Beauty can come in strange forms.
Anyone developing new products and new technology needs one characteristic above all else: hope.
Fear is always a good motivator.
Success is made of 99% failure.
The important thing is to learn from mistakes – something graduates are adept at. Our graduate engineers are working on new technology – from uncharted applications for our digital motor, to a new take on the hand dryer. With an unhindered mind, nothing is off limits.
Having a good idea is one thing, but persuading other people to buy it is quite another. Good inventors are polymaths: they think with their hands and their brains. They’re experts in design, engineering and business.
In the digital age of ‘overnight’ success stories such as Facebook, the hard slog is easily overlooked.
My interest in film is sort of catholic – apart from science fiction and horror movies, I’ll watch almost everything.
Nobody wants the expenditure of a lease on a factory which lasts 21 years. You can’t plan 21 years ahead.
Reality TV is anything but.
So I think the winners in recession are the people who produce new technology that does things better, which people really want.
Failure is an enigma. You worry about it, and it teaches you something.
Don’t listen to experts.
Design and technology should be the subject where mathematical brainboxes and science whizzkids turn their bright ideas into useful products.
Cordless vacuums are designed for quick jobs, but you need enough power to do the job; you don’t want the power waning over time.
Companies are not ingenious, it’s the people in them that are.
I think people are realizing that engineering and science are extremely good degrees to get and you’ll be very highly paid once you’ve got them.
If you really want to improve technology, if you want things to work better and be better, you’ve got to protect the person who spends a lot of effort, money, and time developing that new technology.
As an engineer I’m constantly spotting problems and plotting how to solve them.
Manufacturing is more than just putting parts together. It’s coming up with ideas, testing principles and perfecting the engineering, as well as final assembly.