By Business & Finance 
David Moore, Managing Director of Viska Systems takes on the Business & Finance 60-second interview challenge.
Q. What was your first job? My very first job was picking strawberries for a few weekends when I was about 10. My first ‘proper’ job was on a building site carrying plaster boards up flights of stairs during my school summer holidays. Q. What would you regard as your greatest achievement to date? Bootstrapping a business and surviving thus far is quite satisfying. So many things can go right or wrong in the early days, and sometimes one might only be two or three bad decisions from being finished. I’m glad my wife Enrika and I had the fortitude to back ourselves and found Viska Systems. Having a great support system is vital when starting off – the Local Enterprise Office (LEO) have helped us a lot to get the business to the point it’s at today by investing in our vision and providing assistance through start-up funding, mentoring, and business management training. Q. In three words or fewer, how do you define success? Achieving perfect balance Q. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given? A mentor once told me that the market will pay “almost anything” if you can give them a unique product or capability. There is obviously an element of hyperbole in that advice, but it always makes me think about how we add value for our customers in the marketplace. Q. How do you motivate yourself and your staff? I’m very lucky in that our staff are very self-motivated – so in general I try to support them doing their thing. Q. If you could step into the shoes of one business person for the day, who would it be and why? Currently, I’d have to say Elon Musk. Why? Because he’s able to work on so many ‘big’ and extremely challenging tech projects simultaneously. He has obviously managed to surround himself with amazing people to make it possible, and I’d love to see how his day works. Q. How do you relax? Relaxing isn’t something I do very well sometimes, but I’m working on it as a personal development item. When I do relax it’s normally spending quality time with my family. In some ways I consider some work commitments to also be a form a personal relaxation – for example I love getting out to meet other people and networking. Events such as Local Enterprise Week offer an opportunity to relax outside the office, but also network and learn from other business people. Q. What’s your motto? I’m a fan of one of Einstein’s quotes: “If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut.” Q. What are your aspirations for the future of your business? I always think that growth and good profit in business is a given – every business needs those for survival. So my aspirations are really more about advancing technology. I love being able to produce really high-tech, cutting edge, one-in-the-world solutions. I would then hope that the knock on effects of that are benefit to employees in terms of fulfillment, and benefits to wider society in solving real-world problems.
A mentor once told me that the market will pay “almost anything” if you can give them a unique product or capability.
