Description
The Business Review
www.impactexecutives.com
+44 (0)20 7314 2011
THE GREENER FACE OF GLOBALISATION
CHARLES HANDY ON A NEW WAY OF GIVING
KENICHI OHMAE: SEER OF THE BORDERLESS WORLD
the
business review
ISSUE 18
THE THEME FOR THIS ISSuE is the world business stage.
Whether companies like it or not, the economy is now global
and borderless, thanks to the speed and connectivity of the
internet, which allows organisations and individuals to
transact with other individuals and organisations around the
world at the click of a mouse.
Success in the new global economy will depend on good
leadership, believes Japanese management guru Kenichi
Ohmae, whom we feature on page 4. To respond to the
challenge, opportunity and uncertainties of the borderless
economy “leaders must be creative and pragmatic, refusing to
be imprisoned by the past,” he urges.
Those who conquer this new territory will be winners, but
with rewards come responsibilities, and Martin Christopher’s
article opposite warns that companies’ obligations to the
environment mean the days of being able to move goods
around the world cheaply are numbered. “The cost of moving
things is set to rise steeply as a result of increasing legislation
and carbon taxes,” he predicts.
In his recent book, The New Philanthropists, featured on
page 6, management philosopher Charles Handy discusses
how many of Britain’s rich entrepreneurs are now turning
their money-making talents to social causes. But while their
philanthropic activities may have begun at home, lots of them
are now addressing serious problems in the poorest parts of
the world in a trend that Handy believes could answer nagging
doubts about the purpose of capitalism.
OuR MOST RECENT SuRVEY shows that the number of
assignments focusing on turnaround and restructuring is very
high and growing.
Meanwhile, our case study on NPL, the UK's national
standards laboratory, demonstrates the unlooked-for value
that a good interim manager can add to a business.
2
Impact Executives - the business review Issue 18
Editorial Jane Simms
Design Phil Shakespeare
The business review is a
publication of Impact Executives, a
division of Harvey Nash Plc
Impact Executives Ltd
13 Bruton Street
London W1J 6QA
+44 (0)20 7314 2011
www.impactexecutives.com
©2007 Harvey Nash Plc
All rights reserved. Contents may
not be reproduced in whole or in
part without the written consent
of the publishers
3 Supply chains
LEAN AND GREEN
Instead of worrying about the cost of greening their supply
chains, companies should be worrying about the cost of not
greening them, says Cranfield professor Martin Christopher.
4 Big ideas
ALL THE WORLD’S A BuSINESS STAGE
Whether they see it as a challenge or an opportunity,
businesses can’t afford to ignore the global borderless
economy, warns Japanese management guru Kenichi Ohmae.
6 Big issues
A NEW WAY OF GIVING
Generosity is fashionable again, but the ‘new philanthropists’
described by Charles Handy in his latest book are determined
to be deeply involved in the causes they support.
8 Case study
A MEASuRED APPROACH
When it hired an interim manager last year to back-fill a key
vacancy the National Physical Laboratory got more than it
bargained for.
10 Trends
TuRNAROuND MERCHANTS
The results from our latest six-monthly survey show that the
most recent assignments of over half of the respondents were
either business turnarounds or restructurings.
Christine de Largy
Managing Director,
Impact Executives
Global Interim Management
C
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ABOuT THIS PuBLICATION
IMPACT ExECuTIVES is a leading provider of interim
managers to organisations of all sizes in the UK and around the
world. With offces covering the UK, Continental Europe, Asia
Pacifc and Australia, Impact Executives is part of the global
recruitment specialist Harvey Nash Group plc. Over the past 15
years it has helped more than 2000 organisations, including
over two-thirds of FTSE-250 companies, to hire interim talent at
short notice to help them manage periods of growth, manage
projects including transformation and downsizing, or to
replace key management.
ABOuT IMPACT ExECuTIVES
in their supply chain. But they often find
that these initiatives lead to cost savings
and other efficiencies. Conversely, other
companies are discovering that seeking
more cost-effective ways to make or
move things round the world has a
positive environmental impact.
The bottom line is that companies
worried about the cost of greening their
operations should perhaps be worried
about the cost of not doing so instead.
Professor Martin Christopher is Director
of the Centre for Logistics and Supply
Chain Management at Cranfield School of
Management.
THE INITIAL RESPONSE of many
companies to Sir Nicholas Stern’s
apocalyptic report into the human and
economic cost of global warming is
likely to have been denial. Sir Nicholas
warned that the risks of inaction are
high and that time is running out.
But according to the Carbon Neutral
Company, just 80 out of the FTSE-100
companies have identified climate
change as a business risk, and only 38
have targets for emissions reduction.
However, these very companies are
likely to be among the world’s biggest
polluters. The complex global supply
webs they have woven over the past ten
years or so in order to gain competitive
advantage from manufacturing and
assembling goods and components
in low-cost economies have increased
carbon dioxide emissions considerably.
Governments are increasingly
concerned about the environmental
impact of carbon. So although the cost of
making things has never been as low as it
is today, the cost of moving things is set
to rise steeply.
Before Christmas hundreds of
spectators lined the shore to watch
the Emma Maersk being guided into
Felixstowe harbour by three tugs. The
ship, a quarter of a mile long, 200 feet
high and as wide as a motorway, was
laden with toys, books, computers,
Christmas crackers, decorations and
food bound for Britain and mainland
Europe. The Emma Maersk is one of a
new generation of ships which hold over
10,000 containers. A train to carry the
equivalent load would be over 50km
long, but most of the containers will be
transported by lorry. The impact on road
congestion as more of these ships come
into service is eye-watering.
As a result we are likely to see the
imposition of tax on in-bound container
movements, as well as aviation fuel. The
consequence will be a return to more
local manufacturing, because the cost of
transporting goods over long distances
will become largely prohibitive.
However, several companies, including
Marks and Spencer, have already brought
their manufacturing closer to home
again as they have realised that long
inventory pipelines
are inconsistent
with the need
for agility and
responsiveness to
sudden changes in
demand in the home
market.
Others, such as Spanish fashion
chain Zara, have resisted getting locked
into particular supply arrangements.
Zara buys unprinted and un-dyed
material ahead of demand from low-
cost manufacturing economies, books
capacity in local manufacturers in Spain
and Portugal, and only decides what it is
going to make as the season approaches.
And Hewlett-Packard has lowered
its manufacturing costs by ‘designing
for localisation’ – that is, building a
standard product and configuring it
for local needs at regional centres. In so
doing it has created a more efficient and
responsive supply chain that is local,
global – and greener.
Many companies embark on ‘greening’
initiatives as a defensive
measure against lobby
group pressure or potential
reputational damage from
an accident or pollution
somewhere
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EnvIronmEntal and commErcIal
conSIdEratIonS arE not mUtUally ExclUSIvE,
SayS ProfESSor martIn chrIStoPhEr
Impact Executives: experts in global interim management +44 (0)20 7314 2011 [email protected] www.impactexecutives.com
Lean and green
The cost of
moving things is
set to rise steeply
PROFESSOR MARTIN CHRISTOPHER
cranfIEld School of managEmEnt
NO BuSINESS LEADER interested in the
challenge of globalisation can afford
to ignore the work of Kenichi Ohmae,
an acclaimed management strategist
renowned for his work on globalisation
and the borderless economy.
Dubbed “Japan’s only successful
management guru” by the Financial
Times, Ohmae is a man of many parts. He
is a concert-playing flautist, a nuclear
physicist, a would-be politician, former
McKinsey consultant, a motor-cycling
enthusiast and author of over 100 books
– to name but a few.
Though he is Japanese and lives in
Tokyo, Ohmae is instinctively global. As
well as being dean of two private schools
4 Impact Executives - the business review Issue 18
B
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BUSInESSES havE to comE to tErmS wIth thE
rEalIty of thE gloBal Economy, BElIEvES JaPanESE
managEmEnt gUrU KEnIchI ohmaE
All the world’s a
business stage
Born in tokyo in 1943. Studied nuclear
engineering in Japan and at massachusetts
Institute of technology, where he gained
his Phd
works for a spell at hitachi as a senior
design engineer on Japan’s prototype fast
breeder reactor
Joins the Japanese office of mcKinsey
& co in 1972, becoming a senior
partner and co-founding its strategic
management practice. Stays with the firm
for 23 years before leaving to stand for the
governorship of tokyo in 1995
founder and managing director of
ohmae associates, and chancellor’s
Professor of Public Policy at the Ucla
School of Public and Social research in
california, he consults to corporations and
governments around the world
his wide interests include skiing, music,
sailing, martial arts, motorbikes and scuba
diving
•
•
•
•
•
in Tokyo – Isshinjuku, which teaches
public policy, and Attacker’s Advantage,
which teaches entrepreneurship – he is
also the Chancellor’s Professor of Public
Policy at the UCLA School of Public and
Social Research in California. He lectures
all over the world, advises businesses
and governments in every continent and
writes regularly for western journals.
His writing focuses on the forces that
are dissolving national borders and
building new regional economies, how
businesses should leverage technology
and other new platforms for growth,
how to lead a global corporation and
the role governments play when nation
states no longer matter.
Ohmae’s most recent book, The Next
Global Stage: Challenges and Opportunities
in Our Borderless World, builds on much
of his earlier work and is intended, he
says, “to provide a script to help people
through the shifting plotlines of the
global economy.”
Borderlessness is the most important
characteristic of the global economy,
Ohmae believes. “In terms of
communications, capital, corporations
and consumers, which are the four key
factors of business life, the world has
already attained borderlessness,” he says.
He explains that the concepts of
America Inc or Japan Inc are already
largely irrelevant, because e-commerce
OHMAE AT A GLANCE
5
Impact Executives: experts in global interim management +44 (0)20 7314 2011 [email protected] www.impactexecutives.com
knows no boundaries. When you get an
email you have no indication of which
country it comes from, knowledge
workers can and do work anywhere,
financiers – and individuals – switch
their investments to whichever country
yields the best returns, and so on.
He goes on to argue that nation states
are declining because their fixation
on borders is out of kilter with today’s
transnational world. The nation state,
he says, “has the potential to hold back
human development through artificial
compartmentalisation of skills and
markets.” By contrast, ‘region states’,
which used to be seen as parochial
and inward looking, will become more
important.
Emerging region states include places
like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou in
China, Hyderabad and Mumbai in India
and San Jose in California. But Ohmae
stresses the importance of ‘human
magnets’ to a region too, describing
the effect Michael Dell has had on the
growth of Austin in Texas, the original
location of his eponymous computer
company, as “monumental.”
The most important element of any
successful region, he continues, is
openness to the outside world. “The rest
of the world must be viewed as a source
of prosperity. All lingering concepts of
native versus foreigner must be erased,
so rules limiting foreign investment or
foreign ownership of land or capital
must be abolished.”
Ohmae judges the ‘annus domini’ of
the global economy to be 1985, the year
that Microsoft launched its Windows
operating system, and he uses the
tongue-in-cheek dating system of BG and
AG – that is, Before Gates and After Gates.
Success in the new global economy
will depend on good leadership, he
continues. “Given the uncertainties,
leaders must be creative and pragmatic,
refusing to be imprisoned by the past.
Business leaders should have vision.
They must embrace innovation and
court flexibility. They must also possess
a full understanding of, an instinctive
sympathy with and a total commitment
to the global economy.”
The Mind of the Strategist, which made
Ohmae’s name 20 years ago, is still
viewed by many as a Bible of corporate
strategy because of its good sense and
clear advice. Its underlying premise is
that successful business strategies do not
come from rigorous analysis but from
a thought process that is creative and
intuitive rather than rational.
One chapter in the book is an essential
aide memoire for anyone running a
business. It comprises a list of things to
avoid and concentrate on. For example:
Avoid tunnel vision: consider
alternative routes rather than being
fixated on one.
Avoid the peril of perfectionism:
sometimes it’s better to do something
that’s almost right rather than wait
•
•
for the perfect solution and miss the
strategic opportunity.
Focus on the key factors and don’t
be distracted by minor complications:
all businesses are simple, once you get
to know them. Banking, for instance,
might look complicated to the outsider,
but boiled down to its core it is nothing
more than getting in money cheap and
lending it out as expensively as you can.
Always challenge the constraints and
ask ‘what can we do?’ rather than ‘what
can’t we do?’ Strategy is a question of
attitude more than numbers.
In the book Ohmae contrasts the
Japanese and American approaches to
strategy. The Japanese look at what they
think their customers will want, whether
the company has the competence to
meet these demands, and whether
they can do so profitably in the face of
competition. The American way, at the
time, was to analyse the numbers for the
different possible options – something
Ohmae calls ‘spreadsheet doodling.’
But it is the bigger issue of the
changing shape of the world of business
that truly fascinates him and will no
doubt continue to do so, and it is a
source of concern to him that so many
businesses fail to take it seriously.
“The global economy is reality, not a
theory,” he says. “It is growing stronger,
it will feed on its own strengths, it is
irresistible. There is no use complaining
about it or wishing it to go away. People
just have to learn to live with it.”
Or, more accurately, they have to
learn how to conquer this new ‘invisible
continent’, before the rules and laws
are too fixed and before others see the
possibilities.
As he points out, what others saw as
Florida marshland, Disney turned into a
hugely successful theme park.
•
•
the Borderless world (1990)
the mind of the Strategist (1991)
Beyond national Borders (1987)
the End of the nation State (1995)
the Invisible continent (2000)
the next global Stage:
challenges and opportunities in
our Borderless world (2005)
The rest of the
world must be
viewed as a source
of prosperity
KEY BOOKS
It is hard to let old beliefs go. they are
familiar. we are comfortable with them
and have spent years building systems
and developing habits that depend
on them. like a man who has worn
eyeglasses so long that he forgets he
has them on, we forget that the world
looks to us the way it does because we
have become used to seeing it that way
through a particular set of lenses
If patriotism is, as dr Johnson used to
remark, the last refuge of the scoundrel,
wrapping outdated industry in the
mantle of national interest is the last
refuge of the economically dispossessed.
In economic terms, pleading national
interest is the declining cottage industry
of those who have been bypassed by the
global economy
the true strategic thinker can respond
flexibly to the inevitable changes in the
situation that confronts the company. and
it is that flexibility which, in turn, increases
the chances of success
In business, as on the battlefield, the object
of strategy is to bring about the condition
most favourable to one’s own side
By failing to grasp the critical issues, too
many senior managers today impose
great anxiety on themselves and their
subordinates, whose efforts end in failure
and frustration
thE ohmaE PhIloSoPhy
visible signs of something wider and
bigger. “Were there others like them,
below the radar of media attention?” he
writes. The answer was a resounding yes.
“We went looking for them and found
more than we expected.”
The new philanthropists spot a
particular need, often by accident, and
mobilise their own and others’ talents
and energy to fill it, but they ensure their
ventures are self-sustaining.
What they have in common is
“passion, permanence and partnership,”
claims Handy. The passion is often
triggered by some event. For example,
Hunter was only 37 when he took the
phone call one morning offering to buy
his business for a sum that would take
care of all his future financial needs. He
then set about deciding how he wanted
to use the rest of his life.
Finding himself on the front page
of The Times one day as the result of a
charitable initiative he was involved
in made venture capitalist-turned
educational philanthropist Sir Peter
Lampl realise just how much difference
one person can make. And former
banker David Charters resolved to
change his life after suddenly realising
that he had lost his family as a result of
his total absorption in his work. He set
up the Beacon Fellowship Charitable
Trust, which celebrates and encourages
philanthropy.
The new philanthropists also
look at their philanthropic projects
in a businesslike way. They see their
interventions as an initial investment of
money, time and energy, but are clear
that they ultimately have to be capable of
standing on their own. For example, the
dubs “volunteering with leverage.” They
expect a return too. “We don’t just put
money in and hope,” says Hunter.
Exemplars of new philanthropy
include people like Bill Gates, whose
$31 billion foundation is the largest in
history, and Google founders Sergey
Brin and Larry Page, who hope the
impact of their philanthropic arm will
one day eclipse that of Google itself by
“ambitiously applying innovation and
significant resources to the largest of the
world’s problems.” In the UK Jamie Oliver
has captured the public’s imagination
with his restaurant Fifteen, whose
profits are ploughed back into helping
disadvantaged young people.
But Handy wanted to find out whether
such high-profile individuals were the
6 Impact Executives - the business review Issue 18
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modErn PhIlanthroPy coUld rEdEEm caPItalISm
wIthIn thE nExt dEcadE, PrEdIctS charlES handy
PLEASE DON’T CALL me a
philanthropist; I am just trying to be
useful,” said one of the individuals
Charles Handy interviewed for his
new book The New Philanthropists. The
book comprises a series of interviews
with what Handy has identified as
‘entrepreneurial philanthropists’,
‘catalytic philanthropists’ or ‘social
entrepreneurs’ – entrepreneurs and
City folk who have made fortunes at a
relatively young age and have turned
their energy and money-making talents
to helping social causes
The list includes Sir Tom Hunter, the
Scottish retail tycoon, who has invested
more than £100m in charitable causes;
Irish property developer Niall Mellon,
who is building houses in the townships
of South Africa with planeloads of Irish
volunteers; eBay founder Jeff Skoll, who
is sponsoring and underwriting major
Hollywood films that raise issues of social
justice or moral concern; and Gordon
Roddick, joint founder of Body Shop, who
invests in a range of social businesses,
including The Big Issue and Freeplay
As Handy writes at the beginning
of his book, “Generosity is fashionable
again.” But what characterises ‘the new
philanthropists’ is their determination
to be deeply involved in the causes they
choose to support, rather than just
writing a cheque.
“[They] want to be in the driving seat,
because that’s where they belong and,
being by nature entrepreneurs...they like
to fill gaps and meet needs neglected by
others,” he states.
They are also distinguished by their
ability to “kick-start an enterprise
without going begging” – an approach he
A new way of giving
Readers can buy The New Philanthropists
(RRP £20) for the special price of £17 plus
free UK p&p. To order please call 01206 255
800 and quote the reference 'Handy'.
7
Impact Executives: experts in global interim management +44 (0)20 7314 2011 [email protected] www.impactexecutives.com
top two storeys of the seven-storey breast
cancer clinic in Khartoum set up by
telecoms multi-millionaire Mo Ibrahim
will be let out as luxurious office suites,
the income from which will support the
clinic in future years.
Sustainability depends on partnership
of one sort of another. For example,
Niall Mellon could not hope to make
more than a small dent in South Africa’s
housing problem without the help and
involvement of the local municipalities
and the national government, who had
to fund and prepare the infrastructure on
the sites, validate the leases and subsidise
the prices of the houses he built. The
volunteers whom he flies out from
Ireland are also partners in that they all
raise money to pay for their own fares
and accommodation and contribute to
the cost of the houses.
“Partnership creates involvement,
which builds commitment and long-term
sustainability,” says Handy.
But if the traditional charitable sector
can learn from the new philanthropists,
then so can the business world.
“Business’s unhealthy obsession with
sales, profits and shareholders does it
no favours,” he says. “By contrast, money
is almost an embarrassment to the new
philanthropists – it is a by-product of
what they do.”
While he thinks new philanthropy
can never be more than a niche sector,
he believes its greatest potential impact
could be to change the perception of
business from being a largely selfish
occupation to one that benefits society. If
its values infect the rest of the corporate
sector, it could redeem capitalism within
the next decade or two, he predicts.
“The activities of the new
philanthropists will never relieve the
government of its responsibilities in any
major way, but they give a point to wealth
creation and help answer the lingering
question about the role of business and
capitalism,” he says. “In so doing, they
give their employees a reason to get out
of bed in the morning.”
The new philanthropists get a buzz
out of what they do, but they are not
driven by a desire for status. Their
motivation is summed up in the words
of one interviewee: “The chance to do
this makes the whole business of making
money worthwhile.”
SIR TOM HuNTER
this philanthropy business has given a whole
new meaning and purpose to wealth creation
Scottish retail tycoon Sir tom hunter, knighted in recognition of his
philanthropic work, recalls: “at 37 years old I had basically achieved
my life’s ambitions. I had sold my business, something I had never
planned to do. I had got a cheque for £260m. my life had to start all
over again. I had to re-educate myself.”
he set up the hunter foundation, which works to help education
in Scotland. It has committed over £35m to Scottish projects and
leveraged £175m of additional public and private sector investment.
But he soon realised that there was no way to usefully spend his
foundation’s £100m in Scotland, particularly when the problems in
the poorest parts of the world were so serious. at a dinner in london
he met Bill clinton, who suggested he accompany him to africa to witness the problems there
at frst hand. the trip led to the formation of the clinton-hunter development Initiative, which
aims to relieve poverty in africa through training teachers and healthcare workers and to
encourage entrepreneurship.
JEFF SKOLL
the company [eBay] was not my dream, but the
means to enable my dream
In 1998 eBay, the company set up by Jeff Skoll and Pierre omidyar
two years earlier, went public, leaving Skoll unimaginably wealthy.
two years later he left to pursue his original dream, which was to
write stories alerting people to the problems, dangers and injustices
in the world in the hope of spurring them into action.
But with the money in his hand, he found that the foundation he
had established to back and publicise those working for social change,
combined with the need to manage both his wealth and the high
profle that success had brought him, left him little time to write the
stories he wanted to. But when he sat next to a hollywood producer
at a dinner party who told him the reason so few flms focused on social issues was lack of
money, “the light came on in my head,” he recalls.
Instead of writing the stories himself he began to back flms that focus on social issues,
including the box offce hit Syriana, starring george clooney, built around the damage wreaked
on our environment by the global oil industry.
CAROLYN HAYMAN
this would not have existed except for me
carolyn hayman had what she calls her 'light-bulb moment' in
2002. She was sitting on a grant-making committee that had just
agreed eight grants to peace organisations, and she wondered
why they were all in london. She went looking for someone with
the same idea and found social entrepreneur Scilla Ellworthy, with
whom, in 2002, she launched Peace direct, which provides support
direct to peace activists in the danger points around the world.
hayman injected initial funding of £100,000 and left her job as an
investment banker to become full-time chief executive.
Peace direct also works to raise the profle of peace building. It
published a book in 2004 called Unarmed Heroes, a collection of
personal testimonies by individuals who have been involved in the peaceful resolution of confict.
they include Jo Berry, whose father was killed by the Ira in the Brighton bombing in 1984, and
who decided to meet Patrick magee who planted the bomb. as a result of this meeting the pair
set up and now run causeway, an organisation that facilitates meetings between the victims
and perpetrators of violence in northern Ireland.
the "desire to make a difference" drives hayman and her philanthropy.
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Impact Executives - the business review Issue 18
took on the role of divisional director
of Engineering and Process Control in
March, with a seat on the executive board
of NPL, initially for a period of three to
six months. His remit was to build on
the commercial income in the business,
which specialises in science research,
and improve the performance and
management of the division by coaching
the leaders.
Bartlett explains: “Engineering and
Process Control has a £25m turnover
and 200 staff, and was not making the
level of commercial income it hoped to
achieve. My first task was to take control
the performance and cost base, so I
strengthened the fundamental concepts
like business planning, risk analysis and
full-year forecasting, while focusing
the past and rated them,” says McQuillan.
The person Impact Executives fielded
was Mike Bartlett, an engineer with
over 25 years’ senior management
experience, most of it at chief executive
and director level in companies engaged
in design, manufacturing and export. He
hElP from an IntErIm managEr haS allowEd
thE natIonal PhySIcal laBoratory to BEcomE
morE commErcIal
EARLY LAST YEAR Serco, the company
that manages NPL on behalf of the
Government, won an important new
contract with the DTI. The head of NPL’s
biggest division, Engineering and Process
Control, went off at short notice to run it,
leaving the organisation with a big hole.
“We knew it could take up to six
months to fill that hole, and after my
less-than-successful attempt to fill it for
a while – in addition to my day job – I
realised we needed to bring someone
in to run the division full time until we
found a permanent replacement,” says
NPL Managing Director Steve McQuillan.
He turned to Impact Executives for
help. “Serco has an agreement to work
with Impact Executives, but our HR
director had also worked with them in
A measured approach
Mike has allowed
us to move
forward far faster
than we would
otherwise
have done
assignment – helping establish as a
separate business the knowledge transfer
activities that had until then been part of
Engineering and Process Control.
“NPL understood the potential of the
knowledge transfer business, but setting
it up as a separate division gave it real
focus. It should turn over around £7m
this year, and that could triple over the
next three or four years,” he explains.
In October, NPL appointed a new full-
time managing director for Engineering
and Process Control. But in the
meantime the business development
director for NPL had gone on
maternity leave, and McQuillan
asked Bartlett if he would
step into that role until
she returned in April.
“The great thing
about Mike is that
his wide experience
means he can slot
into any role in
the organisation
and be
immediately
effective,
leaving me free
to do my job,”
says McQuillan.
“It is not just a question of back-filling:
he really moved the strategy and
the business development activities
of Engineering and Process Control
forwards, allowing the division to step up
a gear. And he is still proving his worth
as executive director of the knowledge
transfer business, helping them change
their structure and strategy.”
Bartlett is also proving his worth in
the business development role. “I am
focusing on refining our strategy and
developing tactics for the key market
sectors we should be operating in,” he
says. “As part of that I will be helping to
roll out what we did in Engineering and
Process Control across the rest of the
organisation, and reconciling the aims of
the individual divisions with the central
corporate aim.”
“Mike has allowed us to move forward
far faster than we would otherwise have
done,” says McQuillan.
Like all good interim managers,
Bartlett is a strong people person,
very flexible, versatile and adaptable
– strengths exemplified in his willingness
to fill, at short notice, the role of part-
time Chief Executive of the Centre
for Advanced Software Technology at
Bangor University (also run by Serco) on
a two-day-a-week basis until the end of
February.
“I relish the uncertainty and the
opportunities involved in being an
interim manager,” says Bartlett. “You get
to know all sorts of interesting businesses
and people. While every business,
situation and culture is different, the
problems tend to be the same. So
you adapt your approach to what is
essentially the same job time after time. It
always works, which is very satisfying.”
the national Physical laboratory, or nPl, is the UK’s national standards laboratory, an
independent and internationally respected centre of excellence in research, development
and knowledge transfer in measurement and materials science. for more than a century it
has developed and maintained the nation’s primary measurement standards, which form the
core of an infrastructure designed to ensure accuracy, consistency and innovation in physical
measurements, including time, length, mass, density and force.
today it is hard to think of a single thing we do that doesn’t involve some type of measurement,
from time keeping, the weight of the food we buy, the units of power we use and the size of
the clothes we wear, to the split-second timing crucial to the smooth operation of computer
and telephone networks, the measurements involved in weather forecasting and the precise
specifcations involved in the manufacture of tvs and other electrical goods.
nPl is managed on behalf of the department of trade and Industry by Serco. Serco's focus at
nPl has been on delivering science that makes an impact on UK business and society. Serco won
an initial seven-year management contract, and in 2003 won the re-bid for a ten-year contract,
confrming its effectiveness at managing and developing scientifc staff and facilities.
THE COMPANY: NPL
9
Impact Executives: experts in global interim management +44 (0)20 7314 2011 [email protected] www.impactexecutives.com
the business development activities
of Engineering and Process Control
forwards, allowing the division to step
up a gear.”
The bigger, more strategic task
was to pursue further commercial
opportunities: the business relied on
the DTI for 60% of its funding, but that
funding is being gradually reduced.
Bartlett created business growth
champions in the different science
teams, matching them up with business
development people so that together
they could go out into the marketplace
to identify and work out how to meet
commercial needs.
His approach worked well. New
planning and budgeting disciplines
meant that the division finished the
year in profit, and the senior team
responded enthusiastically to the new
market-facing positioning and the new
management structure which focused,
says Bartlett, on “getting the right people
in the right jobs.”
Bartlett took on an additional
role during the first six months of his
Mike's wide
experience means
he can slot into
any role in the
organisation and
be immediately
effective
mike Bartlett has had 25 years’ senior
management experience, including 18 years
at chief executive and director level with
companies engaged in design, manufacturing
and worldwide export activities. he spent
three years as UK chief Executive of fujiflm
Electronic Imaging, restoring proftability
and overseeing a raft of new state-of-the-
art product developments. Prior to that, he
was charged with developing the profle
and size of the UK activities of US frm
harman International Industries, which
makes professional audio products. his
work as group md led to a Queen’s award
for Industry for export growth for the frm.
THE INTERIM
10
Impact Executives - the business review Issue 18
T
R
E
N
D
S
clIEntS’ USE of IntErIm ProvIdErS IS growIng
THEIR ABILITY TO identify and address
a problem quickly, their impartiality
and their strong people skills make
interim managers ideal people to handle
turnarounds and business restructurings.
So it is not surprising that the most
recent assignments of over half of the
respondents to our latest survey were
turnarounds or restructurings.
While the most common length
of assignment cited by respondents is
four to six months, the number whose
assignments lasted for 12 months or
more rose this year to 30% from 20% last
year. But it seems the trade-off for longer
assignments could be a lower day rate:
the number who said their daily rate was
higher than on their previous assignment
fell to 23% from 32% a year ago.
The number who gained their
assignment through an interim provider
rather than through their own networks
rose over the year from 46% to 56%,
the highest level for four years. This
suggests that companies are increasingly
reassured by the fit between assignment
and interim manager that derives from
the rigorous approach to interviewing,
assessing and referencing candidates
guaranteed by interim executive
providers such as Impact Executives.
Manufacturing industry accounted
for 19% of all assignments carried out by
Impact Executives interim managers over
the past six months, just behind central
and local government and public sector
health organisations.
Respondents expect the trends of the
past year to continue, with 56% predicting
that turnaround and restructuring
will continue to be the primary areas
requiring interim management expertise.
A further 15% anticipate business growth
will also generate assignments.
This finding is consistent with
respondents' guarded optimism for
economic prospects: some 41% of them
expect a small upward trend during the
first half of 2007, compared with 32% a
year ago, and just 15% predict a slight
downward trend, compared with 26% a
year ago.
Turnaround experts
SuRVEY RESuLTS
1) Are you currently on assignment?
5) In which function was your most recent interim assignment?
0% 5% 10% 15% 20%
Other
Sales & Marketing
Retail
Property/ Facilities Management
Project Management
IT
Supply Chain/ Logistics
Manufacturing
Human Resources
General Management
Banking & Finance
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40%
12 months +
10-12 months
7-9 months
4-6 months
1-3 months
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
No
Yes
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
2) What was the reason for your current/ last assignment?
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%
£1,500+
£1,000- £1,499
£700-999
£500-699
£300-499
Under £300
4) What is your current or your most recent daily rate?
DECEMBER 2006
DECEMBER 2005
DECEMBER 2006
DECEMBER 2005
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30%
Other
Maternity Cover
Back-fill Permanent Role
BPR
Business Growth
Consolidation
M&A/MBO/MBI
Business Restructure
Start-up
Closure/ Disposal
Turnaround
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
3) How long was your most recent assignment?
DECEMBER 2006
DECEMBER 2006
DECEMBER 2005
DECEMBER 2006
Harvey Nash has a reputation for quality created through thousands of
successful assignments and has grown, both organically and through
acquisition, to become a leading recruitment consultancy.
Established in 1988 and operating in the UK, Europe, USA & Asia Pacific,
Harvey Nash delivers a unique portfolio of recruitment and outsourcing
services through five distinct, yet complimentary business units:
International Executive Search
Interim Management
IT Executive Search
IT Technical Recruitment
Offshore Software Outsourcing
For more information contact us at [email protected],
tel: +44 (0)20 7333 0033
www.harveynash.com
IT Resourcing - Executive Search - Interim Management - IT Outsourcing
Turnaround experts
SuRVEY RESuLTS
Harvey Nash has a reputation for quality created through thousands of
successful assignments and has grown, both organically and through
acquisition, to become a leading recruitment consultancy.
Established in 1988 and operating in the UK, Europe, USA & Asia Pacific,
Harvey Nash delivers a unique portfolio of recruitment and outsourcing
services through five distinct, yet complimentary business units:
International Executive Search
Interim Management
IT Executive Search
IT Technical Recruitment
Offshore Software Outsourcing
For more information contact us at [email protected],
tel: +44 (0)20 7333 0033
www.harveynash.com
IT Resourcing - Executive Search - Interim Management - IT Outsourcing
I
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doc_336307139.pdf
The Business Review
www.impactexecutives.com
+44 (0)20 7314 2011
THE GREENER FACE OF GLOBALISATION
CHARLES HANDY ON A NEW WAY OF GIVING
KENICHI OHMAE: SEER OF THE BORDERLESS WORLD
the
business review
ISSUE 18
THE THEME FOR THIS ISSuE is the world business stage.
Whether companies like it or not, the economy is now global
and borderless, thanks to the speed and connectivity of the
internet, which allows organisations and individuals to
transact with other individuals and organisations around the
world at the click of a mouse.
Success in the new global economy will depend on good
leadership, believes Japanese management guru Kenichi
Ohmae, whom we feature on page 4. To respond to the
challenge, opportunity and uncertainties of the borderless
economy “leaders must be creative and pragmatic, refusing to
be imprisoned by the past,” he urges.
Those who conquer this new territory will be winners, but
with rewards come responsibilities, and Martin Christopher’s
article opposite warns that companies’ obligations to the
environment mean the days of being able to move goods
around the world cheaply are numbered. “The cost of moving
things is set to rise steeply as a result of increasing legislation
and carbon taxes,” he predicts.
In his recent book, The New Philanthropists, featured on
page 6, management philosopher Charles Handy discusses
how many of Britain’s rich entrepreneurs are now turning
their money-making talents to social causes. But while their
philanthropic activities may have begun at home, lots of them
are now addressing serious problems in the poorest parts of
the world in a trend that Handy believes could answer nagging
doubts about the purpose of capitalism.
OuR MOST RECENT SuRVEY shows that the number of
assignments focusing on turnaround and restructuring is very
high and growing.
Meanwhile, our case study on NPL, the UK's national
standards laboratory, demonstrates the unlooked-for value
that a good interim manager can add to a business.
2
Impact Executives - the business review Issue 18
Editorial Jane Simms
Design Phil Shakespeare
The business review is a
publication of Impact Executives, a
division of Harvey Nash Plc
Impact Executives Ltd
13 Bruton Street
London W1J 6QA
+44 (0)20 7314 2011
www.impactexecutives.com
©2007 Harvey Nash Plc
All rights reserved. Contents may
not be reproduced in whole or in
part without the written consent
of the publishers
3 Supply chains
LEAN AND GREEN
Instead of worrying about the cost of greening their supply
chains, companies should be worrying about the cost of not
greening them, says Cranfield professor Martin Christopher.
4 Big ideas
ALL THE WORLD’S A BuSINESS STAGE
Whether they see it as a challenge or an opportunity,
businesses can’t afford to ignore the global borderless
economy, warns Japanese management guru Kenichi Ohmae.
6 Big issues
A NEW WAY OF GIVING
Generosity is fashionable again, but the ‘new philanthropists’
described by Charles Handy in his latest book are determined
to be deeply involved in the causes they support.
8 Case study
A MEASuRED APPROACH
When it hired an interim manager last year to back-fill a key
vacancy the National Physical Laboratory got more than it
bargained for.
10 Trends
TuRNAROuND MERCHANTS
The results from our latest six-monthly survey show that the
most recent assignments of over half of the respondents were
either business turnarounds or restructurings.
Christine de Largy
Managing Director,
Impact Executives
Global Interim Management
C
O
N
T
E
N
T
S
ABOuT THIS PuBLICATION
IMPACT ExECuTIVES is a leading provider of interim
managers to organisations of all sizes in the UK and around the
world. With offces covering the UK, Continental Europe, Asia
Pacifc and Australia, Impact Executives is part of the global
recruitment specialist Harvey Nash Group plc. Over the past 15
years it has helped more than 2000 organisations, including
over two-thirds of FTSE-250 companies, to hire interim talent at
short notice to help them manage periods of growth, manage
projects including transformation and downsizing, or to
replace key management.
ABOuT IMPACT ExECuTIVES
in their supply chain. But they often find
that these initiatives lead to cost savings
and other efficiencies. Conversely, other
companies are discovering that seeking
more cost-effective ways to make or
move things round the world has a
positive environmental impact.
The bottom line is that companies
worried about the cost of greening their
operations should perhaps be worried
about the cost of not doing so instead.
Professor Martin Christopher is Director
of the Centre for Logistics and Supply
Chain Management at Cranfield School of
Management.
THE INITIAL RESPONSE of many
companies to Sir Nicholas Stern’s
apocalyptic report into the human and
economic cost of global warming is
likely to have been denial. Sir Nicholas
warned that the risks of inaction are
high and that time is running out.
But according to the Carbon Neutral
Company, just 80 out of the FTSE-100
companies have identified climate
change as a business risk, and only 38
have targets for emissions reduction.
However, these very companies are
likely to be among the world’s biggest
polluters. The complex global supply
webs they have woven over the past ten
years or so in order to gain competitive
advantage from manufacturing and
assembling goods and components
in low-cost economies have increased
carbon dioxide emissions considerably.
Governments are increasingly
concerned about the environmental
impact of carbon. So although the cost of
making things has never been as low as it
is today, the cost of moving things is set
to rise steeply.
Before Christmas hundreds of
spectators lined the shore to watch
the Emma Maersk being guided into
Felixstowe harbour by three tugs. The
ship, a quarter of a mile long, 200 feet
high and as wide as a motorway, was
laden with toys, books, computers,
Christmas crackers, decorations and
food bound for Britain and mainland
Europe. The Emma Maersk is one of a
new generation of ships which hold over
10,000 containers. A train to carry the
equivalent load would be over 50km
long, but most of the containers will be
transported by lorry. The impact on road
congestion as more of these ships come
into service is eye-watering.
As a result we are likely to see the
imposition of tax on in-bound container
movements, as well as aviation fuel. The
consequence will be a return to more
local manufacturing, because the cost of
transporting goods over long distances
will become largely prohibitive.
However, several companies, including
Marks and Spencer, have already brought
their manufacturing closer to home
again as they have realised that long
inventory pipelines
are inconsistent
with the need
for agility and
responsiveness to
sudden changes in
demand in the home
market.
Others, such as Spanish fashion
chain Zara, have resisted getting locked
into particular supply arrangements.
Zara buys unprinted and un-dyed
material ahead of demand from low-
cost manufacturing economies, books
capacity in local manufacturers in Spain
and Portugal, and only decides what it is
going to make as the season approaches.
And Hewlett-Packard has lowered
its manufacturing costs by ‘designing
for localisation’ – that is, building a
standard product and configuring it
for local needs at regional centres. In so
doing it has created a more efficient and
responsive supply chain that is local,
global – and greener.
Many companies embark on ‘greening’
initiatives as a defensive
measure against lobby
group pressure or potential
reputational damage from
an accident or pollution
somewhere
3
S
u
P
P
L
Y
C
H
A
I
N
S
EnvIronmEntal and commErcIal
conSIdEratIonS arE not mUtUally ExclUSIvE,
SayS ProfESSor martIn chrIStoPhEr
Impact Executives: experts in global interim management +44 (0)20 7314 2011 [email protected] www.impactexecutives.com
Lean and green
The cost of
moving things is
set to rise steeply
PROFESSOR MARTIN CHRISTOPHER
cranfIEld School of managEmEnt
NO BuSINESS LEADER interested in the
challenge of globalisation can afford
to ignore the work of Kenichi Ohmae,
an acclaimed management strategist
renowned for his work on globalisation
and the borderless economy.
Dubbed “Japan’s only successful
management guru” by the Financial
Times, Ohmae is a man of many parts. He
is a concert-playing flautist, a nuclear
physicist, a would-be politician, former
McKinsey consultant, a motor-cycling
enthusiast and author of over 100 books
– to name but a few.
Though he is Japanese and lives in
Tokyo, Ohmae is instinctively global. As
well as being dean of two private schools
4 Impact Executives - the business review Issue 18
B
I
G
I
D
E
A
S
BUSInESSES havE to comE to tErmS wIth thE
rEalIty of thE gloBal Economy, BElIEvES JaPanESE
managEmEnt gUrU KEnIchI ohmaE
All the world’s a
business stage
Born in tokyo in 1943. Studied nuclear
engineering in Japan and at massachusetts
Institute of technology, where he gained
his Phd
works for a spell at hitachi as a senior
design engineer on Japan’s prototype fast
breeder reactor
Joins the Japanese office of mcKinsey
& co in 1972, becoming a senior
partner and co-founding its strategic
management practice. Stays with the firm
for 23 years before leaving to stand for the
governorship of tokyo in 1995
founder and managing director of
ohmae associates, and chancellor’s
Professor of Public Policy at the Ucla
School of Public and Social research in
california, he consults to corporations and
governments around the world
his wide interests include skiing, music,
sailing, martial arts, motorbikes and scuba
diving
•
•
•
•
•
in Tokyo – Isshinjuku, which teaches
public policy, and Attacker’s Advantage,
which teaches entrepreneurship – he is
also the Chancellor’s Professor of Public
Policy at the UCLA School of Public and
Social Research in California. He lectures
all over the world, advises businesses
and governments in every continent and
writes regularly for western journals.
His writing focuses on the forces that
are dissolving national borders and
building new regional economies, how
businesses should leverage technology
and other new platforms for growth,
how to lead a global corporation and
the role governments play when nation
states no longer matter.
Ohmae’s most recent book, The Next
Global Stage: Challenges and Opportunities
in Our Borderless World, builds on much
of his earlier work and is intended, he
says, “to provide a script to help people
through the shifting plotlines of the
global economy.”
Borderlessness is the most important
characteristic of the global economy,
Ohmae believes. “In terms of
communications, capital, corporations
and consumers, which are the four key
factors of business life, the world has
already attained borderlessness,” he says.
He explains that the concepts of
America Inc or Japan Inc are already
largely irrelevant, because e-commerce
OHMAE AT A GLANCE
5
Impact Executives: experts in global interim management +44 (0)20 7314 2011 [email protected] www.impactexecutives.com
knows no boundaries. When you get an
email you have no indication of which
country it comes from, knowledge
workers can and do work anywhere,
financiers – and individuals – switch
their investments to whichever country
yields the best returns, and so on.
He goes on to argue that nation states
are declining because their fixation
on borders is out of kilter with today’s
transnational world. The nation state,
he says, “has the potential to hold back
human development through artificial
compartmentalisation of skills and
markets.” By contrast, ‘region states’,
which used to be seen as parochial
and inward looking, will become more
important.
Emerging region states include places
like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou in
China, Hyderabad and Mumbai in India
and San Jose in California. But Ohmae
stresses the importance of ‘human
magnets’ to a region too, describing
the effect Michael Dell has had on the
growth of Austin in Texas, the original
location of his eponymous computer
company, as “monumental.”
The most important element of any
successful region, he continues, is
openness to the outside world. “The rest
of the world must be viewed as a source
of prosperity. All lingering concepts of
native versus foreigner must be erased,
so rules limiting foreign investment or
foreign ownership of land or capital
must be abolished.”
Ohmae judges the ‘annus domini’ of
the global economy to be 1985, the year
that Microsoft launched its Windows
operating system, and he uses the
tongue-in-cheek dating system of BG and
AG – that is, Before Gates and After Gates.
Success in the new global economy
will depend on good leadership, he
continues. “Given the uncertainties,
leaders must be creative and pragmatic,
refusing to be imprisoned by the past.
Business leaders should have vision.
They must embrace innovation and
court flexibility. They must also possess
a full understanding of, an instinctive
sympathy with and a total commitment
to the global economy.”
The Mind of the Strategist, which made
Ohmae’s name 20 years ago, is still
viewed by many as a Bible of corporate
strategy because of its good sense and
clear advice. Its underlying premise is
that successful business strategies do not
come from rigorous analysis but from
a thought process that is creative and
intuitive rather than rational.
One chapter in the book is an essential
aide memoire for anyone running a
business. It comprises a list of things to
avoid and concentrate on. For example:
Avoid tunnel vision: consider
alternative routes rather than being
fixated on one.
Avoid the peril of perfectionism:
sometimes it’s better to do something
that’s almost right rather than wait
•
•
for the perfect solution and miss the
strategic opportunity.
Focus on the key factors and don’t
be distracted by minor complications:
all businesses are simple, once you get
to know them. Banking, for instance,
might look complicated to the outsider,
but boiled down to its core it is nothing
more than getting in money cheap and
lending it out as expensively as you can.
Always challenge the constraints and
ask ‘what can we do?’ rather than ‘what
can’t we do?’ Strategy is a question of
attitude more than numbers.
In the book Ohmae contrasts the
Japanese and American approaches to
strategy. The Japanese look at what they
think their customers will want, whether
the company has the competence to
meet these demands, and whether
they can do so profitably in the face of
competition. The American way, at the
time, was to analyse the numbers for the
different possible options – something
Ohmae calls ‘spreadsheet doodling.’
But it is the bigger issue of the
changing shape of the world of business
that truly fascinates him and will no
doubt continue to do so, and it is a
source of concern to him that so many
businesses fail to take it seriously.
“The global economy is reality, not a
theory,” he says. “It is growing stronger,
it will feed on its own strengths, it is
irresistible. There is no use complaining
about it or wishing it to go away. People
just have to learn to live with it.”
Or, more accurately, they have to
learn how to conquer this new ‘invisible
continent’, before the rules and laws
are too fixed and before others see the
possibilities.
As he points out, what others saw as
Florida marshland, Disney turned into a
hugely successful theme park.
•
•
the Borderless world (1990)
the mind of the Strategist (1991)
Beyond national Borders (1987)
the End of the nation State (1995)
the Invisible continent (2000)
the next global Stage:
challenges and opportunities in
our Borderless world (2005)
The rest of the
world must be
viewed as a source
of prosperity
KEY BOOKS
It is hard to let old beliefs go. they are
familiar. we are comfortable with them
and have spent years building systems
and developing habits that depend
on them. like a man who has worn
eyeglasses so long that he forgets he
has them on, we forget that the world
looks to us the way it does because we
have become used to seeing it that way
through a particular set of lenses
If patriotism is, as dr Johnson used to
remark, the last refuge of the scoundrel,
wrapping outdated industry in the
mantle of national interest is the last
refuge of the economically dispossessed.
In economic terms, pleading national
interest is the declining cottage industry
of those who have been bypassed by the
global economy
the true strategic thinker can respond
flexibly to the inevitable changes in the
situation that confronts the company. and
it is that flexibility which, in turn, increases
the chances of success
In business, as on the battlefield, the object
of strategy is to bring about the condition
most favourable to one’s own side
By failing to grasp the critical issues, too
many senior managers today impose
great anxiety on themselves and their
subordinates, whose efforts end in failure
and frustration
thE ohmaE PhIloSoPhy
visible signs of something wider and
bigger. “Were there others like them,
below the radar of media attention?” he
writes. The answer was a resounding yes.
“We went looking for them and found
more than we expected.”
The new philanthropists spot a
particular need, often by accident, and
mobilise their own and others’ talents
and energy to fill it, but they ensure their
ventures are self-sustaining.
What they have in common is
“passion, permanence and partnership,”
claims Handy. The passion is often
triggered by some event. For example,
Hunter was only 37 when he took the
phone call one morning offering to buy
his business for a sum that would take
care of all his future financial needs. He
then set about deciding how he wanted
to use the rest of his life.
Finding himself on the front page
of The Times one day as the result of a
charitable initiative he was involved
in made venture capitalist-turned
educational philanthropist Sir Peter
Lampl realise just how much difference
one person can make. And former
banker David Charters resolved to
change his life after suddenly realising
that he had lost his family as a result of
his total absorption in his work. He set
up the Beacon Fellowship Charitable
Trust, which celebrates and encourages
philanthropy.
The new philanthropists also
look at their philanthropic projects
in a businesslike way. They see their
interventions as an initial investment of
money, time and energy, but are clear
that they ultimately have to be capable of
standing on their own. For example, the
dubs “volunteering with leverage.” They
expect a return too. “We don’t just put
money in and hope,” says Hunter.
Exemplars of new philanthropy
include people like Bill Gates, whose
$31 billion foundation is the largest in
history, and Google founders Sergey
Brin and Larry Page, who hope the
impact of their philanthropic arm will
one day eclipse that of Google itself by
“ambitiously applying innovation and
significant resources to the largest of the
world’s problems.” In the UK Jamie Oliver
has captured the public’s imagination
with his restaurant Fifteen, whose
profits are ploughed back into helping
disadvantaged young people.
But Handy wanted to find out whether
such high-profile individuals were the
6 Impact Executives - the business review Issue 18
B
I
G
I
S
S
u
E
S
modErn PhIlanthroPy coUld rEdEEm caPItalISm
wIthIn thE nExt dEcadE, PrEdIctS charlES handy
PLEASE DON’T CALL me a
philanthropist; I am just trying to be
useful,” said one of the individuals
Charles Handy interviewed for his
new book The New Philanthropists. The
book comprises a series of interviews
with what Handy has identified as
‘entrepreneurial philanthropists’,
‘catalytic philanthropists’ or ‘social
entrepreneurs’ – entrepreneurs and
City folk who have made fortunes at a
relatively young age and have turned
their energy and money-making talents
to helping social causes
The list includes Sir Tom Hunter, the
Scottish retail tycoon, who has invested
more than £100m in charitable causes;
Irish property developer Niall Mellon,
who is building houses in the townships
of South Africa with planeloads of Irish
volunteers; eBay founder Jeff Skoll, who
is sponsoring and underwriting major
Hollywood films that raise issues of social
justice or moral concern; and Gordon
Roddick, joint founder of Body Shop, who
invests in a range of social businesses,
including The Big Issue and Freeplay
As Handy writes at the beginning
of his book, “Generosity is fashionable
again.” But what characterises ‘the new
philanthropists’ is their determination
to be deeply involved in the causes they
choose to support, rather than just
writing a cheque.
“[They] want to be in the driving seat,
because that’s where they belong and,
being by nature entrepreneurs...they like
to fill gaps and meet needs neglected by
others,” he states.
They are also distinguished by their
ability to “kick-start an enterprise
without going begging” – an approach he
A new way of giving
Readers can buy The New Philanthropists
(RRP £20) for the special price of £17 plus
free UK p&p. To order please call 01206 255
800 and quote the reference 'Handy'.
7
Impact Executives: experts in global interim management +44 (0)20 7314 2011 [email protected] www.impactexecutives.com
top two storeys of the seven-storey breast
cancer clinic in Khartoum set up by
telecoms multi-millionaire Mo Ibrahim
will be let out as luxurious office suites,
the income from which will support the
clinic in future years.
Sustainability depends on partnership
of one sort of another. For example,
Niall Mellon could not hope to make
more than a small dent in South Africa’s
housing problem without the help and
involvement of the local municipalities
and the national government, who had
to fund and prepare the infrastructure on
the sites, validate the leases and subsidise
the prices of the houses he built. The
volunteers whom he flies out from
Ireland are also partners in that they all
raise money to pay for their own fares
and accommodation and contribute to
the cost of the houses.
“Partnership creates involvement,
which builds commitment and long-term
sustainability,” says Handy.
But if the traditional charitable sector
can learn from the new philanthropists,
then so can the business world.
“Business’s unhealthy obsession with
sales, profits and shareholders does it
no favours,” he says. “By contrast, money
is almost an embarrassment to the new
philanthropists – it is a by-product of
what they do.”
While he thinks new philanthropy
can never be more than a niche sector,
he believes its greatest potential impact
could be to change the perception of
business from being a largely selfish
occupation to one that benefits society. If
its values infect the rest of the corporate
sector, it could redeem capitalism within
the next decade or two, he predicts.
“The activities of the new
philanthropists will never relieve the
government of its responsibilities in any
major way, but they give a point to wealth
creation and help answer the lingering
question about the role of business and
capitalism,” he says. “In so doing, they
give their employees a reason to get out
of bed in the morning.”
The new philanthropists get a buzz
out of what they do, but they are not
driven by a desire for status. Their
motivation is summed up in the words
of one interviewee: “The chance to do
this makes the whole business of making
money worthwhile.”
SIR TOM HuNTER
this philanthropy business has given a whole
new meaning and purpose to wealth creation
Scottish retail tycoon Sir tom hunter, knighted in recognition of his
philanthropic work, recalls: “at 37 years old I had basically achieved
my life’s ambitions. I had sold my business, something I had never
planned to do. I had got a cheque for £260m. my life had to start all
over again. I had to re-educate myself.”
he set up the hunter foundation, which works to help education
in Scotland. It has committed over £35m to Scottish projects and
leveraged £175m of additional public and private sector investment.
But he soon realised that there was no way to usefully spend his
foundation’s £100m in Scotland, particularly when the problems in
the poorest parts of the world were so serious. at a dinner in london
he met Bill clinton, who suggested he accompany him to africa to witness the problems there
at frst hand. the trip led to the formation of the clinton-hunter development Initiative, which
aims to relieve poverty in africa through training teachers and healthcare workers and to
encourage entrepreneurship.
JEFF SKOLL
the company [eBay] was not my dream, but the
means to enable my dream
In 1998 eBay, the company set up by Jeff Skoll and Pierre omidyar
two years earlier, went public, leaving Skoll unimaginably wealthy.
two years later he left to pursue his original dream, which was to
write stories alerting people to the problems, dangers and injustices
in the world in the hope of spurring them into action.
But with the money in his hand, he found that the foundation he
had established to back and publicise those working for social change,
combined with the need to manage both his wealth and the high
profle that success had brought him, left him little time to write the
stories he wanted to. But when he sat next to a hollywood producer
at a dinner party who told him the reason so few flms focused on social issues was lack of
money, “the light came on in my head,” he recalls.
Instead of writing the stories himself he began to back flms that focus on social issues,
including the box offce hit Syriana, starring george clooney, built around the damage wreaked
on our environment by the global oil industry.
CAROLYN HAYMAN
this would not have existed except for me
carolyn hayman had what she calls her 'light-bulb moment' in
2002. She was sitting on a grant-making committee that had just
agreed eight grants to peace organisations, and she wondered
why they were all in london. She went looking for someone with
the same idea and found social entrepreneur Scilla Ellworthy, with
whom, in 2002, she launched Peace direct, which provides support
direct to peace activists in the danger points around the world.
hayman injected initial funding of £100,000 and left her job as an
investment banker to become full-time chief executive.
Peace direct also works to raise the profle of peace building. It
published a book in 2004 called Unarmed Heroes, a collection of
personal testimonies by individuals who have been involved in the peaceful resolution of confict.
they include Jo Berry, whose father was killed by the Ira in the Brighton bombing in 1984, and
who decided to meet Patrick magee who planted the bomb. as a result of this meeting the pair
set up and now run causeway, an organisation that facilitates meetings between the victims
and perpetrators of violence in northern Ireland.
the "desire to make a difference" drives hayman and her philanthropy.
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Impact Executives - the business review Issue 18
took on the role of divisional director
of Engineering and Process Control in
March, with a seat on the executive board
of NPL, initially for a period of three to
six months. His remit was to build on
the commercial income in the business,
which specialises in science research,
and improve the performance and
management of the division by coaching
the leaders.
Bartlett explains: “Engineering and
Process Control has a £25m turnover
and 200 staff, and was not making the
level of commercial income it hoped to
achieve. My first task was to take control
the performance and cost base, so I
strengthened the fundamental concepts
like business planning, risk analysis and
full-year forecasting, while focusing
the past and rated them,” says McQuillan.
The person Impact Executives fielded
was Mike Bartlett, an engineer with
over 25 years’ senior management
experience, most of it at chief executive
and director level in companies engaged
in design, manufacturing and export. He
hElP from an IntErIm managEr haS allowEd
thE natIonal PhySIcal laBoratory to BEcomE
morE commErcIal
EARLY LAST YEAR Serco, the company
that manages NPL on behalf of the
Government, won an important new
contract with the DTI. The head of NPL’s
biggest division, Engineering and Process
Control, went off at short notice to run it,
leaving the organisation with a big hole.
“We knew it could take up to six
months to fill that hole, and after my
less-than-successful attempt to fill it for
a while – in addition to my day job – I
realised we needed to bring someone
in to run the division full time until we
found a permanent replacement,” says
NPL Managing Director Steve McQuillan.
He turned to Impact Executives for
help. “Serco has an agreement to work
with Impact Executives, but our HR
director had also worked with them in
A measured approach
Mike has allowed
us to move
forward far faster
than we would
otherwise
have done
assignment – helping establish as a
separate business the knowledge transfer
activities that had until then been part of
Engineering and Process Control.
“NPL understood the potential of the
knowledge transfer business, but setting
it up as a separate division gave it real
focus. It should turn over around £7m
this year, and that could triple over the
next three or four years,” he explains.
In October, NPL appointed a new full-
time managing director for Engineering
and Process Control. But in the
meantime the business development
director for NPL had gone on
maternity leave, and McQuillan
asked Bartlett if he would
step into that role until
she returned in April.
“The great thing
about Mike is that
his wide experience
means he can slot
into any role in
the organisation
and be
immediately
effective,
leaving me free
to do my job,”
says McQuillan.
“It is not just a question of back-filling:
he really moved the strategy and
the business development activities
of Engineering and Process Control
forwards, allowing the division to step up
a gear. And he is still proving his worth
as executive director of the knowledge
transfer business, helping them change
their structure and strategy.”
Bartlett is also proving his worth in
the business development role. “I am
focusing on refining our strategy and
developing tactics for the key market
sectors we should be operating in,” he
says. “As part of that I will be helping to
roll out what we did in Engineering and
Process Control across the rest of the
organisation, and reconciling the aims of
the individual divisions with the central
corporate aim.”
“Mike has allowed us to move forward
far faster than we would otherwise have
done,” says McQuillan.
Like all good interim managers,
Bartlett is a strong people person,
very flexible, versatile and adaptable
– strengths exemplified in his willingness
to fill, at short notice, the role of part-
time Chief Executive of the Centre
for Advanced Software Technology at
Bangor University (also run by Serco) on
a two-day-a-week basis until the end of
February.
“I relish the uncertainty and the
opportunities involved in being an
interim manager,” says Bartlett. “You get
to know all sorts of interesting businesses
and people. While every business,
situation and culture is different, the
problems tend to be the same. So
you adapt your approach to what is
essentially the same job time after time. It
always works, which is very satisfying.”
the national Physical laboratory, or nPl, is the UK’s national standards laboratory, an
independent and internationally respected centre of excellence in research, development
and knowledge transfer in measurement and materials science. for more than a century it
has developed and maintained the nation’s primary measurement standards, which form the
core of an infrastructure designed to ensure accuracy, consistency and innovation in physical
measurements, including time, length, mass, density and force.
today it is hard to think of a single thing we do that doesn’t involve some type of measurement,
from time keeping, the weight of the food we buy, the units of power we use and the size of
the clothes we wear, to the split-second timing crucial to the smooth operation of computer
and telephone networks, the measurements involved in weather forecasting and the precise
specifcations involved in the manufacture of tvs and other electrical goods.
nPl is managed on behalf of the department of trade and Industry by Serco. Serco's focus at
nPl has been on delivering science that makes an impact on UK business and society. Serco won
an initial seven-year management contract, and in 2003 won the re-bid for a ten-year contract,
confrming its effectiveness at managing and developing scientifc staff and facilities.
THE COMPANY: NPL
9
Impact Executives: experts in global interim management +44 (0)20 7314 2011 [email protected] www.impactexecutives.com
the business development activities
of Engineering and Process Control
forwards, allowing the division to step
up a gear.”
The bigger, more strategic task
was to pursue further commercial
opportunities: the business relied on
the DTI for 60% of its funding, but that
funding is being gradually reduced.
Bartlett created business growth
champions in the different science
teams, matching them up with business
development people so that together
they could go out into the marketplace
to identify and work out how to meet
commercial needs.
His approach worked well. New
planning and budgeting disciplines
meant that the division finished the
year in profit, and the senior team
responded enthusiastically to the new
market-facing positioning and the new
management structure which focused,
says Bartlett, on “getting the right people
in the right jobs.”
Bartlett took on an additional
role during the first six months of his
Mike's wide
experience means
he can slot into
any role in the
organisation and
be immediately
effective
mike Bartlett has had 25 years’ senior
management experience, including 18 years
at chief executive and director level with
companies engaged in design, manufacturing
and worldwide export activities. he spent
three years as UK chief Executive of fujiflm
Electronic Imaging, restoring proftability
and overseeing a raft of new state-of-the-
art product developments. Prior to that, he
was charged with developing the profle
and size of the UK activities of US frm
harman International Industries, which
makes professional audio products. his
work as group md led to a Queen’s award
for Industry for export growth for the frm.
THE INTERIM
10
Impact Executives - the business review Issue 18
T
R
E
N
D
S
clIEntS’ USE of IntErIm ProvIdErS IS growIng
THEIR ABILITY TO identify and address
a problem quickly, their impartiality
and their strong people skills make
interim managers ideal people to handle
turnarounds and business restructurings.
So it is not surprising that the most
recent assignments of over half of the
respondents to our latest survey were
turnarounds or restructurings.
While the most common length
of assignment cited by respondents is
four to six months, the number whose
assignments lasted for 12 months or
more rose this year to 30% from 20% last
year. But it seems the trade-off for longer
assignments could be a lower day rate:
the number who said their daily rate was
higher than on their previous assignment
fell to 23% from 32% a year ago.
The number who gained their
assignment through an interim provider
rather than through their own networks
rose over the year from 46% to 56%,
the highest level for four years. This
suggests that companies are increasingly
reassured by the fit between assignment
and interim manager that derives from
the rigorous approach to interviewing,
assessing and referencing candidates
guaranteed by interim executive
providers such as Impact Executives.
Manufacturing industry accounted
for 19% of all assignments carried out by
Impact Executives interim managers over
the past six months, just behind central
and local government and public sector
health organisations.
Respondents expect the trends of the
past year to continue, with 56% predicting
that turnaround and restructuring
will continue to be the primary areas
requiring interim management expertise.
A further 15% anticipate business growth
will also generate assignments.
This finding is consistent with
respondents' guarded optimism for
economic prospects: some 41% of them
expect a small upward trend during the
first half of 2007, compared with 32% a
year ago, and just 15% predict a slight
downward trend, compared with 26% a
year ago.
Turnaround experts
SuRVEY RESuLTS
1) Are you currently on assignment?
5) In which function was your most recent interim assignment?
0% 5% 10% 15% 20%
Other
Sales & Marketing
Retail
Property/ Facilities Management
Project Management
IT
Supply Chain/ Logistics
Manufacturing
Human Resources
General Management
Banking & Finance
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40%
12 months +
10-12 months
7-9 months
4-6 months
1-3 months
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
No
Yes
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
2) What was the reason for your current/ last assignment?
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%
£1,500+
£1,000- £1,499
£700-999
£500-699
£300-499
Under £300
4) What is your current or your most recent daily rate?
DECEMBER 2006
DECEMBER 2005
DECEMBER 2006
DECEMBER 2005
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30%
Other
Maternity Cover
Back-fill Permanent Role
BPR
Business Growth
Consolidation
M&A/MBO/MBI
Business Restructure
Start-up
Closure/ Disposal
Turnaround
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
3) How long was your most recent assignment?
DECEMBER 2006
DECEMBER 2006
DECEMBER 2005
DECEMBER 2006
Harvey Nash has a reputation for quality created through thousands of
successful assignments and has grown, both organically and through
acquisition, to become a leading recruitment consultancy.
Established in 1988 and operating in the UK, Europe, USA & Asia Pacific,
Harvey Nash delivers a unique portfolio of recruitment and outsourcing
services through five distinct, yet complimentary business units:
International Executive Search
Interim Management
IT Executive Search
IT Technical Recruitment
Offshore Software Outsourcing
For more information contact us at [email protected],
tel: +44 (0)20 7333 0033
www.harveynash.com
IT Resourcing - Executive Search - Interim Management - IT Outsourcing
Turnaround experts
SuRVEY RESuLTS
Harvey Nash has a reputation for quality created through thousands of
successful assignments and has grown, both organically and through
acquisition, to become a leading recruitment consultancy.
Established in 1988 and operating in the UK, Europe, USA & Asia Pacific,
Harvey Nash delivers a unique portfolio of recruitment and outsourcing
services through five distinct, yet complimentary business units:
International Executive Search
Interim Management
IT Executive Search
IT Technical Recruitment
Offshore Software Outsourcing
For more information contact us at [email protected],
tel: +44 (0)20 7333 0033
www.harveynash.com
IT Resourcing - Executive Search - Interim Management - IT Outsourcing
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