entrepreneurs 35


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to be as quick and agile and I wanted to be more innovative.


I still had a passion for technology and over the next few years I had various roles within the industry, including setting up my own R&D facility and a company called Post Impressions. When I sold that, I went into business consultancy, helping companies in the film and TV industry to develop their ideas. Because I had the engineering background and the marketing and financial acumen, I could be very versatile in the sort of support I was able to give them.


What tempted you back from consultancy to launch Emotion Systems in 2009?


While the consultancy business was very


successful, my heart was in making things. There is a real change going on in our industry and that was what inspired me to start Emotion. They say start-ups are a young man’s business but I don’t believe that’s true, I wanted to go back to making product again and we have.


Now I want to see if we can build a series of products in a clever way. My goal is to use my problem-solving skills to build an incredibly efficient organisation – one which is most efficient at inventing, marketing and delivering product.


Making products is like running a marathon, you do it one lamppost at a time. When I’m working on something I think if I can make it to the next lamppost, then I can reach the one after as well. Simple things like that allow us to build some amazing products.


If you ask how a small company can make a big impact worldwide, people will say they need more money or more people, but I say it’s the fact you need to apply yourself better.


How would you describe yourself?


I am not a classic engineer and that’s actually very helpful. If I have a problem to solve, I always go back to basics and think about how I can overcome it.


People will say I have the ability to make them finish things and for me, that’s the secret. In everything we do, if you can’t finish something then there’s no value in it.


Do you enjoy mentoring?


Whenever we build a new company I like to start with young people and work with them. Part of my business development has been about going into an organisation where people will say something can’t be done, I prove to them that it can and then I hand the baton on.


THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – NOVEMBER 2014


I would like to do more mentoring and I have been back to Essex University to do some talks and have been invited back to look at final-year projects for students.


What are your future ambitions?


I try not to have a grand plan, I allow things to come to me. Sometimes people think that is a bad thing but if I showed them what we had built in the past 30 years they would soon see that I hadn’t lacked ambition.


I certainly don’t want to retire, I enjoy the industry, I enjoy making things and growing the business worldwide. Our biggest customer is in Japan, which I’m very excited about, and I want to look at developing new technology and taking on larger projects, while making sure we don’t forget our smaller customers too.


The big thing we are trying to achieve at the moment with our software is automation and scalability, developing systems which will automatically enable TV programmes to be converted for different languages, cultures and different types of audio, across a variety of devices such as TV, tablets and mobiles.


The potential is hugely exciting, especially when you look at platforms such as YouTube.


What do you do on your time off?


I read and watch cricket. I am an associate member of the MCC and for me there is nothing more sacred than going to watch a test match at Lords. We open the champagne when the first ball is bowled and we carry on from there.


I always say I get my inspiration from a five- day test match. Like our products, there are swaying fortunes, flashes of inspiration and a huge amount of dogged determination.


Details: www.emotion-systems.com www.businessmag.co.uk


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