30 Years of Bond Solon: An Interview with Piers Lawson

In honour of Bond Solon’s 30th anniversary, we sat down with managing director, Piers Lawson, to find out what he believes is the key ingredient to the organisation’s longevity:

Firstly, many congratulations not only on the 30th anniversary of Bond Solon, but on your own 25th year with the business; a fantastic achievement!??From your perspective, in what ways has the company grown to where it’s at today?

“Thank you! In many ways we have been trailblazers, with much of our success attributed to our ability to identify markets where training was either limited or non-existent. Bond Solon was founded in 1992 by Mark Solon, who identified a gap in the market for expert witness training. Today, expert witness training is regarded as a core requirement for anyone who acts as an expert and remains a fundamental part of our business; but now sits alongside other core areas: witness familiarisation, health and social care, investigations, and employment training.

Our client base is expansive. Not just limited to those operating in the legal sphere, but we support a diverse range of organisations and professionals across the public and private sector.”

Q: What has been one of the most significant changes seen during Bond Solon’s three decades?

“Bond Solon is an agile organisation, always adapting to socio-economic and technological trends, as well as the needs of our clients. A primary example of this was a response to the global pandemic. Prior to Covid-19, all our training was delivered face to face in a classroom, but in a very short space of time we had redesigned our training programmes to accommodate the new normal of live virtual classrooms.

These days, we now offer a hybrid model of delivery, with clients often commenting that our virtual offering is just as personal, interactive and engaging as our face-to-face offering. The offering of virtual has also led to being able to offer training more easily internationally.

Our breadth of training has also expanded over the years – ?we have an A to Z of professions we work with, from accountants to zoologists, from waste enforcement offers, malpractice units, HR departments, professional standards units to serious fraud investigators - and everything in between. Our trainers are very skilled in adapting and contextualising our training programmes to this ever growing diverse client base.”

Q: Looking back over your personal 25 years with the business, what do you believe have been the key milestones for Bond Solon?

“Today we work with a number of national awarding bodies and universities, such as Pearson’s, Cardiff University and the University of Aberdeen, and have created nationally recognised qualifications and certifications. This has enabled our clients not only to undertake training but also be able to demonstrate they have the core competencies and knowledge in their area.”

Q: What do you enjoy the most about working with Bond Solon?

“The work is so varied and no two days are the same. We deal with so many interesting pieces of work and learn a lot about our clients’ businesses and the challenges they face; I truly find it fascinating.?I’m also proud of our ability to ?remain agile adjusting or introducing new training and services with very little lead in time as and when new needs are identified. ?

I also want to mention the people: our team are true experts and together we all work hard with the?common goal to manage, exceed and delight our clients in every interaction we have with them.”

Q: What makes you proud to be a member of the Bond Solon team?

“Speaking with people after their training and hearing their feedback. It’s testament to the strength of our team and our offerings that we have such a loyal client base, with many returning and/or recommending our training programmes to their teams and colleagues. ?

Finally, it always amazes me how many people you meet outside of work who are aware of Bond Solon. As a company with only 26 people, I always think this is quite something! I can be at a drinks reception or industry event, and someone will know us or know someone who has been trained by us.”

Q: What’s next in company’s journey?

“Data, data, data: we’re investing in technology and data, such as our digital hub, to enhance our customer experience. By better profiling our delegates and clients, we can understand them better and can add greater value by providing them with ongoing timely information, content and training to ensure they can stay are up to date and current to undertake their roles with confidence.”

?Q: Finally, any interesting or unusual facts about Bond Solon you wish to share?

“Did you know that we provide training in managing hostage situations and the use of handcuffs and batons? We have also provided witness familiarisation on many high profile cases, such as the Manchester Arena enquiry.”

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