With surveys of businesses last week indicating that life has become much tougher north of the border, while official figures confirmed the Scottish labour market remained in rude health, experts were loathe to predict where the country's economy was headed.

It is safe to assume that even the most bullish entrepreneurs may want to revisit the plans they made before the first rumblings of the credit crunch last summer signalled that growth was set to slow following years of rapid debt-fuelled expansion.

However, after spending years adapting to cut-throat competition from overseas many Scottish manufacturers may regard the prospect of tough times with the confidence bred of familiarity.

This week, we highlight the experience of one Scottish engineering veteran who is prospering after helping reinvent the firm he co-owns to cope with the decline of the semi-conductor industry. Having completed an MBA in his fifties, Bob Jarvie provides proof that it is possible to teach mature dogs new tricks.

Name: Bob Jarvie.

Age: 57.

What is your business called? Pipework Systems and Installation (PSI).

Where is it based? Dalgety Bay, Fife, with a satellite office in Coatbridge, Lanarkshire.

What products and services does it offer? The company specialises in the design and manufacture of pumping and chemical metering systems for the wet process and water industries, and provides a mechanical and electrical service capability. Our clients include several blue-chip companies.

What is its turnover? £1.35m in 2007 with above industry profits.

How many employees? We employ 20 staff and are always looking out for suitable candidates.

When was it formed? Just over 10 years ago, to provide high purity pipework systems for the semiconductor industry.

Why did you take the plunge and what were you doing before you jumped? After serving an apprenticeship with the former British Steel Corporation as an instrument mechanic I had a number of jobs and found myself working for GEC as a service engineer on a whole range of industrial instrumentation.

At this time my next door neighbour, a horticultural adviser in the Clyde Valley, was bemoaning the fact that his tomato-growing clients were embracing the new technology of nutrient "film technique" but could not get to grips with the setting-up of the instrumentation to dose the required nutrients.

I offered to sort out one problem system and very quickly the word got around the farming community that I could help them.

It became apparent that there was an opportunity and enjoying the challenge I continued to work with the farmers, using the cash earned to invest in new tools and specialist test equipment. Also at this time I was being contacted by several egg producers that had intensively automated poultry units.

It came to such a stage that I had to decide whether to stay with GEC or start up in business. I resigned my job with GEC and started out as a self-employed engineer. This was quite daunting as I had a small amount of savings and a very young family with my wife still at home.

Within a year I had my first employee and bought my first service vehicle, a second-hand butcher's van. A very handy van as you could hang extension cables and tools from the meathooks.

These meagre beginnings provided the start for what became Franklin Controls, and successively over the years I built on the business.

When the tomato growing industry withered I was well established in a number of industries, with some blue-chip companies in the concrete and speciality chemical industries providing automatic control systems and chemical dispensing plant.

A major client base was the water industry, which at that time in Scotland (1990) was still devolved to local regional councils.

I developed Franklin to a turnover of £1.5m and brought on board IS09001, Investors in People. I also became an NICIEC-approved (the electrical contracting industry's independent voluntary body for installation matters) electrical contractor, and was also on the central board of the Electrical Contractors Association of Scotland, now called Select.

In 1996, I was approached by the Stiell Group based in Hamilton (now owned by McAlpine) and after some negotiation the business was sold for £200,000 and I joined them as a general manager.

I spent two years with Stiell to ensure the transition went smoothly, gaining exposure to the ways of much larger organisations.

Looking back at this period, it was one full of new experiences and learning, especially given that I had started out as a self-employed instrument mechanical without any business training whatsoever.

After this I did a variety of jobs with other small businesses and realised that I could do it again.

I then started another mechanical-electrical business called Russell Process Engineering along with another investor/director.

Initially this was successful and after two years the business had turnover of £240,000 and six employees.

It was clear that this small business would benefit from an amalgamation with my co-director's business and that there would be savings in administration and other overheads.

However, this did not turn out as hoped and I was not comfortable with the way this enlarged company was being managed and resigned my position and share holding.

I was not going to be put down by this and immediately set out once more to find clients. Within two weeks I had secured a two-week contract to commission a temporary chemical dosing plant on a water pipeline for a major civil engineering company in North Lancashire.

As the original M&E Company had financial difficulty, I found myself with the contract to complete the M&E works throughout the length of the pipeline. This work lasted about 18 months.

Having always been interested in business I felt that having an MBA would round off my credentials and prove that I had the capability of obtaining a higher degree.

I looked at the available courses and joined one at the University of Paisley Business School which ran over two-and-a-half years on Saturdays rather than evenings, which would have been impossible for me while working in England.

I thoroughly enjoyed this, although at some times it would have been easy to give up. The interchange with my fellow students and the lecturing staff was stimulating and rewarding and I some times wish I was back there.

Graduating with an MBA has given me an inner confidence when dealing with people and a respect from my peer group. It also taught me to take a step back and consider things, to compare and contrast opportunities and solutions to problems.

Why did you decide to invest in PSI? In very short order after I graduated I found myself working for one of the country's major consulting firms as a design team leader with a particular brief to rebuild one of their teams.

Around this time I came across Stuart Johnston, the managing director of PSI, who had been a subcontractor to me in the previous business. In my discussions with Stuart, it was clear that in the initial few years, as with many small companies, PSI had had varied fortunes and with the demise of the semiconductor industry was facing an uncertain future.

Recognising that the semiconductor industry was on the decline it was clear that PSI had to move into other markets and provide their clients with a more complete engineering package.

I saw an opportunity in PSI and after deliberation I made an investment in PSI and became business development director.

In my first year there were just six of us with a turnover of about £500,000 and a marginal profit.

Following a strategic plan involving targeted development of existing clients and new markets such as the water industry, we have consistently grown the business year on year with an equal increase in profitability.

We have consistently re-invested our profits with the result that we have little or no overdraft requirement and a solid balance sheet.

What was your biggest break? Being award a framework contract with Scottish Water, while still very much an unknown entity.

What was your worst moment? Having to admit defeat after the amalgamation of my second business and the acrimonious resignation as a director and shareholder.

What do you most enjoy about running the business? The cut and thrust of winning orders and particularly the challenge of bringing on new clients. I also get a great deal of pleasure working with the Scottish Chamber of Commerce as a business mentor.

What do you least enjoy? The amount of work tendering and preparing proposals which are often used by companies for budgets and are never ultimately awarded as contracts.

What is the most important lesson you have learned? Not to try and do everything myself, but to delegate and give that person the autonomy and support to succeed.

What are your ambitions for the company? To build a company of engineering excellence in our particular field. I also believe that the company's skill base has expanded to such an extent that we can offer products and services out with the chemical dosing and wet process industries.

What are your top priorities? Avoid complacency; develop more business in the north of England; diversify into other markets such as the energy industry and nuclear decommissioning; introduce a succession plan within the business.

What single thing could the Scottish Government do that would most help businesses like yours? I did my master's dissertation on the skill shortage in Scotland and in that I identified the difficulties facing companies in the way government bodies place relatively short-term contracts (typically for one financial year or at best three). These do not allow businesses to develop long-term strategies for training.

I believe that government should have long-term relationships with their suppliers allowing them to develop long-term training strategies and that training provision should be included in the tendering process.

How do you relax? Summer is for golf, cycling and gardening; during the winter biggest passion is gourmet cooking. It takes me all summer to work off the gourmet meals.