A guide to good business (and life) decisions

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 company to thrive. While some readers may object that his key business decisions were made in a different time, the fundamentals of dealing with staff, with customers, with banks and with regulators have not changed that much.

“I loved my work, each and every part of it,” he writes. “Even the crises…for a crisis overcome leaves an afterglow of exhilaration. Building and development is tremendously satisfying. Whether it is a new factory, or a house, or a block of flats, the sense that it is happening because one started the ball rolling, took the initiative, is hugely stimulating. But it was the laundry, later workwear rental business, that was the most satisfying. It was a people-intensive game, and it is always people that matter, that are interesting, and that are challenging.”

Taking part in the family business, Clegg immediately set about introducing financial discipline. He noted that his father and uncle were taking far too much out of the laundry and putting little back. The market was saturated with competition and the core business was likely to soon disappear. It was all held together by the loyal manageress, who was also very resistant to change.

However, he immediately started to reorganise tasks to generate profits. Remarkably, when the staff came to him and proposed to organise as a union, he accepted. The 2,500 other owners of laundry businesses ostracised him. Years later, his decision would produce a huge bonus when his company won work from the National Coal Board. Few companies bid for the work because they feared Arthur Scargill. However, his unionised staff told the miners to behave and they did.

Two of the factors that helped motivate his staff were the profit share scheme he devised and the fact that the company offered them mortgages. Other strategic decisions he had to make were to move into dry cleaning, to invest in new technology and then to move into workwear. He bought his uncle out and as other laundry businesses closed he bought their goodwill.

His discussion of how he sought money from his bank, the NatWest, and was refused but continued to develop the relationship is important. A smaller bank was happy to lend him money. Together they profited from a number of development deals. But when the banking crisis of 1973 hit, the smaller bank threatened to bankrupt him.

The brief description of his court case against the bank is instructive. His legal team picked up the drift of the judge’s mind on the first day and wished to compromise. He said that they had been confident that they would win, so they should continue. The judge found for the bank. Leaving court, his solicitor said: “Morris, you are finished.” But he said he had 14 days to sort something out. His solicitor replied that the bank could get an order from court and could wind his business up in two days.

“My mind has seldom been as concentrated,” Clegg recalls. He phoned the area manager of the NatWest from the courthouse corridor and asked to see the regional manager who he knew had the authority to lend the sum he needed. This was agreed. The next morning he was introduced to the regional manager and presented his case. “At the conclusion of my case, Burgess didn’t speak to me but turned to his subordinate and said, ‘Get a firm grip of everything he has got and wire the money today.’ That moment is burned in my memory and will never be forgotten.”

Clegg writing style is precise and accessible. This is a book packed with ideas. His situational analysis is remarkable and will help any person running a business to understand the dynamics at play in their world. His values are clearly set out and underpin the success of his company and in life. His gift is a book that will inspire you and help you ground your decisions.