Page 192 - James Caan - The Real Deal

The Real Deal

was pretty hard to stop them filing fairly creative claims. What I
needed, I decided, was someone who cared enough about the
business to dig down into the expenses, but someone who was also
removed enough from it not to worry about upsetting their
colleagues. I knew the perfect person.
Aisha was loving being at home with the girls, but she had never
wanted to give up work entirely, so she came to work part-time at
Alexander Mann. Not only did we get to spend more time with
each other, but she saved me a fortune in parking tickets because
she, quite rightly, told staff that they wouldn’t park on double
yellow lines in their own time. We would pay for parking, she said,
but not for parking tickets.
For months after she started, the staff would come up to me and
said, ‘James, you couldn’t just pay this fine for me? I was late for
a meeting and I just had to park . . .’
‘Speak to Aisha.’
‘But she’ll say no.’
‘Speak to Aisha.’
I found it hard to say no, but I knew if I paid the fine Aisha
would see it in the books and tell me off! It was fantastic to know
that someone who cared about the details was doing such an
important job. It was also Aisha’s job to look at all our
expenditure and manage the company’s cost bases. She scrutinised
everything from our rent to the stationery supplies and, while
economic conditions were still pretty tough, the money she saved
us made an enormous difference. For years, like a lot of women
she had been balancing the household budget and she was brilliant
at forensically analysing our costs. She was yet another senior
female manager in the company and, looking back, I think having
women like Sam, Elaine, Cathy and Aisha around was a key
ingredient in creating Alexander Mann’s successful atmosphere.
For me personally it was also a lot of fun to have Aisha around.
Even driving in together in the morning made a difference to me,

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