In Your Shoes - Jim Davidson

Jim Davidson is CEO at Albacom, a leading high technology company based in Dundee. Albacom specialises in providing electrical components for the global defence and aviation industry, deployed in a variety of contexts including: satellite communications, medical electronics, mobile communications infrastructure, test instrumentation and industrial processing.

Jim Davidson joined Albacom as CEO in 2014 with the aim of providing Albacom’s high quality products to the global oil and gas market.

Ken Clarke Is in Town

The week began overseas for me, on this occasion not literally but with a conference call with one of our Indian defence customers. Regular calls with our international customers is a vital part of how we build strong and trusting relationships. I like to join our electronics engineers on these calls to demonstrate our commitment to our international customers and to hear about projects moving forward.  Often our electronics contracts take a long time from the initial design phase to the point of building and testing, sometimes years, so it’s important to understand how the project is moving forward.

Later in the day Business Development Manager, Ken Clarke, arrives in Dundee from his base in London. Ken works from London because many our large defence customers are based in the region, making it easier for us to keep in contact with them personally.

A Trip to Aberdeen

It’s an early start to my hometown of Aberdeen for a business review with one our main oil and gas customers. The dull A90 never feels any shorter, but I always enjoy a trip to Aberdeen. Coming from an oil and gas background, there is no better place than Aberdeen, the Oil Capital of Europe.

After a productive meeting, Ken and I had some time to catch up over a quick coffee before joining the A90 back to the Dundee office. 

Internal Communication is Key

Ken often joins our internal meetings via conference call, so it’s great to have him join in person this week. Teamwork is a vital part of delivering an excellent service to our customers, and getting together weekly to discuss production and sales targets drives engagement. It’s also a time for us to talk about our successes, plans and challenges of the week.

Out with the Old…

General Data Protection Regulation, (GDPR) - the acronym on everyone’s lips just now. We’re putting the processes in place to compliant with the new regulations when they come into place in May, as everyone is well aware of the dangers of non-compliance. We started the day meeting our lawyer to review our current systems and put together an action plan to ensure compliance before the deadline.

Ken heads back to London ready for a client visit tomorrow, and I spend the rest of the afternoon responding to emails and preparing for next week’s board meeting.  

The Power of Networking

It’s important to look outwards and to understand what the market is doing and what innovations we can bring to our customers.  I work with our marketing assistant to review our marketing planner and identify what industry events we will attend for the rest of the year; starting with Subsea Expo in Aberdeen at the beginning of next month.

Having been in business for over 25 years now, I still struggle to put into words the value of networking. It’s something that can’t be taught in the classroom. More often than not, having a short face-to-face conversation is worth numerous emails and phone calls. It’s this personal service that has seen Albacom develop over the past 30 years, and it’s an important part of our continued growth strategy.