AE Gibson & Son
Company Profile: AE Gibson is a family business which been trading for more than 125 years they predominantly provide Sawmill machinery to the Sawmill industry across Australia.
The company had (3) brothers Running the company a sales director, a Manfacturing director, a Electrical Director and a grandson managing the Maintenace side of the business.
I was offered the opportunity as an Engineering Manager overseeing all the designs the drawing office produced, there was little actual engineering to be done it was more like reverse engineering. In this position I had (2) junior draftspersons and a qualified engineer which I managed.
The team success was in delivering two projects each with the scale of $500K we deliver full sets of detailed drawings to the shopfloor. Where the team of fabricators and machinist would set out to turn our virtual designs into reality.
Personally, I enjoyed the managing and assisting the design with direction and the engineering responsibility, challenging where I felt it was necessary but, in more cases, than not I would encourage- members of the team to keep the momentum moving forward.
In terms of leadership style there were examples of my Democratic Leadership when negotiating with the directors of the company to the point where one of the remarked at one point that one of us needs to make a decision looking directly at me. At times with my direct reports there where glimpses of delegative, servant and coaching style. Then at times there was some Bureaucratic leadership when it came to dealing the sales manager which I feel could have been a direct reflection of the relationship that we had.
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| Gibson Wood Processing Plant Photo of a SolidWorks Model |
I feel proud when I think back on the experience that I had, what we achieved, for a proud Australian manufacturing company that provides manufacturing jobs for Australians. That is something you don't see everyday.