Logged In With…Terry Bland

Name: Terry Bland, managing director of software engineering company, Gödel Technologies

Organisation: Gödel Technologies Europe Ltd                Employees: 45

Job title: Managing Director

Career highlights: My academic achievements; designing Trainline.com; growing Gödel from the ground up; being interviewed for Russian TV news and establishing a business in the former Soviet Union

Who has had the biggest influence on your career to date?  I have met a lot of people who have had an influence on me, good and bad. I have been lucky enough to meet some very successful entrepreneurs over the past few years. I watched my brother-in-law make the transition from employee to business owner during my 20s and that was a real inspiration to me.
Scott Fletcher, Gödel’s newly-appointed chairman, has been a big influence recently. What he has achieved with ANS Group is phenomenal.

What are your key responsibilities? Leading the quality culture and ensuring the ethos is continuous improvement.

What do you enjoy most and least about your role? Freedom.

As a business leader, what’s the key to managing people? Giving them responsibility and the freedom to make mistakes while providing support where necessary.

What are the biggest barriers to your organisation’s success?  Only our ambition! Most organisations and people are really only held back by their own self-imposed limitations.

How well do you feel this region is placed to weather the recession? Very well indeed – the business scene is largely based on solid foundations.

What more could be done to help? Reduce the stealth taxes on business. We pay water rates on car parking spaces…
 
How has technology changed your life in the last five years? Video conferencing technology enables me to effectively run a company spread across Europe without any compromise on frequency or quality of communication.

How has it changed/impacted on your business in the same period? It has had a massive impact on the quality of service we are able to offer. Our business is about communication and the best way to do that is face to face.

If you weren’t doing what you’re doing now, what alternative career would you chose and why? I think I am in a lucky position to be in exactly the right job at the right time. My wife is a head teacher and seems to enjoy her job so maybe education. I still harbour ambitions to do a PhD one day and become a university professor but there is still lots to do in business first.

Which sectors do you think will thrive/ struggle in the coming years? I think property and financial services will take a few years to recover as they did in the 90s. Technology can be used to streamline businesses and make them more efficient. There will always be a market for that.

What do you feel are the key skills/qualities needed  to run a successful business in the 21st  Century? Patience, determination, a positive mental attitude and above all, enthusiasm. You have to be passionate about what you do or nobody else will want to buy into it.

Which public figure do you admire most and why? Stephen Fry – Just a very interesting chap.

In five words, describe your character:  Enthusiastic; impatient; determined; driven and fussy
 
Which actor/actress would you chose to play you in a film? Ewan McGregor