John Plummer started in 1977 as Pipeline Design Engineer at 'Medaes', before the time Beacon and Medaes merged to BeaconMedaes.
Working on the design of international hospital projects and the possibility of travelling was the main draw for applying. It soon became obvious that it was a great sector to be part of. Our equipment could be seen as helping to improve healthcare outcomes for all, particularly in the developing countries we were involved in.
The culture within BeaconMedaes has always felt the same: friendly and like an extended family with our colleagues in the US and other areas, whom I have been involved with as part of my role(s) for many years.
The biggest change has been technology, which has changed greatly over the last twenty years & massively over more than forty years. This has changed how we could do business and allowed us to be involved in more projects and more countries where we previously had no presence.
Another significant change was having access to the network of Atlas Copco customer centers and later the development of our local teams. This gave us better knowledge and understanding of the local area and projects, allowing us to further grow the business.
My role changed from working directly with our distributors, to supporting our own local teams & customer centers and support & train these people.
The medical gas industry became increasingly more competitive over the years. Keeping our name at the forefront in our markets as the 'go to company' with the best products, as well as being considered the expert in medical gases by our distributor’s, consultants, and other entities in my regions, has been very rewarding.
The culture within BeaconMedaes has always felt the same: friendly and like an extended family with our colleagues in the US and other areas, whom I have been involved with as part of my roles for many years.
Technology has changed in the sense that everything needs to be available right away and also responses are expected much quicker. Additional local support within our distributor organization and later with our own local support has enabled us to keep on top of this change in expectations.
Also, being able to adapt our product offering to meet local requirements with a mix of HTM, NFPA & ISO equipment in some markets has been an advantage whilst still maintaining high standards.
Everything we do relies on team effort, whether that be: our support from here, our distributors, local support, or our colleagues from the US. However, personally satisfying has been being involved in the design of some of the region’s largest and most prestigious projects, this opens the door to more opportunities and successes.
For a short time, I was responsible for Malaysia and ensuring that a certain distributor became our nr. 1 distributor in terms of revenue was a highlight and very rewarding.
Another memorable experience was: we did a weeklong training for all relevant staff in a private hospital in Bahrain which made the local newspaper and was featured on the local news in Manama, the capital of Bahrain.