisation, then, and I found myself and my secretary in charge of sales. I became General Sales Manager and in time, we recruited internal and external sales staff to help. We had inherited military products from ML and I began to focus on ports and aviation.” The year was 1989 and Douglas was becoming a global player; acquiring the rights to the small Swedish company Kalmar Motor’s nose landing gear cradle patent helped the company formulate a future in towbarless tractors, there being only a couple of manufacturers in the marketplace at that time. A year later Mike started international travel to promote the Douglas brand, something that he would do for many years to come. Trips have ranged from a day to anything up to four or so weeks: much has depended on the market and the customers. Typically, he would be travelling around 135 to 150 days in an average year. After circling the globe several times, Mike is all rather blasé about it. “Someone in the office once calculated that I was travelling every hour at 25 miles an hour!” he jokes. Sales, by its very nature, opened up a whole new world to Mike.
“My very first sales trip was to Dublin, to see an Air Lingus buyer. The airline was looking to buy three of our P3 tractors: these were little, squat tractors that had a place on congested ramps. I arrived at about ten-thirty in the morning and was met by the contact, who suggested that we went off for a beer. More discussion followed and then it was lunch – and some more drinks. Then there was football on the television so we caught some of that.
The chap then realised the time and said that it was too late to go back to his office so he suggested that we adjourn to the airport bar to conclude negotiations. I did get my flight back that night but I was in no fit state to drive home - so I had to sleep in a hotel at Heathrow!” Mike did, however, secure the order... He admits that hospitality has always been a big factor in the sales business and that it was usual to reciprocate. “That’s all changed, though,” he observes ruefully, “for today people simply can’t fit it in to their schedules.”
That said, having fetched up at various exotic locations, he has been able to sample the local entertainment – occasionally with unexpected results. “There was a trip to Seoul, I remember, when two of us went out one evening. The city was under a curfew but we carried on socialising until it was nearly midnight – and then we couldn’t find a taxi, of course. We were wandering around the city, completely lost, when suddenly two soldiers stepped out of the shadows with levelled guns. It was a worrying moment but we managed to talk our way out of it and they even managed to sort out a taxi for us.” China holds special memories for Mike: his first visit was in 1985 and he recalls the blue and grey tunics that were standard wear for the population at the time. “I went to Shanghai on one occasion but had no visa. I was told that this would be sorted out at Immigration for me. Well, I arrived, queued up, and gradually approached the desk, but with no-one there to meet me. Then, at the last minute, I heard my name called out and I was whisked off through the Diplomatic Channel. “There was only one hotel for Europeans at the time, the Shanghai Mansions. Whilst I was there the management approached me, asking whether I’d mind taking part in a little video they were making to promote the hotel to businessmen. They needed a European couple and I said I’d help out – they then found an 80 year old American lady who had to pretend to be my wife as I signed in!”
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