​​​​George Marcou

I joined Delphi to work alongside and support the Managing Director.  A new role was created for me and I was given my own office in our building on Gloucester Place in the West End of London, within walking distance of Oxford Street and just a road over from Baker Street.

 

This is where I got a really good look at an extremely stressed cash-flow and learned to juggle funds in order keep the business operational.  I knew what I was getting into, having provided help while at the bank, but having to actually wrestle with the challenges is very different to just seeing how they manifest in the accounts on screen or on paper.​

 

This proved to be the learning experience and level of responsibility that I had hoped for but by no means my first taste of 100 hours working weeks.  It was however my first taste of working in a marketing and sales led environment.  The client base contained many blue chip clients, partly because the products were new to the market and viewed as very technologically innovative.

 

Delphi Information was the first company to champion and market the emerging flat plasma display screens.  They became the main distributer for Fujitsu General, first in the UK and then later on were appointed to represent Fujitsu General globally.

 

Almost all of us now have at least 1 flat screen in our living rooms, but in 1996, they were brand new... and retailed for around £12,600.

They were purchased by celebrities, audio-visual integrators, broadcasters and many other types of organisations that recognised the benefits of this new technology.

 

My role involved looking after the accounts, credit control logistics and stock control, as well as many other back-room duties.  In essence, I was tasked with providing the support needed by the MD, sales, marketing and technical departments

 

I started as the company administrator and was soon awarded an upgrade to my job title to become the Operations Manager.

 

The various duties included:

 

Goods In, Goods Out

Logistics, including international exports

Processing and executing sales orders

Bookkeeping

Accounting

Payroll

Banking

Purchasing

Payments

Managing demonstration, loan and rental stock.

Credit control

Sales support

Account management

Supplier management

 

 

Cash-flow was extremely tight and resources and favours were sought from wherever we could find them.  It was my job to ensure that we could always deliver on our promises.  This can be challenging when the bank account is empty and we have reached our account limit with the bank and key suppliers.

 

Keeping a company like this running in it's early stages was a major challenge and involved long hours, the constant juggling of resources, negotiations, persuasion and the occasional bit of begging, sometimes on 2 phone lines at once!

I didn't have to ask for a payrise as I was enjoying the challenge, but I was surprised to receive an increase that represented a quarter of my salary, just 3 months after starting my new role.

 

I developed a reputation among our clients and suppliers for being able to achieve difficult and sometimes seemingly impossible results.  This led to unsolicited head-hunting approaches from competitors and eventually even rival manufacturers.

 

I was a member of the management team working alongside the other managers and directors on a daily basis on individual orders and larger projects.

 

Later on I shared my office with the legendary Ron Crow, the (then) newly retired Finance Director of Fujistu General.  This allowed me to complete the accounts with Ron's help and increase my practical experience of maintaining physical day books and final accounts, while running the computerised accounts.

I learned a lot from Ron's mentorship and the positive examples that he set for the rest of the company.