Jon is Director at True North Excellence, a best practices firm in UK. True North Excellence help manufacturers to develop and grow their people through best practice learning experiences. Jon was generous enough to take time from his busy schedule and answer our questions. We are sure the grooming entrepreneurs and professionals in you will be benefited greatly from this one!
Before COVID-19
Q: We would love to know you and your journey so far.
J: Hi, I’m Jon Tudor and I have been working for more than 15 years in ‘Lean Continuous Improvement’ (Lean CI) field. I’m the founder of ‘True North Excellence’, a company providing best practice training and learning experiences. Our courses, seminars, masterclasses and study visits are hosted at world class sites, delivered by global experts and leading practitioners in the field of Operational and Enterprise Excellence.
Q: What is your profession? What do you do for feeding your kitchen and your soul? These two may be different as well. You can give us how you spend your typical day if that’s more suitable to your profession.
J: It is basically the same. I am the MD of my company. I like to learn from world class experts in different fields and share that knowledge with the world.
Q: Before COVID lockdown what was the first thing on your mind to do in your business/life? What move you wanted to make to grow? This includes short term goals.
J: I was planning of restructuring the company for better efficiency and recruiting people to grow the company.
Q: What was your 3-5 year plan before COVID? We would like to know your long term goals before this unexpected phenomenon.
J: My company has three business units. The plan was to grow each of the business units by hiring good talent and developing excellent processes.
Q: Among the people you have worked with who do you admire and why? Past and present people included.
J: I have had an opportunity to work with many great individuals but names of John Schook (Fodd and Beverage Design Builder), Peter Watkins (Senior LEAN Coach) and Philip Hot stand apart.
Q: What new culture you wanted to bring to the profession you are working in? (before COVID-19 of course!)
J: My profession depends on continuous process improvement and I wanted to imbibe that culture in my company and my field.
Q: How long were you running the business before you started paying yourself? How did you live through those first few months/years? (applies to entrepreneurs)
J: I started frugally and started paying myself after 8 months when I was sure the business had stabilized.
Q: You must be having a list of fun things/soul feeding things you wanted to do before this pandemic changed the world. Your top 5 things on bucketlist? (before COVID-19)
J: Yes, of course! I have always wanted to take my son on a cowboy holiday to Montana, USA. I also always have wanted to go to city of Petra in Jordan.
After COVID-19
Q: How are you holding up the fort of your home and your profession in these trying times? How are you entertaining yourself if you have more free time on your hand now?
J: Yes, this has given me a lot of free time which I am utilizing for quality time with family and walking my dog. I also am interested in gardening and DIY (do-it-yourself) projects and am able to devote time to it. I and my friends also like to play this game we invented ‘Covid Arms”.
Q: What changes are you experiencing in your job? What changes you had to make in your working style?
J: We are currently working from home. This has given me time to restructure my business model. We are using this time as productively as we can.
Q: Everyone is talking about how this virus is going to permanently change the way we live now. What do you think will be the biggest change after this Pandemic situation is over?
J: The biggest impact will be on travel industry and individual travel as well. We will have to rethink safe ways to travel and it will take time to remove the taboo of traveling for leisure. Online learning on the other hand will see boom and will grow exponentially. Businesses will go digital, in fact will have to go digital to survive another pandemic like this.
Q: Do you think this will affect area/industry you are working in? If yes, why and on what scale? If no, why not?
J: I think 70% of the revenues that the companies were expecting in this year will cease. Hence, the companies will use this time for training and learning, especially online training and learning. This will push our industry from physical model to online model of training.
Q: Some of us are optimistic that this is just a small bump in our progress story and won't majorly affect how we lived. Do you agree? Do you think we can get back to where we left before this pandemic?
J: If you have a growth mindset then COVID-19 is creating massive and long term disruption, that creates opportunities.80% of what we did before, we still will continue doing but 20% will be radical change, where most businesses will focus on for the next 12-18 months.
Q: If a kid walked up to asking for your advice for starting his/her venture and you only had a few minutes to give them your best tip, what would it be? Considering the pandemic.
J: I will give him two advices. First is that failing is the most important learning you can have and is in fact a blessing. Second is to discover where your heart is, what you want to do, visualize that and remind yourself everyday of that goal. Persistence is the key.
Q: If this situation is going to change the way you work, what change you want to see in your work now? What will be the best way to make that change?
J: The obvious change is to move all learning and training products online and the best way is to do it as soon as we can.
Q: Which direction you think that we all - as a world - responsibly need to act and think? You can say in whichever sense you feel is most important.
J: Globalization has shown its negative sides. I think we should focus on closer supply chain as much as possible. It would ensure control over it. Another point to be focused on is less business travel and utilizing online resources to be in touch with other offices facilities.
Q: Do you think you need to re-modify the bucketlist? Why and how?
J: No, nothing in particular needs to be changed on it.
Q: We should not ignore the silver linings that you noticed in this scare. After all, hope is what makes the world go round. What positive thing you experienced during this pandemic?
J: This pandemic is disruptive and forced our businesses to go digital sooner than we expected. I think this is a positive change.
Q: Do you think you and the world need to set new milestones? Will sustainability and earth-friendly business practices be an important factor now? How will you ensure you fit in this new picture in your respective profession?
J: I think 80% of what we did, we would go back to doing by 2022. However, the new 20% ways of doing business and lifestyle will change regards to the impact on environment and how people work.
Comments