20
Management Services Winter 2012
Who’s who
Who’s who in the IMS
As part of a series profi ling its Council of Management, the IMS is pleased to introduce new recruit Malcolm Towle.
When Malcolm Towle was asked to join the IMS Council of Management recently it seemed a natural next step to his longstanding involvement in effi ciency and productivity. Malcolm has been a member of the Institute and its predecessor bodies stretching back to the early 1970s. When he fi rst joined it was the Institute of Work Study Practitioners but soon grew to become the Institute of Work Study Organisation and Methods and, later, the IMS that we know and love.
Malcolm was newly graduated from Leicester University when a family member in work study at the Co-operative Wholesale Society encouraged him to apply for a management traineeship with frozen food giant Ross Foods, part of the Imperial Group. Although the advertised post was in sleepy Henley In Arden near to Malcolm’s home in Solihull, Ross head offi ce decided they needed his talents further north and persuaded him to move to sunny Grimsby to join a newly established central work study team.
When Malcolm accepted, the plan was to complete two years and move on, but rapid promotions and the material benefi ts that came
with them led to a lengthy stay, and a career that spans the commercial sector, the NHS and local government.
Rising to the challenge Comprehensive initial work study training was provided through the now legendary fi ve week basic course at Imperial Group’s suave Chewton Place residential training centre, the brainchild of former Institute Chairman Harold Williams. Harold became an inspirational mentor for many years and supported Malcolm’s application to join the Institute and later to take up Fellowship. The diverse activities of Imperial provided wide experience and challenge and Malcolm rose to lead effi ciency teams across the production, logistics and marketing environments. He became the company lead for incentive schemes and productivity negotiations. This was supported through many training courses including Ashridge Management College. In the 1980s Ross Young’s was formed through the combination of two sister companies. Malcolm worked at the heart of this merger across a variety of facilities but particularly in Scotland. As a result of
his major initiative in a scampi factory in Annan, he was asked to take up production management in the factory for a year before returning to head offi ce where he coordinated a major restructuring which delivered a 20% saving on HQ costs.
Malcolm was then tempted to a group management role within the fi sh division, running seven independent trading units. Shortly after this he took up the role of Company Industrial Engineering Manager within the United Biscuits Frozen Food Division.
Increasing involvement As Malcolm’s career progressed so did his involvement with the Institute. He remembers with great affection taking on the job of PR offi cer for the North Lincolnshire branch of the IMS, and he subsequently rotated through all other posts on the Board before eventually becoming Chairman. This meant representing the branch on the East Midlands Board, which led to a number of periods as Chairman, a post which Malcolm still holds today. This was also the time of specialist groups within the Institute and Malcolm
“As Malcolm’s career
progressed, so did his involvement with the Institute.”
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