34 entrepreneurs
Passion and perseverance at the heart of the digital revolution
As founder and CEO of Berkshire business Emotion Systems, MC Patel has a lengthy track record and a strong reputation as a serial entrepreneur in the broadcast and post production industry. Since the mid-1980s he has been at the forefront of the switch from analogue to digital, founding companies and winning multi- million pound contracts with broadcast companies on a global scale. Taking his expertise into the business consultancy arena has seen him provide advice and guidance to small, high-tech companies in the film and TV industry, while his current role is leading a business which delivers cutting-edge software for the sector. Based in Hermitage, Emotion Systems employs seven full-time staff, including Patel’s long-time collaborator Iain Davies as COO. Turnover has doubled every year for the past three years and, says Patel, will continue to do so. Aged 60, he lives in Kintbury with his artist wife and has three daughters. Alison Dewar talked to him about his determination to succeed
Born in India, where he spent his first nine years in a small village, Patel’s parents relocated to Kenya in the early 1990s to join their family. Despite speaking no English when he arrived, Patel worked hard and his A-level grades won him a place at Essex University, where he studied electronics. Once qualified though, he was told that as he was now over 21, the Kenyan authorities wouldn’t allow him back into the country as he was no longer a dependent minor, so he was faced with either returning to India or finding a job in the UK. Within months he had joined Newbury company Quantel, which gave him his first role as a design engineer and secured a work permit to allow him to stay in this country, setting him on the road to a successful career.
Why did you start your own business?
It was the mid-80s and the broadcast industry was just starting to go through a phase of digitisation. I started my first business Alpha Image with Tim Gale, who was a friend and colleague from my university days and we still work together today.
What was unique about Alpha was that we were two engineers who had this amazing track record over the previous 15 years. We had worked for very similar companies and our background was designing very complex products that not only worked, but were delivered on time.
We had a very sound partnership and we had the interface products that allowed TV production and broadcast companies to make the switch from analogue to digital.
It must have been hard arriving in a country where you didn’t speak the language?
I was always passionate about learning and I loved reading. When I moved to Kenya I lived with my uncle and he was an English teacher so I read lots of books – everything from science fiction to the classics and that really helped my language skills. In three years I went from the bottom of the class to the top.
Were you always ambitious?
Yes, plus I always had a good imagination and a great deal of perseverance. If there was a problem, I would always hang in there until I fathomed out what could be done to solve it.
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When the digital change happened, we could react very quickly, as opposed to the bigger guys who took a more “wait and see” attitude. We invested some of our own money and over four years we grew the business to £3 million and we were very profitable.
Because I talked more I was given the sales and marketing role, so I went away and read some books and followed the rules. I found it a lot easier than designing the product but my biggest strength wasn’t selling, rather it was the fact I understood the new technology.
It meant people would come to me for advice and my role became more educational and consultative, it was about building trust and forging good relationships. People saw us as the good guys because we were always ready to help.
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – NOVEMBER 2014 What happened next?
We had been doing very well, we were selling in Germany, Japan, the UK and US and we really knew those markets. At our peak we employed 40 people and we carried out all our own R&D and component testing, but in 1991, just as the first Gulf War was starting and the recession was beginning to bite, we decided to sell the business.
As part of the deal we stayed on for four years and it was during that time that I really grew managerially because we were now part of a much bigger corporate business. Unfortunately, it also meant we lost our ability
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