10 | Tees Business
TEES
UP!
NAME: GARRY LOFTHOUSE
AGE: 43
BORN: THORNABY
LIVES: INGLEBY BARWICK
ORGANISATION & JOB TITLE:
DIRECTOR, APPLIED INTEGRATION
When I was at school, I wanted to be…a
sports scientist of some sort. I loved rugby,
football and running.
The best business decision I ever made
was…starting Applied Integration. It was
also an extremely difficult decision. I had two
young children at the time so I had a lot of
pressures from home but I felt in my heart it
was the right time to go into business - and
we’ve never looked back since.
The worst business decision I ever made
was...not having the courage to launch a
business sooner than I did. I was stagnating
in my previous job. I’d worked my way up to
the top of the chain over a 10-year period but
was having very little input into the business.
It’s very easy to sit in your comfort zone and
not take the risks and challenges. I think
there are too many people around like that
who should give running their own business
a shot.
The best part of my job is…the great
satisfaction I experience when we complete
a project and receive positive feedback from
the customer. It’s fantastic when people say
“It’s just what we wanted”, “It’s helping us
increase our profits and turnover”. That’s a
real high.
The biggest downside of my working life
is…I’m on 24/7 call-out. It doesn’t matter
where I am, whether I’m on holiday or it’s
the weekend, I’m always on the end of a
phone if necessary. It does impact your
family time as you have to commit fully to
the business. It’s a fact that it’s long hours
when you’re starting a business and your
family time does suffer.
If I could change one thing to help my
organisation it would be…the economic
uncertainty. There’s obviously an impact
locally, with the closure of the steelworks
and the potash redundancies, and that filters
through to the supply chain. We lost
a £1 million order from SSI when the
steelworks closed, and that’s not easy
to recover from in today’s climate.
Four words to describe me are…
passionate, honest, determined and
committed - either that or I should be
committed!
My business mantra is…provide a good
place to work where we can let people be
inspired and be the best they can. That’s part
of Applied Integration’s mission statement.
I think it’s important we allow creativity,
passion and fun within the business even
though we are looking after the nation‘s
security assets.