A pioneering CEO has spelled out his philosophy for success when it comes to getting the best out of his 4,600-strong workforce – “trust people” and “be kind to them”.
James Timpson OBE, the boss of the Timpson Group, said the approach led to a culture of inspired colleagues, better performance and, in turn, greater profit.
The philanthropist and Chancellor of Keele University was speaking at the first in a series of Big Business Breakfast events organised by Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce.
Hosted at the bet365 Stadium, it also included presentations by Adam Whitehouse, pictured speaking above, founder of Newcastle-under-Lyme digital device repair company TMT First, HR expert Perry Smith, from Hays specialist recruitment, and the Chamber’s Tom Nadin.
They followed introductions by the Chamber’s new CEO Rachel Laver and Stoke City’s Simon King.
Addressing the 150-strong audience James, whose family-run company owns 2,084 shoe repair and multi-service shops around the UK – as well as a number of other businesses – told how he looked to change things when he took the reins two decades ago.
He said: “When I took over, the shoe repair trade was very male, very old fashioned and very top-down management. I didn’t like it, nor the way people weren’t respected.
“It was same as the 1960s and hadn’t changed at all.
“So, I went away and read a lot of business books and studied a lot of companies. I found that the ones I admired trusted their people and they were kind to them. I wanted a company that replicated that.
“In our business this is how it works – we have two rules: you put the money in the till and you look the part. That’s it.
“What you find in a lot of businesses, especially in the public sector, is they have quite a lot of rules and guidelines.
“People turn up to work and think they have to follow these rules, guidelines and processes because if they don’t they will get told off.
“What we found is if you have two, or a few, simple rules and let everyone get on with it everyone performs a lot better.
“You actually needed fewer people to run things and everything seems to work a lot better.”
James said colleagues were able to order their own stock, produce their own shop displays, decide when they have a break, and charge what they like as long as it is within the Timpson’s price list structure.
“That is how we trust people and what it means is we have taken away the excuses that they can’t perform,” James added.
“Equally, the kinder you are to people the better they perform and the more money they make.
“So what we do is look everywhere around the world to see what benefits companies use to inspire their colleagues and we just do them.
“We nick every idea possible – the expensive; the cheap – the more we do it the better the business performs.”
James explained the incentives included the free use of holiday homes, having birthdays off and extra leave for other important events, a small loans scheme and a ‘Dreams Come True’ initiative.
He added: “Our colleagues are amazing and if you want them to deliver that amazing service to customers you need to make sure they turn up to work inspired.”
- The next Big Breakfast event takes place on June 26. It focuses on Economic Insights and guest speakers are Vicky Price, Chief Economic Adviser at the Centre for Economics and Business Research and Graeme Chaplin, West Midlands Agent for the Bank of England. More details can be found here.
