When people ask me to describe my career, I often find myself struggling to answer in a single sentence.
When people ask me to describe my career, I often find myself struggling to answer in a single sentence. Officially, I have spent more than 35 years in the automotive industry, progressing from apprentice technician through technical, supervisory, management and leadership roles. However, I don’t think my career has ever really been about the positions I have held or the qualifications I have gained. Looking back, it has been driven by something much simpler: an enduring curiosity about people, organisations and what enables them to perform at their very best.
For me, learning has never been something that ended when I left school or university. It has become a way of life. My career began in the 1980s through the Youth Training Scheme route within the automotive industry. Working in this environment gave me not only a broad technical foundation but also an appreciation for the importance of craftsmanship, accountability and understanding how every stage of a process contributes to the final outcome.
Over many years I gained experience across vehicle repair, refinishing, bodyshop operations and workshop management. Those experiences provided technical knowledge, but perhaps more importantly they exposed me to the organisational challenges that exist behind technical operations. Why do organisations with similar equipment and talented people produce very different results? Why do some cultures encourage continual improvement while others resist change?
Today, as Head of Compliance at Walsall Wood Tyre & Service, I continue to lead compliance and quality strategy while promoting practical quality management principles throughout the organisation. Increasingly, my work has become less about compliance itself and more about creating environments where people are able to develop and succeed. The automotive sector is entering a period of unprecedented change driven by artificial intelligence, automation, digital transformation and rapidly evolving technologies. I believe organisations must become increasingly agile, evidence-based and adaptable if they are to thrive within this changing environment.
Ultimately, I hope to contribute to the professionalisation of the independent automotive sector while supporting businesses that often operate with limited resources but enormous potential. When I reflect on more than three decades within the automotive industry, I increasingly realise that my career has never been about repairing vehicles alone. It has been a lifelong attempt to understand what enables people and organisations to continually improve.
Most importantly, I hope that whatever I leave behind will not simply be qualifications or systems, but practical ideas that help people develop, organisations improve and knowledge continue to be shared long after I am gone.
