A conversation with… Paul McCoy

We sat down with Digs Val a while ago who gave us a brief insight into the start-up of JZero Solutions.  Today co-founder Paul McCoy gives us a peak into the values behind the company and what makes it tick…


Q: Paul, have you always been involved in learning & development?  If not, what drew you to the industry?
A: My early career was in engineering, in particular a niche field called cathodic protection which was for the oil and gas industry.  From engineering I moved into banking IT, and then finally into Learning and Development.  Our first break at JZero was working for the Department of Education.  This directed the JZero path early on, as we worked with various educational institutions and departments to provide solutions to their problems.  Although my Mother always said I would be a good teacher so, as usual, mothers know everything first!

Q: You started back in 1997 with your business partner Digant Val, how did you both meet?
A: We met whilst I was working for Banque Paribas in Marlyebone, London where we both ended up in the same department looking after back-office IT system for the bank.  I was originally employed to help with the testing of a large Bank of England Reporting System, and my efforts in that team allowed me to progress to the main Business IT team that Digs was already part of.  There was something about Digs that made even the hardest problem just another simple small step forward, and he had a spiritual calmness that made me think we could create something together.

Q: What made you decide to start the company?
A: I have always been looking forward, looking to see what is next.  IT is a future technology, where you are always building the next thing; taking things further than before, imagining what could come next.  This sort of attitude always makes you look around and envisage what is around the corner.  Digs and I saw the oncoming revolution in outsourcing to India which, together with some fateful events that allowed us to start, resulted in discussion then ended with the handshake from which everything else has come since.

Q: If you could return to when you started the company in 1997 and give yourself once piece of advice, what would it be?
A: Focus.  Focus all your energy on one thing, and only then move on to the next thing.

Q: Can you tell us something that not many people know about JZero Solutions?
A: I’m not sure what people know, but that word ‘”solutions” is not just tacked on to our company name to sound good.  It is actually what we have always been about, taking complex problems, making them simple, and providing solutions to those problems.  The etymology of the word ‘JZero’ is abut taking complex things and making them simple.  I see everything as puzzles that need solving, and the only way to solve them is to break them down into simple things that everyone can understand.  JZero Solutions!

Q: What three words best describe JZero?
A: Hmm that’s a hard one.  And an easy one!  Creation, Abundance and Learning!  Our vision of “Creating Wealth Through Learning” is all about everyone having their own vision of what ‘wealth’ is.  Wealth is an ‘abundance of something’ and that something is different for every company, every employee, every department head, every learner.  Finding out what that is, and how we can use learning to create more of it, is what JZero is about.  That’s a puzzle worth solving….!

A big thank you to Paul for this brief insight into the ethos behind JZero Solutions, I for one will spend the rest of the day working out what my ‘wealth’ is.

 – Coming soon an interview with Technical Ops Director Matt Eggby….

Until then; Happy Learning!

Christina Brolly

For more information on the services provided please email info@jzero.com or check out the website http://www.jzero.com

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