Who are you then, Steve?

I’m Steven Osborne…

And?

And – well, I previously worked for a company in east London that did lots of concrete tests.

You need to give us more than this…

OK, so, I joined to support their laboratory with a huge project, the Silvertown Tunnel.  We did almost all the concrete testing for this epic undertaking.  And now, I’m Operations Manager for the Eastern Counties for Igne.

There are very few laboratories that can look after the many companies and projects in Suffolk, Norfolk and Essex – so I’ll capitalise on that, and ensure potential clients are well looked after by Igne.

That’s not a Norfolk accent though?

No, I originate from Reading.  But I now live near Thetford Forest – my wife and I moved from Colchester where we’d lived the busy city life for 5 years.  We were ready for a bit more quiet.

What enticed you to Igne?

I was actually an Igne client. 

I used you for some of my larger projects and when I got to go to the Aston Clinton lab one day and met everybody in person, it was so clear that everybody there felt valued.  It was a great atmosphere – very refreshing compared to other places I’d been.

In terms of coming on board it was just by chance - I happened to call [National Sales Manager] Ross Hamilton one day about a query, and he mentioned Igne was looking to recruit in the area I lived, in the role I do! 

In other words, it was – serendipity.

Well, yes, but I thought you wanted fuller answers?

Yes, yes – tell me more about why you wanted to work for Igne.

I want to develop on the incredible growth Igne has achieved since its inception two years ago.  I know Igne can provide a much better service than other laboratories, there really is no competition, others are just falling by the wayside.  Igne has amazing facilities and resources and knows how to look after customers and is simply a better opportunity. 

I’m going to be building on that in my region.

So, who inspired you to pursue the career you have today?

I started in construction back in 1993, and I advanced from the shipping office of a company that later became Hanson – I worked with many excellent people who wanted to see me advance.  So, I was supported and encourage to move into the technical side of things before becoming an account manager.

I just think I’ve always been fortunate to work around others who want to see people succeed.  But very likely my work ethic comes from my father – he was in the army, and then he transitioned into civilian life and would work 7 days a week for his family and his company.

Many years later, after his death when I was sadly clearing his house, I found a reward he had achieved for 40 years’ service.  I always respected my dad.

What advice can you give someone who wants to follow in your career footsteps?

I’ve thought about this question a lot – if you think about the role of materials testing on its own it can seem quite narrow and hard to explain.  But what you need to do is think about the bigger picture.  So, my advice would be – understand why we do what we do.

If I just go and do a plate load test, why am I testing the ground for a crane?  I’m maybe doing it for a crane to build a wind turbine to support a sustainable energy project for the entire east coast of England.

As soon as you think about the part you play in a bigger picture, it can engender ambition and excitement for a job.

Tell us about challenges and triumphs in your career…

Maybe the toughest challenge was when I was at my previous firm.  We were predominantly a concrete testing company.  But the main project we were working on had an end date.  It was clear to me that some of my colleagues and I could be vulnerable for redundancy after it completed.

So, I did my research and identified an opportunity for us to diversify into soils testing.  I took the business case to the owners, and they gave me the green light to make it happen.  I sourced the equipment, built a client base and a new business stream.

The challenge didn’t end there though.  We grew well and we grew fast to the point there was a capacity issue – we had more work that we could do in the turnaround time the clients needed.  So, there was work to do to achieve a balance.

That was an accomplishment as well as a challenge – and running the team at Silvertown Tunnel where we were pouring 1,000M of concrete a day, 7 days a week was certainly a career highlight.  I was running the teams to manage all of that – and doing it seamlessly, which was a struggle at times!  But it was a prestigious project to work on.

Enough about all that - what does the future hold for Igne?

The future is incredible because of how well positioned the company already is in terms of standards of excellence.  If you just look at the software as a single example of why Igne is head and shoulders above the competition – it supports the client all the way through from site techs logging, to photos of what’s going on in the test, to the end reporting – it is a comprehensive offering.  It’s also a massive elevation in terms of standards.

I can comment on this because as I said, I was a client.  So, I saw what Igne could do as an outsider.  From the moment technicians were booked the journey was better.

Igne’s field techs are very committed to whatever the client requires.  That’s not standard elsewhere.  So, I am going to leverage the massive opportunity and build my own team and client base and keep the company growing.

Nice!  Now, tell us something about you that most people don’t know.

I have a daughter called Jemima – she’s 23 and has completed her Masters in prescribing pharmacy.  She passed, moved to Manchester and started her job as a prescribing pharmacist at Manchester Royal Infirmary A&E pretty much all on the same day.  I am incredibly proud of her.

She sounds amazing, and must have got her work ethic from you – tell us more…

I own 4 motorbikes and I’m a petrol head.  I’ve been into sports bikes since I was 17 – but, I only do about 500 miles a year on my bikes as I like to keep them pristine!

Is your wife a petrol head too?

Absolutely not!  She, Sarah, is in education working to support apprentices, and she’s also doing a degree in HR, and the only reason she loves motorsport season is she gets peace and quiet to do her course work while I watch the telly!

We’ve heard a rumour about a rabbit…

That’s Oswald; a gender fluid house rabbit, (we don’t know if they are a boy or a girl).  They have their own mansion in our house and cannot be allowed unsupervised exercise as they eat carpet, destroy broadband connections, and could probably disable a small nation’s IT infrastructure if left alone for just five minutes.  I did check Oswald was still in bed on Monday when Amazon Web Services went down.

Oswald has a brother and a sister – two spaniels called Edward and Sasha.  

Now can I ask you a question – when you say this feature is multi-award-winning, which awards has it won?

You can go now Steve...