Supplier Profi le // Blum UK Team building
Matthew Glanfi eld has big shoes to fi ll as the new MD of Blum UK, and he’s bringing a whole new leadership team with him. But what do the changes really mean for retailers?
Interview: George Dean
Q&A
Can you tell us a bit about your background and how it led you to where you are today? In the very distant past I worked in the banking industry, but I’ve also had a career in the police service. I’ve done everything, ranging from being in uniform, to being a detective, to specialising in public protection. What really led me away from that industry was the work-life balance, and wanting to prioritise my family and wellbeing, and these are some of the values that Blum also cares very deeply about. The transferable skill that I’ve found most useful here at Blum is probably my adaptability. Especially in this day and age, it’s important to be comfortable with change.
How do you think the new team is going to impact the business? I think it can only bring benefits because as we well know these days, cognitive diversity is a massive strength for any business. Having a person in your team that thinks in a different way, if everyone is thinking ever so slightly differently, gives you more options, more methods and puts more solutions on the table. The simple fact is with a slightly larger team leading the business, we can deal with far more challenges at any given time. And we should also be able to avoid bottlenecks in decision making. This hasn’t been a secret process; It’s something that’s happened gradually over time and
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The new leadership team: Priti Briscoe, Ina Kacenaite, Matthew Glanfield, Ben Cullum, Ben Muirhead and Matthew Walmsley
customer engagement The simple fact is with a slightly larger team
leading the business, we can deal with far more challenges at any given time
"
we’ve been refining our roles and responsibilities as we’ve moved through the journey.
It’s not as common for someone from the technical side of a business to become MD – usually they come from a sales background – does this gives you a unique perspective? To answer your question directly – I’m very service-focused. It’s given me a very deep understanding of what service means, as well as managing expectations and service delivery. This is another advantage of shared leadership. It doesn’t really
matter where anyone specialises in when you’ve got a group of people from different backgrounds. Shared leadership focuses on expertise as well. If there’s a strategic sales decision that needs to be made, then I’m going to rely and lean into the expertise of the larger team.
What are your goals now for the KBB retail channel? Our goals remain the same, and that’s to support retailers and help them grow their businesses. But saying that, we’re hoping that they will see more interaction from us in the future because of our new
kbbreview team.
They’re a newly formed group and they’re there to make sure that our contact with customers is enhanced with every touch. Because of the instability in the world, we don’t want to create further instability. We want to be a reliable, trusted partner, and our customers believe in us for that reason.
How do you measure success, both personally and professionally? For me, I measure success by the people that I work with and the people within a business. I want Blum UK to be a high performing team and a happy team. Because then we will be talking to our partners with a positive mindset. If you talk to people in a positive way and you’re happy and well supported, you just spread that. I believe it might even be Richard Branson that says the way that you treat your staff is the way that they will treat their customers, so we really want to foster that. kbbr
September 2024
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