I HAVE been lucky in my career, working for a variety of companies in a variety of jobs across several countries. I’d like to think I have learnt something from that experience.
In addition, time spent as a management consultant (which I did for four years) forces you to clarify your views about what is important, what works and how things should be done.
My first jobs were in marketing. In good marketing companies, you learn that marketing is as much about getting the product or service right as it is about advertising and promotion.
A nice example of this arises from my current job and the relaunch of Gatwick Express. Many train companies relaunched and rebranded as soon as they were privatised.
This was seen by many customers as just a cosmetic exercise. Nothing was achieved. My predecessors took the decision to postpone the relaunch until the process of replacing all our existing trains with new ones had begun. You have to get the product right and not just the packaging.
You also learn in marketing that people’s perceptions are incredibly important and that perceptions are influenced by a range of factors. Word-of-mouth publicity is crucial. This is especially the case when you are in the service business.
There are few things more persuasive than a recommendation from someone who has used a service. Equally there are few things more off-putting than negative word-of-mouth. This is as true of garages and hairdressers as it is of a train service.
One of the things that Gatwick Express has to do is to preserve a distance between itself and other train companies that have received so much negative publicity. This is an objective we share with Heathrow Express. We prefer to be seen as part of the travel industry rather than the rail industry and that is certainly how we feel.
Another truth about service businesses is the importance of the frontline and the people who work on it. This is the line where a company interacts with its customers. It used to be said at Cadbury Schweppes that ‘your people won’t be good to your customers unless you are good to your people’.
I have a clear view about what ‘being good to your people’ implies. I believe it means being honest and fair and treating them as individuals. Having spent some time as an assessor on the Investors in People programme, I concluded the single most important element in gaining an Investors in People award is treating staff as individuals.
It is especially important in service businesses because dealing with the public is not always easy.
Customers have high expectations and some of them can be unforgiving. The only way that companies can respond to this is by having high and professional standards (and applying them consistently) and by being supportive of front-line staff.
My job at Gatwick Express is my third stint as managing director and I ought to have learnt something about leadership. The best single thing I know that was said about leadership was ‘leadership is example and example, leadership’.
This is similar to the idea that people judge us by what we do rather than what we say. We demonstrate what we think is important much more by our actions than our words.
If I walk along a platform in front of people and ignore the litter, that says something. However, if I pick it up and dispose of it, it says far more about the importance of clean platforms than any number of memos.
Another crucial ingredient of leadership is good communication and not simply the formal means of communication.
When I worked for Del Monte, the European vice-president delegated his in-tray and spent a large part of his time simply walking about and talking to people: listening as well as speaking.
He was always incredibly well informed and much respected and appreciated. A useful lesson for everyone who is responsible for other people.
1969-1980: Cadbury Schweppes: various jobs including marketing manager of Schweppes and Cadbury. Ended up as director of Cadbury Schweppes Europe Ltd and head of western Europe franchising division.
1980-1983: Carnation International European marketing director.
1983-1986: Del Monte UK: managingdirector, during which time he launched the ‘Man from Del Monte’ campaign.
1986-1989: Thorn EMI: managing director of electronic publishing subsidiary and director of Datasolve Ltd.
1989-1994: Competitive Advantage Programmes Ltd: co-founder and consultant with firm specialising in strategy development, culture change and customer service. Clients included British Red Cross, Freshfields, Bass and Rank Hovis MacDougal.
1994-present: South West Trains, commercial director; Great Eastern, deputy managing director; Gatwick Express, managing director.
l Be positive: remember the bottle is half full not half empty. Progress always depends on this attitude. Problems are part of life, always look for their solution.
l Be reliable: do what you said you’d do and by when you said. A quality that’s surprisingly rare and one which will get you noticed.
l Be realistic: don’t waste energy wishing you could start from somewhere else. Your colleagues won’t thank you for it and it won’t help you move forward.
l Be helpful: to customers, colleagues and staff. This is the essence of good service and team work. It’s amazing how much credit it will earn you