Life at the Helm

Matthew Evans spoke candidly, as if he were addressing one person in confidence rather than a whole room; he has an understated and friendly wit. Accordingly, he requested Chatham House Rule (that the audience do not repeat his tales outside of the four walls), in order to relate a couple of tales. (Sorry, come to the talks next time!) His moral? The career politician is not a wholesome invention.

As a young man, Matthew had a mentor who recommended that he have three careers. And Lord Evans has done exactly that: in publishing, politics, and now banking. 'I have never been tired, or stale, or bored' he said. He served 40 years at Fabers, where he was made Managing Director at the tender age of 30 because, as he put it, 'Everyone was retiring or dropping off. I was the nearest thing to an able-bodied person'. It was something of a baptism by fire: a week after receiving the honour, a man from Natwest took him aside and uttered the words 'I'm sorry to tell you this, butFabers is in acute financial difficulty'.

At our talks, Lord Evans made light of the publishers' recovery, pointing to his perennial tactic of 'surrounding yourself with people that are smarter than you are […] A lot of people are afraid to, but who gets the credit when things go well? The Chief Executive'. In truth, saving Fabers must have been one hell of a fight. So how did he run the team? 'I was the enabler of a team of talented people.'

Timothy Melgund's ancestor, among other achievements, organised the Canadianarmy in 19^th C. So one would expect his descendant to know a thing or two about leadership. Before the talk, Timothy popped into Paperchase around the corner. The poor youth behind the counter must have been taken aback to come face to face with his CEO.

Yet here was an example of the attitudes Timothy endorsed in his talk. The culture of a company must be 'like a stick of rock', he said, 'it has to run all the way through'. He meant in terms of Paperchase's 'witty English style' (in the words of Mary Portas) – 

the warehouses are adorned with the same designs as the flagship store – and in terms of involvement: everyone must feel engaged and part of a team. 'When a manager invites you into his shop,' he said 'you just know it's going to be well run'. I have observed this culture of engagement first hand. Several years ago, as a teenager, I worked in the flagship Paperchase under a shop-floor manager named Dee. When I returned recently, I was impressed that Dee now works in the head office, in charge of buying from Asia.

The stick of rock analogy goes for everything. 'The problem with retail' Timothy quoted 'is that you have to get everything right all of the time.' Tremendous eye-to-detail is required to sustain your differentiation from customers. 'You need imagination to reinvent yourself the whole time.'

Timothy's main tip for life at the helm? Clarity of purpose. 'If you're crystal clear about what you're trying to do, success comes much more easily.'

Margaret Mountford's address was very original: she threaded the theme of leadership through it, touching on many walks of public life. Wittily. She had to be innovative, as she reminded us 'I haven't exactly been below deck, but I have never been at the helm!' Her first main point was that, too often in public life, success is measured by short-term results ('and there's no logic in the stock-market!'). Naturally, she drew on a couple of lessons from The Apprentice, from, as she wrily described it, 'five years watching Britain's best business brains at work'. An ongoing relationship with customers is important in business; but 'the apprentice is a bad example here' she said, 'because the program is one task at a time […] people win a task because they've produced some ghastly food with some awful cheap ingredients and conned some people into buying it. They sell out. But they'd never have got any repeat business.' and then, reminding us of her true passion, of her 7-year-long papyrology phd, 'They might have won the battle, but they'd have lost the war. No Alexander the Greats!'

Margaret is on the board of a school, and she sees the same lessons here. Too often people are concerned with league-tables, with the short-term measures of success. What does matter? 'Value-added. Success is improvement. Have pupils done better than was anticipated? That's harder to measure and harder to grasp. It's not the headline figure.' And then there are more intangible things: 'Do pupils leave ready for adult life? Do they have a sense of respect for themselves and for others?' You simply can't measure these things; yet it is the job of the headmaster to instill them. 'You need good teachers, but above all, you need a good head, ethos comes from the top.'

Her second point? It's tough at the top. 'It's a lot easier to criticise than it is to govern. St. Paul's protesters take note!' she admonished. 'It's good to bring up the debate, but they haven't put forward any solutions. They just don't like the status quo.' I thought back to Timothy Melgund's words 'There's a lot of trial, and a lot of error!' To govern, Margaret told us, 'you need nerves of steel and an awful lot of stamina. If you haven't got that...then don't try to be Prime Minister of Greece!'