Then and Now!

I don’t suppose you anticipate working for one company for 42 years, and yet that somehow seems to have happened.  During that time, life, in all sorts of ways, has changed – politically, physically and commercially.  Back at the beginning of my working life if you wanted to speak to your distributor in London you would dial 100 and ask the GPO Operator to put you through.  Today, the world is our oyster, we can communicate or speak to anybody, anywhere (yes, I have answered my mobile on the beach) instantaneously.

In terms of business way of life, there have been huge changes.  Firstly, written communication was sent by mail, then faxed now we have email.  Then, of course, there’s customer expectation levels, both in performance and business and these have increased dramatically, with instant response required.  Gone are the days of typing up quotes and letters and posting them, and come to that, of receiving two mail deliveries a day.  But the core of business remains the same though and at Jubilee^® that has always been quality, reliability and the service we offer our customers.

I have been very lucky in the time I have been with Jubilee^®, because I’ve met customers who are real characters and had great colleagues and I’ve established many close, long term relationships with people not only in the UK, but all over the world.  For me this is not a time for looking back, but looking forward.  The changing world in which we live in presents enormous opportunities and although the current economic conditions are dull, I believe, there is an opportunity for smaller light footed businesses to thrive and prosper, possibly at the expense of some bigger multinational organisations.

Back to the changes that have gradually crept into my life over those 42 years, starting with the manual typewriter turning into electric and then electronic followed by the word processor, then to the computer and having to type everything yourself.  Then there is social networking – ‘liking’, ‘connecting’, and tweeting as well of course as the World Wide Web. They all though had a different meaning back in the day!  A phone was to talk on, a laptop was a tray, a pad was a place to live and a tablet was for swallowing; as for a dongle….?

As to my retirement, I intend to improve my non-existent golf and perfect my excuses for not doing the gardening!