We are what we were and will be what we are

A J Weberman believed that you are what you throw away.  He then proceeded to raid the trash cans of celebrities such as Bob Dylan in order to discover what made them tick.

What makes Malvern tick? I guess you could raid our dumpsters and find out, but I am more of a Winston Churchill fan (“The further back you look the further ahead you see”) and greatly paraphrasing him, I am a little bit of a believer in you are what you were.  In a sense this applies to Malvern even as we advance through more product lines, technologies and increasing sales of core and new products.  What makes Malvern tick is the people and the devotion to our customer’s problems and needs and then translating these requirements into the correct solution.  We believe in working side-by-side with the customer on issues of mutual interest (and therefore mutual benefit) rather than acting as a barrier between the customer and their issue or problem.  This means understanding the customer’s technology and science and matching that to our varied product offerings.  As in many things, there isn’t a single instrumental solution and Malvern provides a suite of technologies such as Dynamic Light Scattering, Zeta Potential and Rheology that will assist, for example, any nanotechnology formulation issue.  It’s working with such a bank of techniques that allow more insight than simple ‘characterization’ – a buzzword I hate by the way as it tells you nothing unless the figures can be related to product performance.

Where was I?  Malvern was built on the back of science and has invested heavily in new product innovation and customer support.  It is this continuing investment that has allowed us to grow in the past and gives us the base to grow in the future.  Even if times are hard, when you answer your customer’s needs, they will come back to you.  It’s a cliché to say that our customers pay our salaries but there’s no better way of putting it.  We have highly skilled and knowledgeable people that go the extra kilometer in order to provide the right solution at the right price and in a timely manner.  One of the core values of our parent company, Spectris, is that of “Speed – ensuring that our business decisions are made and actions executed with a sense of urgency”.  In practice this means that our people give a lot in terms of their time.  And in life you only get out what you put in….

When I started this blog I was thinking of my past and wondering a little how I am where I am now.  And in a general sense I can track this thought back many years – at least my interest in science and what developed into a scientific education and ultimately a scientific career.   Here’s a report when I was 12 years old and at school in Singapore:

Yes, the science interest was all evident for me personally, and I do think, perhaps, that my conduct has degenerated from “Satisfactory” since those days…. I’m sure others will bear me out on this (Jane?)….  As I worked through my thoughts, I realized that my specifics were almost generalities when it came to Malvern.  Malvern was, still is, and will be, a technical scientific leader in what it does.  It will continue to work with customers understanding the issues that are facing them and providing scientific solutions.  We probably have more application notes, webinars and other associated material than all of the competition put together.  But we’re not complacent.  To stay on top we need to do more of the same and combine it with more of the different….

Thanks for reading this far and allowing me to share my thoughts with you.