The story

Years ago, an ex-colleague of mine contacted me to ask whether I could help translate a set of drawings in French.  The company he worked for had won a contract to manufacture a complex aerospace gearbox designed in Canada.

I spent a day helping them with the drawings and I learnt about their business. 

A few weeks later I saw a job advert from the same company.  They were looking for someone to develop new business in the rail market. 

I applied for the job and thanks to having helped them previously with the translation I was invited for an interview. 

The interview

The interview started with a general conversation.  The recruiter was trying to find out about me and asked unexpected questions.  It was Bastille Day in France and he asked me what I thought about German soldiers taking part in the celebrations alongside French soldiers for the first time in Paris. 

After a stimulating exchange of views, the recruiter said the company was looking for someone with extensive sales experience in the rail market who had a strong background in the design of gearboxes. 

He was very direct and said bluntly: “You don’t meet any of these requirements, so what are you doing here?”.

I realised at that point that my chances of being selected were very slim but I decided to address his objections. 

I explained that in my view I had the skills and experience required to develop new business in the rail market, namely: -

•  Experience of working with customer’s engineers to develop technical solutions.

• An engineering degree allowing me to learn quickly about rail gearboxes.

• Credibility as a French engineer to develop a trusting relationship with engineers in Europe and anticipate potential reservations about working with a British supplier. 

• The latter being important to develop new business in Europe as the UK rail market was at a standstill at that time, pending the privatisation of British Rail.

We had a frank and open discussion, and to my surprise I was eventually offered the job!

First customer contract

After a quick survey of the rail market, it became clear that the best opportunities for this company were with new concepts of low-floor trams and tilting trains as they required bespoke gearbox designs. 

We contacted a Swiss company developing a new concept of tilting train.  They had very specific technical requirements that couldn’t be met by existing designs. 

We developed a trusting relationship with the customer’s engineers by being clear and honest about our expertise in gearbox design but also by being upfront about our need for help to understand their specific requirements in the rail environment. 

We committed to meet their very tight timescale and we were awarded a contract to design and manufacture a couple of prototypes.  I then worked very closely with my engineering colleagues internally, managing the project, and keeping the customer closely informed of progress and of any issues arising. 

This project was successful, and the prototype gearboxes were delivered on time. 

This could not have been achieved without a close and open cooperation with the customer who helped to come up with acceptable solutions when unforeseen technical issues arose. 

Lesson learnt

This story illustrates the need when recruiting to carefully define the requirements for the role.  I found out subsequently that the company could not find anyone with the skills and experience they had specified. 

Their previous recruitment of a highly experienced technical expert in rail gearboxes had failed to generate any new business. 

Nowadays I work with overstretched leaders of SMEs in the engineering sector to help them prepare their business for sustainable growth. 

If you would like to explore how I could help you, please use the link below to book a time in my diary. 

http://tinyurl.com/HerveJardonCalendar