01732 759725 20 INTERVIEW that you perhaps would not have immediately put into this sector. AI is a great example. Everybody is looking at how can we be more efficient and how can we use technology better? 10 years ago, the software world was fairly flat, it didn’t really change very much. It was sort of the same thing with a few patch upgrades. Now it’s highly dynamic, and we’re all challenged on a weekly basis by something new – it’s a very different world from the one I entered 10 years ago. PITR: If you could change one thing about the last decade, what would it be? NE: That’s a great question. If I’m honest, I’m not a great believer in fate. I believe that every decision you make is based on the reasons you made it at the time, and if you could go back and change it, you will fundamentally change something you’ll regret. PITR: What has been your proudest moment of the past 10 years? NE: Watching my wife do a job the past 12 months, because she wants to do it and not just for the pay packet. She used to be a training manager within the finance industry and now she works with dementia patients in their own home. She chose to do that job because she loves it. She doesn’t care what it pays. She cares what it does. PITR: Sum up the decade in three words. NE: Learn, go again. PITR: What has been the high point of the decade? NE: It is in relation to IDC’s EMEA Device and Print Management 2023 Share Snapshot. The figures show MyQ is the fastest growing software solution in the sector. So, for me the high point of the decade has been when MyQ came out of the ‘other’ category in the market analysis and actually became a player in its own right. PITR: And the low point? NE: It has to be the pandemic, doesn’t it? But that said, you’ve got to give credit where it is due, because of the way the directors run MyQ and because of their financial prudence, we were able to weather that storm and come out strong the other side of it. A lot of companies shed jobs, but we didn’t, everybody was looked after, and that speaks volumes for me. And of course, MyQ Roger was born during that time. It was a skunk works project, and even I didn’t know anything about it until the day it was launched! PITR: What (or who) has had the greatest impact in the sector in the last 10 years? NE: The pandemic. It changed everything. It changed the way people worked, and where they worked. It allowed businesses to understand where their weaknesses were better than they ever did before. And it’s led to growth in areas PrintIT Reseller (PITR): You’ve been working in the print and IT industry for more than ten years. What led you to enter the sector? Nigel Eaton (NE): It was by chance. I was developing a print model for Pitney Bowes for their secondary leasing teams, and a Norwegian company they owned called Lindbak introduced me to MyQ as one of their potential suppliers. MyQ met with me and said that they were looking for a general manager in the UK and asked me did I know anyone. A little while later they asked me if I would be interested, and the rest as they say is history. PITR: What was your first job? NE: My first job was working on my brother in law’s farm, cleaning the yard in the dairy. Everyone knows what cows standing around waiting to be milked do, so basically my first job was shovelling s**t, literally! Nigel Eaton, General Manager, Northwest Europe, MyQ shares his experiences over the past decade, what he’s learned, and the highs and the lows of our unique and challenging industry A decade in print Nigel Eaton Photo: pixabay.com/artellliii72 Everyone knows what cows standing around waiting to be milked do...
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