Roast Dinner With all the trimmings

Recently, while out and about on one of my little ventures around the country, I went for a meal with some friends.

To say it wasn’t in North Yorkshire is one thing but if we were any further down south I’d would have been in the sea – and I make the point of the location for a reason: I like gravy - and I like it on everything – but, for some reason, the southerners seem to have an aversion to slopping it all over a dish. I always find this fascinating when ordering chips from a southern chippie. Why can’t you serve gravy as well as curry sauce, for example?

Anyway - back to the story: decisions, decisions. Having made a careful study of the menu, I went for the roast. It sounded great with all the trimmings but I was soon to be sorely disappointed when presented with my nearly-dry dish. The waitress seemed surprised – even mildly shocked – when I commented on the lack of gravy. Simply asking for some more led to sheer panic which I could see in her eyes. I could see her wildly calculating how she could serve extra gravy - or even if it was allowed! I suggested maybe a small gravy boat or perhaps a jug on the side, which seemed to ease the pressure a little, but she returned about 15 minutes later with a small vessel that contained less than about 50ml! By then, I didn’t have the heart to mention that amount of gravy wasn’t enough to wet a single Yorkshire pud, let alone an entire dinner!

Well, you may rightly ask, what has all this got to do with electronic design? The answer is that it got me thinking that the decision to outsource development and production is also a major one and - like choosing what to eat from a vast menu of delights – you can end up worried that you might not have made the right choice. Well, here at GSPK Design, we take outsourcing development and production very seriously indeed.

We understand that the last thing anyone wants to receive is processed turkey, when you’re expecting the real thing.

So, when we say we offer in-house design and manufacture with all the trimmings, what we’re really saying is: "You don't need to worry about a thing!" We'll take care of it all and, at every step of the process, we'll make sure you’re happy, giving you the confidence that nothing is out of control.

You see, the advantage we have is having all the key skills under one roof and you can exploit this to your advantage, getting your designs to market quicker. Also, as we take all the responsibility, you don't have to resolve any issues. We do the design, we produce the circuits, we make the circuit boards, it’s our team which populates them so it's our job to ensure they’re right - and right every time - whether it's prototype, pre-production or full-scale volume.

When we say we provide all the trimmings, we definitely don't scrimp on the gravy.

 

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Design expands it's work force

Some decent wins on the contract front have helped us plan for some modest expansion – and a significant step is our newest recruit.

Phil Schofield has joined GSPK Design Ltd as sales manager and will be responsible for developing a strategy which we hope will lead us into new markets, and continue to enable our growth.

In fact, describing Phil as a “new” to us isn’t strictly accurate, Phil brings with him a wealth of exerience in the electronics market,  and actually work for GSPK Electronics back in the 1990s, before leaving to pursue opportunities with US firm Avnet EMG.

His career then took him to Abacus, working as northern region sales manager in Bolton, before being appointed head of Advanced Innovations Ltd’s European sales division, travelling all over the world in pursuit of new contracts.

But Yorkshire has always been a touchstone in Phil’s life and we’re delighted he’s decided to set the jet-set life aside to settle back in Harrogate, where his considerable experience is going to be a significant asset for GSPK Design.

When he’s not performing his duties for us or as a husband and dad to three teenage children, you might bump into Phil on the golf course. You can always find out more about him here:

http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=40670425&locale=en_US&trk=tyah

The addition sales that Phil will generate will allow us to expand our electronic design expertise and  also our workforce on the shop floor,  so watch this space, we will soon be looking to recruit in the very near future.

Create Your Own News ...So why not make it good!

That’s the beauty of your own good news; you can create it whenever you want. Bad news, on the other hand, is too often thrust upon you from all sides. People thrive on bad news; we seem to have an unbiased tendency for the negative, and we look to find proof to back this negativity wherever we can.

Take the GDP figures just released. Doomsayers were quick to seize on the results as evidence that  things are just as bad as they’ve been saying. “Experts” and analysts have been threatening a “triple-dip” recession for months – even though some were predicting it before we’d even emerged from the “double-dip”.

And, of course, those of us in the real business world will now be cursing those same “experts” for the unwelcome but inevitable self-fulfilling prophecy. As my Gran used to say: “What you say is what you get.”

At the time I thought she meant don’t call Fred Johnson next door names because you may end up like that too. Little did I know at the time that she was so wise and profound, so I say lets spread some positivity – what harm can it do.

There is no doubt that things have been tougher for the last five or six years. What’s new?  But to survive we need to adapt, create and innovate. The good news is we’re seeing a massive increase in new start-ups, and the Government is pumping money into growth accelerators within the region to support SME’s.

In fact, there is a definite drive towards becoming a more entrepreneurial nation as a whole, with enterprise being taken seriously in schools through initiatives such as Young Enterprise  programmes run all over the UK. Look at the numbers for Start-ups s recorded by Start-up Britain.

I don’t doubt that high street retailers have been hit hard and the public sector is under severe scrutiny. But what have they expected, haven’t they simply been resting on their laurels, assuming the good old days will be back as we enter another cycle of boom and bust, with very little desire to move with the trends.

The world has changed dramatically since 2006 and will continue to change at an equally rapid rate - and businesses everywhere need to change with it.  There’s been a sea change in consumer habits and expectations thanks to to the rapid onset of technology and the internet.  Buyers have become savvy and shopping online is outstripping traditional high street retail.

Here at GSPK Design, it’s not been easy but, through hard work, creativity and innovation we’ve continued to grow and expect that to continue, despite what the doomsayers say.

So I say let’s not worry too much about the GDP figures and get on with running our businesses, and spread some positivity. Triple dip-recession? Poppycock!