Modern management will prevent disasters

The last of the grimy snow had melted, the sky was almost blue and I was feeling quite good about the “feelgood factor”. Then I read Jeremy Myerson’s rather gloomy article Cool Runnings (DW 10 January).

Why must we always try to live in and not learn from the past? Yes, the Eighties were great, but we got too silly, and the expansion of those heady days was not supported by the technology and business systems that are available to us today. So it’s hardly surprising if it all did get overheated, but there’s no reason for it to go wrong again.

If designers are getting “fitter and more profit-oriented” (Richard Williams’ words, not mine, and he’s no relation as far as I know), then it need not be at the expense of time spent designing. Today’s management systems for designers were created to free up the designer, so that delivering quality work under pressure should be more achievable than in the Eighties, not less so.

For more than 15 years we have been providing management systems specifically for designers, and if our recent experience has taught us anything, it is this: run your business with reasonable efficiency; produce work you are proud of, know where the money’s coming from and where it’s going to – the good times are not coming back, they are just around the next corner waiting for you.

Sue Williams

Rebus

Tonbridge

Kent TN11 0EP