40th Anniversary
It is the strangest sensation to reflect on 40 years developing the one company and, in this first of a series of articles to be published during 2010, I want to reflect on some key memories and try to touch upon the secrets of corporate survival.
David Perkins and I put our first brass plate on the wall of 32 Waterloo Street on 1st January 1970. Our start-up capital was £5,000 which we had begged and borrowed from our respective families, and that was enough to decorate three rooms and put some cheap carpet on the floor together with two filing cabinets and three desks. Unlike many firms starting in 2010, we did not have a portfolio to bring with us, we thought we knew where it might come from but on the opening day the filing cabinets were empty.
We set out to build a business based on strong moral ethics, treating our employees and our customers as we would wish to be treated ourselves and I hope that is still how we trade today. The breakdown of the partnership between David Perkins and myself happened in 1983, but I suppose 13 years is a not insignificant time together?
My keenest memories are of the people with whom we were associated over the 40 years, whilst I was out generating business there had to be someone on whom I could depend to run the office and that “rock” was David Darlaston. He was followed by Peter Thompson. whose first job was to fly out to Liberia in West Africa to secure a large industrial account there, and then Harry Towers who brought his Cumbrian pragmatism to the Company for ten key years as Managing Director. I believe we were the first non-national broker to appoint an FCA as Financial Director when Roger Tipple joined us 1983 and then Nigel Lloyd gave up a career with Stewart Wrightson to join us to head up the Financial Services operation, followed by Wayne Robertson with whom we bought J A Sayer & Co in Petersfield.
I think it is true to say that brokers reflect their clients and vice versa and so in the ‘70s and ‘80s we attracted a wide range of businesses which were headed up by individualistic owners who reflected the same ambitious vision that we all had. The 1980s was a hugely exciting time, Margaret Thatcher had come to power promising to challenge the might of the Trade Unions and that created an environment where everything was “go go”. The Unlisted Securities Market (the forerunner to AIM) contained over 20 of our then clients, entrepreneurs were throwing off the strangulation of overt socialism and were looking for ways to do business. It was probably the most exciting decade of the last four when we grew by an astonishing 800% but, to young people in their 40s, the effort that was needed was there for the asking.
We realised that could not continue and that we had to change and prepare ourselves for the next economic climate, far easier to say than do. The management training companies who tell you that change is the most challenging of all management disciplines are absolutely right. I believe it is important to listen to what those consultants advise but at the end of the day one cannot abrogate the responsibility of doing it yourself.
If our Marketing Manager allows me another article, I will expand on dozens of other individuals who have played a part in the Company’s existence and it is all those people who are the secret of our survival. They enthusiastically adopted our ethical commitment to customers and suppliers, they were not personally greedy, there was no politics being played and everyone was focused on fulfilling the vision of ethical service to our customer base.
David Slade
31/12/09
