When a company cuts over 90% of its local workforce staying on the right side of the employment line becomes pretty difficult – even with a service history of over 22 years.

 

This was the fate that befell 48-year-old Mike Pyne, who had worked for Hewlett Packard and one of its spin-off companies, Agilent Technologies, as a customer-facing application engineer since his mid-twenties.

 

However when a scythe was taken to the business’s Scottish operations, it soon became apparent that his role with the company had become redundant.

 

Taking a long, hard look at his situation, Mike realised he had lost control of his own career. Global issues had overridden a track record of local successes, and ultimately, senior management decisions had brought an end to his employment, leaving him without a say in the matter.

 

But Mike had not become institutionalised or dug himself into a professional rut and quickly realised that the lessons he had learned as a big business employee and the technical and customer relationship skills he had perfected over two decades put him in a fantastic position to peg out his own professional ambitions and set about building them into a commercial reality.

 

With redundancy capital in his bank account and a desire to work closely again with customers burning brightly in his plans, the franchise opportunity offered by computer support company robertson technologies was very appealing.

 

Initial meetings with the Edinburgh-based company showed that its plain-speaking approach to computer support and its commitment to working onsite with customers, were closely aligned to Mike’s own priorities.

 

Furthermore, robertson technologies offered excellent training in the areas where Mike was least confident, namely sales and marketing, and had already proved through its own success that its approach in these disciplines attracted new customers.

 

Perhaps even more importantly, robertson technologies’ commitment to jargon free advice and a face-to-face service, meant customers stayed for the long-term and this was especially attractive to Mike.

 

He says: “In speaking to Hamish Robertson, the firm’s owner, he had a very clear vision for what the business offered customers and how it went about things. These ideals matched the way I want to treat customers and so immediately I was attracted to the proposition.

 

“All of the help, advice and support available also meant that getting things up and running has been a lot faster than I expected and has given me the confidence to succeed in the areas where I had little experience, such as sales and marketing.”

 

Mike has taken on the franchise for the Fife territory, which includes Clackmannanshire and stretches all the way through to Stirling. Once things are up and running he is keen to investigate the option of further adjoining territories, so long as they remain available.

 

However with robertson technologies on course to award a further six franchises before the year is out, Mike will have to wait and see just how the land lies.

 

Hamish Robertson, managing director of robertson technologies, said: “Mike shares the plain speaking commitment to customers on which we have built this business and he will do very well in the Fife territory. We will be here to support him every step of the way, but I am confident that the business will very quickly be into its stride and playing an important part in the lives of its customers.”