Following our fundraising event in aid of mental health charity Chasing the Stigma to celebrate our 20th year in business, we take a look at the journey dBD Communications have been on through that time and what our presence has done for communications within various industries including rail, construction, highways and air.
From its humble beginnings, starting under the stairs in-front of a dimly lit laptop back in 2002, the Managing Director of dBD Communications, David O’Connell, didn’t realise at the time just how much he would help to revolutionise the communications market with wireless duplex systems.
It has not been without its challenges. As any aspiring SME will know, stability and growth are difficult things to master. We have faced our own hurdles. From negotiating two recessions, to surviving the demise of Carrilion with whom 30% of our business at the time was with and then overcoming PA accreditation procedures. It has been far from an easy ride.
But through resilience and applying a strong entrepreneurial culture, we’ve dug deep and have continued to find ways to overcome our challenges.
We’ve learned to develop new markets by innovating new products and introducing new service packages to sustain our growth. We’ve supported local growth by sourcing locally and working with local authorities.
It’s this tenacity and work ethic that has lead us to where we find ourselves today. From supplying communications and consultancy to military programmes, successfully mitigating risks from IEDs to steadily building a presence supplying for construction and highways industries.
We can’t ignore the fact that we have built up an 80% share of the UK railway market supplying Network Rail approved wireless duplex communication systems. Because despite this success, we’ve never lost sight of the potential our innovation has had for other markets. We now find ourselves breaking into an emerging market for airside ground handling, supporting airports as far afield as Thailand, Singapore and New Zealand. And with positive anticipation, we have recently opened up opportunities across the pond in the USA.
We have continuously punched above our weight, succeeding to influence a change in beliefs and working practices despite our diminutive size which has triggered leading infrastructure companies to do things differently.
Ultimately, our products and services have been manufactured to improve efficiency and safety and we have done just that. No only are we helping operations teams to cut costs but we are also saving lives. The contrast between applying wireless duplex communication systems to operations is stark. We have heavily contributed to a reduction in loss of life in working environments for which there can be no greater accolade.
Whether it’s the loyalty of our staff, the support of our families or the belief of our clients, we want to thank each and every one of you for being part of our incredible journey at dBD Communications over the past 20 years and we can’t wait to see what the next 20 will hold.
To watch the full speech from MD, David O’Connell at our charity event marking this big occasion, click the button below: