TAB offers solidarity and a great sounding board

Matt studied mechanical engineering at Heriot Watt University, graduating in 1998, before going on to work in oil and gas, renewables and back to upstream oil and gas, where he worked with future business partner Jon.

When the pair established Metron, oil was $110 a barrel. Six months in, it had plummeted. However, the firm battled through, flourished and will soon mark a decade in existence.

Matt said joining TAB helped gain some ‘external validation’ of the company's direction.

"Jon and I were getting too introspective and needed some fresh ideas. We were inward-facing. We knew each other so well that we could finish each other’s sentences – we had stopped challenging each other."

The first real change Matt and Jon implemented after joining TAB was to review their objectives as business owners.

“We looked at what we wanted to achieve personally with the business. We found they had changed significantly over the years, but thankfully, they were still aligned.

“We worked on a new business model focusing on extracting more value from the strategic contracts we had in place. We looked at our mission statement and concluded that it was previously too technical and not focused on the bigger picture.

“TAB has been a really positive experience for us. While it’s always difficult to directly link it to our TAB membership, there’s no doubt that it has helped us keep on target to achieve our desired 20% year-on-year growth.”