Matthew Chuck and Doug D'Aubrey

Matthew Chuck and Doug D'Aubrey

Matthew pursued a career in the manufacturing industry at home and abroad, the majority of it with the Chemicals Division of Alcoa (The Aluminum Company of America), where he spent a lengthy period as Sales Director at their Frankfurt HQ, directing sales of €120 million annually. He returned to the UK in 2002 to set up his own consulting business, later joining Doug as a co-director of ETC, bringing with him international clients such as DuPont Sustainable Solutions and The European Council of International Schools, as well as many smaller owner-managed businesses.

Matthew is married with three grown-up children, and lives in the picturesque spa town of Malvern, Worcestershire.

Before launching his own business, Doug worked at senior level in the manned guarding security sector for Burns International Services, dealing with large manpower issues, training, people management, HR, logistics and sales development. His most notable success was turning them round from an £800,000 flagging annual turnover, to a £5m resounding success story. Capitalising on these skills, Doug then moved into management consulting and training, launching the MOMENTUM programme in 2002 when he recognised the challenges that small businesses faced in trying to access the experience and knowledge of the consultancy sector. This laid the foundation for the formation of Executive Training and Consultancy Ltd, of which Doug is the Managing Director.

Doug is married with two sports-crazy sons, and lives in Dudley, at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation that encompasses Birmingham, the Black Country and Wolverhampton.

Visit their website www.exec-tc.com

Why Matthew and Doug wanted to publish a book

‘We wanted to collect all our thoughts and experiences into one place. Having spent a decade delivering the Momentum programme to over a hundred small businesses and seeing the tremendous success individuals have had applying our advice and implementing our systems we wanted to write all that knowledge down. We could then reach beyond the West Midlands to small businesses nationally and internationally. It would also support both our existing clients and our marketing effort.’

What Matthew and Doug say about working with SRA Books

‘I was very fortunate to work initially with the first of Sue’s team, Sarah Williams. Sarah helped me complete the writing within the tight schedule we had established, giving me tips and advice along the way, and then editing the final version. I had not fully appreciated that as well as a first-class editor, Sarah is an accomplished author and writer in her own right (write?). It is a testament to Sue and the standing of her company that Sarah happily accepts these commissions on her behalf.

‘Then came the designers. Not just the brilliant front and back covers, but the interior look and feel as well. These were the people who made it read and feel like a book, and not a glorified Powerpoint presentation!

‘And finally, to that much under-rated activity, proofreading! I must have read the draft a dozen times, and sure I found a few errors, and certainly Sue and her team did too. However, on the morning that Sue was about to send me the draft release form, which would trigger the dispatch of the draft to the printers, eagle-eyed Maria spotted a typo!
Now this was not buried somewhere at the bottom of page 79. Oh no no no.

‘This was on the BACK COVER!

‘In the FIRST LINE of the BACK COVER!!

‘So thank you, Maria, for saving us considerable embarrassment. (That’s with 2 s’s.)

‘There were many ‘light bulb moments’ along the way as between us we solved the various challenges. However, perhaps the most electrifying moment came on the morning a few days ago when I put the box on the desk, opened it up, and held in my hand for the very first time this beautifully designed, beautifully produced book!

‘Sue, thank you.’