Our founding directors, Richard and Mark met back in 1984 when both were involved in the defence sector, Richard as a Design Engineer and Mark as a Captain in the British Army. An immediate friendship sprang up and over many years, many wines and many whiskies the ethics, approach and the solutions of TSA Europe were formed.
Following his successful career as an Engineer, Richard went into the world of sales and used his engineering expertise to provide CAD/CAM solutions (a technology that was very much in its infancy) to large corporations. Richard stayed in the technology sector moving quickly from technology sales to solutions and services, and then into the world of management consultancy. Due to his success Richard was promoted very quickly, ultimately becoming a board director of a London Stock Exchange (LSE) listed business just after his 35th birthday. During this period Richard gained valuable expertise in a range of vertical sectors and business horizontals and continued to direct and manage an exceptional level of performance in his ever expanding role. During this time Richard became interested in Behavioural Psychology, having met an eminent scientist in this field on a flight from London to Boston. After this encounter in 1995, Richard decided to return to education to become a qualified Behaviourist. Richard describes those years immediately after qualifying as his "laboratory” years where he applied and measured the impact of leading edge Behavioural science in the practical world of business, leadership and high level operational performance.
During the same period Mark’s career in the British Army progressed, resulting in him winning a place at the Army Staff College in 1992, where he studied to take on executive leadership roles in the British Army. These included NATO peacekeeping and negotiation, active service and defence procurement. Mark continued to develop his strategic business and leadership skills resulting in him completing his Masters. Throughout his career, Mark had been intimately involved in new educational and behavioural methods to deliver high performance. This resulted in Mark being made responsible for the Army’s Virtual Battlefield initiative a deep simulation programme designed to develop and sustain behavioural change in complex and dangerous environments. In 1997 Mark made the transition to the private sector defence industries and his leadership skills and understanding of human behaviour made him an ideal candidate for leading major bids for complex simulation technologies and human development programmes.
In 2000, Richard and Mark founded the forerunner of TSA Europe a small consultancy practice that was focused on driving additional performance from existing sales teams. As Richard, our MD, says, “Sales is the most openly exposed area in terms of performance management, every year the targets go up and the budgets go down, so driving individual and group performance is not only necessary but critical”.
The following year TSA Europe was born with the sole and explicit aim of making new methodologies and managing practices based on leading edge behavioural science available to those companies that wish to significantly increase performance. In the last ten years we have become recognised as a leading company in this field and we are proud to be one of the longest running Human Performance Management consultancies in the world with a total and absolute focus on our clients.