The University of Warwick Science Park has been celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, and we’ve been taking a look back at some of its long-time tenants or those connected to the Science Park to share their stories.
ADECS, an IT firm founded by Amrik Bhabra, currently counts the Science Park as one of its biggest customers, but actually started as a small tenant at the Science Park back in 1992.
Amrik remembers how IT businessman Fred Noble and Science Park director David Rowe both took chances on him early on in his career, and how Amrik similarly values the skill of talented young people to take his business forward.
We spoke to Amrik about how ADECS evolved with the times yet kept its core values to become to success it is today.
In the early 1990s, computer giant IBM was the dominant force in B2B IT hardware, with a large network of resellers in the UK and all over the world.
One of its most popular models at the time was the AS/400, which was resold in the Warwick area by a company called ASTrack, a one-man operation run by Fred Noble in the offices of fellow IT firm Microsis at the University of Warwick Science Park. He also happened to look after IBM’s graduate scheme in Warwick.
Around this time, a young IT student at DeMontfort University, Amrik Bhabra, was looking for a work placement as part of his degree.
He called up Microsis who told him about Fred, and that he was looking for his first employee. A lunch meeting was arranged at IBM Warwick in August 1992, and Fred offered something quite a bit bigger than a work placement.
“Fred wanted to start a new business, and wanted to bring me on board,” Amrik said. “I think he saw something in me and decided to take a chance despite me still being a student.”
From there, ADECS began working out of Microsis’s offices as an IBM and Microsoft operating system reseller. But just a few months later, Amrik’s career was set to take a dramatic turn.
“Fred said he was going to go to Australia for a month, and had the confidence to ask me to run the business while he was away,” he said.
“Of course, there was no high-speed internet or video calling in those days, so he had to place a lot of his trust in me which I found flattering, albeit quite daunting.”
But the recession of 1992 was a disaster for Microsis, which was wound up and resulted in bailiffs coming into the offices to take everything.
Amrik made sure everything belonging to ADECS was labelled so that bailiffs didn’t take it away, but the business was left homeless.
Amrik spoke to Geoff Wolfe, the number two to the Science Park’s director at the time, David Rowe, around finding new office space for ADECS. Geoff and David agreed, which began ADECS’ long association with the Science Park.
ADECS began to grow its customer base around the Midlands, mainly selling IBM hardware and Microsoft and Sage software to its clients.
“Having an address at the Science Park – one of the most prestigious business addresses in Coventry – rather than a home address like many start-ups, began to win us a lot of work,” Amrik said.
As ADECS expanded, David Rowe was working on a project with a Science Park in Russia, and was having trouble with his PC – which used a Linux operating system – during this project.
Amrik recalled: “David said ‘Can you fix my hard drive for me?’ And of course, I said I could. Once the fix was done, David offered us a contract to provide IT services for the Science Park, and they immediately became our largest client.
“David was supportive of young people, and I think he liked to see them flourish. It’s something we ended up valuing deeply too.”
ADECS’s recruitment policy was student-focused in a similar way to how Amrik was supported in his days as a student.
Amrik said: “Our model was to take on students to see how they coped with a working environment. If they were good, we would offer to hire them full-time after they completed their degree, which meant we picked up great talent early on. Many of our customers appreciated this attitude too.
“When Fred was mentoring me, he always taught me to be responsive and understanding. It’s something that led to me winning the contract with the Science Park, and those values are what I instil in all my employees so that our customers always feel able to raise any issues with us, knowing they will be dealt with quickly and professionally.”
Eventually, ADECS moved out of the Science Park having grown too big, taking up space in Mercia Business Park. But Amrik was still very much involved with the Science Park through sitting on boards and regularly taking part in networking events.
Through the Science Park, Amrik was introduced to Warwick Business School where he completed a business programme, and was also encouraged by David Rowe to join the Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, which not only expanded Amrik’s network but saw him become president of the organisation for a time.
It also moved into web-design and support by acquiring Maple, changing its name to ADECS-Maple as a result.
Now, ADECS-Maple turns over more than £1m per year and has a core team of 13 employees – 90 per cent of whom all came through student placements.
“The Science Park’s values of encouraging talent and enabling it to thrive, instead of staying cautious, has shaped my entire career and the fortunes of my business,” Amrik said.
“They took a chance on me, and when they saw I could be successful, they kept their faith, which is what I try and do in all aspects of my business dealings.
“IT is always a changing business. When I started it was mainly AS/400s and MS-DOS operating systems. Now, cloud computing and more recently AI systems are the main technologies being sold.
“But those early days of beating a recession and trusting in talent have stood us well for more than 30 years, and those skills will ensure we will succeed no matter how technology changes into the future.
“I think the Science Park is still very committed to those values as it celebrates its 40th anniversary, and I’m sure they will continue to demonstrate that spirit as it embarks on major projects into the future.”
