Inzpire CEO: We’re trying to offer better services to the flight training market

[Image courtesy of Lincolnshire Business Magazine]

The Chief Executive of Inzpire, a UK company providing flight training, mission systems and managed services, believes that the company can reinvigorate the flight training market with reliable and cost effective services, and believes big primes should be doing more to acknowledge the value SMEs offer when it comes to a personalised experience.

Hugh Griffiths, who helped take the company to around £10 million in projected annual turnover this year, said a lack of understanding of the customers’ real military needs, particularly when it comes to areas such as flight training, has been hampering the market.

“In the UK, the military is outsourcing some training that is not absolutely core – but it needs suppliers who truly understand what needs to be delivered and who have the military ethos with which it needs to be delivered,” Griffiths told Defence IQ.

“They want to find out who will ideally do it cheaper than doing it internally. But fundamentally, they want to invest in reliable and effective solutions.”

It is this sense of reliability that Griffiths believes has faded from relationships between the industry and the British forces over the years, requiring a remedial approach from the industry. However, he believes the situation has also provided opportunity for smaller companies to set themselves apart from the norm and establish a reputation as a smarter alternative.

“Outsourcing in this field is something that’s happened in the past but often, once the contract has been signed, the shape of it changes. What then tends to happen is that two or three years down the line, all of a sudden the customer isn’t getting what they want. People move on and other people step in to run things and suddenly the focus or relationship drops off.”

“That’s not a problem for Inzpire because we have next to no turnover in this business…Our phrase is that we’re trying to create a revolution in defence – a revolution of honour, integrity and trust.”

Griffiths claims Inzpire – which is currently providing training to the British Army’s Apache pilots –  is able to offer these factors largely because of the company’s ‘military ethos’ and the fact that the majority of its work force consists of former military pilots and other service personnel, rather than purely business professionals.

The full interview will be available in the Autumn issue of Defence Industry Bulletin (#11, October 2016), where Griffiths provides further comment on the company’s plans for growth, and why industry attitudes are changing towards Brexit.

[inlinead]