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We all need to share a little more 

Andrew Cowdry sits at his desk facing the camera
Andrew Cowdrey’s career has taken him to extraordinary heights

With a firm belief in collaborative working and setting ambitious targets, Andrew Cowdery is lending his support to the Be the Business productivity drive. 

Perhaps it is his earlier life as a barrister, perhaps it is simply that he is a world-class deal-maker, but if you’re having talks with a third party at a high level, Andrew Cowdery is a man you most definitely want in the room. 

As industry co-chair of the Defence Growth Partnership (an alliance between government and the defence industry to deliver a competitive, sustainable and successful UK defence sector), Andrew is constantly having to lean on his 40 years of experience across multiple organisations within the aerospace, defence and space sectors to ensure that progress is made. Building bridges and finding fixes are all part of the package. 

The key turning point in his career came back in the early 1980s, when Andrew did a U-turn on a promising legal career after becoming disenchanted with the profession and seized the chance to work on a large defence project. He’d already had his interest piqued when he’d had the opportunity to become a legal counsel within the General Electric Company. This, plus a lifelong interest in technology, made the chance to work with such names as Marconi, the then Plessey company and Hughes Aircraft in the US highly attractive. 

“I spent a number of months in my early career going backwards and forwards to America, working with the senior leadership on that project,” he said. “The contract I was working on was very collaborative, and it replaced all of the existing air defence systems in the UK with new products and new technology. It really gave me an insight into how America works and the way they manage their people and their teams.” 

This glimpse into collaborative working proved addictive. In the years that followed Andrew built up a network of relationships around Europe and in the US and immersed himself in the different business models and team dynamics that each company and country employed. “Sharing that information has been invaluable to me,” he added. 

It goes without saying that the Be the Business Fellows programme can only benefit from such a rich business background, and Andrew is keen to play his part. In the current climate, SMEs need all they help they can get. “I think the challenge for them generally is to try and maintain focus on what they do best, but the pandemic means that those businesses in a particularly vulnerable market may need to realign their business model in order to stay afloat,” he believes. “I hate to use the term that the government uses, but they do need to build back better.” 

He sees the role of Be the Business in the coming months and years as a kind of conduit between disparate members of the business community – he feels that there’s much to be gained if they start talking. “I think we all need to share a little more,” he commented. “We need to recognise that competition is good, but we also need to seek out opportunities where we can work together.” 

As well as being industry co-chair of the Defence Growth Partnership, Andrew has held senior management positions with GEC Marconi, Ferranti, Astrium NVBAE Systems and, most recently, Leonardo. He has been involved with the consolidation of the European space industry, most notably the creation of Astrium NV and Selex Galileo in defence electronics, and he is chairman to the board of directors of Euroradar and EuroDASS. 

Quick-fire questions 

Who is your business inspiration? 

I’ve taken inspiration from a number of different experiences and individuals – such as working within a team environment and also working with an individual who wasn’t a leader, but was inspirational in the way they worked. I’ve basically taken inspiration from those that I’ve worked closely with. 

What is your personal productivity tip? 

Set a challenging target, and then seek to exceed it. Another is to have a continuous focus on the quality of the output or the outcome that you wish to achieve. 

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received? 

I’m still trying to recall the name of the person that gave it to me, but it was to listen to others, learn from others and share with others. 

If you’d gone down a completely different career path, what would you like to have been? 

I always wanted to be a barrister and I trained and got there, but my second career path was that I would have been a doctor. Unfortunately, my wife says I’ve not got the righthand coordination to do the job properly. 

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