Ethics, strong values and how to be a team player

The college instilled a strong ethos in terms of ethics and moral values and how to be a team player. I played a lot of sports, mainly rugby, which helped shape the attitude I have today towards working collaboratively to achieve a common goal. It was after my time here, when starting my university education that my interest in technology and IT really began to develop.

From an early stage, I was intrigued by the pace at which technology was being adopted. The fact that it was taking off significantly sparked my interest, as this was pre-internet and pre-mobile phones. Looking back, the core fundamentals of IT are still the same - we still need to communicate, utilise data and automate and improve processes. It was at university that I developed my passion for keeping up to date with the latest developments in the industry and what technology can do for business and personal life.

Big brands are pervasive across the industry and have massive customer bases. There is a different corporate structure for businesses like Microsoft, and it can sometimes limit innovation in remote teams. This is because significant decisions are often born and made at headquarters, with an expectation for other locations to follow suit.

My role at Sure Business is a wholly different experience. I work closely with teams in the Channel Islands, Isle of Man and further afield in the likes of St Helena and the Falklands to drive product innovation, improve customer experience and drive Sure’s next investment opportunities to connect island communities for a better future.

I founded the business when mobile internet and data services were just beginning to take off in 2000, so there was an opportunity for me to address a gap in the market for application integration. The benefit of start-up companies and smaller businesses is that you have the agility to act fast on an opportunity and create something that can have a significant impact. The key benefit of working across a range of businesses of different sizes is that you can learn the best processes and structures of big corporate organisations and apply and tailor them to small businesses to help them grow and thrive.

I had a very exciting and interesting career with Digicel in the Caribbean for five years, developing new products, driving growth and changing the culture to become more customer-centric. My experience of working in a rich mix of cultures, languages, and levels of economic development has been extremely valuable as it has enhanced my ability to adapt and be creative, depending on the diverse needs of the clients in those markets. Sure Business also operates across smaller island economies, so I have the distinctive experience to maximise success. The strategy is much the same: give the customer the best service, have the best products relevant to the market and create a strong culture and brand. I’ve learnt that these key principles and pillars are essential in driving success.

When I initially joined the business, we took the opportunity to develop a new five-year strategy for Sure Business. This involved establishing key business focus areas: keeping our goals customer-centric, ensuring we deliver the best-in-class products and services, repositioning the brand as the first choice, and building the organisation with the best talent. This enables us to have a very clear sense of direction, purpose, and ambition.

One of my goals was to move the business away from being known as just a traditional telecoms company to one that is known as a fully managed IT provider. By developing a suite of new technology services in the areas of Cloud and data centre solutions to cybersecurity and managed IT services, we provide the technology and expertise to help businesses thrive in today’s global marketplace.

What motivates me personally is the positive feedback we get from our customers who have received successful outcomes from us being their trusted partner of choice. We have taken steps to ensure our teams are working more collaboratively, and the amazing customer feedback we receive shows that the changes taking effect within the business are improving their experience. The ongoing major levels of investments we are making into the latest technologies, such as Fibre networks, 5G and Cloud solutions, are a source of pride for me as I can see how our hard work is improving the way businesses operate in the global economy – punching well above the weight expected for regions of our size.