nickshanagher

Written in 2005, Maurice Clegg’s A Life is a book that will help ambitious business people to make a success of their commercial lives – and perhaps their family lives too. One thing that is remarkable about Clegg is his ability to make decisions and then to follow through. In his foreword, Clegg says that he is writing a history of his life for his children. Born in 1930 in Merseyside into a family of local traders, he determined to become a seaman and was trained for the merchant navy. His first assignment took him to India and post-war Japan but he suffered from seasickness and at the age of 20 he persuaded his uncle to give him a job in the family laundry business. The book briskly deals with the next 53 years of his business career in which he bought out his uncle and moved into the workwear rental market, competing successfully against major PLCs. Across 100 of the 160 pages, Clegg describes with great honesty his business ideas and how his values helped his co...

A thing that you notice about great retailers is how much credit they give their staff. While the big supermarkets project their credentials behind impressive (and often overstated) job creation numbers, collectively local shopkeepers match them. A reason society doesn't know this is perhaps the lack of a context for independents to-broadcast their success. Reading George Anders' inspiring book The Rare Find , published by Portfolio Penguin, a question springs to mind: What is the reward for local shopkeepers to recruit great staff? Anders writes about world leading talent and how it is unearthed. How is this relevant for small shops? And for their potential colleagues? Thinking about great retailers I have met, I think answers include how local shops help young staff develop, how first-employers keep track of their peoples' later career success and how shopkeepers nurture local superstars. Superstars with humble jobs like the janitor who President Kennedy met on a tour...