the business ladder

12 January 2009

Rory James MacLaren-Jackson is a British entrepreneur, multi-discipline business specialist, business coach and trainer, public speaker, published writer and creative artist. He is known for his maverick style and dynamic, counter-culture approach to life and business.

TBL: What are your main business principles or values?

RMJ: I guess one of my main values in business is the concept of delivering ‘value’ itself in the products or services that I’m involved with. For me this goes beyond just ‘value for money’ and often I’m talking about the value that can be added to any business from very subtle, sometimes intangible changes in strategy or working behaviour.

I always want people to say of my businesses, “I can’t believe how good the service was”, “look how much I got for my money”, etc. I’m always working on ways to identify people’s expectations at a given price point and then exceed them!

TBL: How did you get started? When did your entrepreneurial nature first show up?

RMJ: Well, I grew up in the Eighties and Nineties, so I witnessed the effects firsthand in my family, of both economic boom and bust. That said, I think there was a spirit in the Eighties particularly that influenced me. I got pocket money but always wanted the opportunity to work and make more.

I remember washing cars with friends and doing odd jobs, but my first really organised endeavour was manufacturing ‘garden ornaments’ to sell at car boot sales when I was around fourteen. This taught me a lot: about production costs, profit margins, sourcing raw materials, marketing and effective sales techniques.

Roll on several years and post-uni and my law studies, I worked in a number of sales and service roles, before taking my first two entrepreneurial plunges, firstly into video production (making a series of DVDs for a top martial artist) and then shortly after that in property (setting up my first letting agency).

TBL: What is the key skill for a budding entrepreneur to develop?

RMJ: Without a doubt it’s the ability to spot opportunities and get into a position to act on them. In my opinion, that’s the hallmark of a successful entrepreneur. Preparing the resources for your potential enterprise, spotting a good opportunity and timing your move to perfection to minimise risk and maximise return.

A lot of people tell me that I’ve been lucky in the opportunities I have taken advantage of, but this is wrong. In fact, for a long time and still today I am always actively looking for new opportunities: meeting and talking to new people, listening, networking, researching, asking the right questions to get the right answers. It was the golfer Gary Player who said, “The harder you work, the luckier you get” and that really is my ‘secret’ for spotting opportunities: keeping your eyes open and doing your homework on any potential new enterprise.

TBL: If you had any kids, what would you tell them about business?

RMJ: Well, firstly, be ready for the competitive element of business. I think this is absent from a lot of business education in secondary schools and beyond. Know your market and your industry inside out, never get complacent, know every ‘hustle’, every ‘loophole’, and most importantly stay fundamentally humble, that’s the best way I’ve found to learn and improve in almost every aspect of my life.

When you meet someone who has a skill which you lack but wish to cultivate, put your ego aside and ask them to teach you or simply model their approach and technique. Learning humility in this way comes from my study of the martial arts, and it really pays dividends.

TBL: Do you think the education system helps prepare people for modern enterprise?

RMJ: What we’ve seen in recent years is the failure of the ‘corporate’ model for a large number of people trying to build a career in the traditional sense. There has been a global shift in the demands of the employment market and a great deal of education has been lacking in addressing this and/or is out of date by the time it is delivered.

These are times of exponential change and to get different results in life and business you need to actually do something different. Do it whilst embracing and adapting to new technologies and working methods, but most of all do it with the old-fashioned values of enterprise that have stood the test of time – innovation, tenacity and the willingness to take a calculated risk for a definable reward.

TBL: How do you see teamwork and leadership interacting?

RMJ: I think a rounded businessperson needs experience of both, even if they ultimately gravitate towards a non-leadership role in a team. Personally, I enjoy leading yet I’m also not a natural team player, so I have had to make a conscious point of learning to work effectively in teams. I think it gets easier when you’re self-employed and have far more opportunity to pick your teams. A good leader should be able to assemble a balanced team and effectively delegate work to appropriate members for maximum overall results.

TBL: Is there currently a disconnection between 'education' and 'learning'?

RMJ: As I said, I think there’s a worrying gap between education and what people are actually learning from it. I have seen this firsthand in the recruitment industry where many qualified candidates still lacked certain basic skills for the jobs they were applying for. I’m not knocking the value of academia, I’m simply stating that there needs to be a far greater focus on what I would term core skills, such as financial literacy, communication and what I can only describe as ‘common sense’. For example, I would go as far as to say the industriousness of many 16- to 18-year-olds (at GCSE and A-Level) is a characteristic that is desirable and advantageous for both employment and self-employment; and yet, more often than not, this is lost at the next academic stage of university, where it is replaced by lethargy induced by overlong degree courses with as little as 6 hours of ‘contact time’ a week. I think a lot of, though obviously not all, promising students actually lose momentum in this way when they attend university, when surely the whole idea of university is ‘sold’ to them on the idea of it doing the opposite.

TBL: What tips would you give to ‘survive’ the current economic slump?

RMJ: These are very challenging times, but more than ever there’s the opportunity as a small to medium-sized business to pick up and deliver where larger, more highly leveraged concerns have failed.

When I set up my first letting agency several years ago, it was already on the back of the trend that people were dissatisfied with the level of service they got from large corporate businesses. People chose us because we were small, independent, energetic and could provide a flexible and personal service. More than ever people are looking for this ‘value’, not just in the sense of competitive pricing, but in terms of the quality of service they receive.

Corporate has become a relatively dirty word, often synonymous with bureaucracy and ineffective or even irresponsible management, as we’ve seen especially in the financial sector. The confidence that I personally feel when dealing with a company run by its principal shareholders is valued by a much larger number of people today, it’s a badge of assurance that is very positive in winning new business.

TBL: What are your thoughts on ‘learning on the job’, specifically as opposed to academia and theory?

RMJ: I think this depends a great deal on the individual, but from personal experience I recommend combining both where possible, since that’s what worked for me. I did benefit from my higher education studies; but I still maintain they were poor value in terms of price, and unnecessarily protracted in terms of length.

In truth, the fact remains that the skills and experience which allowed me to progress as an entrepreneur nearly ALL came from the jobs I did; in my gap year working full time, part time jobs at sixth form and those whilst at university, and during my vacation times. All of this cost me nothing and, in fact, I got paid for it!

I would restate the point, though, that it does depend on the individual. I was always inquisitive in every role I undertook, I wanted to know how the business worked, I wanted to take away more than £6.50 an hour – and with that approach that’s exactly what I did. I got a complete sales and customer service apprenticeship and got paid, but only because I had the right mindset to embrace the value of what I was being exposed to.

TBL: You have spoken before about enterprise being the new rock ‘n’ roll, and you certainly look the part today! But does it mean more than just image?

RMJ: Haha, are you referring to the jacket?! What I meant is that enterprise is ‘sexy’ again. Not only is it laudably on the government’s education agenda, but popular TV shows like The Apprentice and Dragons’ Den are making the whole idea more attractive and acceptable to everyday people.

When it comes to expressing myself, I guess I always want to bring an element of entertainment to a lot of what I do. For example, in my training companies I’ve found that people learn faster and deeper in terms of retention when they, shock horror, enjoy themselves. I’m very much myself in business, the way I talk, my accent, the way I dress, and I think people respond to this genuineness and they get more accordingly from what I can offer.

TBL: What’s next?

RMJ: As well as developing my business portfolio, I’m also working on several new projects both online and offline at the moment. The current economic conditions are providing many exciting new opportunities in several areas, for example property rentals, which we’re really seeing a boom in at present.

TBL: Thank you, Rory, we wish you all the best with your different projects in the future.

© Copyright 2009 The Business Ladder (UK) Limited

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