Page 318 - James Caan - The Real Deal

The Real Deal

meeting just give me three reasons why we should continue to
invest in that location,’ I said.
Of course, at the next board meeting the first item on the agenda
was the branch in question, and no one had been able to come up
with any commercial reasons to continue in that location.
‘Does anyone know a reason why we should keep it open?’
I went to each member of the board, and none of them had a
reason.
‘So what do we do with it?’ I asked the financial director.
‘Close it?’
‘You tell me.’ It was important that whatever happened was
their decision and not mine. ‘You’ve been running this business for
a long time. What are the issues of closing a branch?’
There was the lease to be negotiated out of, customers to be
taken care of by other branches, staff to be relocated – the board
knew exactly what needed to be done without me having to tell
them anything: all I had needed to do was ask the right questions.
‘And how long will it take to find out about the lease? How long
should the consultation be with the staff? What’s the deadline for
speaking to the key clients? And let’s put a conference call in the
diary for each of these events and make sure we’re all on track.’
I knew that by gently asking relevant questions the team could
deliver the return I was looking for – after all, nobody knew the
company’s strengths and flaws better than them. We went through
every aspect of the company and introduced share option schemes
to incentivise the workforce, more efficient management struc-
tures, and changed the payment terms to improve cash flow. All
these changes were in response to me asking a question and the
team coming up with the answers. I didn’t have to do very much;
it was down to them.
The observations my team and I were able to make identified
huge opportunities for Eden Brown that increased profits and
enhanced the value of the business. You might think that Ian

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