The best way to transform your organisation is to transform yourself. This sentiment was at the heart of a stimulating presentation by Peter Vickers, Chairman of Vickers Oils, Leeds, at the Initiatives of Change centre in London, on 11 October, 2005.
Speaking about change, not only in his family business but in a world in need of sustainability, Vickers told his audience that: ' "Change starts with me" is true of all our patterns of behaviour and all our attitudes. The only person that I can demand to change is myself. The only person that I can change is myself. And the only person who I should seek to change is myself. And if I don’t change myself, nobody else is going to.'
Vickers is the fifth generation to run his family firm, which started in 1828. The company manufactures lubricants for use in the textile and shipping industries. His address explored 'how you change when the whole context in which you’ve previously existed and operated changes'. He reminded the audience that a firm's story had to be seen in its economic, social, political and historical context. 'Crisis is the most effective catalyst for change that I know,' he said. When the British and European textile markets shrank in the late 1990s, the Company lost a significant portion of its business. Its response to this crisis went through various stages: coping, positive acceptance and planning.
The coping stage included staff reductions and bringing all the staff together on one site, to change the culture.
The positive acceptance stage involved the 'realisation that change was going to continue'. Throughout Vickers' first 20 years in the company, its emphasis had been on textile lubricants. Now they decided to build up their marine lubricants business.
Finally, the company moved from an essentially reactive approach, focused on survival, to constructive planning. The development of a new management team had been an essential precondition for this. 'We had to move from managing change to leading change,' he said.
In a frank admission, Vickers said: 'The biggest lesson I’ve learned these last years is that change does, indeed, start with me,' and acknowledged that the progress to this last stage was linked to his own personal change. This change meant having a long, hard look at his own values. The new approach involved developing a five-year plan and 'a fresh statement of the values which matter in the company'. It also required 'a carefully structured system and process for new product development and the identification of a whole new direction and technology for the company to adopt'. In the early Nineties, before the crisis hit, Vickers and a colleague had urged the company to develop a bio-degradable lubricant for the shipping industry. 'At the time there was very little evidence that there would be a market for it. We had no idea what price people would pay and we did not know if it was technically feasible.' Development and testing took nine years – and the product was read for launch, just as shipping customers began to ask for it. The company now has a world-lead in both technology and sales, and counts most of the world’s major cruise lines among its customers. 'To me, this shows the power and importance of backing a quiet hunch,' Vickers said.
For his grandfather and father, who pioneered improved working conditions from the 1930s onwards, the firm was a model of an alternative to class war. Today, Vickers' vision for the company is linked to sustainability. This, he said, includes long-term economic viability, relationships of trust and integrity both inside and outside the company, satisfied staff who enjoy working with the company and who want to stay, and products and processes which do not denude or damage the environment. 'Being a steward of the future involves risk taking. I used to think that stewardship was the opposite of entrepreneurship but I’ve changed my mind. If the company is to survive, we have to be as entrepreneurial as my great grandfather was back in 1828. 'In other areas, too, my ancestors got it absolutely right. Integrity matters, and so do people, and both are essential to sustainability. And I think my ancestors were right about their faith too. They had an unshakeable belief in God’s providence, which kept them going through good times and bad. I do believe that God has a plan for the world and for everyone in it, including all of us who work in the firm.' In closing, Vickers emphasised that 'the concept of sustainability applies to the environment – in our case, to our products – where they come from, how we process them, and the way our customers use and dispose of them. If we are going to survive and provide for the future, we are going to have to design sustainability into all of our products and services. I believe that only companies that set out to have a sustainable basis will survive…. The struggle for sustainability may well be the defining characteristic of industry in this century.' Neil Mence
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