Peter Jarvis: “Be the leader you want to work for”

Contechs was founded in Essex in 1997 and initially focused on supplying CAD services to Ford and a number of automotive suppliers.

It achieved steady, organic growth, extending its engineering services and making a series of strategic business acquisitions.

Contechs opened its current office in Basildon in 2002, by which time it had added materials handling programmes to its portfolio. In 2003 it acquired the Hawtal Whiting business and brand from Wagon Group plc, a Tier 1 supplier of design, engineering and recruitment services to Jaguar Land Rover.

Led by a senior management team of industry specialists, it has built up sector-leading experience in CAD and engineering services, delivering consistent, efficient services across the full range of vehicle development, from design concept origination to product launch and post-launch support.

Hi Peter and welcome. Thank you for being involved. Please could you give us some background about yourself, Contechs and your story to this point?

So, I am the Managing Director and one of the owners of Contechs which has been in existence since 1997. We’re proud to have achieved year-on-year growth even through recessions, and I think the way we’ve done that is by being very conscious about having scalable solutions so that we expand, but also contract, in a controlled way, if that makes sense. It’s not about over-expanding in the good times. It’s about doing it in a calculated way so that we are always able to be mindful that the world is not always going to be growing. You can still expand your profitability when you are retracting turnover.

I myself did an apprenticeship in aerospace and then very quickly after I finished with British Aerospace went to Landrover, where I went into the automotive industry, so I’ve worked for large and smaller suppliers meaning I’ve got a wide spectrum of experience in manufacturing and product development. I was quite conscious that I wanted experience of both so I had knowledge of the concept of a vehicle all the way through to the production of it and the whole process in between.

And that desire for continuing my education continues to this day. From the ages of 16-42 I’ve not stopped learning, going to technical college, university, I have teacher training certificates, two degrees, been on courses to learn bricklaying… I have that drive and that will to learn and then use my education to take things forward and I think that’s really important and says something about my character really.

It’s about doing things in a controlled way and I think that’s what Contechs is. We’ve got a lot of liquidity in the business, no real major debts at all, and we’re growing. Last year we turned over £36 million, 2015 we’re projecting £43-44 million and then in 2016 we’re looking at £50-55 million. We’re now a European business and we made an acquisition last year in Germany. We also do joint projects in India and China. We have to come up with a lot of innovation. We’ve got to be dynamic, flexible, lean and nimble and always attract and present new services and ways of working to keep us in front of our competitors. That innovation and learning has really put us in good stead because we’re only as good as we are because of the people that we employ, and we’re really into pushing, training and developing those people and adding clear visions, goals and objectives that are then cascaded down to everyone. Therefore all employees have KPIs and I’ll go through and review them personally as well so that we’ve got alignment from the directors to the board, all the way through the business.

You mention that word there, alignment, where everyone and everything is pulling together. It sounds like you really emphasise that…

Yes, 100%. That is really important as it gives people a sense of wellbeing. It’s about the team and rewarding people as well. We do a lot with bonuses within the business and if we can’t measure and control and monitor things then those bonuses aren’t paid out accurately. We make sure that as the business grows, the individuals get rewarded for the growth of the business. The individual wins, therefore the business wins too, and that’s the secret for a deliverable day-to-day job for the client.

Could you elaborate a little more on the importance of the wellbeing of your people?

We’re about making decisions in a fast and nimble way. Some of those decisions might not always be right, but at least we’re making them at a senior level and we’re doing it when we need to do it so that the business is not held up by the managers, but we like our managers to come to us with different ideas. We’ll take those ideas and we’ll make commercial sense and evaluate them, and if they do make sense, we’ll implement and empower the managers that came up with the idea to go and do it and we’ll fund it. It’s like new ways of learning. At Contechs we’re setting up academies and all those ideas now are self-generated from the managers in the business, and even some of the more junior people as well. It’s about finishing ideas and then from those ideas the business flourishes.

As you say, those ideas come from people who are doing it daily and can see exactly what needs to be done and what would benefit from improvement.

Yes, we’ve gone from pushing the business to now being pulled along by the business as it goes past a critical size, but the problem I’ve always had is I’ve got so many ideas that come to me from various routes that we can’t fulfil them all. So, the important thing is not trying to reinvent the wheel. We’ve had a go at that in terms of new initiatives, but we need to focus on core competencies and there are some good ideas where you can still push the boundaries, but don’t break them. Don’t go off and start thinking you’re going to make millions on a brand new idea – make sure that it complements your core business and core competencies.

You talk about a key success factor being growth in a controlled manner and in a way that complements the core of what you do. Extensions of existing or evolution of what you have, rather than revolution – is that it?

Yes, that’s exactly right. I think any business or entrepreneur needs to know their market and the size. There’s a range, a peak and a trough, and you need to be aware of what that is and where you can operate. You see a lot about competitors over-expanding and when the bad times come again then you’ll see those companies having serious problems. So, we’ve spent a lot of work focusing on controlled growth. Getting to our £50-55 million and then not really becoming a lot bigger in terms of turnover, but instead maximising profitability and value and then being more selective about the types of work that we want and turning the work away that we don’t. To me, that’s what good looks like, it really is.

What do you believe is the key to being able to up the ante, increasing profitability whilst running with the same turnover?

I think the big one for me is IT and specialists, and that comes back to excellence in people. We’ve got some real specialists in that area and we’re recruiting some real heavyweights, so it’s about recruiting the right people on a continual basis to really ensure that you are more knowledgeable than the manufacturers themselves in certain areas. You’ve got a real speciality that sets you apart and that clients always want to tap into.

You’re ‘extra special’ and ‘extra different’ in terms of your specialist knowledge from the skills that your people bring and can then be niche as a result…

Yes, exactly. I think what we’ve been bad at – and I think it’s important that we acknowledge weaknesses because I think that’s a good way to look at things and then correct them when you can – is that we’ve never been very good at doing what we’re doing now in terms of promoting ourselves, talking about us. We’ve always been very modest and very quiet so we’ve grown behind the back door, if that makes sense. Now what we’ve got to do is get more press coverage and PR coverage and tell people about who we are because our clients expect that from a business that we are now the size of. We need to be more out there and that again will also increase sales up to our target and enable profitable growth for us.

Is it fair to say that the business needs you out there doing the PR at the size it is now?

Yes, that’s a very fair comment. I think we are determined and I suppose that comes from me. It is about hard work and drive really. I suppose it’s a bit like being the captain of a ship; you’ve got to be there, you’ve got to be seen to do the right thing and lead from the front, rather than having a business that is a honeymoon type business. It’s not about that. It’s about hard work and all being in it together.

As with any senior leader within a company, your characteristics have positively shaped the culture, the ‘way we do things around here’: hard work, drive, determination, learning, growing and evolving together by working collaboratively in partnership with people. During your journey, was there a point where you thought ‘something’s got to change here’?

Last year and now this year. It’s all about processes, documentation and procedures, and making sure that we are really slick in what we do. In any business, when you’re focusing on delivering the job itself, when you’ve got so much change going on, if you’re not careful you can lose control in terms of being aligned to each other. One of the big things that I did last year and am continuing with this year is to drive processes through the businesses, making sure that the KPIs cascade down to key managers and then for their staff, so that they understand that they have to fit in to the overall quality manual. That’s quite easily forgotten if you’re not careful and it’s just about coming full circle back to what you do to ensure that you’re always in control. The only way of doing that is by quality processes and procedures. I think that’s a big one that a lot of organisations forget about when they go through a transition of growth.

We’ve come back to consistency again. Those processes are absolutely key in terms of everyone doing the same thing, knowing what needs to be done and how it needs to be done to ensure that the consistency is there, but also that it’s scalable.

Exactly. I always say that it’s a bit like buying a house. Buy a house to sell a house, if that makes sense. That’s exactly the same with scalability. We should not be afraid of recession, the people that are afraid of it are the ones that don’t plan for it and we need to accept that there will be other hard times because we’re in one of the most competitive environments in the automotive industry. It’s always gone up and down, so we plan the way we do business to take that into account. That’s why we’ve got a lot of liquidity in the business. We could quite easily take that out if we wanted to, but we want to make sure that it’s there for if we need it on a rainy day.

It’s also about diversification of the business to de-risk it. Having come from an automotive background, I understand the peaks and troughs.

What was the catalyst for your realisation about processes last year?

I think as I see it, we were in danger of being busy and I was starting to get a little bit concerned by some of the things that were starting to happen. It was a case of just stopping where we were, aligning ourselves, and then we’ll go forward in a controlled way. We needed to do that at the time because if you’re not aware of that then you can implode and we’ve always grown in a very controlled way, which we’re very proud of.

So, I think that’s a big one for us really. If we were all on one site it would be easier, but we’re not. We’ve got a site down in Basildon now, two new buildings down there that we bought last year, and we’ve got a place in Germany and offices in India as well. We’ve got to be really mindful that we’re all on the same dance floor, because it’s already much more difficult than if we were all located on one site.

What else is important because of the added complexity of operating from multiple sites?

Communication is massive as well and it starts from the top with a town hall sort of communication from me, and then the senior managers/directors will also do their communications, and that goes down and we need to ensure that we continue to do that because that is really the food for the individuals that are doing all the work. They need communications to know what’s going on.

I’m noticing your language and how passionately you come across when you say ‘it’s food for individuals’ and talk about individual wellbeing. It sounds like you’ve got a real appreciation for the fact that there are certain things that people need in order to perform well.

I think it’s how you’re brought up or what your beliefs are, but it’s about treating people how you want to be treated yourself. I’ve seen these Dragons Den people on the TV, but I don’t like the way that some talk to people. I know it’s on the TV, but it really gets me how they talk to them as if they are better than the individuals that are coming on with their ideas. To me those ideas should be thought through and encouraged, and not dismissed in the way that they are sometimes. I think that’s just the TV and press to be fair about it all.

So, you’re passionate about treating others with respect and that then shapes how you treat others. That’s an absolute key trait of an authentic leader. On the subject of leadership, the growth of the business will have required you to grow your leadership skills and change the role that you play. What have you done to equip yourself during that journey?

I’m very mindful that I’m one person in Contechs and as I get older I’m starting to notice I’m getting tired. The problem that I have, if I’m honest with myself, is that I’m a perfectionist and have always had great determination. Like with getting my degree, not just getting the degree, it’s about having the best degree.

My way of thinking now in terms of what we’re doing with fellow directors is to put a stronger management team together so that they run the business and we then are able to stand back more and just get involved when needed. It’s about making that transition so we’ve been invited on a 365 accelerator programme for leading SMEs in the UK. It’s basically a coaching for businesses and leading SMEs. Myself and Ian Brooks, my business partner, go to that quarterly and that’s about achieving alignment with our own individual wants, needs and desires as well as the business’s.

Stepping back is not about us all giving up and running away to the beach. It’s about us saying OK, let’s plan for three years, lets plan for six years and nine years, so that when we get through these different milestones, we make a choice as to what we do in the business. Our view is to grow the business, grow the team, empower the individuals, give more accountability, more bonus payments and as they get better, the business will be pulled along because we’ve got stronger people.

When you go from a small business to an intermediate size business, sometimes even though there are some good people, some of those people that you thought were good get overtaken by the business, and all of a sudden they haven’t got the experience that the business needs. You have to recognise that. You can do that by topping up with training, but you also sometimes have to recognise that that individual just can’t go to the next level, and that’s where you bring people in to then give that specialist support and advice to take it forward, whilst still valuing the existing people.

The second layer is essential to the long-term sustainability of the business…

Yes, and so many business owners and entrepreneurs think they know everything. I’m one guy. I don’t know everything and there’s always someone out there that’s going to know more, and it’s about that mind-set and always about not getting too big for your boots.

As a leader, your key beliefs of ‘treat people how you’d like to be treated’, ‘keep your feet on the ground’, ‘don’t get too big for your boots’ and ‘be appreciative that others also have a lot to add’ sound like they have served you well.

I’m quite process-orientated and I’ve got an engineering background. I always have to reflect back on that and it’s all about models from education – strategy models, what worked and what didn’t work. So, I have to walk between an academic world and an industrial world whereas if I just had an industrial world, I’d be thinking and be worried about making too many mistakes. So, it’s about trying to get the balance between the two so that you can minimise the amount of mistakes you actually make.

We have a strong relationship with Coventry University. We involve them on a lot of new technology systems, processes and procedures, and we want their advice and we get some of the graduates in to work with us doing special assignments over a two-year period. It’s about making sure that the culture of learning and new processes and technology is incorporated within us as a company going forward.

Your passion comes through and is great business sense. You mention process, your engineering background and your people being key. I always consider process as being the logical and rational and the people as the emotional and behavioural. Is there anything you would share around how you have to be mindful of both dynamics in the growth of the business?

I would say the key thing is always keep an open mind and discuss things objectively. If you’ve got a new initiative/idea, then come up with the objective data, present it and then we’ll talk. It’s not about having a chat for a chat’s sake. We need substance to be able to give birth to something new, if that makes sense. If we haven’t got a substance to make a value decision on then you’re going to get the wrong decision being made.

Someone said to me you can’t be taught to be an entrepreneur and they’re right, it happens within you. Sometimes you wonder why are you like you are because you look around your family and friends and you question why are you the only one that seems to be doing what you’re doing. The way that you think and continuously drive yourself can be a lonely place when you’re there because it takes over and you have to be mindful of when to stop. Again, this comes back to what is the objective and know what it is when you start out.

It sounds a bit like being the only left-handed person when everyone else is right handed. It’s that appreciation that you are different and you think differently and that that’s a good thing for an entrepreneur.

It really is, but you haven’t got to be the cleverest person in the world. You’ve got to have a degree of intelligence, but the cleverest people that went to my school aren’t necessarily entrepreneurs or successful business-people. They’ve got good jobs, but it’s really unusual how sometimes the cleverest people are not the ones that are the most successful people.

I’d suggest that your growth mind-set has a lot to do with that. You’re always wanting and willing to learn new things.. If you only had half a minute, what one piece of advice would you give to business owners out there?

Don’t bite off more than you can chew and go into things knowing what you’re going into. Don’t, whatever you do, over-commit to the bank. I think you’ve really got to understand what you’re going into nowadays because there aren’t loads of people out there willing to help you anymore. You can be a really good business, but if you haven’t got cash flow and if you haven’t got liquidity you can nose-dive really easily and overtrade. So, it’s about always keeping your feet on the ground and taking calculated risks, and I underline calculated.

Sound data and evidence to support your decisions is really vital…

Yep, the big thing is that you’ve got a real responsibility for the wellbeing of the people that work for you. They look at you and they want wages and regular payments. They’ve got wives, families, children and everything else. That is a real responsibility that collectively, industrial leaders of the UK really need to get to grips with. I think there’s lot of good leaders out there, but some are just out for themselves. We are definitely here to look after the people that work for us and making the right decisions, taking calculated risk for the good of the collective.

Win-win by the sounds of it…

Yes, it is.

I suspect you have an extremely loyal employee base as a result.

Yes, we do.

That’s the sort of stuff that connects to them and with them, from the heart.

If you asked me who do I respect out of all of the entrepreneurs in the world, I would say Richard Branson. I think what he has got right is the team approach to everything and everyone that works for him. He keeps the same model in terms of a team approach in every venture that he does. He rewards individuals and people like to work for him.

Thank you very much, Peter.

In brief

The world won’t always be growing. Be very conscious about having scalable solutions so that you can both expand and contract in a controlled way. It’s not about over-expanding in the good times; it’s about doing it in a calculated way.

Always attract and present new services and ideas. This will ensure that you always keep ahead of your competitors. Be open to ideas being generated by everyone in your company, but have a clear evaluation process so that you pursue the right ones.

The success of your company is directly related to those you employ. Train and develop your staff and add clear visions, goals and objectives. Cascade them down through the organisation to achieve alignment.

Ensure that as your business grows, individuals get rewarded for the growth of the business too. The individual wins, therefore the business wins too.

Be bold with new ideas, but ensure that it complements your core business and core competencies. Know your market and the size. It’s cyclical so there’s a range, a peak and a trough, and you need to be aware of what that is and where you can operate.

Communication is key and it needs to start from the top and cascade down through the organisation. People need good communication to know what’s going on and it makes them feel valued as an individual.

To grow the business, grow the team. Empower people, give them more accountability, more opportunity for reward and, as they get better, the business will be pulled along because it has stronger people.

Don’t bite off more than you can chew and know what you’re going into. Never over-commit to the bank. You can be a really good business, but if you haven’t got cash flow and if you haven’t got liquidity, your fortunes can easily nose-dive. It’s about always keeping your feet on the ground and taking calculated risks.