Page 227 - James Caan - The Real Deal

22 · Serial Entrepreneur

I reckon fewer than 10 per cent of them have more than ten
employees. Getting beyond the founder’s personality and sphere of
influence is something that few agencies ever manage.
Ever since I’d failed to transmit the Alexander Mann culture to
a second floor in our old building – it was so different from the
main floor that it may as well have been in a different city! – I had
known I wouldn’t be the person to take it into the big league.
Jonathan was different, and his systems, procedures, processes and
strategies were just what were needed, and it was fascinating to
observe the differences between how I had run the business and
how Jonathan was starting to run things.
Apart from ‘to do’ lists, which I compile every morning, I don’t
write anything down. I would go into a board meeting with a
jotter pad, but Jonathan would arrive with a board pack – P&L,
operational reports, strategy papers. Everything had outcomes and
objectives attached to it, and this enabled every layer of manage-
ment to know what was expected of them. And with an efficient
management structure – I had given people all sorts of job titles to
reward them for a good month – the company really started to
motor. We had moved into Alexander House with about 25
people, pretty soon we were at 50. Not long after that we had 100.
The difference in the company’s performance after we moved to
the new office was incredible. Between 1995 and 1999 our
turnover doubled every year. Jonathan obviously made a huge
difference, but I can’t underestimate the boost that having our own
building gave us. I had always known that appearances mattered,
and it was clear from the way the team and clients responded to
our new HQ that if we had moved out of the smoky room on
Tottenham Court Road sooner our performance would have
improved sooner, too. I was kicking myself that I hadn’t invested
in a better office for Alexander Mann, but consoled myself with
the thought that we might not have been able to survive the
recession if I had.

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