Member Article

December's North East spotlight series: Alec Berry

Alec Berry, senior consultant at Sunderland-based solutions provider Saggezza, falls under our festive spotlight.

Your business

What were the highlights for your business in 2015?

Definitely establishing our office in Sunderland. We have grown from one person (me) to fifteen throughout 2015 with 2016 looking like its going to be another good year for growth.

Looking back, is there anything you would have done differently this year?

There’s always lessons to be learned, the important thing is not to be afraid of trying and failing and giving yourself the chance to learn. I’ve been impressed by how well people thrive when you put them straight onto a project (with the right support of course) and I think this has been a key learning for us.

Going forward we’ll focus on training our team within their roles so they learn first hand from ‘on the job’ experience rather than classroom or theoretical learning situations. The graduates we’ve recruited from local Universities have really exceeded our expectations.

Is there anything we should watch out for your company doing next year?

Analytics is a big growth area for us so look out for some cool projects in that space. We’re also working on some internal Internet Of Things projects which should be interesting too.

Your favourites

Have any other North East companies impressed you this year, if so - why?

I’ve come across a few - I’m always impressed with the work the guys at Consult and Design do, they have some big things going on at the moment and its great to see them do so well. Perfect Image are another firm who have had a great year, I saw their new offices this week and was blown away. Finally we worked quite closely with Orange Bus on a project this year and I was really impressed with how they operate, especially with clients.

When business life gets on top of you, what do you do to destress?

I have a 10 month old baby who has been quite unwell so that has given me a very healthy amount of perspective on whats worth getting stressed about. I think its always good to see stressful business situations as just that - they are a situation which once managed, will pass and generally with the right attitude, will pass successfully.

Have any social media accounts caught your eye this year, any favourite pages or people to follow? (*cough* Bdaily *cough* *cough*)

Well, obviously Bdaily but that goes without saying. Paul Lancaster is always up to something cool and representing the region well. I also once met Joanna Montgomery at a hackathon and when I was on twitter the other day her life seems to be primarily winning at being an international entrepreneur and England’s Strongest Woman which I thought was an awesome combination.

The what ifs

If you could do any job in the world what would it be?

When I was 4 I told my mum I wanted to be a travelling comedian and motorbike mechanic. Now I would probably say Formula One driver though I did bump my wife’s car the other day so I probably should leave it to the professionals.

If you could go back in time, which piece of advice would you give your younger self?

Chill out you idiot! Oh, and be nice to yourself. You idiot.

What would be the perfect Christmas gift for you?

Good health to my family (especially my little boy - please give generously to Chuf - http://chuf.org.uk/) and an old motorbike to fix up. And a book on how to fix up old motorbikes.

Thanks Alec.