The Big Stewpot Theory

Where is this coming from?
I speak as a Yorkshireman who has been involved in the manufacturing industry for the last 57 years. My experience has involved employment and management in both large and small companies.

After the first eight years of my working life, I decided I was more suited to working for a smaller company, rather than a large multinational company. This enabled me to get things done more quickly, and also keep control of the operation. I am an engineer, not an accountant or HR expert. In Yorkshire, profit is regarded as the difference between sales revenue and total expenditure, whilst always noting that a sale is not a sale until the money is in the bank.

I have been fortunate enough to own a small company – in a niche market, servicing most parts of the engineering industry – for the last 25 years. There have been good times and bad times, but mainly I have enjoyed what I have been doing. My time has been split between solving problems and helping customers make better products and dealing with a workforce, having employed a highly capable administrator to deal with other functions.

Where am I today?
I still enjoy my work and feel that my company has improved over the years in both the quality of our service and the efficiency of our services. We do considerably more work with far fewer people, having embraced emergent technologies as far as we can, and we are now in the final stage of going totally paperless.

The journey
Over the years, successive governments have given out many messages, a small sample of which are “Take advantage of training opportunities”; “Invest in new technology”; “Save for your retirement”.

Read the full article in DPA's February 2026 issue