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comment Phil Jones:
Managing Director of Brother UK, and President of Forever Manchester, Phil Jones, gave us an exclusive interview on his unique management style at one of the biggest retail brands in the world - Brother - plus how his two roles at Brother UK and Forever Manchester are mutually aligned.
In previous editions of Trafford Business Connect we have covered events with Forever Manchester – one of our principal charity partners – and have featured reports on speeches by their President Phil Jones. Our last edition featured a report on the Forever Manchester initiative ‘RESET’ – a credible business model for corporate citizenship that supported the very communities enlightened businesses were located in. Phil briefly touched on the relationship forward thinking commerce had with their local communities, and its to this backdrop that Trafford Business Connect caught up with him at the Forever Manchester offices in the heart of City Centre Manchester. We started the interview by
asking “How much autonomy does Brother UK enjoy from Japanese parent Brother Group?”
“I’m lucky I enjoy quite a lot of freedom. Brother have always had a good footprint as an International company in putting local leaders in charge of its International operations. This leads to a ‘Think Global, Act Local’ mentality. “Brother is a large International business, and there are many global strategic elements to the business that I am handed down and need to deploy locally. But of course my job as local leader is to ensure that strategy can get deployed in a local manner, specifically in a way that the UK can connect with and understand. “When I see this situation not working is where International companies get it wrong by trying to push an International language into a domestic marketplace. People then don’t think there’s a cultural fit. So my job is to interpret that International language into the British culture and to ensure it communicates effectively and achieves all relevant expectations.”
At Your Side
“When you are a very large International business and particularly Japanese, the bias is towards a long-term orientation covering 10 or 20 year periods. It is interesting to compare this with the equivalent UK bias towards a short-term orientation which can be as short as planning for the next quarter. “CS B2015 is as it suggests a staging cycle that forms part of a long term vision for the business known as GV21. This is ultimately about growing our business to such a size that we are a company that independently can stand on its own at all times. Fundamentally to not be a target for takeover, and also remain financially independent as a manufacturer on a global scale. This acts as a unifying cause within the global group, and ensures things are kept simple within all the diverse cultures and markets across the globe. I think this is an excellent lesson for either a start-up, fast growing or International business - keeping it simple, and have a unifying cause at all times.”
‘At Your Side’ has been a consistent message for decades. How does this tie in with your long-term views on
Brother UK?”
“At Your Side is a branding message of two parts. It is perceived internally that we are supportive and ‘at the side’ of our colleagues. Two words sum this up – Team, which stands for ‘Together Everyone Achieves More’, and the second is Pride – ‘Personal Responsibility In Delivering Excellence’. So, when we take pride in how our contribution works within a team, we deliver ‘At Your Side’. “That leads to the second part of the message, which is the role our product technology takes in growing our business.”
“It’s actually a philosophy that over arches both how a product functions in relation to a customer and how we actually function as a business in service to that customer.”
“In actual fact we are doing really well. Brother is a very clever business. If you look ‘under the bonnet’ you can see it has spread its risk across multiple continents, multiple currencies, multiple manufacturing bases, and multiple product categories. So what that does is have this effect where marginal movements in any one particular area doesn’t have a major impact across the bigger group.” “During the Forever Manchester RESET event recently, you referred to the concept of Corporate Citizenship. How does this sit with Brother UK, and also does it have relevance for the International Brother Group as a whole?”
“Any large International business has a range of local officers who offer different ideologies from the more conservative to the enlightened, of which I see myself. As a Japanese company the bias is naturally conservative – observe first, then act later. Now, going back to my earlier point about the different bias between the UK and Japanese business, we tend to be short-term orientated and much more potential based, where in Japan they are risk-adverse and long-term
At Your Side
orientated. This creates a cultural gap between our UK business and parent business. However, we’re very fortunate in that our European HQ has a very enlightened leader in charge of Brother Europe, and through his support we can apply the positive ideologies of UK business culture to running Brother UK. “The current marketplace has a backdrop of radical innovation and speed to market. Previously the marketplace had incremental innovation – black and white to colour TV, video recorders to DVD players, Cable and Satellite services – all these things evolved over a period of years. We’re now in the situation where the world seems to change every week, so as a business we need to be fleet of foot. A lot of businesses refer to this as agility, however, we’re one stage further on, and we see the importance of what we call alacrity – a business in a ‘happy state of readiness’. This consists of two components. Firstly agility. Then secondly the happiness refers to employee happiness – How valued do they feel? Are they connected and engaged with the overall objectives of the business? “I think a lot of businesses are overengaged with agility, investing in a lot of systems leaving the employees disengaged. From my perspective, business culture is about tying up all these aspects – your talent and recruitment strategies, your citizenship strategies, in order to sit comfortably within this fast moving marketplace. I’ve realised the best way for Brother UK to work is to synthesize all these practices, and part of that process involved an epiphany, where I identified within employee engagement the importance of citizenship. Specifically, retaining and recruiting great people, doing and supporting amazing things in your local communities, and fitting that entirely together under the banner of alacrity.” “As Forever Manchester President, what have you got planned over the next few years of your presidency?”
sits well with the amazing work Forever Manchester is doing and the fantastic product they are offering businesses like Brother UK. Over the next few years my task is to firstly make sure everybody in the Greater Manchester business community understands the product offering. This is not just about charitable giving, this is about investing in the communities that can be your current or future workforce. “Secondly, this is the only charity that not just covers every single one of the ten boroughs of Greater Manchester, but has multiple offerings within those authorities. Whether you’re passionate about disadvantaged young people, the elderly, community projects - every possible aspect of charitable support are covered. “My ultimate wish is to encourage every single business within Greater Manchester to make a contribution to the community we know as Greater Manchester. Whether they have an individual named fund, or get involved with one of our themed funds, become a ‘million’ member, or simply a supporter, the result is that profits created within Manchester stay in Manchester.”
For further information on Forever Manchester please contact: Jean Mills, Business Development on 0161 214 0955 or by email
jean@forevermanchester.com Phil Jones pictured outside Forever Manchester’s Headquarters on Hewitt Street
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Dennis Tueart scores
Trafford Business Connect were recently very pleased to meet Manchester City legend Dennis
Tueart, who was more than happy to give an exclusive interview on the trials and tribulations of a career straddling sporting excellence with corporate success. We caught up with Dennis at one of his properties, Heatley
Court, just outside Lymm.
“As a young professional player for Sunderland, myself and two other players bought an old Victorian building in Gosforth, Newcastle. After training every day we cleared it, re-decorated and bought furniture, then rented it. That was the start of a long involvement in property. When I signed for Manchester City, I lived in Sale but kept my house back in the North East in Washington New Town. In 1978 when signing for the New York Cosmos, we sold up, and it wasn’t until re-signing for Manchester City, two years later that I returned to property with the purchase of an apartment in Bowdon. Then a year later I purchased some land in Hale Barns where we built a house.” “From there I invested more into property, and in 1987 bought Heatley Court, which was an old coach house in Lymm. After planning consent we converted it to a small business centre containing 7 offices, and I have run my businesses from here ever since.” “You mention other businesses?”
“I have a conference and video production business called Premier Events which has been doing very well since it started in 1985. Over the years I have developed mainly residential properties, however, in 1992 I bought a commercial property that came with an independent travel agency in Cheadle Hulme and ran Dennis Tueart Travel until 2004 but I still have ownership of the property.” “What made you choose Lymm as a location for developing a business centre?”
“When I first heard about this property it struck me as a green oasis in the middle of fantastic transport links – the M56, M6, M62, Manchester Airport. They’re all within striking distance, yet the location itself is so peaceful. We’re on the
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in business
doorstep of Lymm village, which has a healthy café society feel, and yet the area is set in beautiful countryside.” “In terms of being successful in business, were there any attributes you brought from your footballing career that helped you?”
“Certainly, constant lines of communication and building a team. Which means developing individual skillsets that sit alongside others with different skillsets – working together making a team. Essentially surrounding yourself with the very best people that together make an effective difference.” “After you finished your playing career in 1984 you became a Director of Manchester City in 1997 until 2007, do you think your experience as a Director in such a high profile position helped you to make better business decisions in other businesses?”
“Working in the world of football is a total different mentality, and you had to learn the challenges of working within a corporate world as opposed to a sporting world. The ways of doing things, and the kinds of people around you were totally different. So whilst I understood business to a degree as a footballer, I still wanted to know more about the world of business. Prior to signing for City I was taking a Recreational and Administration Management course at Teeside Polytechnic and on my return to Manchester City from the Cosmos I took a business management course at St Helens College of Technology. “When I became a Director of Manchester City the pressure was increased as your decisions were analysed every week, and also at every board meeting each month. With that pressure to turn the club around, you had to have a good team and we did, especially led by David Bernstein. “I did learn a lot about how the corporate world works at that level. However, conversely, my conference business helped bring value to my position as City Director. Premier Events started in 1985, and I didn’t become a Manchester City Director until 1997. I’d spent 15 years working in the conference and video production business with a high level of PLC companies. You had to understand their strategies as businesses, especially as you were helping them present those strategies, an insight I followed into the boardroom. “Saying that, the immediate impact of an important message delivered in the context of a conference reflected an attitude I’d brought from my footballing days. Stability, unity and team spirit were essential. If you had a good product on the back of that, you had a great chance of success.”
“There was certainly a reaction back home. My Brother, who was 6 years younger than me, couldn’t go downtown for 6 months! There was a rumour that my dear Mum had her windows put through – that was only a rumour though! “I hoped people respected me as a professional, let’s face it, Newcastle had the chance to take me on first as a 15 year old, but they didn’t…” “I believe you turned down Brian Clough at Nottingham Forest and also Manchester United?”
“Yes that’s correct they both agreed a deal, along with Manchester City, but I went to New York Cosmos for two years and didn’t regret a thing. “That time in my career was a fantastic learning experience that I look back on with immense satisfaction. The Cosmos won the North American Soccer League Championship in 1978 and I was voted MVP of the play offs and scored two goals in the final 3-1 win against Tampa Bay Rowdies. In essence, what we had was a team 25 years ahead of their time. In 1992 when the premiership started, it wasn’t until then that top class players were brought in from around the world. In 1978 at the Cosmos we had 13 nationalities in the dressing room, we were owned by a multi-billion dollar organization – Warner Communications – and they had so many different facets of business. They were using the Cosmos as a leading edge to promote their brands. It was a reflection of how business and football are conducted now. As it is now, there was massive pressure to be successful, to be the best.” Dennis has an autobiography available covering not just his days as a top flight footballer and Director of Manchester City, but offers a no holds barred insight into his personal and business life. Typically candid about his team mates, clubs and career, he reflects on a career both action packed and incredibly insightful. All his royalties from the book “My Football Journey” are going to The Christie, and it is available from all reputable book vendors.
