Meet our New Entrepreneur in Residence- Gareth Jones
We're delighted to introduce the
newest member of the BIPC Northamptonshire team- Gareth Jones, Entrepreneur in Residence.
Gareth has a wealth of experience in business management and growth and has built an international consultancy business with offices across six countries.
Gareth founded his business in 1996 and provided technical research in the automotive sector with a particular focus on new evolving technologies from the telecoms industry. Many of these technologies are now commonplace in today’s cars.
Gareth exited the business in 2021 and now supports business owners identifying and achieving their personal and business goals. He has real world experience that applies to any business.
Gareth's Career in His Own Words
When I qualified as and Automotive Engineer from Coventry Polytechnic I gained a job working with Austin Rover Group in Coventry. My career ahead was mapped out, and (had the organisation not gone bust in the 90’s)! I would have been retiring after a long career with a gold watch! And a good pension?
BUT I as a young engineer at that time I really didn’t need job security and was happy to take control of my own destiny. I went contracting, which means I was a one-man business working as a CAD designer for car makers designing new models. This level of independence gave me; variety of work, flexibility, chance to travel, take on new challenges, and I was paid more! There are downsides of course; continuity of work, disruption to family life, and there isn’t a career path in the tradition sense. However, it suited me and served me well in my early years through the late eighties and I worked on some really exciting and fun projects.
As a young and somewhat naive budding entrepreneur, I had a number of unsuccessful attempts to convince car manufacturers that “me and my mates” could design them a new car, which was never even remotely possible. But I stuck at it and after some time I came across a more realistic opportunity which enabled both me and my business partner to launch a new venture in 1996.
Car theft was out of control in the 90’s, if you have seen the film “Gone in 60 seconds” starring Nicholas Cage a quote from the film sums it up. “ I just stole fifty cars in one night, I’m a little tired a little wired and I think I deserve some appreciation!” Here In the UK, the insurance industry refused to provide cover for some high performance sports cars because the theft risk was so high.
We were experts in designing car security systems and the opportunity arose for us to work directly with a large Japanese car manufacturer to protect their cars from theft. After 18 months of demonstration, evaluation, benchmarking, meetings, presentations we finally won a contract to design new security systems with the engineers in Japan to meet the tough demands of the European market. The contract was only for one year initially and we quickly set up premises and all the necessary office support needed for the business. We became an employer! That initial contract was renewed at the end of 1997 and is still in place to this day (28 years later), so we must have done something right!
During the subsequent 25 years of my ownership the business went through all sorts of transformation. Too much to list here but I can say, I learned so much from “not having run a business before” to “exiting from an international organisation” in 2021. I am proud of all the staff who work in the business and the achievements that were made during the time I was there. The company now employees over 150 people worldwide and works with almost all the major car manufacturers.
As businesses grow their needs change. Today, I am happy to share my knowledge and provide guidance to any business owner who is looking for advice. I will always try to help if I can.
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Gareth Jones brings a particularly interesting background to the Entrepreneur in Residence role because his experience covers technology, business growth, international operations, and the automotive sector. I liked the honest discussion about learning through experience rather than presenting entrepreneurship as a perfectly planned journey. His story shows how challenges can become useful lessons over time. That perspective is especially relevant to businesses https://www.carsoup.com/ connected with cars and technology, including platforms such as carsoup, where industries continue evolving rapidly.
Congratulations on welcoming a new Entrepreneur in Residence! It’s exciting to see initiatives that support aspiring business owners and encourage innovation. I recently came across a discussion mentioning athletic therapist toronto where community support for professional growth was also highlighted. Wishing Gareth every success in this new role.