Changing Tracks – The SWS Story

Changing Tracks – The SWS Story

Way back in the late 1990s, Jim Talbot saw the writing on the wall. The Victorian railways were going through a massive privatisation exercise and change was speeding down the tracks like a freight train.

A “collision” with old companies, practices and people was imminent. In particular, the move away from the system of cyclical maintenance would render Jim’s job as a Safeworking Specialist completely uncertain, irregular at best and, quite possibly, completely redundant.

Jim Talbot did not fancy having his career and livelihood derailed. No Safeworking Specialist knew what form their jobs would take, if any, in the new setup. Jim did not wait to find out – he changed tracks.

 

MBA

Jim could direct mighty trains at a flick of the wrist, but now he was on a mission to keep his “coach” on track. The railway man familiar with flags and signals decided to pursue an MBA in 1998 to a chorus of skepticism from his peers. What difference could that possibly make?

A lot, it turns out.

In the early years the benefit was not obvious. When Jim started Rail Safeworking Solutions (SWS) in 1998 it was one of many service providers. The changes rippling through the industry were dynamic and unpredictable. Quality and safety benchmarks were not yet standardised and every client had their own vastly different requirements and processes. To top that off, Jim’s skills as a business manager were green. In the first 2 years of operations SWS had a whopping 20 staff and was not profitable.

Then things got worse.

Safety – A Reality Check

Around 2012 MET trains initiated an audit of all their vendors’ safety policies and procedures. Many companies were found to be deficient and were losing life-blood contracts to younger, less experienced companies that had better systems.

Jim’s career was again in the headlights, on course for collision. Yet here again, Jim did not freeze – SWS hired a Management Consultant.

When the audit team pulled up at the SWS station, Jim was prepared. His Safety, Quality and Environmental systems were robust and SWS was able to stay in the game.

But safety in this industry is no game. The risk of a serious incident is ever-present. As maintenance was no longer cyclical, the urgent need for a repair may occur during rush hour while still having to keep the busiest lines active.

The brilliance of Jim is his deep appreciation of the risks of his operations and, critically, the recognition that change is the only constant.

Rather than be satisfied with a static safety system, SWS never stopped evolving and improving their management system via constant reviews, working in failsafes and setting up a process to share and access knowledge. Over the years, problems are quickly identified and swiftly addressed. Risks are continuously being identified and effectively mitigated.

Where other competitors have had derailments (literally), SWS safety record stands apart from the crowd.

 

Integrated Management Systems

Beyond safety, the Integrated Management Systems of SWS has empowered its management to make brave business decisions and take on large projects.

The Skyrail project was a key example of this. Upon winning the contract, SWS chose to almost triple their operational capacity by going from 70 full time staff to more than 200! Not a decision for the faint hearted, Jim is clearly not the same man he used to be. His business acumen is razor sharp and he operates with default expectation of dramatic change. He wants to be ready for it.

As the years go by, key strategic decisions of the past are slowly paying dividends in the present. Jim’s story is the union of high technical competence amplified by smart business systems, enabled by a mindset that embraces change. The result – Rail Safeworking Solutions has pulled away from the crowd of competitors and, though they will not admit it, leads the pack.

 

Longevity – from Mindset to Institutional Culture

But this is not a story of a train chugging happily along, content with its prime position. Jim and SWS are still charging forward full steam ahead, now faster than ever before. Jim has been able to pass the working ethos of him and his trusted comrades on to his 2 sons and SWS is now a double-header.

Romney and Jamie embody Jim’s business and operational arms respectively. As a fast-expanding company, they understand the need to evolve their systems to maintain high quality standards and are fastidiously working to keep the railroads safe and the trains running on time.

Where Jim used to visit sites to solve complex operational problems, Jamie now fills those boots. Where there is a need to tune into the future, Romney now is at the helm. Both men still continuing to draw from their father’s wealth of experience and insight, looking out for speedbumps up ahead and they are supported by an experienced team of operations, finance and technical managers that have been with the company from the early days.

PQMC is inspired by Jim Talbot and proud to be SWSs’ partners in growth.