Wednesday 3rd October 2012 marked Fistral’s 21st anniversary.
This article by Paul Lyden is a personal account that tells the story of the company to date.
The third section of the article below covers the following:
- Who Does Fistral Support?
- What Does Fistral Do?
- What Makes Fistral Such a Success?
Who Does Fistral Support?
The company started out in the technology sector, however over the years it has grown to support many customers, as our Client List shows. We think that this is the beauty of project management: it crosses boundaries, disciplines and sectors and is applicable and useful in a wide range of contexts. It also means that as trainers and consultants Paul and Fraser get to meet talented, passionate and interesting people from around the globe.
From Arts & Humanities to Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics – in corporate, health, space, research, IT and local government sectors – Paul, Fraser and the team work across many professions training students, research, academic and board-level staff in universities and commercial organisations.
Although the company is still physically based in the West-of-Scotland – where Paul founded the company – the Fistral team now regularly works across Europe and in the UK. During 2011 alone this involved , delivering courses in 16 different cities to over 1300 attendees – who rated events 4.64 out of 5 (5 being excellent).
What Does Fistral Do?
The initial rationale for setting-up Fistral was to provide support to the emerging computer market, and this gradually changed in response to customer needs to support the project management skills required to make businesses successful.
Project management and risk management are still the cornerstones for much of the training and consultancy provision that Fistral provides. For many years, ‘Project Management in the Real World’ has been the flagship course that is most often requested by customers.
Over recent years – in response to customer requests – this foundation has grown to encompass Leadership, Innovation, Team Working, Consultancy Skills and DiSC training. See Fistral’s Product Suite for more info.
Regardless of topic, sector, discipline, region, research focus or profession; Paul, Fraser and the team ensure that training and consultancy will continue to focus on making a difference to work using practical techniques and tips, combined with a solid, current theoretical basis.
Paul believes that it is not the genius within the consultant that earns his fee but simple, practical techniques which allow everyone involved in the project to ask the right questions at the right time and gain the level of understanding to deliver managed stakeholder expectations. It’s as easy as that!
The nice thing is that these simple techniques can be learned. That is what Fistral sets out to achieve in our training events.
What Makes Fistral Such a Success?
Well – you’ll have to read the Tips that will be released each month from October 2012…