STG Bright Lights Series: Kate Williams
We met with Brand Marketing Manager, Kate Williams, for our latest STG Bright Lights feature.
In a nutshell, tell us a little about your career journey before joining STG.
My background is in marketing, primarily business to business, and working within service industries, health and safety, energy, etc. When I joined STG in September of 2019, it was my first time working in the aerospace sector, which has been a very interesting area to work, and particularly challenging during the pandemic.
What made you choose the aerospace manufacturing industry?
The aerospace industry definitely intrigued me in many ways. STG in particular caught my attention for their focus on innovation. It was a new and exciting industry for me, but a lot of what we do at STG is about safety, through the emergency exit systems we provide. Being part of that and contributing to a product that ultimately supports saving people’s lives, is an incredible privilege.
How has connecting globally with people influenced your thinking or approach in your current role here?
Prior to joining STG, I worked primarily within the UK. As STG provides solutions across the globe, I now get to interact and work with many different people, all over the world. It’s so interesting for me to learn about the regional differences in terms of the colour preferences in certain locations and also to provide our signage solutions in a wide range of wonderful languages. Overall, it's exciting to get an understanding of different cultures and regions, and aligning our sales teams in different parts of the world, to support our global customer base.
What’s been your favourite moment at STG so far?
Some of my favourite memories here have been recently through the pandemic, particularly the virtual team events we’ve done. We held a virtual quiz last year with the team, and we had colleagues from our Miami office join in. Even though we couldn’t have in-person events at the time, it was great fun to see everyone and get to know them through an informal team event.
What’s something you’ve learnt from STG?
The importance of working collaboratively, especially in a small organisation. We work in such a technical industry, with so many intricate moving parts, its essential we work closely and cross-functionally. The research and development team has to be in constant communication with the quality team, and checking in with the engineers and sales team, to ensure everything is of the correct quality, passes our in-house testing procedures and has all the relevant paperwork and certifications to help make our customers lives easier. All the departments that touch the products along its life cycle means we’re always working together collaboratively. For me, I love being part of that whole process and being able to easily work with the wider team, so I know how to best communicate the information about our systems and how we support our customers with their lighting requirements.
What does a typical day in your life look like as a Brand Marketing Manager?
No two days look the same, which makes my job very interesting!
One day I could be working on our internal newsletter, the next day I could be on a photoshoot of a new product, speaking to a customer or managing our presence at an international trade show.
I love the variety, it involves everything from market analysis, event management, customer experience, content management and internal communications.
So a typical day? There really isn’t one and I love that.
Why would you recommend working at STG?
For me, it’s about our core values. We’re an SME and have a really strong team culture. We work hard and ask a lot of our people. But there is also a great sense of fun and real commitment to support each other and our customers. Plus there is often fantastic homemade cake available, as we have a few amazing bakers in the office!
Being part of a smaller organization means wearing a few hats and get involved and experience a range of projects, which is an opportunity you can miss out on at larger organisations.
We have a big focus on wellbeing, especially throughout the challenges of the past few years. We've adapted really quickly to be able to work in this new environment. Obviously there have been challenges along the way, but we've managed to keep our people safe and delivered all requirements to our customers, even through the darkest days of the pandemic. And I’m really proud to have been part of that.
Tell us something unexpected about STG
It may not be that unexpected if you are in the aerospace industry, but coming from a service industry background, I love the fact we have a cabin simulator in our Cwmbran office!
We use it for testing our products, showcasing products to our clients, and for photos and videos. It’s great because you get to really experience our systems in there. Having a mini airplane just down the corridor from my office is still exciting to me!