There can’t be many 22-year-old chief executives of global manufacturing and design companies that run more than 100 factories.
But if you know of one, you should probably listen to them, and Aberdeen oil companies are doing just that.
Josh Valman’s travels quite often take him to the Granite City, where the entrepreneur teaches oil companies how to get innovative new products to market quickly and cheaply.
Consumer electronics makers are the traditional clients of his company, RPD International, and Josh has noticed some telling differences between sectors.
Josh will flag up some of those contrasts in his presentation at the fourth annual ITF Technology Showcase at the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre on March 1.
He said: “Oil and gas has a much higher standard for testing so their speed of getting to market is slower.
“There are acceptable reasons for that, in terms of health and safety, of course.
“What is very different is the bureaucracy, and that doesn’t need to be there.
“It’s not about throwing the regulations out of the window, but why should it be a 15 year process?”
Josh is chipping away at energy firms’ traditional attitudes to product development.
Lead times of eight to 15 years won’t cut the mustard, he believes.
And if you want something done fast and to a high standard, then Josh is just the guy.
He has achieved a lot.
Josh began his robotics engineering aged 10, inspired by the television show Robot Wars.
By his mid-teens, he was consulting companies on how they could use Chinese production to cut cost.
RPD International was valued at £1million within its first six months.
It now has offices in London, Holland, China and Singapore.
Josh believes oil companies would do well to go back to a “cardboard and matchsticks” mentality when making prototypes, instead of splurging millions on metal.
He also thinks other industries might have the answer to some of the oil sector’s problems in the sphere of testing.
If oil companies do some digging, they might just find that the technology they have been developing, or something very similar to it, may already have been tested in another sector like aerospace.
By using existing evidence, oil firms could take a large bite out of those exorbitant lead times.
Josh thinks time is of the essence.
“When the oil price is up it’s always build, build, build – test it and get on with it,” Josh said.
“When the oil price is down there are lots of spare resources because things aren’t being used.
“So now is the perfect time to look at innovation to get those things in place so you’re ahead of the game.
“If you only start innovating when the price goes up you’ll have missed the boat. By the time you’re ready for market the price will be down again.”
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