Over the past few weeks we’ve been turning the spotlight on some individual members of Wrightstyle staff.
Because any company is only as good as the people who work for it.
And we like to think that every one of our team here at Wrightstyle is special in their own way.
This week we’re featuring Lewis Martin, who is in our estimating office and has worked for Wrightstyle for three years.
His job involves deconstructing a project and working out what each component will cost us to fabricate.
It’s a set of skills that involves thinking clearly and precisely, because many of our projects are highly complex.
But it’s a mental agility that lends itself to another of Lewis’ talents – the art of playing a game that came from India sometime before the 7th century.
In its most simplistic form, chess is quite similar to a large puzzle. In order to “solve” a chess game, players must use problem-solving skills to decide which pieces they should move.
It’s therefore a game that is an exercise in competitive problem solving, a mirror to Lewis’ day job helping us compete in a tough marketplace.
But Lewis is no mere player. He’s actually a FIDE Master – having won the annual English Deaf Chess Association tournament six times as well as numerous others.
He’s also taken part in European and World Deaf Individual and Team Championships, as well as the Chess Olympiad last year.
There is much evidence of the value of chess in developing cognitive skills, which is one reason why the game remains so popular.
But, while we don’t know if playing chess makes him a great estimator, or if it’s the other way around, we’re very glad to have Lewis on the Wrightstyle team.
