Leaders Program supporting high-growth engineering SMEs

Our CEO Alasdair Pettigrew has completed Royal Academy of Engineering's SME Leaders programme. Read more about our success story.

Complex, large-scale projects frequently run over time and over budget. This is partly because current technologies are unable to handle the large quantities of associated data in user-friendly ways. BOXARR takes a different approach. The small but global software company develops solutions for mapping complex interdependent systems that enable its customers to make faster, more efficient decisions. Since 2016, BOXARR has benefited from the Royal Academy of Engineering’s SME Leaders program, which has provided the team with leadership training and support at an important stage in the company’s growth.

Specialist workshops and training offered by the SME Leaders program have helped to build the team’s leadership skills. This has included coaching support in finance, a critical area for a business in the scale-up phase.

BOXARR solutions are currently used within the aerospace and defence industry, with clients such as Boeing and Airbus. As the company expands into new sectors, several directors and managers at BOXARR have benefited from being connected to a valuable network of experts at the Academy. Access to training in communication skills has also helped with fundraising and reaching new sales contacts.

“I benefited from opportunities to practice pitching our ideas to experienced, well-respected leaders in engineering and enterprise,” highlights Alasdair Pettigrew, CEO. “This helped with honing our value proposition as it made us think deeply about what we were doing well and what we needed to adapt.”

By supporting the development of its leaders, BOXARR is better positioned to engage with new markets as the company grows. Its software platforms bring together large quantities of data in one place so that companies can model, visualise and analyse operations. As a result, BOXARR solutions could have a significant impact on large-scale infrastructure projects, a high-value, global industry.

“There’s no longer a need to accept the inefficiencies of the tools we currently use for complex projects,” Alasdair notes. “BOXARR offers innovative ways to model and plan complex challenges and improve the way we create solutions in the future.”

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