A Day in the life: Alan Sharp, Managing Director at ECS

Where did you go to School, College, University and how did you end up in your chosen career?

I went to school at Turriff Academy and left for Aberdeen College in 1999, where I studied for an HND in Sports Coaching & Development at Aberdeen College. After completing the HND I continued the same subject at the University of Abertay Dundee where I graduated in 2003.

My degree largely centred around coaching and instructing which kept me within the sports industry for approximately three years. In 2006 I moved into Oil and Gas accredited training at a major training company in Aberdeen. After two years there, I spent the next seven years in the Middle East working for two different training companies. My roles ranged from Instructor and Operations Manager to the position of Country Manager, running a start-up commercial training company. During that time, I completed a post graduate certificate in Risk, Crisis and Disaster Management via distance learning at the University of Leicester.

A move back home in 2015 saw me employed as a Regional Approvals Manager for a well-recognised oil and gas standard setting body covering the UK, Europe and Ireland.

Due to the continual difficulties that the Oil and Gas sector experienced back in 2016, I was made redundant late that year. This was a time of great reflection for me but ultimately gave me the motivation to start my own business. I felt that I had three strong selling points that I could bring to the market, which were:

• Vast experience of teaching a range of Quality, Safety and Emergency Response courses

• Managing a commercial training business

• Strong experience working for a globally recognised standard setting body.

Provide us with an overview of your company, its geographical reach, market and number of employees?

Empire Consultancy Solutions (ECS) provides specialist services for start-up or existing training companies to achieve a range of accredited training and competency standards, recognised within the energy sector.

Our services include: Gap analysis audits, looking at investment and operational requirements, project management and procurement, product design and development, employee vetting, coaching/mentoring, performance audits and more. Within those services we also support businesses who wish to implement a training and/or competence management system.

Our office is located in Westhill and currently consists of just myself presently. The business has clients in the UK, Europe, Eurasia, Middle East and Africa.

We are presently heavily involved in Oil and Gas, but have executed some projects within the renewables sector.  

What does your job involve?

My job requires me to carry out most functions within the business. Sometimes as Managing Director, sometimes as a Salesman, right through to Administrator. Some days I could be travelling to meet with an existing or prospective client, next day I might be in my office designing and developing courses to a specific standard as required by a client.

I also have to coordinate logistics for clients and work on things as varied as SEO for my website and ensure it stays current. As my background is in training, it is important that I keep up with current trends and to do this I provide mentoring/coaching sessions with my clients on a regular basis, especially if I have been involved in the development of their product.

What are your biggest challenges?

I think like many start-up consultancy businesses, it is very challenge getting your first few contracts signed, started and managed effectively, ensuring that you are delivering on both the client expectation and the connected KPI’s. It takes time, patience and a lot of determination and the ability to re-design and modify your business services on a regular basis according to client requirements.  

What do you most enjoy about your job?

Seeing a client that ECS has supported turn an aspiration into a reality. The end result being “Added value” to their clients and an additional successful revenue stream. Providing a training based solution and service to a client that gives them a competitive advantage over their peers, is a great feeling!

What has been the highlight of your career so far?

There have been two main highlights: -

Firstly, in a previous role, my team and I took a bare brownfield site in the Middle East and turned it into a fully functional, multi accredited training school. This achievement involved a truly cohesive and hardworking team that shared my passion to make the dream into a reality and we delivered it.

Secondly, running my own business!!  - There have been some low points and some real questions as to whether it was the right move, especially when the oil price sank and investment in training became less of a priority for the sector. However, the market is now changing and the business has gone from strength to strength and now there is some stability in the market I have medium to long term plans/goals on how I want the business to diversify, so I am really energised about taking it to the next level now.

What plans does you company have for the future and how do you see your role evolving?

ECS has started to transition into digital learning with a partner company and we are currently working on further products to bring to market. Training and competency will always be the soul and passion of ECS but moving forward the company with operate a greater variety of accredited standards within more diverse industry sectors, so  I am really looking forward to being able to grow a team and bring a range of new products to market!