With responsibility for all Microlise marketing and communications activities, including the Microlise Transport Conference each May, Jonathan sits on the Operations Board at Microlise.
He has a background in digital marketing having worked with a variety of technology brands including the retail arm of Oracle, one of the world’s leading technology brands, prior to joining Microlise.
Now a ‘veteran’ of the transport and telematics industries of over three years, we caught up with him to get his thoughts.
—
Since the end of July 2014, when I joined to head the marketing team.
What’s your background?
I started my career by launching an online media focused business, which distributed news to online media outlets and monitored the subsequent media coverage. After 12 years doing that, I took a break with my wife to travel for six months, before returning to the UK and joining a marketing agency in London. I worked there for a couple of years before I spotted the Microlise role, and the rest as they say is history. It’s certainly not the typical career path for someone in my line of work!
What’s your job title?
Marketing Director
What does your job entail?
All things marketing and communications in a nutshell. I’m constantly looking to improve the way we communicate and engage with customers and the wider market, raising awareness of the Microlise brand and what we’re about as a company.
Within my role, I’m also responsible for the Microlise Transport Conference, which has grown hugely over recent years. In 2014 when I joined we had just under 600 delegates attending, but in 2017 that grew to over 1,100. A huge amount of work goes into planning, organising and running the conference and it’s always a challenge I relish each year to make the conference better than the year before. I think we’ve achieved that every year I’ve been involved, and 2018 looks like no exception!
What do you enjoy most about the work you do?
I’m lucky in that I really enjoy the job I do, so that’s not an easy question to answer. Aside from the conference, I enjoy improving the way we communicate and engage with customers. We’ve certainly made progress but the journey isn’t complete (and never will be ultimately!).
I also love marketing as its such a fast moving space. The world has changed rapidly over recent years…think social media, before that the mobile phone…before that the Internet. That isn’t likely to change any time soon, so keeping on top of the technologies and methodologies in the space is a challenge, but ultimately provides opportunities to do things better.
Which projects are you working on at the moment?
Primarily the conference, finalising our speaker line-up and workshops programmes.
I’m also re-working the way my team monitors our performance, and of course there is GDPR to think about, so plenty of work is going on in that area.
Do you have any hobbies?
I have two young children (my son is almost three and my daughter just passed the six month mark), so hobbies have taken a bit of back-burner. I enjoy going to watch Nottingham Forest play when I can, and otherwise squash and golf are my two sporting loves.
I’m participating in Cycle Zambia next September, so cycling needs to become THE hobby after Christmas!
Best thing about working at Microlise?
Microlise really is a good place to work, and there are lots of pluses. The people are a great bunch and really want to progress the company and develop it, so everyone is focused on being better tomorrow than we were yesterday, so to speak.
I also like the fact that Microlise is more than just a telematics company…we’re pushing the boundaries of what’s possible product-wise in the space, and offer the most comprehensive, feature rich solutions on the market. Beyond that, we’re also involved in trying to solve the driver shortage through Road to Logistics, we run an awards programme to recognise excellence in the driver community, and we sponsor a team involved in British Superbikes…so there is plenty going on!
If you could have one superpower, what would it be and why?
Superman has a pretty good range of abilities so perhaps that would be a good place to start. I could play for Forest and return us to the Premier League and secure Champions League glory!
Anything else you would like to say?
I’ve mentioned the conference a couple of times…while I am of course biased, it’s a superb event that’s also free to attend. We aim for every delegate to walk away having learned plenty to take back to their businesses and I’d encourage anyone reading this to attend.
The conference website can be found at www.microliseconference.com.
