How has HESCO focused on product and industry innovation during your time as engineering director?
Mike Pickup: We always try to develop solutions based on our experience, either from directly working in the field, or from our customers and contacts within the industry who use and trust our products. Customer feedback plays a crucial part in our development process.
How did HESCO move from providing core parts essential for the construction and operation of forward operating bases to leading on its own camp solutions?
HESCO has long been an integral part of camp construction and in a lot of cases people just naturally assumed we already offered complete solutions. It is the next logical step in our growth, and when combined with the other companies within the Praesidiad Group, we provide a significant offering in camp and protective solutions.
How have you developed the expertise to tailor camps and operating bases that satisfy the physical, psychological and cultural needs of personnel while ensuring security and minimising environmental impact?
Our expertise has grown by various routes. We employ a number of ex-military personnel who have all served and operated in camps and operating bases, and we work with customers that have specific requirements for their camps or remote facilities.
It is through experience, and market and academic research, that you learn about the issues such as psychological and cultural needs. Minimising the environmental impact is becoming a priority, and rightly so, which is something that HESCO is aware of. We are always conscious of the materials we use when creating and developing products.
What role do your collaborations with companies new to the military sector play here? How do you integrate their expertise into this environment and how do they help to solve long-standing issues for clients?
We often collaborate with companies with little to no experience in the military or similar sectors with regard to product and customer requirements. There are examples of technological developments having great potential for these applications, but what works in the development phase does not always prove to be robust enough for continuous use in the field.
It is our experience in this area that provides the necessary guidance to companies and manufacturers of what will and won’t work, or how it needs to be changed to meet the demanding requirements of the environment or the user.
What have you achieved by combining this fresh approach with HESCO’s 30 years of industry knowledge?
HESCO has achieved a number of product innovations that have a direct effect on the customer or end user. Namely RAID, an extremely rapid deployment mechanism for our product; the Recoverable units, which allow the units to be dismantled, flat-packed and removed from site in a far more logistically efficient manner; and the very effective Terrablock range of products, which is a surface-mounted fencing/ barrier solution that has been tested and rated up to a 6,800kg truck at 50mph.
