Manufacturing Leaders

Building High Performing Teams Through Authentic Relationships

• Mark Bracknall • Season 10 • Episode 5

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What makes an effective leader in today's complex manufacturing environment? Scott Lowrie, Operations Director at Fujifilm, reveals that authentic relationship-building trumps traditional command-and-control approaches every time.

"It's very easy to talk the talk, but you've got to walk the walk," Scott explains, highlighting how behaviours cascade through organisations when leaders model what they expect. The most powerful validation? Walking into a meeting room to find your team confidently running things without you – proof that empowerment truly works.

Scott challenges the outdated notion that introverts can't excel in leadership positions. His journey demonstrates how emotional intelligence and relationship-building create stronger foundations than charismatic authority. This perspective feels particularly relevant as manufacturing evolves to accommodate generational shifts in workplace expectations.

At Fujifilm's rapidly expanding operation, transparent career progression has become a cornerstone of talent retention. Their structured career ladders give employees clear pathways forward – addressing the needs of younger workers who value purpose and clarity alongside compensation. This systematic approach to development works regardless of company size, offering valuable lessons for organisations of all scales.

The conversation delves into leadership during challenging times, balancing pharmaceutical manufacturing demands with sustainability goals, and supporting a workforce with evolving mental health awareness. Scott's practical advice for aspiring leaders? "Grab as many different experiences as possible, even outside your comfort zone – you can't see it when you're young, but that depth of experience becomes invaluable later in your career."

Want to explore opportunities with Fujifilm's growing team? Visit their website to connect with their talent acquisition team and discover how you might contribute to their mission of delivering life-changing medicines.

Please subscribe to the channel for more content! Theo James are a Manufacturing & Engineering Recruiter based in the North East, helping Manufacturing and Engineering firms grow across the UK. Please call us on 0191 5111 298

Speaker 2:

Thank you, come on, come on, thank you, thank you, hey guys. Yeah, I've just got your email there, mate, quick, as a voice note. Are you being inclined, I think, to say no? I know it's only 150 quid a month, but there's only so many things you can say that to, isn't it? Until they add up? I've been, I've interest, I've just put the message in my um RDLC sort of recruitment group and no, none of them have got it. They've only got it for temp.

Speaker 2:

So, um, yeah, it's just, it's just one of those and I, given our, I've never had that issue. I'm pretty sure I'm tempting fate there, but I don't necessarily feel we need it because I guess it's not money we've lost, it's this money we're owed. So, yeah, I think we just utilise that 45, 50 that we've got and, yeah, leave without it. So, although it also stinks of they went for 300, 150. It's just one of those, isn't it? I'm always aware when it comes to that, so, isn't it, I'm always wearing when you can just do that. So, um, yeah, thank you very much for chasing and getting it. What would have been a good deal, but I just think we, uh, we'll leave it pal thanks come on, oh coming out, oh Coming on.

Speaker 2:

Hi Scott, you alright, how you doing Mark you okay. Yeah, good, mate yourself. How are things?

Speaker 1:

Alright, kim, you alright.

Speaker 2:

Yes, perfect, can you hear me? Alright, am I coming through? Alright?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, good good.

Speaker 2:

Nice bit of branding in the background.

Speaker 1:

I know, mate, I've just literally had to kick people out of the meeting room because I had a book. I didn't realise I had some nice branding, yeah, perfect. I'll move the flip chart out of the way.

Speaker 2:

How's your week been? All right.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, A bit manic, but you know.

Speaker 2:

You're just absolutely full on right now. Is it Just all everyone mucking in?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, we had a big shutdown this year, basically trying to tie in a new build on an existing facility, and then we've changed all the process control system of that building over as well. So big automation change. So just kind of trying to bring it back online now. So it's obviously things to manufacture, so it's trying to get going again. So it's yeah, it's been a bit fraught like but yeah, we'll get there.

Speaker 2:

We'll get there yeah, nice, exciting, though exciting challenges, but I'm recording now. It's not live by the way as well, so we can always stop yeah.

Speaker 1:

I know. So I've kind of I've gone, we've kind of gone through some of the questions just to make a few notes, because I thought I better come with a bit of thought process rather than just try and wing it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, but to be fair, it's one of those where I think it'll be a conversational anyway. Do you know what I mean? And what comes up, comes up, but I've got it here as well, so it's a nice. It's a nice guide for me to sort of segues in now. But also, whatever comes comes up, we'll just talk through it. I always when I start now because I actually record the introduction when you've gone, basically, so I sort of summarize it after. So I just sort of go into it and I tend to ask you the first question when I do start, which is the what does it mean to be a leader after that, if we just go back into your journey and just see whatever comes up and I'll try to keep as close as I can do. I try and make them about 40ish minutes now, so I'll see what I can do. So that'll be a plan, but I'll just kick off when you're ready, mate, if that, yeah tell them, I'll do it.

Speaker 1:

I'll take them to Rockers Hot in here.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, because it's in here. Actually, am I right to call you an operations director or do you want your senior director of operations?

Speaker 1:

No, operations director.

Speaker 2:

I can see you messing that up. I'm not precious about my job title some people are as well.

Speaker 1:

That was it, oh god yeah, yeah, yeah, I've been called up, so I always like to ask, but so I'll just start when you're ready.

Speaker 2:

Scott, that's okay, mate yeah, yeah, yeah good excellent. A massive welcome to uh scott larry today and scott is the uh director of operation, senior director operations. It's a fuji film. How are you doing, scott? You okay, yeah, how you doing nice to meet you man. I'm good, scott Lowry. Today, scott is the Senior.

Speaker 1:

Director of Operations at Fujifilm. How are you doing, scott? You okay, yeah, how are you?

Speaker 2:

doing Nice to meet you. Mark, I'm good, I told you I might mess up your title there, but I think I did it justice. Yeah, I'll take that, I'll take that Can't wait to go into the journey, really looking forward to this one Before we do. First question is the Thanks everyone. What does it mean to you to be a leader?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I guess there's a few aspects for this. For me personally, really, I think the key bit is kind of around your behaviours. So it's very easy to talk the talk in terms of how you should be able to lead it, but you've got to be able to walk the walk as well and lead by example in terms of behaviours and you kind of. Personally, I've learned through different managers I've had in terms of different styles of leadership try and take the best and lead the worst, which is obviously a challenge sometimes, but it's really key to you know, I do think that your team mirror your behaviours if they see your behaviours. I've seen it before with staff across the site I worked at. I guess another thing is kind of trying to not being so precious about the work you're doing. Especially if you've got a newer development team, it's important to be able to drop into different levels of role almost and not being precious about. Um, I'm a leader, therefore I don't have to get involved with the day-to-day like. That's probably the opposite. Really, I think the team value you getting involved with the day-to-day if they're facing challenges. Um, obviously, staff development as well is key. So, um, I've been really passionate about making sure all my staff and my teams have personal development plans. They can see career pathways opportunities for them in the future potentially that they might be working towards, because having the line of sight of where future career paths can go is really important.

Speaker 1:

I think the main one is kind of trying to stay positive in the face of adversity. So, working at Fujifilm we're a CDMO so we make products for different customers that can be a bit of a rollercoaster at times can be challenging. But I think when things are hard or we've got adversity, like in terms of timelines or technical challenges, I think it's just trying to stay positive in front of the team, even though you might think it's hard as well. It's having that game face of right. We're a team. You know you might think it's hard as well. It's having that game face of right.

Speaker 1:

We're a team, we can kind of get through this and you know if we need more time or resources or whatever, but it's being able to kind of communicate that out to the wider business, but also just being a positive influence and right, we can still get this achieved done and achieved um. So that's kind of my view of leadership. I've I've done a bit of reading around like Simon Sinek and servant leadership. You know like leaders eat last, so I'm really passionate about that stuff. But yeah, it's trying to just put into practice really on a day-to-day basis, which can be hard.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, but I kind of do enjoy leading teams of people definitely.

Speaker 2:

There's loads to unpack there. The leading from the front piece. Have you ever because I resonate with that massively and I think it's easier to lead from the front personally than it is to lead and direct people when your role isn't necessarily do the do and lead from the front have you found that when you've almost took a step up and you've got to delegate and then teach people without actually doing it yourself?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think that was probably my hardest transition of my career was kind of stepping up from being a peer with people to then managing that same team of people. But I think obviously I think a lot of people have it in terms of imposter syndrome. You know, like I'm out of my comfort zone here. I don't know what I'm doing in this role. I've never managed a big team before. I think everyone has that. I think you won't be human if you didn't have that.

Speaker 1:

But actually I think with time you get that confidence of actually, oh, I've got that experience from a few years back to draw upon where I've had this situation before, a similar challenge, and that really helps you to navigate through the, the challenges you've got to come um, I think also for me personally, I we did a lot of work around kind of uh, like um strength finders on site and one of my biggest strengths is like problem solving.

Speaker 1:

You know, like we did a scoring system, as oh well, scott likes solving problems and that's been one of my biggest challenges. Actually, when people come to me with problems, it's I like to dive in and try and help them solve it because I'm interested, but it's actually trying to step back and get them to go away and solve or come back with solutions and propose, rather than me just actually directly help them. So I think again, it's just learning that you go through. Isn't it in your career that you know? Trying to empower your team to face challenges on their own, but also be there for them, to coach them and guide them as you go? Was there?

Speaker 2:

Was it at time or did you put something in place to get to that level? Because you're right, it's much easier to give them the answer and actually, if you're passionate about solving it but was there? It might have been a book you've read or a training course you've done, or something you put in place to make that step towards empowering them to come to the conclusion themselves.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think one of the things I saw a few years back was it wasn't necessarily a problem, but it was more of a behaviour that I saw. So we were running morning PDRs. The previous manager used to run them and it was very much. He ran the meeting and the engagement in the meeting was pretty poor, if I'm honest, and when, for example, when the manager wasn't there, the meetings didn't happen sometimes and I was observing that know, observing that thing, and well, that's not great like from a team behavior. And then I ended up managing that team.

Speaker 1:

So the first thing I did was right, we're going to change the PDR, we're going to change the time, we're going to change the agenda. But I did that with the team as a collective just to kind of get their buy-in and say, well, actually, what, it's your meeting, it's not my meeting, it's your meetings, what do you want to talk about? If you feel like we're not talking the right stuff or escalating the right stuff, then what do you want? How do you want to be? Um? And for me that was really a good exercise, just to get engaging from the team up um, and then kind of follow on from that um. You know, the meeting was reset, we started running it and I would. Sometimes I stuck in traffic or whatever.

Speaker 1:

I came in late in the morning, I would see the meeting being run and for me that just uh, well, that that worked, because I just got the team to buy into what we're trying to do rather than, rather than be kind of, uh, dictatorial to a degree and say this is the meeting, um, it's their meeting at the end of the day, right, it's not mine, um, that's one example of just kind of how I got the team to work together, you know, to solve a problem.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and I think that's where leadership, modern leadership, has changed for the better, because I actually think previously leaders were probably scared to do that because they'd be, you know, the age old tail of the wags of dog sort of you know feel, and leaders should always be the one to set the tone, and they should. But actually I completely agree with you if, if leaders can find a process where they almost make their themselves redundant because their process is so strong, yeah I think, used to be massively scared of that and they're probably still a little bit scared of that.

Speaker 1:

But I guess once you've set that up you must be empowered to see that being done yeah, yeah, I felt I won't lie, I felt really good walking in and actually I was like I said I was late and seeing people having a meeting. I thought, well, that's a big tick in the box for me personally, because I thought, well, people, I've got the trust of the team, the team are engaging, what they're trying to do now and I don't, as a manager, like you, can trust your team to get on with it. Yeah, and the process is working.

Speaker 2:

It's a good acid test, isn't it? I guess if anyone's driving and listening, it's that, isn't it? If they're driving in and they're going to be an hour late, what happens when they walk in you? Know, is there someone there who is responsible to go right?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think it's about sort of. I think again, like you said, I think a lot of the time people would look to managers to have the solution for everything right, and I'm working in a very technical environment, lots of very, very smart people. I'm not always the smartest person in the room, I know that, but I'm not that proud to not put me on it and say, you know, I'm not the smartest person in the room, you know. So I think it's just, yeah, recognizing the talents that you've got in the team as well and kind of trying to use those as well.

Speaker 2:

It's like humility, isn't it Exactly that? To not have to be the master of everything, it's impossible.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, exactly, exactly that.

Speaker 2:

Which actually it's interesting what you said at often a brave face and be the one for diversity. And and that is still right, I agree, you know, and I still feel that, because I still think that people will look to the leader when things are going wrong for solutions. And I think you know that I'm all for empowering staff, but actually a leader's job probably is still to lead in those difficult situations. And you know and and you know particularly, guess what fuji filmed. You know what you do there. It's rare, really important. You know, and you know particularly, guess what Fuji filmed. You know what you do there is really important, you know life changing.

Speaker 2:

Yes, so I imagine the stakes are very high in situations like that, which can be quite pressurized presumably.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, you're right. So we, you know, we make medicines for people for a variety of illnesses and a variety of different customers which have got different needs. But you know, ultimately our end customers the patients, right, and um, we're all about trying to get our life changing medicines out to our customers as safely and as quickly as possible. Really, um, but yeah, um, it's quite. It's a dynamic place to work. We we're pretty uh, upfront with that when we recruit people, um, you know. So you like doing things the same, sorry, doing the same thing day in, day out. It's probably not the best place to work for you, but, um, but if you like dynamic and you like a place to work and like change, um, then this is a place to be. Um, but, yeah, it can.

Speaker 1:

Some people can find it difficult, but I think it's better to be open about that when you're recruiting people, rather than people come in and after two or three months, find out well, this isn't for me, you know. Um, but yeah, you're right, in terms of data pressures, it's again, another part of leadership is really like trying to almost shelter your teams from the, the business pressures that you might be under. You need to kind of try and protect people from that and be a bit of a shield. Um, you know, and sometimes you know that's that can be hard, but you know that's again kind of a job of a leader really yeah, 100.

Speaker 2:

You mentioned it there as well. You might start a couple of books you've read and you're obviously someone who has worked at the art of leadership. You know it because I think too many people just presume people will just be good at the job. Good engineer must be a good leader. Is that something that your leadership, something from an early age you wanted to be, or is it something that sort of transpired after?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I'd say it's transpired after. I think naturally I'm probably more a bit of an introverted character. So, like I like team sports, but I was never like a captain of the team. You know what I mean. So I've always seen myself as a strong team member rather than kind of a natural leader. But I think just over time, really I think it's just I've kind of grown more into my confidence as a manager and I think just one thing I've prided myself on being good at is building relationships with people, whether it's peers or staff that work for me.

Speaker 1:

Um, I think that if you can be authentic and build the genuine relationships with your team and your peers, that just makes you, um a lot stronger in terms of being able to lead teams, because people know that you're genuine and you've you've kind of you try and do your best for the business that people in your team um, so that that I guess it's kind of a something that's come kind of a bit like later in my career.

Speaker 1:

But it's just learning as you go, like I said, and training helps obviously, things like active listening and understanding your strengths, like I mentioned, kind of strength finder, um, that all kind of helps to kind of give you clarity as a manager on what you're good at and what things you maybe need to develop, you know. So I think I've just kind of learned as I've gone, but I'm enjoying it. I've, I've, I pride myself on kind of kind of managing and developing high performing teams. That probably gives me the best sense of job satisfaction, irrespective of the. You know we do make great medicines and we, you know, I love, I love the job I do. I also love of kind of leading teams of people.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, great, and you know what I think and this is another reason why I think leadership has changed for the better now, because 20, 30 years ago, I think you know what people class themselves as introvert leadership I think they might not have been the space for it because leadership was such a, you know, was much more of a dictatorship type approach. Now I would say emotional intelligence is one of the key skills, probably the main skill, in management leadership, and I think that lends itself to people who, like you said yourself, that building relationship piece is probably the most important part of leadership because, ultimately, if people, if someone trusts their manager and understands that they understand them, I think the more likely to to work harder for them and want to progress. Have you, have you found that? That you've lent into leisure gradually for a kid? Because you, because you've seen that work for you and that change, would you say yeah, definitely.

Speaker 1:

I think, like, like you touched on there, I think I've definitely seen the work work well, not just in Fujifilm but other coming to work that I've seen certain styles of management approach that just wouldn't work now, yeah, and probably for one for behaviors that you probably end with HR quite a lot, but also also just obviously adapting to the changing, the changing kind of demographic in society that you know, the the younger generation of talent coming out of universities just don't respond or wouldn't respond to that kind of style of management and it's you've got to adapt as a leader or a manager to how the demographics changing as well yeah, yeah, 100 if you're, if someone's you know sat, I listened to this and and quite fancies leadership, but actually probably is sat there thinking that I don't think I've got the confidence to be a leader.

Speaker 2:

I'm not, I'm not a leader. What I guess? This is probably advice you give yourself going back. What say do you think?

Speaker 1:

um, I think, I think it's something that's kind of working out what you're good at and use those strengths, so um, um, and then kind of um, I think it's just kind of being self-aware. So, like you know, if you're, if you're kind of got, if you've got capacity in your job role, uh, to help other people and you see other people sinking, then you know you shouldn't need to be told by your manager to go and help that person. Having the self-awareness of I've got some capacity that can probably make a difference and you make a difference to someone else's workload as well. Um, it's kind of, like you said, it's having that emotional intelligence of you're working in a team. You can't, you can't watch other team members suffer because they're sinking, you know, and things like that just go a long way.

Speaker 1:

Don't us, if someone and I remember people come and help me and then when they, when they need a favor from you, you return the favor and it's kind of even though we're a big site of a thousand people now you know, I think it's certainly here would be in a very people driven site. So having those work relationships is just key. So it's all about the people. It doesn't really, you know to be a leader. Yeah, it's great to have it on the top of the job title, but actually just having the relationships and network of people is is key. Of people is key, you know, and having that trust.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, 100%. You know what leadership's hard, isn't it? Yeah, it is yeah, it is. It's hard work and I don't think you've got to want to get into leadership for the right reasons, I think, because it's rewarding, but it's probably the most stressful job there is.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, I think, but I can feel sometimes that you get in battered from both directions.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, exactly that 100%. One thing that I guess look from externally. When I look into companies like Fujifilm, what they tend to do really well is that progression piece. There seems to be a company which seems to just keep people, and actually it's not. Someone's been that for 20 years. They've progressed from that to that. Is that now you've worked there for a while? Is that a coincidence, or is that something they have gone? We need to be a business that brings people in a certain level and gives them a transparent progression plan yeah, I think, um, it's something we're getting better at, if I'm honest.

Speaker 1:

So we, you know, I've been here on the site 19 years now and we didn't really have that um, but you know, a couple of years ago, um, we've got things like career ladders in place, so you know, so manufacturing come with entry-level role, can see that they can progress and this is how they progress, whereas, you know, if I go back even sort of five years, it's basically based on if someone leaves, there'll be an opportunity and then you have to go for interview. We're kind of going away from that model because, you know, if people don't, if people perform well in the role but actually don't perform well in interviews, you kind of, you know, you, you it's not that fair really. So, um, so, yeah, so career ladders are something we've implemented across the site in different functions. It's's still early days. We'd like to, you know, we've got kind of career ladders that go from entry level to, you know, kind of more junior positions.

Speaker 1:

But the intent is that we're going to kind of see how it goes and then hopefully kind of then take the career ladders up higher so you can take them through the kind of management levels. And I think also, just as a site now kind of obviously I'm managing a team of engineers, we've got a lot of graduates on site we are looking at like how do we do sort of graduate rotation schemes? You know, so you do a certain number of months in certain functions and then rotate. I think you know that's generally what big, big companies would do. I guess it's maybe our mindset. We've never really classified ourselves as a big company. You know we've been through different this site's been a long time and come through different, different owners.

Speaker 2:

But I think if we're serious now about kind of talent retention, um, having some schemes like that in place will be really key for us as if you're going forward in the future yeah, 100, and I think, um, now is the time to do this, because the skills gap is getting bigger and it's going to be harder to find talent, and I think it could be there could be some people listening going now it's okay for a, for, you know, for a business of your size, they can do it. But actually do you think in your experience, a manufacturing site of 150 or you know whatever that sort of size, or even 75, could still utilize some of the, the mindset behind that? Now, how sort of plug and play would you say if you went into another business now which is much smaller? Could it be something that could be an event?

Speaker 1:

yeah, I think, especially in terms of career ladders. I think career ladders are completely skill or skill down. Really, I think it's just understanding what kind of skills and knowledge experience that you need people within a role to have to then move up to the next role in it. And it comes to kind of just understanding the job really and understanding kind of the skills and talent that you already got on your team. So tools like skills matrices, things like that um, really important um, and also kind of job evaluations, um, and things like that are key really. But definitely, you know it's a, it's definitely a tool that you could um use across different industries, different size companies, um, and you know, I think it's just to give some clarity to people when they come into the company that we've got these things in place, even if they don't use them right.

Speaker 1:

Some people move into companies that don't want to be promoted. They're quite happy. But for those who want to get on and want to get promoted, if they've got a clear line of sight of, well, I can be there in five years' time, it's really important that people have that um, um, yeah yeah, I agree because I actually think, and I guess people ask us all the time why don't you know what?

Speaker 2:

what keeps people in jobs and stuff? I, I would say progression. And I think it links in so well now with the new generation, because I think they want different things. It's interesting because I think when you go back 40 years, people wanted to work for, you know, a company that they're going to be there for 50 years and that's it. It was all about a job for life, wasn't it? There was no difference and someone saw their parents do it and they want to do the same. Then I think we've gone for a stage where people have been to companies for two years, three years and left to progress and they've felt that's the only way. Years and left to to progress and they've felt that's the only way. Yeah, now I think it's almost a full circle where I I'm seeing graduates and people just general, from that generation want to work for a company which shows them a transparent document, the perfect world, what they need to do, and we get an apple interview. What do I need to do to progress?

Speaker 2:

yeah sometimes, sometimes, I think, is you know, we're just in this amazon prime generation where they just want everything tomorrow and and you know I'm 40, but even when I, even when I worked, I can't ever remember going what I just I got dragged in the room and you promoted. So we just worked hard. But I think we just have to accept the change now and people want to know. So I think to use that and go right, okay, it is what it is. How can we do it? It sounds like that's what you've done there, where you've actually got something to go.

Speaker 1:

This is what I need to do yeah, yeah, and, like to your point, it has been a little bit ambiguous here as well. So, you know, I've, when I've sometimes in the past have been promoted, I've kind of had to do the job for kind of six months to a year before getting the kind of the letters in Actually, yeah, you've been successful and you got the job that you've been doing. But I think it's just people of my generation. That's kind of what we used to do. You know, you think you work hard and you'll get rewarded for it.

Speaker 1:

But yeah, um, but but the younger generation do want real clarity around what's my career pathway I can take and how long is it? How long is it going to take? Um, we do see that quite a lot. Um, I just think kind of younger generations well, have different values in terms of this um. They want to kind of um, um, kind of work-life balance and it's, you know, like mental health is a lot more important now than what used to be. I would say you know, um, but it's. I only see that as a good thing really. If people, people want more away about their own mental health and stress at work, things like that, it's not a bad thing really, is it to be?

Speaker 2:

honest 100. I'll just stop there. I'll pause this top again, because I, I, I can't see you now. Can you see me?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, strange, hang on, I've got a circle of.

Speaker 2:

I'll dial out on that one.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's fine mate, just circling, hang on.

Speaker 2:

Thank you. You're still there. Maybe I can't see you. Can you see me? Strange, strange, thank you, thank you. You, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you you, you, I think it's my browser.

Speaker 1:

Hang on, that's the start. Hang on, enable camera access. Sorry, mate.

Speaker 2:

It's all right. It's all good mate. Sorry mate, it's alright, it's all good mate. Technology, yes, company works, oh yeah, it was working fine, wasn't it?

Speaker 2:

I don't know, in effect, yeah, it was literally crisp as anything. Then suddenly, suddenly, not much is off, isn't it? Because it's you wouldn't have thought a't know what happened in fact, yeah, it was literally crisp as anything. Then suddenly, suddenly, not much is odd, isn't it? Because it's you wouldn't have thought a firewall would kick in halfway through? Yeah, nothing, what are you getting? Like an error message or anything?

Speaker 1:

it says I've got to try and use. It's in the browser. Something wrong with the browser.

Speaker 2:

Right, I mean worst case scenario. If we can't get on in five minutes, we can just carry on and then, you know, 90% of the traffic is still people listening, so not watching.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2:

Like I could in theory, still put it on YouTube and freeze frame it. Oh, let me have a look at Try and meet you here.

Speaker 1:

Come on. Meet Sit on his arm Mitt yeah, we used to do Zoom all the time. Then we moved to Teams. But oh god, I'm in twice what can you see?

Speaker 2:

just you on. Can you see yourself?

Speaker 1:

I can see you, but I can't see myself hold on oh, something's happening.

Speaker 2:

Yep, you're back on mine alright, yeah, yeah trained innit. Alright, okay, shall we have a go? I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll. Is that better? Is that better?

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Right, sound, it's because you're on twice, isn't it Right? Should we crack on? Yeah, perfect, I should be able to think of them. I'll try and keep my voice at how it was. Uh, no, I completely agree.

Speaker 2:

Um, and I think they people think differently, learn differently, and it's different set of challenges. I mean, you mentioned that, you know the, you know, like, say, there's I've definitely seen a rise in in mental health and anxiety and just people just um, finding things harder. I guess. Look, I think the world is harder. You know, I've got two young kids and and I I think they're coming to a, a world which is harder than I, than I had, with social media and and all this type of stuff. So I, you know there's that.

Speaker 2:

Um, I also think it means we have to, as leaders, treat people differently, wrong, but I guess it is a different style of management, because actually it's our job to make their life easy, or it's our job to create some resilience and to work with them to get the best out of them, because ultimately, the right level of stress is still good for people and you need to progress, you need to stretch, you need to be in that stretch zone. So it's a difficult one, isn't it? I mean, how do you think we sort of help that new generation prosper?

Speaker 1:

I guess, yeah, I kind of empathise with some of those sentiments because, you know, I've got a teenage daughter. She's off-skill at the moment with anxiety, you know, and she's 14. And I think the world is a lot harder than what it was when I grew up, and different pressures and stresses, but some of the same, you know, some of it's just teenage angst, you know, for some we have in place at Fuji, we have a mentor scheme, so we have, you know, site mentors that people can reach out to and you know, you can basically go into a library of people, look at their skills, knowledge and experience and you can just contact them. I think that's a brilliant mechanism for younger people to basically tap into experience. It might cover something in a different function it doesn't have to be the same kind of role really but I think that's one example of where we can help, support and coach the younger people coming through.

Speaker 1:

You're right, some stress is good. Stress all the time is going to just burn people out. So I think it's just getting that balance but if, but just being really clear with people that these expectations, they're all um, and if you're struggling, these are support mechanisms available to you and and across the wide business. We have other support mechanisms like mentor, you and across the wide business. We have other support mechanisms like mentor schemes, which are really good and tap into them.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think that's great and you can do that whatever size you are as a business. You know, if you're a business of 10 people, you can still have one of those people to be that mentor scheme and someone they feel safe to go to. The other side. I would say and we've touched on it already but that training managers and training people to be managers because I still think there's a massive issue behind people just going they're good, they must be good managers, given the fact there's a progression plan there for people is part of that. Creating a framework to get them to be a good leader, would you say at Fujifilm yeah.

Speaker 1:

So I think one of the things we've done is kind of work on our behavioral competency framework. So we, you know we have a really clear of a framework of this is what we expect of people working in the roles and this is what we expect of you as leaders in the management role, because you know, we, like I said, we we want to get people as managers to lead by example, and it doesn't matter if you're not a manager, we still expect the same behaviours whether you're an operator, whether you're working in a lab. You know people need to behave in the right way. So I think that's been we implement that quite a while back now, and I think it's been really key Because what we saw was people were performing well in the role and achieving objectives, but they were actually leaving a bit of a trail of destruction in the wake in terms of, you know, upsetting colleagues or you know.

Speaker 2:

So, yeah, that's been a real positive yeah, excellent, and I know it's very exciting times for pretty soon right now, and I've seen all this the good stuff in the press, which is lovely to see, because you know there's a lot of negativity out there as well. In manufacturing right now it's going through a tougher time and, and you know the last budget didn't help businesses, let's be honest, and that obviously will be a will be challenged as well, um, but that sounds like an exciting step, I would say, moving forward. Is that um is plans in place then?

Speaker 1:

I imagine so, yeah yeah, I mean the site's grown massively. Um, you know, we've got a new manufacturing asset getting built at the moment over the road. A few hundred jobs come up there, growth in kind of all manufacturing modalities really. So it's it's really positive time to work this site and, like I said, I've been here 19 years now and it's it's changed so much over the last two to three years I mind kind of the previous 16, 17, so but it's just, it's a really, you know, interesting place to work, challenging, but you know, obviously for what we do, that's really rewarding, that we get life-changing medicines out there, people and you know, and that's kind of when you've had a hard week, that's kind of obviously you can reflect on. Actually you are making a bit of a difference in the world and it sounds corny but actually it still makes a difference, right, you know 100% and I actually think business to understand the value they have and the part they're playing in something so important.

Speaker 2:

Again, we talk about their generation. You know that's a key thing to lean on when you are recruiting people, because people want to be part of it, don't they?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's purpose, isn't it? It's purpose, isn't it? The purpose is really key nowadays for people coming out of university or wanting to get in into careers. And you know, I think for me personally, like you know, I wanted to get into medicine originally and I end up in a purpose where I want to kind of work in as close to a patient as I could and end up kind of in in kind of pharmaceutical and biotech, and for me that my purpose has still remained the same. I'm just doing a different role, right yeah, 100.

Speaker 2:

Now we've had some uh for those who don't won't realize, we've had a few technical issues during this podcast, which we're hoping that we're very well, so I know we haven't got you for too long, so I'm just gonna ask you a couple of couple of very quick questions. Um, I guess you know shooting from the hip. Given the fact you know you have excelled in your career and and been promoted within future film, which is fantastic to see, who would you think I'm not gonna name the bad ones, but who do you think has been the the best influencers on your career, would you say, so far?

Speaker 1:

yeah, I think one of my managers kind of definitely kind of pushed me out my comfort zone. He put me in a role that I probably didn't want to be in. Um, but actually looking back, I I got a lot of different experience from that. It made me a more rounded kind of manager and I got a different experience. So that was a real looking back really. You know, I resisted going into that role and I was told you got to do it and it was right and I was wrong. So yeah, I was wrong.

Speaker 2:

If you could wave a magic wand to fix the manufacturing engine world, what would you?

Speaker 1:

do. I think the big thing for us is kind of around, obviously, sustainability. We do, you know, have that challenge in terms of, you know, we need to make life-changing medicines, but we need to find a way to be more sustainable in what we do. So some things we use a single use, so that's obviously a bit of a challenge in the future. So that's something there's a site that we're really focusing on going forward. You know, everyone's got that challenge in different industries, but without our own ourselves, we, we need to look at ourselves in that respect. I think that's yeah um.

Speaker 2:

Penultimate question if you could recommend a book, an audio book, on leadership what do you do?

Speaker 1:

uh, yeah, I I'm a simon sonic fan, like I said. So, uh, yeah, leaders eat. Last is one of my, one of my best ones. Yeah, especially if you especially want to be a manager or a leader. I think it's really important in terms of like servant leadership gives you some really good case studies in that excellent and then, just finally, if you could give a 20 year old scott any bit of advice, what would it be?

Speaker 2:

um, it's.

Speaker 1:

It's probably just to try and grab as many different experiences as you, or exposure to different experiences as possible, right, um, and try and put your hand up for as much diversity of experience as you can, even if you, even if it's outside your comfort zone, because generally it's all going to be value adding when you get later in your career that you've got more depth of experience to draw upon, and you can't see it when you're young. To be honest, you just think, oh well, I don't really want to do that or it's not really what I'm interested in. But actually, yeah, having that depth experience is huge when you get to our age yeah, absolutely is it.

Speaker 2:

And just finally, scott um, obviously we mentioned fuji going through um a massive expansion and what numbers? 250, 300 people, huge. It's amazing for the area as well. What's the best way to to get in touch, to be part of it, would you say?

Speaker 1:

yeah. So if, uh, if people interested in working food film, uh, you can go on our website. We have a talent acquisition team. Uh, we've got active kind of roles we're trying to fill now. Uh, they get updated kind of regularly so you can quickly see kind of what roles we've got live, and they change week to week. To be honest, uh, it's pretty, it's pretty busy at the moment. So, uh, yeah, but we've got a really good talent acquisition team, um, and a really good recruitment selection process to get people on board. Really. So, yeah, if people are interested, reach out that way yeah, fantastic recruitment.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, who'd do it?

Speaker 2:

but uh yeah, yeah, but look, thanks, it is. Uh, you know, really appreciate this because I say we've had some technical issues, but I think you know it's been a it's been a really interesting episode where it's. I've really enjoyed it because, like a throwback to how the podcast started, which is all about leadership, and I think there's a lot of people who are concerned about getting leadership because they still see leaders of these big sort of dictatorships, but that isn't the case. If you are someone who likes to build relationships, then that's enough, isn't it? And I think we've lost Scott.

Speaker 2:

So, as I mentioned before, we've had a few technical issues during this podcast. One of those technical issues was his battery was dying. This is the real world. We roll with it. So I just want to thank you Scott. You're not here, but I just want to thank him for his time today and I hope you've taken a lot out of that episode. I've thoroughly enjoyed it and if you need anything more, please get in touch with Scott and I'm sure he'll be happy to have your talk. Thank you very much. Hope you enjoy the episode.