Adaptability is key to Success
By Richie Frost, Sprint Power founder and CEO
Formed just over a year ago, Sprint Power has experienced a rapid growth curve, going from 10 employees to 50 in a year. While many automotive engineering businesses in the UK have had to make vast changes to their way of working during the current Covid-19 pandemic, many of our existing working practises have meant Sprint Power has been largely unaffected during the lockdown. In fact, we’ve just hired four new engineers to help meet growing project requirements.
As a start-up, we have the agility to respond rapidly to an ever-changing business and industry landscape, ensuring our clients, who are predominantly in the low carbon automotive sector, continue to receive the expert services they require for projects to continue without interruption.
Despite being an engineering-led business, most of our staff are able to continue their work from home. Even in normal times, the majority of our team have the option of working from home if they need to, or feel they can be more productive when working within their own environments. I’m a big fan of flexible working arrangements. As long as work is completed on time and to the highest standards, it’s fine with me.
When working remotely, our engineers have access to the latest bespoke simulation tools, to enable them to efficiently explore new ideas and assess numerous iterations of a design before any prototype is created. In many cases, our engineers are virtually recreating different propulsion systems from their homes, including the latest in hybrid, battery electric and fuel-cell powertrains. What’s more, they continue to work closely with each client through video conferencing facilities to gather feedback and extract the requirements for each project.
Essential tasks that cannot be performed from home are still being carried out in our high-voltage laboratories. While we are keeping numbers to a minimum, these technicians are following social distancing guidelines set out by the government. We’ve also supplied face masks and alcohol hand sanitizer to severely limit the risk of any infection, while all workspaces are professionally cleaned following shifts.
We are all looking forward to the day when we can go back to work without these measures being required. In the meantime, the ‘can-do’ culture at Sprint Power, like many other engineering start-ups, will ensure we remain agile and ready to respond to our clients’ needs.
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