Plans for growth?


Edwin Booth


LEADING FROM THE FRONT


Edwin Booth is executive chairman at Booths. As boss of the 176-year- old family firm, which operates 28 stores and employs 3,000 people, he knows a thing or two about leadership.


That role has included spearheading the recent transformation of the Lancashire headquartered business, which has seen major changes in operation and attitude, from board level down.


Edwin, a member of the influential leadership panel brought together for the festival, told delegates: “The business is bigger than the family, it is about all of us, all 3,000 people in it.”


And he explained how every single person in the supermarket group “from the boardroom to the checkouts” has a copy of the group’s ‘purpose’ and its business plan in pocket form.


Edwin said: “We don’t talk about running the business now, we talk about doing business, which means everyone can be involved. It’s not command and control anymore.


“We have a flatter structure because I felt we needed more people to understand how to do what we have all agreed to do.”


He added: “I enjoy leading the business now more than any time. It is much more fun. In business, if you are not having fun, you shouldn’t be doing it.”


Edwin also recalled his own business journey, from his first job in the family firm in one of the company’s warehouses.


He said: “Looking back I would have liked to have worked for somebody else to get that experience of working elsewhere.”


Taking on the leadership theme, Edwin, who is also a former chair of Lancashire’s LEP, said: “I want people who have character, attitude, communication skills.”


He added: “I’ve said for a long time now that trust is probably the most valuable commodity any organisation has.”


A breakdown in trust at board level, he said, “should be dealt with quickly, or as quickly as you can.”


“And always make yourself available to people. My door is always open.”


Helen Clayton, managing partner at Lancashire headquartered accountants and business advisers PM+M, also shared her personal journey to becoming a leader, including her earlier career which saw her experiencing ‘burn out’ on several occasions.


She said: “For me the key to leadership is, ‘being me’. I spent years trying to find out who the real me was and what I was comfortable with.


“When I come into work now it is me, I’m not pretending to be anyone else.” Continued on Page 6


LANCASHIREBUSINES SV IEW.CO.UK 01253 871111 www.brownandco.uk


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