Sir John Timpson CBE A profile of one of the UK’s most successful family entrepreneurs by Martin Greig
Every Timpson shop displays a notice carrying a message from Sir John;
“But I am someone who works on instinct and I had not realised how much I do that until someone drew a cartoon of me. Everyone else [in the picture] was sitting looking at budgets and marketing reports, while I was just sitting looking into a crystal ball.” Cartoon characters are very important in Timpson, more about that later. What isn’t very important, however, are budgets and marketing reports. In fact, they do not exist. The business does not produce budget forecasts, there are no KPIs, it does not advertise or conduct market research and Board meetings last no longer than two hours. “When I was at Barclays, Board meetings went on for two days with lots of people reporting on decks that went on and on. We just do not do that sort of stuff. I mean, we do not do budgets because I cannot see the point of them.” Instead, at 82 years of age, Sir John spends his time visiting hundreds of colleagues at Timpson shops up and down the country, getting to know them and hearing how things are going where it matters most.
For the last 27 years, Sir John Timpson CBE, has not told anyone what to do, at least not in his capacity as Chairman and Director of one of Britain’s largest and most successful family businesses. Not telling people what to do is one of just three rules that all employees of Timpson Group are expected to observe. The other two are: look the part (wear the uniform, turn up on time) and put the money in the till! These rules are fundamental to Sir John’s philosophy of upside-down management – a philosophy he introduced years ago when he removed the company’s Head Office (the building remains but it is no longer called the Head Office) and the role of managers was transformed in one of supporting and empowering “We do things differently at Timpson,” says Sir John. “We are a retail services business, which is about people serving people. We have a lot of very good day-to-day managers and they succeed by looking after colleagues, not by telling them what to do.” front-line colleagues to deliver outstanding customer service.
It is a message that conveys a culture of trust in people and values that runs through the heart of Timpson Group – a culture which has been pivotal in creating one of the country’s best- known, and loved, family businesses. History Sir John became a Director of Timpson in 1969. His first role in the business was buying women’s fashion shoes – a “juicy role” as he recalls, not too high up in the business but one he found great fun. “You might think I have not got an ounce of fashion style in me, but I worked out how to do it. It was like playing a game, like doing a crossword puzzle every day. And I think I was quite good at it. “The colleagues in this shop have my complete authority to do whatever they want to give you an amazing service.”
FBUK Issue 4 18
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online