My road map to understanding who I was and what I wanted to become started when I began to wonder, when I was at school, about the sort of company I wanted to work for; the sort of people I wanted to work with. Other people will find different paths to discovering these things, but that doesn’t matter – as long as you do.
So those are the fundamental elements of my mind-set. But how does it translate in the real world, and into dealing with other people on a day-to-day basis? With me, in the words of Lord Sugar, what you see is what you get. I am very straightforward. I’m one of the very few people I know who has been married for sixteen years, and I’ve still got the same friends I had when I was at school. I don’t get it right all the time, but I think those things are an achievement. They come down to the fact that my friends, family and the people around me know who I am, and I never feel the need to pretend to be anything else. Too often I see people present themselves as one person when actually they’re another, and at some point it always becomes clear that their life is built on quicksand.
There is never anything wishy-washy about my instructions: I’m always straight-talking and direct. Everyone who works for me knows exactly what I expect from them, exactly what their contribution is to the company and how they fit into the overall structure. This is both an asset and a coping mechanism, because I do so many things. I don’t have time to pretty things up. I can do it if I have to – if I’m the spokesperson for a particular issue, it may be part of the job – but the ability to do many things has always been at the heart of my work. There are simply not enough hours in the day to sit down, have a coffee and be sugary.
Instead I get people in and say, ‘Right, this is what we need to do, this is how I think we need to do it, this is your role, your contribution to the plan, and if the company is successful and you do your bit, this is how you will be rewarded.’ I take all emotion out of it and find I work well with others who share that philosophy. Lord Sugar operates in a very similar fashion. We would both say, however, that taking the emotion out of it doesn’t mean you have to be cold or unfeeling. It’s about being clear, precise and operationally succinct. Everyone should know in which direction they are going, who is doing what and why.
It is not about being a bully and it is most certainly not about stopping people’s progress. It is never ‘my way or the highway’. But it is about being able to make decisions and communicate them clearly. I was taught never to look down on people unless I was helping them up and I believe in this wholeheartedly. I also believe that you cannot judge anyone’s ability – for a promotion, for example – unless you have told them the judging criteria. If they know what you want, if they are clear on what they have to do, then they can get on and achieve. Working as a team should never be about guesswork.
Similarly, I have never needed flattery or sycophantic approval, and that may be because I never got it when I was young or perhaps because I care only about what those closest to me think: my family, my staff, my team. I know I’m good at what I do so I don’t care what people on the outside think. You can spend your whole life worrying about what people are saying about you, but you have no control over that. And the best way to deal with it is to develop a thick skin.
I am not a sensitive person, but my skin became even thicker when I first went to Birmingham City as managing director, after David Sullivan bought the club. Back then, the press thought I was a publicity stunt when I showed up in 1993 at the age of 23 to run a football club. As a woman, my looks and the way I dressed came under a lot of scrutiny. I couldn’t understand it – it wasn’t as though I was there to manage a team or play football: I had gone to run a business.
All that attention might have been a distraction. I couldn’t let that happen – I didn’t have time – so I decided that the only thing that mattered to me was that my chairman and bosses were pleased with what I was doing. If I was going to be used as a distraction, I would use it to help promote my business. If I had to appear in a football kit to make sure the sponsor paid a fortune and the picture made the front page, so be it. But I did it with a purpose and I didn’t let myself be bothered by what the man down the road thought – and that’s how I think today. I’m confident in the work I’m doing, I’m confident my board is happy, and that’s all that matters.
Another thing that I really believe has been key to my own success is personality – a bit of presence, or charm, you might call it. I can walk up to people to talk, and make an impression that stays with them. It helps if you enjoy that kind of thing, of course, but if you don’t, it’s that old philosophy of mine: what’s to lose?
When I was first working for David Sullivan, he was doing a lot of business with Northern and Shell, the big publishing company owned by Richard Desmond. There was some problem that was proving hard to resolve, so the 19-year-old me offered to go over and talk to Richard and see if we could sort it out. I think David had tried everything, and he knew I was dogged and determined, so he said yes.
Within a couple of hours Richard and I had sorted out a deal that everybody was happy with. An issue that had been threatening two organisations was resolved. He offered me a job on the spot. ‘You’ve so impressed me I want you to come and work for me,’ he said.
I said, ‘OK. You’ve got to pay me 38 grand a year and you’ve got to give me a car.’ Remember, this was 1987, so that was a lot of money, never mind for a teenager. He wouldn’t pay it. I never heard back from him.
Then, 20 years later, when he had taken over the Express newspapers, he rang and invited me to lunch. When we met he told me, ‘I’ve followed your career. I’ve seen you rise.’ Then he said, ‘Something that you can never have known is that the night you asked me for 38 grand I went out to dinner with a group of bankers and I said to them, “I’ve spent the day with the most impressive teenager I’ve ever met, but she wants 38 grand a year, and it would really upset the applecart in my company to give a 19-year-old that much money.”’
Apparently the bankers said, ‘Well, if she’s that good give her the money,’ but Richard had decided that it would make things too difficult in the ranks.
‘That is such a huge regret of mine,’ he told me, those two decades later. He had been thinking about it for years, he said, and told me he wasn’t surprised to see that I had on gone to be a success – and that he was now ready to pay me 38 grand a year! Obviously, my price had gone up a bit since then, never mind inflation. We laughed about it, and I call him a friend.
After all, he’s a character similar to me. He will follow his ambitions wherever it takes him. He will take on established organisations, with established methods, and change them. He also knows that to change something and change it for the better are two very different things. Richard changes things for the better and is able to establish both a creative energy and a strong business sense across his organisations. To be able to encourage excellence and integrity is a rare talent. Incidentally, Saatchi’s stood for those qualities in the ’80s and that was why it was one of the most fantastic places on the planet to work.
So, I know that I have the sort of personality that can open doors with certain types of people. And, again, it’s about playing to your strengths and using your skills in the best way possible. I suspect that in a more corporate, grey-suited environment I would scare people to death: I’d never toe the company line if I didn’t believe in it. And I do like to be in charge of setting the strategy, the company ethos, what we believe in and how we demonstrate it to ourselves and our customers. I could not imagine working in a place where there was no expectation, no room to progress, no respect for who I was and what I could contribute.
Where possible, I believe in promotion from within. I like to mentor and guide my staff to be the best they can be, spotting talent and enhancing it. Most people have talent, but it’s hidden behind self-doubt. Nothing gives me greater pleasure than to help someone become the best they can be, to help them fulfil their work ambitions and have confidence in the quality of what they produce. People from different backgrounds, with different experiences, coming together