Carter, John

A-List 2006

Job title: Managing director.

Company: DMSL.

Year of birth: 1957.

Place of birth: Gravesend.

Career outline: I started selling office equipment with Wilding. I then spent 20 years at Brother and ended up as managing director of its PC business. I left to run my own consultancy and worked for various channel companies. I set up DMSL four years ago to focus on developing the opportunity presented by BT broadband and related services and we’ve been growing every year since.

What motivates you every morning to get up and work in the channel? It’s a dynamic, exciting environment.

What has been the most over-hyped technology in the past five years? Call centres, because they have taken away the personal touch. For 20 years I have always believed that you need local service from a local supplier, which you can’t do from thousands of miles away. Nothing beats face-to-face contact.

What will be the most underrated technology in the next five years? Broadband in all its forms. It will – it has already to some extent – become a way of life. People expect it to be there, whether they are at home, in the office, on a railway station or in the middle of nowhere. It will become all-pervasive and people will expect to be able to connect anytime, anyplace, anywhere.

Which technology would you most like to have invented? A really easy-to-use, online credit management system that could solve all the problems that businesses have with bad debts and late payments.

Do you have any regrets from your time in the industry? I can’t say that I do. It keeps moving and it’s been a lot of fun. I’ve made lots of friends and very few enemies. I would not change much, if anything, about the way it’s gone.

If you could swap places with anyone in the industry, who would it be? I would not swap places with anyone. We are in control of our own destiny here and that’s worth one heck of a lot. The security of working for a large corporation is overrated. Nothing beats making your own decisions and building up a business without having to cut through all the red tape.

What is the biggest hurdle you have faced in your career? Giving up the comfort of the corporate life and striking out on my own. I did not know where the next penny was coming from at times, but I was always confident that it would come, and it did.

What is the biggest success of your career? Taking DMSL from zero to where we are today in just over three years and building up a successful, well-established, innovative company that is not afraid to do things differently.

What piece of technology could you not live without? Broadband.

What would be your advice to anyone starting a career in IT? Go for it.

What would you like for Christmas if you could have anything? Definitely not a BlackBerry, but a few more hours in the day would be useful.

What is your favorite karaoke song? I Did It My Way, by Frank Sinatra.

What would be the title of your autobiography? Think Big.

Do you have any phobias? No.

How many beers before you fall over? 10.

Number of staff you manage? 50.

What is your golf handicap? 18.

What car do you drive? Audi.

Number of air miles you have? 0.