Page 191 - James Caan - The Real Deal

Chapter 18

Fightback (1992–1993)

‘ The recession had taught me not to put all my eggs in one

basket: I had come so close to being wiped out and I never

wanted to be in that position again. ’

was a different sort of person after the recession: I’d had a
I good ride, I’d been knocked down, but now I’d come back. The
exhilaration of survival, of not going under when hundreds of
other recruitment agencies hit the wall, gave me so much energy
that Alexander Mann actually bounced back with a vengeance. I
was determined to build a bigger, stronger, better company,
something that could capitalise on any opportunity the new
economic cycle created.
At Alexander Mann I still placed a huge emphasis on making
work fun. Seriously, if you’re not having fun, why would you turn
up to work? But the problem I had was that it was very hard for
me to say no when staff asked me for a loan or a favour. I realised
that if the company was going to grow it also had to grow up and
I could no longer run it like a family business. Part of the reason
why I didn’t do things like query parking tickets and expenses for
lunch with clients was because I just didn’t have the time, and,
because people knew their expenses weren’t being scrutinised, it

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