In this exclusive interview, we sit down with Dr. Simon Pringle. As CEO at Horsham-based Red River Software, Simon is passionate about channelling his creativity into solutions that reshape industries. He ardently advocates lifelong learning and finds fulfilment in inspiring others to embark on similar growth journeys.
Simon is also known for his roles in various organisations within and outside the Gatwick Diamond area. He has served as a Department of Education advisor on roundtable digital skills planning, been a Director of the Gatwick Diamond Initiative since 2015, and held positions as a board member and Digital Champion for the Sussex Chamber of Commerce LSIP (Local Skills Improvement Plan).
Simon also brings his expertise to the Skills 360 Board for Coast to Capital and he serves as a member of the Industrial Advisory Board for the Faculty of Computing, Engineering, and Mathematics at the University of Brighton.
in 2016, his relentless contribution to the region was acknowledged when he was announced as Gatwick Diamond’s Business Person of the Year.
In this exclusive interview, we discuss resilience and how to overcome challenges in both personal and professional spheres. Additionally, we discuss the unique opportunities within The Gatwick Diamond region, as well as Simon’s unwavering commitment to enhancing local skills.
Who are Red River Software, and what makes you so unique?
Red River Software is a software development company. We work with high-growth businesses, trying to turn them into very tech-focused, high-value businesses. We work with high-growth SMEs; we also do some work with the government.
I think what makes us unique is that we’re a bunch of very people-centric, clever people who can solve difficult problems very fast.
How do you ensure you have the necessary skills to meet industry demands?
The main focus of most businesses is to automate their businesses and be in contact with all parts of their enterprise: their suppliers, their customers, their partners, their staff – everybody needs to be in contact.
What we find is that our business is about joining everything together; it’s about automating businesses.
We live in a world at the moment where skills shortages are affecting all businesses. Replace manual processes with automatic processes. That touches on things such as mobile apps, web apps, and AI – trying to bring in and shorten the time to do things that don’t really add too much value to their business so they can concentrate on what’s the unique part of their own businesses.
Do you believe that the Gatwick Diamond region is well-positioned to address these challenges?
We’re a high-tech business. We hire some very skilled people. Red River has spent a lot of time being involved in a lot of initiatives in terms of government education and business initiatives to try and help upskill the workforce around here.
We’ve been involved with degree apprenticeship programs with the local skills improvement plan. We have an amazing outreach program in the schools and colleges around here. We’re trying to make people aware of this sector, which is a great one to get into, and we’re trying to make it a more diverse sector as well.
When you say ‘software engineer’, ‘software developer’, or ‘coder’, everybody’s just now imagined exactly what they look like. That’s not the case anymore. It is getting more diverse and has to become a more diverse industry where people with different skills, business skills, and problem-solving skills can get into this sector really easily – and have a very good and lucrative career.
I think the good thing about the Gatwick Diamond Initiative and the Gatwick Diamond Business Association is that they realise the difficulties that were being faced by businesses in this area. They put a lot of effort into trying to bring together all groups and all people in education and business and government to try and solve the problems that are there and try to highlight some of the issues and try to come up with solutions for them.
What drives your involvement in regional initiatives?
I’ve been involved as a director of the Gatwick Diamond Initiative and on the executive council of Gatwick Diamond Business.
Getting involved in the initiatives I do, I think we’re all part of a community that needs to support each other. It’s a long-term social responsibility that I take on, and my company takes on, just to try and make this region prosper. That’s why we get involved in things.
Some of the things we get involved with don’t have an immediate goal or an immediate return for us as a business, but we believe that we all need to rub our sleeves up and muck in and make it a better place.
You joined Red River in 2008, just before the global financial slump. More recently, we’ve encountered a Global pandemic. What have these global events taught you about resilience?
Our resilience as a business comes from the fact we’re quite diverse. We don’t rely on one sector. If we picked aviation, for example, as a sector to service, we’d probably not be talking today, or it would just be me rather than a big team of people.
Resilience comes from the fact that you get to spot the problems and react instantly. You’ve got to gamble; you’ve got to gamble with it all the time. You’ve got to make instant decisions, and we’re still alive because we made some very quick, very good decisions along the way.
And you’ve got to ride with it. You’ve got to live with the sleepless nights, and you’ve got to come up with solutions very quickly. I think in Britain, it’s [resilience] built into some people. You just get used to being able to deal with problems, and I’m a problem solver as well. So they [the global challenges] are not necessarily a bad thing. You feel quite good.
When we went into lockdown, we sold the lease on our building and went remote. We completely changed the way that we run. From going from one office, like many people, to being separate, we expanded the way we recruited. So we didn’t just pick people from the local area who commute there.
We’ve got teams in Portugal now; we’ve got teams around the country. And if you think about it, everything that happens generally leads to something else. That’s good, and it can be an opportunity.
We’re a software business that specialises in automation and creating platforms to run businesses. What a great opportunity now, when everybody suddenly needs to automate their businesses and needs to create platforms to run their operations. We looked at it; we talked to our customers; we pushed the automation message we have been pushing for 15 years, and suddenly, the world decides that: we were right and they need to automate. So, turning a crisis into an opportunity is what you’ve got to do.
We’ve been growing about 20% per year since the beginning of lockdown. And if you look at some of the statistics, digital transformation plans were accelerated 30 to 50 times because they had to do it within a month. Their plans – plans which they were earmarked for a five-year transformation – had to go to a one-month duration. So, we’re the company that helps people do that!
Would a Northern Runway at Gatwick Airport help?
I think the Northern runway will really help people’s perception of Gatwick. It’s always been that the Government has seen it as the poor relative of Heathrow, but I think it’s a very dynamic and agile airport run by some pretty clever people. I think it [the Northern runway] will help the prosperity of the region.
Obviously, there’s the green agenda that is coming up there, so I’d like the Northern runway to come with a good vision of how the planet is going to be saved. As a scientist, this is going to be the biggest thing in the next few years.
So yes, I think it will help. I wouldn’t like to see too many more planes in the sky without people seeing how they’re going to offset the damage it causes. But I think, as a business owner, you’re torn. You’ve got to have social responsibilities, but you still want this area to be very dynamic and prosperous.
We’ve got very good links with some places around the world, and some of the long-haul stuff that’s been brought into Gatwick is great. I think the expansion will only build on that.