Taken from:
The Independent on Sunday

Section:
Business

“I believe that old managers are old managers…But that doesn’t mean to say there shouldn’t be an older head there, sitting on the back of the stage-coach, occasionally letting off the blunderbuss to let everyone know there’s an Indian out there.
Sir John Harvey Jones”

Detective stalks corridors of industry

Sir John Harvey-Jones, the man once voted ‘Britain’s most impressive industrialist’, plays management troubleshooter for a BBC television series. As the Hercule Poirot of the factory floor he’s looking at six different companies – all facing crucial decisions.

A taste for flamboyant kipper ties amid the grey-suited world of commerce provides a hint of the showman in Sir John Harvey-Jones.

Now the former chairman of ICI has made it clearer with his first sortie into the world of the television presenter. In Troubleshooter, the man who was voted “Britain’s most impressive industrialist” by his peers turns detective.

Sell your company…

Assuming the role of the Hercule Poirot of the factory floor, Sir John will be looking at six different companies – all facing crucial decisions – including Apricot, the quoted computer company, and Morgan, the family firm of car-makers. He will give his view of what should be done.

Typically, he is fairly blunt in his suggestions, from “Change your management” to “Sell your company”. But it is a mark of the man’s reputation that, rather than companies being reluctant to air their difficulties in public, the producers found themselves deluged with requests for their businesses to be picked over by Sir John. Still, it takes a certain courage to open the boardroom doors and let in the cameras.

Sir John makes it clear that he would never have exposed ICI to the lens. ” ‘No way’, would have been my answer to such a request. But I suppose I had the arrogance to assume then that I knew the answer to a problem, or the way of finding a solution.

From minnow to sprat

“These are not exposes. We didn’t bang on their doors to let us in. They were people who appreciated they had a problem or difficult decisions to make and didn’t know what to do. I didn’t think I was Superman flying in to help and there’s not meant to be any arrogant assumption that I know better than anyone else. ” Of the six companies, Apricot, Copella (juice producers) and Churchill (potters) more or less followed his advice. Only one company refused all suggestions – the Morgan car company.

Founded in 1909, the Malvern-based car manufacturer, with 140 employees is still run by the family. Peter Morgan is chairman and his son Charles, a former ITN cameraman, is the production director. With a turnover of £6m a year, it is, says Charles Morgan, “a minnow among the the motor companies”. Sir John believes that it will be little more than a sprat unless changes are made.

“He did have some fairly blunt things to say,” Mr Morgan admits. “There is the rather simplistic view that we are an old-fashioned firm using old-fashioned methods. In fact, some of our practices, like individual workers ordering parts by computer as they’re needed, match those of the Japanese. ”

Sir John will be heard to remark that an eight-year waiting list for the cars is scandalous. If it had happened in any other company the management would have been sacked.

“We have been trying to improve productivity,” Mr Morgan says, “and are up to our target of about 10 per cent improvement, although Sir John believes that’s not enough. It’s really the high-tech businessman against the small family firm.

“He does make deliberately provocative statements, but anything that makes you think is good. I did feel that he does tend to go for a grand plan and is not very good with the detail.”

When the Troubleshooter visited the family-owned Copella, in Suffolk, he shocked them all by suggesting that they sell half the business. The company has developed from a farming base over more than 50 years and now has three areas of activity: farming, leisure (golf-courses) and apple juice production.

Radical decisions

“I must admit I expected him to be more brusque and more forceful with us than he was,” Roger Rendall, a family member and production director, said. “We acted on his advice and decided to sell 50 per cent of the juice business to the Taunton Cider Company. There have already been positive returns. I would say that we are now well on the road to achieving a lot of the objectives we set ourselves.

“We had always firmly rejected all offers in the past, but Sir John is a charismatic man. It was a very radical decision for us but it turned out to be a happy one and we don’t have any regrets,” Mr Rendall said.

The programmes are built up like detective stories, Sir John stalking from shopfloor to boardroom, assembling the clues – most of which have already come from his analysis of the accounts, City investors’ reports and experts that he has called on for help. The suggestions are teased out until the final showdown.

Blind man’s buff

It inevitably builds the tension and there have been quite a few arguments. “It’s always a heated moment,” said Ann Laking, the producer. But Sir John is aware of the pressure. “I want to help these people and I would be very surprised and upset if their businesses were hurt by these programmes.”

Despite his reputation, he admits he was very nervous about the whole project. “It was like a game of blind man’s buff. The sheer task of trying to unravel the problems and come up with some sensible suggestion, if there was one, took all my attention. ”

The idea for the series came from his literary agent and he agreed to it “in a weak moment”. But he does feel passionately that industry is not understood and is degraded in the British job market.

“I wanted to show people that business is not what they might think. It’s not about bureaucracy, power and number crunching. It’s not someone sitting there with a quill pen adding up rows of figures. It’s got every bit as much drama as any extremes of your personal life.”
His own management style he describes as “lovable”.

“Basically, I try to jolly things along. After all, the problems can only be solved by the people who have them. You have to try and coax them and love them into seeing ways which they can help themselves. ”

No health cure

He looked not only at private businesses but also at one public sector group – the Shropshire Health Authority. Here he tried to apply business principles to a body that is under political control, but found it difficult.

“I think Sir John had quite a headache at the end of it,” said Frank Jones, chairman of the Shropshire District Authority. “I found it an interesting experience, but to be truthful he had no panacea to offer.” Unlike 77-year-old lan McGregor, Sir John does not believe that older men make better managers.

“I believe that old managers are old managers. It’s very, very difficult for them. They are slower thinking, they aren’t as vivacious and receptive to ideas as younger men. But that doesn’t mean to say there shouldn’t be an older head there, sitting on the back of the stage-coach, occasionally letting off the blunderbuss to let everyone know there’s an Indian out there.”