Life in the fast lane

Mr Milbourn loves getting on the road in his classic cars and bikes

Tony Milbourn, 53, has headed TTP Communications since its foundation in 1998.

The company, which designs software and microchips for telecoms applications, was floated on the London Stock Exchange in October 2000.

Mr Milbourn has over 20 years of experience in building and managing research and development teams within the wireless communications - and a penchant for tinkering with cars and motorbikes in his spare time.

What was your first car?

It was a 1947 MG TC - which I've still got and I was out in it about two weeks ago. But I have rebuilt it three times.

I've actually got quite a collection of cars and motorbikes.

But I wouldn't call myself a speed freak, especially as out of the eight bikes I have my favourite is a 1930s Sunbeam.

What was your first job?

My first job was working in a garage parts department. It was back in 1967.

I can't remember how much I was paid as its too long ago and I've forgotten.

I was selling car components over the counter. But that wasn't where my interest in cars and bikes started, it was actually the other way round and my interest got me the job.

What was your first house?

It was a mock Tudor semi in Hayes Middlesex, the last building on a peninsula going into a housing estate overlooking Boltwell Common and the old EMI factory. I bought it in 1975 for £12,500.

What's the best bit of business advice you've had?

Don't let anyone get between you and the detail of serious problems.

For any problems you have to be right there and hands on with nothing else in the way.

My old boss and chairman told me that 20 years ago and it's still a policy we try to work into life here.

Who is your biggest inspiration?

Isambard Kingdom Brunel, I did some of my PhD work at Brunel University and there was always the fantastic picture of him there with Thomas Telford next to him.

Basically he could do everything from picking the grasses on the embankments to choosing the coffee beans to the engineering itself.

He was a wonderful engineer who took a holistic approach to it, he was able to hold the whole of an idea in the palm of his hand - something I certainly can't do.

What can the government do to boost business?

I think they could encourage an entrepreneurial attitude that allows people to make mistakes and not be damned for failure.

What business story is grabbing your interest at the moment?

Vodafone and what's happening there and the roll out of 3G.

It's a big deal for our company as we supply them with some handset technology - the things that footballer David Beckham and racing driver Michael Schumacher have been showing in their adverts.

We supply our chips to Japan who supply handsets to Vodafone, so what happens next is incredibly important to us.

And with the roll out of the new 3G technology for the Christmas market we're very much looking forward to that and the Chinese new year 8-12 weeks later.

What's the biggest challenge facing business now?

I think we're looking at a forthcoming fuel crisis over the next few years, and how it will be managed.

Even a company like ours that isn't dependent on oil needs to prepare for the impact of such a crisis.

What was the proudest moment of your career?

That's opening The Sun in 1998 and seeing inside a photo of a phone by a Korean manufacturer which used our technology.

It was a Friday so we'd gone to the pub and as we were leafing through the paper, there was the phone. We were really, really chuffed.

For me it showed we had to have made it by that point and that's definitely the proudest moment of my career.

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Cambridge-based TPP Communications develops technology for mobile devices such as mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and wireless modules.

Its main markets are in the US and Asia with customers including Vodafone, Toshiba, Intel and Siemens

The group has 550 employees in 35 countries.

During 2003 over 20 million devices using TTP Communication's digital cellular technology were sold, while it brought in sales revenues of £49.6m for the 2003/4 financial year.