Name: Ken Primrose
Age: 50
Company: Industrial Tomography Systems (ITS)
Company turnover: £1.3m
First job: I began my working life conducting pollution research for Courtaulds.
Dream job: Jazz impresario.
Car: Hybrid bicycle.
Economy, business or first class: Economy (I am Scottish!)
Most extravagant purchase: This would have to be my Ena coffee machine or the Renny Tait painting I treated myself and my wife to.
Most-played song on your iPod: “Crossroads” by Cream.
Best business book: Competing for the Future by Hamel & Prahalad.
Worst business moment: It was several years back, when I left it a little too long before I confronted a staff issue. If I’d have tackled it sooner, I feel I would have nipped it in the bud rather than letting it become bigger than it should have been.
Proudest business moment: There isn’t one moment in particular commercialising leading-edge technology is my proudest business achievement. ITS began as a UMIST incubator company and now works across six different continents. Knowing how far we have come makes me proud.
Your business mentor: This varies from month to month, depending on what situation I find myself in and which tasks I have to face.
Next big thing: Our exciting new technology, known as industrial process tomography, creates images of industrial processes in hard to reach places, such as a pipeline or radio active or toxic environments. It’s going to be huge!
