In 1956 a Glasgow firearms expert named Geoffrey Boothroyd wrote to Ian Fleming to tell him James Bond was carrying the wrong gun.
The Beretta, he said, was unserious. A professional would carry something else.
Fleming did not take offence. He took the advice. Bond was rearmed, and the armourer who issued the weapon was named after the man who wrote the letter: Major Boothroyd, better known as Q.
That is this practice in one anecdote. The outside specialist who tells you what you have got wrong, and is right.
Insiders hear Q branch. Everyone else hears an engineering firm that has been around a long time. Both readings are useful.
I spent fifteen years designing and running connectivity for operations that could not afford to stop, and I kept being called in after the decision had already been made. Usually the equipment was fine. The thinking around it was not.
Boothroyd exists to be involved earlier than that. You get me on the work, not a proposal team followed by somebody you have never met.
Adam Steadman
Founder
One surname, three engineers: the consultant who corrected Bond's kit, a winner of the US National Medal of Technology, and the designer of the BBC Micro.
One address. It reaches the principal, not a queue.
adam@boothroydgroup.com