Where did it all begin?

I am writing this blog in a cold tent at the world-famous St Clears Young Farmers Agricultural Show, surrounded by tractors, beef cattle, YFC competition entries and eager farmers waiting for the beer tent to open. It’s quiet for Landsker and I have little expectation that we will generate loads of work due to our presence here. The point is, this is our local community agricultural show and whilst about 20% of Landsker’s business concerns diversifying farmers in Wales, we are here because it is important to support such events which are the core fabric of community and rural life in Wales. The term “use it or lose it” is so true. Anyway, it’s no burden for me, I enjoy such events as I am originally a farmers son and look good in a gillet, a pair of wellies and a check shirt.

So, this is the first in a series of 7 Monthly blogs that focus on the fact that Landsker is now in its 25^th trading year. To help mark this occasion, I thought it may be of interest to some to chart our journey from our accidental origins in 1998 to how we now find ourselves being a successful Management Consultancy supporting the SME sector in Wales. The six to follow will focus on:

• Landsker’s early years (July)
• The establishment of Landsker Business Centre and rapid growth (August)
• Creating our “own recipe” and developing our USP’s (September)
• What I believe are the key factors synonymous with SME success (October)
• Reflections on doing things differently and development of support to SME’s in Wales (November)
• Landsker now and the next 25 years (December).

Did I expect us to be where we are now when we first started out? No - not in our current form, but I knew that the business would be successful because I could not afford nor would let it fail. Latterly, we have grown by design rather than an accident, but that part of our journey I will return to in future blogs.

I don’t really like the term entrepreneur but I suppose that is what I am and I inherited my business DNA from my parents who were both self-employed, my Mum running a B&B in Tenby, my father originally a farmer and then running a commercial diving school. 

I started summer jobs when I was 12 being paid the princely sum of 12.5p per hour cleaning the floor of a local café, progressing to managing a local putting green, settling for several summer years working on the Caldey Boats to assisting my father in the Algarve to run his diving school.

I worked hard at school, but I’m no academic, nor feel particularly clever, with such deficiencies being compensated by a high level of self-confidence and an attitude of “just do it”, which has shaped both the Managing Director I have become and parts of Landsker’s persona. I was sporty though which accounts for my competitive streak and I like being part of a team.

I did OK at my A levels and went to Cardiff University to study a multi-disciplinary course called Institutional Management (my “cooking” degree as some friends call it.) The only place I really excelled was in the Students Union, but I grew up, worked hard and graduated with a respectable Desmond. (2.2)

From an early age, I had planned to gain a commission in the Armed Forces as both my father and paternal Grandfather had served, and I sought the adventure, camaraderie, fitness and risk that a service life would provide a 20 year old. However, dislocating my shoulder on the Officer Selection Course put paid to that.

So, I needed a job. A co-graduate had just started work as a management trainee for a fast food company, new to the UK, called Wendy Hamburgers. They were, or must have been, desperate for young, naïve talent and I joined them as a graduate trainee working in the heart of London. Being well paid, working long hours and adapting to an American, corporate working culture I did reasonably well and within three years was managing their busiest European store on the Strand in London, open 18 hours a day, employing 80+ staff and turning over £50k per week.   Whilst there I estimated I ate over twice my own weight in hamburgers, which could be a concern as that is when Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) was rife!

I left Wendy’s not sure of my next move but quickly responded to a get rich quick advert in the Evening Standard to sell Life Insurance. That career lasted a week but taught me a huge amount about how you should treat people, the importance of preparation, business ethics, and developing resilience.

The next move started my career as a management consultant but I did not know this then. Responding to a small ad in the Daily Telegraph, I joined a Recruitment Consultancy in the Square Mile and began working in the financial services sector sourcing personnel for insurance companies, brokers and the “bancassurers.” I worked hard and played hard and within three years rose to become the Sales Director helping to take the business from 12 to C50 staff, tripling turnover and opening new offices in Bristol and Manchester. I also learnt to drive at 28 and was given a brand new Golf GTI to accompany my Directorial status. Keen to show off my shiny new toy, I drove to Tenby one February evening and was surprised how dark the M4 was, only to find I had driven all the way on sidelights! To this day I’m not good at following instructions or being engaged with cars, gadgets, or technology.

That business was acquired by a much larger consultancy and sacked the MD I admired greatly and who had given me a great opportunity - I was offered his job with a high salary. I turned it down as I hated the way this big business treated my boss who was a capable and good leader, but within their world was a “minnow”. I thought I could be in a similar position in several years, irrespective of my performance. I often reflect on what would have happened if I had said yes. Arrogantly, I have little doubt that I would have continued to climb the “greasy pole” of city life, earned buckets, had no work-life balance, be rounder than I already am, and become a victim of commerce as opposed to being a passionate proponent of laissez fair economics.

My next move saw me joining a small, but high powered management consultancy with major blue chip clients like Pepsi Co, Spillers Foods, CSC, and Thorntons Chocolates amongst others. Very much the junior partner, I became involved with Change Management and Organisational Development, flying by the seat of my pants every day. I did not enjoy this period of employment as I had no real focus, was suppressed, and disliked dealing with multinationals as it was shareholder's money I was dealing with as opposed to the “owners”, with the Directors or SMT  invariably sanitising or ignoring any recommendations made. I probably learned more in that period than at any other time during my working life, teaching me how you should look after your customers and staff and the importance of trying to add value every day. It also taught me that you learn most when things are painful and when you’re outside your “comfort zone”.

Now about 40, a family man with three young kids, a large mortgage, and discontented with my job, I embarked on an MBA which changed my life and prevented my obsolescence as a management consultant. This coincided with the arrival of the internet. Now, equipped with a modern set of analytical tools, a clear mindset, and ambition to do something for myself,  I quickly determined that I wanted to and could return to live and work on the right side of Severn Bridge.

In 1998, upon relocating to the rural metropolis that is Whitland (Hendy Gwyn), I set up my own consultancy business, snappily called Jeremy Rees & Associates. Fortunately, I had several contracts with large insurance companies that commissioned me to undertake various projects. They had no qualms about me working from and living in Wales; their primary concern was that I should not increase my fees or require them to visit me, in what I knew was a rural idyll, but to them was the “back of beyond”.

With a clear head, happy with my toolbox of MBA capabilities, having returned to my farming roots as a smallholder with a tractor (albeit a sit-on lawn tractor) I plied my trade.

Life was great until 11 September 2001 when the Twin Towers came crashing down, which had a catastrophic impact on my business. Within a month of this terrorist act, which precipitated a meltdown in the financial services sector, I lost all of my contracts with clients shedding all discretionary contractors focussing, understandably, on preserving their core employment. So “Pinstriped, Powerpointed, and Brief-cased” I had no work and knew I needed to completely reinvent myself - which led to the next stage of Landsker’s establishment.

Keep an eye out for the next Blog in July which focusses on Landsker’s early years.