Transcript: Steve Morris, Morgan Motor Company Director of Operations (Max#23)

Here’s the latest transcript of the motivating interview with Director of  Operations at Morgan Motor Company,  Britain’s sole surviving car manufacturer.

Steve has a wonderful personal attachment to Morgan, having started as an Apprentice on the production line, before pushing on to becoming to his current role as one of the Directors for the organisation.

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Kevin: Welcome to Maximise Potential the podcast to educate and motivate through a range of original interviews designed to help you maximise your potential.  Brought to you in association with the award winning recruitment group Jenrick.

Welcome back to episode 23 of the Maximise Potential Podcast and our second instalment from the Morgan Motor Company.  Following on from our interview with Head Designer Matt Humphries featured on episode 21 we now have the pleasure of interviewing Director of Operations Steve Morris.  Steve has a wonderful personal attachment to Morgan having started as an apprentice on the production line before pushing on to his current role as one of the Directors for the organisation.  He has seen as he calls it an evolution at Morgan that has witnessed every corner of the business being radically overhauled throughout the last decade propelling it to become one of the most innovative independent car producers on the globe.

Here is Steve to tell you the complete story in his own words.

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So Steve we are sitting today in this wonderful almost 100 year old Morgan factory and we are going to talk about a whole range of subjects to do with managing, producing Morgan’s and the challenges, and I will call them challenges, that you have and the balancing act that you have to achieve overseeing the whole production which you do.  But lets start off by maybe dispelling a few myths about Morgan because there are still a lot of people when I talk to them about Morgan’s that they still remember six and seven year waiting lists and various other things.  So it would be really handy I think if you could just go over some of those points and help people understand what Morgan Motor Company is now as an entity and maybe we will see where the discussion goes from there.

Steve: As you say there are a number of myths with Morgan and the waiting list is probably the biggest myth, the biggest single myth.  I think if you look back over 10 years, 10 years ago we would have had an average of 100 cars work in progress at any one time with something like nine cars a week manufactured, six year waiting list was the myth, it was never quite that wait anyway.  That was always, it was market specific to start with.  It was geographical; it was dealer specific for instance back in those days you could get a car in Europe quicker than you could in certain parts of the UK.  Interestingly enough if you went to what would have been our local dealer he was quoting the longest waiting list.  And it was really all based on the number of cars they were allocated and the number of sales they had.  However we looked at it and I say Charles really one of his key drivers was taking what were we loosing at a business.  Because it was a myth we were probably loosing as much as we were gaining on sales.  So I think we really attacked it and said okay what do we need to do to get this right.  So we looked at the structure of the way the cars were being sold, we looked at how we were building and really took a demand profile from that and just gentle organic growth over the last few years.  To achieve that there needed to be a lot of things looked at certainly the way we were building the car, the way it was all set up, the work in progress levels.

Actually the complete infrastructure of the way the guys were being paid so we were at that time we were on a piece work system.  So if you look at any Japanese manufacture and the way they set up is on a pull system, so you pull the products and the parts you want at the right time.  Piece work is a typical push system so you are just pushing in lots and lots of product but is it the right product.  Nine times out of ten no it is not you are taking, if a job is deemed to be a good job from a financial point of view to the individual you might be making lots of those but if something you need is not such a good job financially you wouldn’t be making lots of those.  So we even went through to looking at the wage system and the way we were rewarding people in the factory.  Which had a massive impact on what we were gaining from a car point of view.  So we were making the right parts at the right time in the right quantity.

Kevin: And how long did that process take you I mean because that must have been a hell of a project?

Steve: It was and to be honest with you where we were at that point it was just an evolution, low staff turnover, a slightly aging workforce therefore you had the guys almost dictating the pace.  Well they were dictating the pace of the factory.  I mean when I was serving my apprenticeship it was a known thing you, the workforce dictated the number of cars which is today in today’s modern environment just seems a really odd thing to talk about but I am sure there is a lot of businesses that have been through the same issues.

Kevin: And I suppose the nature of your business as well because I mean you know I refer to the people that build Morgan’s they are all craftsman because you are working with such traditional materials and there is so much, you know so much of a bespoke nature to your products.  So I guess you can understand why it wasn’t just seen as just a standard workforce and that people are being seen as they are creating a piece of art far more than just a commercial product.

Steve: Yeah very much so and I think 10 – 15 years ago we were seen by the world as just a very much a craft based business.  It was very craft orientated, very, very clever, very skilled which it still is.  The difference today is you have got a lot more technology applied with the craft.  But it was interesting that that was one of the biggest issues we had to tackle.  When you are looking at any system was the black art and all of the craft side of things to try as with any business you cant manage what you don’t measure so you have to measure it to manage it to understand what your cost of sales are going to be and how you are going to get to that end product.

That was one of the big issues and big culturally I mean that took, that really took probably a couple of years, two years from concept through to execution of that system took a couple of years whilst we were looking at levels of work in progress, the way the car was being built, the way the product flows through the factory.  At the same time it sounds quite bizarre but at the same time we were also improving materials in the vehicle, the quality of the vehicle so there was a lot.  It has been a busy sort of 10 years.

Kevin: You touched on the factory there and when I look at Morgan’s factory or factories and you know the overall plant this is about as far removed from a Honda or a Toyota or a Nissan that you could ever imagine.  Morgan’s strength is its history but I also imagine that with that is its weakness as well because I mean you are still operating from the original sort of factories, individual factories that were built and added on one at a time over the last 100 years so you are dealing with an environment that must be extremely difficult to actually manage that flow and that process within.  I mean how have you coped with that?

Steve: It is, it has been difficult.  I mean as you look at the factory now we have built another whole department for the area, we have built a new paint shop but if you just put that to the side for one moment taking the main factory 10 – 15 years ago the car was built in, if I replicated to you today what we were doing 10 years ago you would look at it and think we were completely mad.  Yet as I say it was just that evolution of just the way the whole thing had evolved over previous sort of 90 years and when I think today what we were doing, how we were moving cars, how we were moving parts it is just a massive difference to what we do today.  If you started with a blank canvas would you do it the way we do it – no you certainly wouldn’t you would streamline again and have different line side structures and different bonded warehouse structures which would drive the flow of the cars different.  But we have got today we have used.  We are on a hill, we have used gravity as the feeder for the line so you start off with a, you know either an aluminium tub for the Aero Super sport or Aero range products.  Or you start off with a galvanised chassis for the classic cars.  You then end up with a rolling chassis and it rolls downhill.  10 years ago the car used to start at the bottom of the factory push up the hill then roll down to one shop and then push back up to another.  We did a ball of string exercise and that probably as simple as you could be with it yet as effective as you need to be.  So if you just roll a ball of string out and then measure how far you are moving the car which is quite a raw way of doing it but it just proves a point.

Kevin: But I guess it gets you as efficiently as possible from A – B to C – D.

Steve: Yeah and like the stocking of components.  If you think there are 1000s and 1000s of components going to each vehicle it is a planning nightmare to try and make sure you plan your systems around your vehicles.  And we used to learn, I learn every day, I look at the way the factory is laid out, look at some of the things we do and you learn something, you look at something on a daily basis and think um I could perhaps lets just try that that way and we are constantly changing which I think is probably a good thing because I think change means you are always looking at it and always questioning where you are and what you have done.

Kevin: With regards to constantly changing and constantly challenging yourself to improve it even further I guess the staff pay a huge part in that because you know they are the guys actually fitting the car, putting it together.  So would you say a big chunk of the orientation of how you push stuff is very much consultative and very much just staying in touch with the team, talking with them and gaining their experience and their hands on approach.  I mean how does it work?

Steve: Very much like you just said.  I did an apprenticeship so I worked my way through the shop floor and understand how the car goes together and spend high parts of my day and week and year in the workshops looking at how the jobs have been done and I very much work personally with the whole team at Morgan very much along the lines of I am prepared to muck in and have a go and understand what their challenges are on a daily basis.  How it happens, what problems they might have, what benefits they would have if I looked at it their way.  So it is very, very consultative and we very, very rarely have to impose anything because we, I would like to think that we have got a workforce that if I ask for something to be done in a certain way they understand why we are asking, why myself or one of the Directors of Management Team would be asking to do it that way.  So we always work together.  Very rarely you know I wouldn’t sit here and say we never fall out because of course we fall out but we always work on the basis that, my starting point is if I make their life easier they are more productive and that is a benefit for all of us.  And from their point of view they know that if I can make their life easier to make them more productive financially it is a win for all stakeholders everybody wins.

Kevin: No I can see that.

Steve:  The thing that is, in the market and the environment we are in it is very important to take everything with a quality view looking at the quality of what the end product has to be and ensuring that everybody that works on the shop floor, ladies and gentleman that work on the shop floor understand end users are paying you know the expectations of us as consumers now are far outstretched.  You know every year the gate goes up a little bit higher, the barrier goes up higher sorry and to run behind that is always extremely difficult so everything we do the starting point is quality and then we look at if can we improve it and make it better that should ultimately sell more vehicles, please more customers and it is repeat it just goes round and round and round.

Kevin: Well you have hit nicely on to where I was actually going to go with my next question which is quality is your driver yet the way the product, the way production is set up it almost works completely against that because if I were to say to a Japanese manufacturer about how they can ensure quality they would say well great what we do is we automate as much of it and therefore it is within a completely controlled environment etc, etc.  Whereas what we have got within Morgan is a bespoke product which is individually tailored pretty much every single time although you have still got the base chassis but so much, this is one of your strengths is the fact that you just tailor the product all the time linked with so many individual craftsman that all put their own identity and input within the product.  How do you manage to still focus on quality and keep all of that tight when there is so many variables within the production process?

Steve: It’s a challenge. As with I am sure anybody who is making, anybody who is manufacturing anything in today’s world would say it is a challenge.  I am a firm believer that systems underpin a lot of your end results.  So if you have a system in place for something it is not to say that it is not going to go wrong or it doesn’t go wrong but what it should say is that you can look at root causes for system for any problems that you may have.  So I would say the start, the driver, the start is ensure there is a system in place to help the crafts men and women to put that through.  But it is a challenge for a number of reasons.  One you are never going to have the levels of investment that one of the major OEMs would have to put into a product so you know if you were looking at a car platform for anybody else they are looking at you know hundreds of millions to set the system up you know it is just never going to happen with a small vehicle manufacturer. But I think pride takes over with a lot I think the guys; you know we are not a company where we have got staff walking in and walking out.  We don’t have lots of temps and that is not to say that is wrong for certain businesses or certain products.  What we always say here the way we are as a business is the glue that holds us together but sometimes it can hold you back as well.  So it is a fine line between the two.

Kevin: So systems but then linked with that so you have got your base framework but then linked with that, that is where the personality comes around there but again it is trained, invested in and I like what you said about pride it is almost like, I am assuming almost like the John Lewis Partnership approach where they try and make everybody a stakeholder within their organisation so that they are not dealing with casuals so there is that desire to go the extra mile, to take personal care and attention as if it is your own product.

Steve: It is interesting I think one of the greatest bits of feedback we constantly get at Morgan you know we have invested in the Visitor Centre to bring people through the business and it is quite interesting because for people to walk round the factory that is making a car seeing it from nothing through to the finished product and we are getting 2000 people a month through at the moment.  And the best bits of feedback we get are just how people think how enthusiastic and positive the workforce are and it has not always been that way.  It really hasn’t always been that way, it is a constant battle and it has been a challenge for us to get everybody on side and going through what we talked about earlier about the wage structure, about the piece work about the changes, in any business change is a scary thing for all of us at times and sometimes you look at change and it if you have been, you know I always take a view that if you have got a chap who has been working on the shop floor for 15 – 20 years and then all of a sudden you want to change something you have to approach it in the right way.  You have to ensure they understand why and get their feedback for it.  It has been a cultural change for us and you touched earlier on the bespoke and the way we do all of that, yet again another challenge, another challenge for everybody who works for us to make sure that you know everything is being built right to the right quality, the right time and that comes back to the system again.  You put the system in to enable them to bespoke the car and do what’s right and we are learning.  We are always learning but it works, it does work for us.

Kevin: Where do you get your ideas from in terms of production techniques, improvements that you can do for logistics etc, etc?  Do you get yourself out and about; are you fortunate that you can network with people in your own industry and other industries I mean where does it all come from?

Steve: That’s a really interesting question actually because do I get out and about – no not enough it is a hectic environment and when you are working for a smaller company like Morgan we are not very small and we are not very large we are right in that middle band where actually I haven’t got a Manager that will look after logistics or Manager that will look after maintenance or Manager to look after the site or you know you end up getting involved in stuff yourself so I don’t get time to get out and about.  However I would like to think that I approach everything with an open mind.  So we get people to bring improvements through from the shop floor as well.  We promote that as an activity coming through so I would like to think that when people come along and ask me for something yes I do network with a lot of people.  Where we are is a funny place to be because the nearest thing that I can think to us to get production techniques or ideas off would be someone like Rolls Royce Bespoke.  Interesting Rolls Royce with a BMW backing.  If you go to Goodwood and look at Rolls Royce as a facility chalk and cheese to Morgan hundreds or millions of pounds worth of investment in everything.  Yet if you go to their Bespoke line which is a fraction of what we do if it is truthful, it is a fraction of the bespoking we do yet the synergy is great.  There is a lot of synergy with what they do.  Their Managers are fairly autonomous they can make their own decisions, whereas if you go on to the mainstream line they couldn’t make a decision without going back, way back to sort of Munich.  But their bespoke line is quite good and taking a look round there, getting a few ideas from there but I think everybody who works for Morgan starting with Charles, Tim, fellow Directors right the way down through to the girls on reception.  I think whenever an idea comes up we have all got ideas and we float them about and we try and, we just try and bring the best of it and as I say you never reach utopia do you with it you have just got to keep plodding on and get the best out of it.

Kevin: Absolutely, absolutely and speaking of getting the best out of it you have already mentioned that you guys don’t have anywhere near the size, the clout of other car makers and yet you manage to get a lot more out of suppliers than I think other companies would expect you to achieve due to your size.  You know you have managed to engage companies that have never even touched automotive manufacturing before and you have got them suddenly on board with the moulding and the pressing and you are bringing techniques into car manufacturing that nobody else has done worldwide.  How have you managed to do that because obviously you’re hugely responsible for managing all of these external partners and how do you leverage that value?

Steve: We have got brand buying power, we have got very little volume buying power when it comes to, especially when you talk about automotive I mean when you go to somebody and say oh we are going to make 1000 cars next year and they are doing BMW or Vauxwagon or Audio or Mercedes stuff you know it is sort of a drop in the ocean to them.  But the brand carries a lot of weight and the brand helps you through those things.  But interestingly enough I would like to think we have got some brilliant relationships with people, with other suppliers that will do a lot more for Morgan than they would ever do for other suppliers with a bigger purse.

Kevin: Do you think that is a trick that a lot of other small businesses and we will count them as small businesses have missed and maybe that’s what they haven’t harnessed as much and why so many SMEs have struggled?

Steve: Being honest I think, I think the brand is always a good door opener.

Kevin: Yeah.

Steve: And people want, people do want to be associated you know with something such as Morgan that is in today’s world is a success story.  However I think it is an opportunity and I think negotiation skills is quite an interesting thing I always take an avid interest in how people open up discussions and deal with people on a one to one basis and I think there is a lot, and I am not saying, I certainly wouldn’t say we are the best or we are the authority on it but I think we have cracked it to a certain degree and I think the way we deal with people is, and I always encourage the guys who work for me and supply chain or even in development when we are talking to people how to deal with people and how to try and get the best out of what you can get.  So it is has worked well for us and I just think that the relationship is a real key part of it and if you can strike a good relationship up with a person in the other company whether it is on the phone or face to face it is a good way forward.

Kevin: Something I think might be relevant to throw in here but James Khan off Dragons Den he has always said that an approach he has always taken within business is what he calls the ‘Win Win’ approach when he is dealing with suppliers or whoever he is communicating with – i.e. it has got to be a win for him so that he feels that he has got something out of it but also a win for the other party so that they feel that they have got something out of it so nobody is resenting the agreement and they can look long term about how they can both add value.  Could you resonate with that?

Steve: Yeah very much, year very much.  One of the terms we always try to use with people when we are setting something up it can not be in our interest for them not to be winning out of it because it would be a short term relationship.  In fact it is very interesting you know without mentioning any mainstream names but I have dealt with people who have dealt with I can think of two very major one is an automotive and one is a construction company that their supply chain methodology is just go in nail, squeeze every last bit out based on down in the current volume and all of these good things. I just see it short term I can’t see, we have all got to win.  If we don’t win we don’t survive and if you don’t survive you are moving on to the next supplier and its short term view because there is more work involved in building a relationship, setting up a positive way forward with another company and you know yourself if you are trying to logistically if you are trying to set everything up and infrastructure wise you don’t want to be chopping and changing, you don’t get stability, you don’t get quality you don’t get continuity all of the things that you really want to ensure you are building a quality product you don’t get if you are chopping and changing supply chain.  So win, win is something we use and we do look at it like that from Morgan.

However at the same token I always like to explain to our suppliers that the win is part of us as well so we have got to be commercially aware of what we are doing and part of the challenge and I am sure everybody has the same thing but it is so relevant in automotive but the billing materials costs of a vehicle.  For us we suffer it more.  The point you first raised how do you manage in such a big commercial world yet you are only doing very few or it is very specialist.  Billing materials for us is a key issue so when we go to a supplier we have to, you know our opening gambit, the starting point is this is where we have got to be and this is what we have got to do can you do it, can we all win from it and if the answer is yeah lets move on.

Kevin: That was very much next question I was going to ask you which is for all of the love and bespoke nature and artistic qualities that your cars bring to the world there has to be a profit in there.  That is the harsh reality of business and that is the only reason that you can actually remain in business and I am very intrigued to understand the balancing act that you have to go through because you have got an awesome enthusiastic designer Matt Humphries who is bringing out incredible designs all the time and changing the brand perception and broadening the appeal to the marketplace which is complimented by Charles’s approach and he is very much revolutionising again this whole image.  And you are the person in the middle who then has to deliver on all of that and also in association with Tim as well who is the Finance Director who has go to then make those numbers all add up as well.  What challenges does that present itself with?

Steve: Well it is a massive challenge I mean the first one that springs to mind is you have got design versus manufacturing and there is a definite line in the middle that design the first thing that Matt will do is draw something and it looks great and it is just where we need to be.  However you have then got to trade that along the lines of you have got to be able to make it.  First of all you have got to be able to make it, then you have got to be able to make it cost effectively and geographically on the site obviously Matt and the Design Team are all, sorry Matt from a design team point of view along with John and our R&D Department are all in one location purposefully because when they sketch something up and they come up with a concept I want them to be able to literally hand it across the desk to the guys who have to then put that into reality.  So you know there is a very early stage gate there to make sure that happens.

Taking the commercial side of it then it is always going to be a challenge because every new product that you design first of all if you take your development costs any mainstream manufacturer amatises it over you know 10s of thousands or 100s of thousands of units Morgan haven’t got that luxury you know we are looking at amatising you know and most companies want a typical payback in sort of 12 months or you know sometimes you will be able to stretch the shareholders out and a bit more long term it could be a couple of years.  With Morgan we have to look at stretching that even further.  However that is a strength to the business that we always take a long term view.  You know we are not turning a quick turn buck and moving on we are looking at being able to take a long term view on it which then ultimately satisfies a lot of people which enables some of the things we do to be able to go forward but even with that in mind it is still a massive challenge because of the numbers involved in you know we are conforming to mainstream automotive requirements and legislation and that in itself is a big cost.

Kevin: That is what I was just going to ask you, I was going to ask you, you mentioned before about the challenge of obviously parts and materials but what do you see as the biggest challenge coming up say over the next five years?  Is it legislation or is it safety or?

Steve: It is defiantly and okay this is my view and other people might say different but for me at the coal face it is definitely legislation encompassing safety and ecological green requirements, it is definitely legislation.  And just safety the green and just legal requirements and so for instance any program now, any development program now, an airbag development program for us on a new vehicle is just for the one facet, just purely for the airbags is over €1m, just for the airbags and that is not even considering any engineering, any braking any ABS, any ESP, any seat belt test, any roll over test, side impacts, frontal impacts, rear impacts and it goes on and on and on and on.  It is without a question legislation.

Kevin: I mean how do you cope with that?

Steve: Interestingly enough yet again I would like to think that we are very as a Team dynamic, proactive all the buzz words that people will use but it is fact with Morgan because we haven’t got a budget behind.  Recently went to one mainstream manufacturer that opened the door and there was probably 300 people behind CAD screens and I am looking at it thinking we will never have that luxury ever, ever have that luxury.  Our guys are far more innovative is a good word to use the way we think through things.  The other thing we do that is a great help is link in with the likes of Universities to be able to take on sort of KTP – Knowledge Transfer Partnerships which is a post graduate scheme which Matt Humphries came on.

Kevin: That’s right I was just going to say that is exactly how Matt came to be employed by Morgan’s.

Steve: And our homologation which is the technical legislative legal requirements side.  Our Homologation Engineer Matt Welsh he did exactly the same thing came as a KTP.  What it enables you to do is tap into the University technologies and also the knowledge that they have got.  It is a Knowledge Transfer Partnership but it is both ways we are giving the graduate on the job coal face knowledge of what they are doing here by the same token we have got ability to use some of the software and some of the programs, some of the knowledge that is obviously embedded within any University so that is another way forward.  But the legislation and the legal requirements it has gone passed silly really.  I mean some of the laws that are coming out and I could sit and talk to you about it all night about what really is a little bit smoke and mirrors with some of the technology that is being applied by some of the mainstream manufacturers.  And it is a massive industry and there is always going to be one trying to get something over the other but when all that filters down and all the water runs down to the bottom of the hill in the pond and we are in the little one at the bottom it is always going to be difficult for us but it is without question for me the biggest restriction on you know and biggest cost moving forward for a small volume manufacturer.  That is why there is very few people in the game doing it at this level you so.

Kevin: I am going to actually swing this now and just actually ask you a couple of more personal questions about you because I think we have covered a great deal about Morgan.  You have really given me a flavour for the issues that you have to deal with the markets and the direction the company is going but talking about yourself I mean you have openly said that you have come up through the ranks.  You know serving the apprenticeship and you are now actually Ops Director one of the Senior Management Team for Morgan in probably one of the most exciting periods of Morgan’s existence right now.  What I am always interested to understand from people who I do have the pleasure of talking with is what motivates you, what drives you, what has enabled you to get here?  There must have been a lot of other people that started around the same time as you but you are the person that has actually come through and has become the Director of this company and I am very interested to understand maybe how you try to use the phrase but maximise your own potential.

Steve: I would like to think that I am positive and I always get up in the morning with a positive outlook to see how I can improve something and whether that would have been in, making the products when I was an apprentice I always wanted to improve and find a better way of doing something right the way through to looking now and just saying I always get up with a positive attitude to try and be better and make the best of life really.

Kevin:    Did you set out with the mindset that I want to be a Director, I want to be you know one of the heads of a company or was it far more just attacking each day as a step, as a building block.  How did you approach that?

Steve: Looking back now at the time when you are coming through, when you are living life in your earlier days I didn’t really have an ambition to be a Director.  It wasn’t, I didn’t come to work and say I am going to become a Director of Morgan Motor Company.  But looking back now there was definitely a point in my time when I was younger where I took a view and said actually I want to either climb the ladder within Morgan or I want to do something for myself.  And I was at a real crossroads at that point and now looking, I very rarely reflect on it actually because I suppose you don’t get asked the question but now looking back at it and I can remember it quite vividly really that there was that point where I said actually I really want to improve.  And thinking about it actually it is really interesting thinking about it I could see some real things that I wanted to improve within Morgan.  So within Morgan I could see the opportunities I could see the things that needed improving from a business perspective.

Kevin: And that was just when you were working a regular guy.

Steve: Yeah interesting because my Foreman at the time had just gone for a hip replacement and there was an opportunity and looking at the way the business was running and as I said earlier and the way it was almost being restricted by the factory and some of the things that you just look at and improvements you could make and there was definitely a crossroads there where I said well actually I think I have got something to bring to the party or I want to do something for myself.  And I was lucky that I was offered the opportunity to make that transition and I guess it is a bit of history from there really but I would like to think I am positive and that was one of my positive things was I was positively going to want to add some input and value into processing the way the whole company could run or do my own thing.

Kevin: There is probably a number of people that I have spoken to that have said regardless of whatever your title is at a place of work if you assume the role or position that you want to be in then people begin to see that within you.  Would you say that that was very much the approach that you took?

Steve: That was exactly what happened with me actually because as I said my Foreman at the time and looking back now Tim and Sarah who is HR and Tim Finance Director I took that view that I would almost assume the role.  I could see things wanted to be done and I started to take the role of trying to look after the shop and trying to improve a few things and put a few things in place and obviously that was seen you know and I was offered a different position within the company.

Kevin: And do you think that would be great advice or a single piece of advice that you would pass on to other people?

Steve: Definitely if you think you have got yeah I am a firm believer in that and that is where the positive attitude comes from I think.  If you think you have got something to add and there is always a fine line between your own personal views and the views of others but actually if you think it and others think it the two will meet and then you know it will happen.  And if you think it and other people don’t think it then obviously at some point they will tell you that as well. So but I think yeah taking the view that if you have got that positive approach and you want to try and add something you certainly should, if you have got the belief in yourself you certainly should try and do it.

Kevin: That is an excellent answer.  I think that finishes off very nicely so Steve thanks very much for your time.

Steve: Thanks very much Kevin.

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Kevin: Thanks Steve for your open and honest appraisal of the issues Morgan has to contend with and also for sharing your personal drivers and motivators.  And if this is the first time that you have tuned in to Maximise Potential then I would recommend popping back to episode 21 where you can listen to the Matt Humphries interview in full.  We have got some great interviews coming up including Dean Massey Commonwealth Decathlete Champion so make sure you go across to iTunes and subscribe to the podcast or come over to the group on LinkedIn where you will get a chance to connect with several of the guests who have appeared on the show.

Just before I finish Kay White who many of you remember from episode 14 for her excellent advice on how to develop powerful and persuasive communication wanted to let all of our Maximise Potential listeners know that they are still able to apply for a complimentary strategy session where you will receive one on one advice on ways to instantly make your written and verbal communication more affective.  Just visit the show notes for this episode for more details on that and a range of links through to Morgan Motor Company.

Thanks again for tuning in and thank you as always to Jenrick for sponsoring the podcast and to Xerxes for providing such excellent music.  Here is ‘Picture of Her’ to finish on.  Goodbye.

Music

To view the transcript of the first interview with  Matt Humphries, Head of Design at Morgan Motor Company (Max#21), please click here.