In the beginning
So, a career. Starting out at Land Rover seems like a long time ago but what an education in brand, process control, people and markets. From the Royal Show to Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe and some of the best people I have ever been privileged to work with. Seven years, five jobs and travel all over the place. Company cars as dodgy as a Rover Vitesse and as great as a British Racing Green Rover 220 GTi – J117 TOE where is that now? 
Land Rover & Travel
Indonesia for three weeks, Japan for the day, America and The Gulf just after the first Gulf War. All great stuff with some great bosses; Ken James, Colin Kitchen, Allan Guest and George Adams.
All great experience and the realisation that we never stop learning – sorting out a CIM Diploma after work was hard but worthwhile and every now and then we did get to borrow a company vehicle. Training around the business was a revelation with placements in Export Sales, UK Fleet, Systems and a great few months in Range Rover production (thank you John Taylor) – a team of 56, the salt of the earth every one. After training five roles in seven years went by so fast starting with Export Sales, then Marketing Executive, Business Development Manager for Export and finally Brand Manager – Export & Military. Travel to Japan, Indonesia, The US, Africa and the Middle East was bracketed with working on the WOLF project and trying to build Defender volumes.
Where now?
So, what then? With nowhere to go in Land Rover, no chance to work for a Land Rover business in Canada, Oz or New Zealand meant looking at, and taking voluntary redundancy which had never been part of the plan but them seemed the best thing to do. So…my own business – sfm consulting ltd which may well have been a triumph of youthful exuberance but again a great chance to learn and to pass on some on some of that learning by teaching first at Solihull College and then at Birmingham City University where five years passed incredibly quickly whilst I developed online teaching with Will to the point where we got to go to Prague and show what we’d been up to at an education conference. Plus, five cohorts of great students where we saw horizons raised right in front of our eyes.
Then there is a life lesson. If it looks to good to be true, it probably is….