Page 189 - James Caan - The Real Deal

17 · The Recession

and I don’t think we’ve got any choice but to accept that. If any
of you want to move on, then you do so with my blessing, but this
won’t last for ever, and, in the meantime, we’re going to offer
some discounts to our clients, maybe do jobs for 15 per cent
commission if we have to, pick up whatever work we can, keep
our eyes peeled for opportunities and hang in there.’
It wasn’t much of a pep talk, but the team responded really well
to it. Maybe it was the spirit of the Blitz, but somehow we rallied
each other. If I’d told them I had some grand plan, I think they
would have panicked, knowing full well I was lying to them. They
appreciated being told how it was; it made them feel it was their
company, too. Together we’d have as good a time as we could for
the foreseeable future and wait for the storm to pass. A big part
of my job for the next year or so would be to inject some
atmosphere, and make it as much fun as possible: if the team had
a good time, it gave them a reason to turn up and stay loyal.
People who had been taking home £30k or £40k a year before
were now living on £15k or £18k and working just as hard to get
it, but in a recession that’s what happens, and once we had all
accepted it we put our heads down and got on with doing the best
job we could. It was bloody hard work – we sweated for every
pound we earned – and although the business wasn’t making very
much money at all, we just about kept ourselves afloat.
By the end of 1992, I got the sense that we were through the
worst. We didn’t have to offer such deep discounts to get the
business, and it was getting easier to persuade people that if they
invested in the best people they’d get through the worst of it
sooner.
The first sector that showed signs of recovery was IT. Technol-
ogy had been developed for the past few years that made computer
systems more affordable and more effective, and several companies
now saw the chance to start or upgrade their IT departments. The
only trouble was, Alexander Mann didn’t have any contacts or

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