market leader

The outstanding story of William Cook – an antidote for our times!

At a time of extreme and exaggerated gloom about the British and global economies, it is important to be reminded of the business people, who, even in the most unpromising circumstances, remained, and remain, optimistic.

History and our times are populated with outstanding stories of companies that bucked the trend and turned struggling businesses into market leaders.

William Cook Ltd, an ailing, yet well-established family manufacturer of steel castings, rose up from the recession of the late ‘70s to become the market leader in lowest-value segment in the industry.

On taking over the company at that time, Andrew Cook, as the new MD, went completely against the trend and invested in increased efficiency, quality and capacity, at a time, remember, when output had been falling and capacity was double the volume of industry sales. Rivals thought he was mad!

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“If you’re interested in finding out how to make deeper cuts in costs, without destabilising your business, as well as retaining and growing your share of the wallet with some creative strategic thinking in a difficult trading environment, I highly recommend Andrew Pearson’s workshop.” – - Andrew May, Managing Director, Mainland Marketing Ltd, for Isles of Scilly Producers

Over dinner on Sunday some one asked me; “What new course have you got for the times?”

Ah! The downturn discussion! I thought about this and chimed “something on concentrating on your core business and market your way forward with strong selling points and customer service”.

Somewhere in the back of my mind a lamp flickered and lit up the remarkable story of Andrew Cook who in the late 1970s early 80s transformed William Cook, a well established family manufacturer of steel castings, into a market leader when all was against him.

At that time the economy was dismal, dark and uninviting. Output in the industry had been falling for a number of years. But Cook on taking over the company went completely against the trend an invested in increased efficiency, quality and capacity in the least value segment – all at a time when capacity was double the amount of industry sales. Rivals thought he was mad. Indeed conventional thinking would have dictated that Cook milk the business and leave the industry or go into a higher value and differentiated niche.

Remember too that Cook’s didn’t have the image of a Mercedes or an IBM amongst its customers. Neither was it a technological leader, nor did it possess some secret process to guarantee extra income. Nonetheless, Andrew Cook backed his intuition. In a few months his efforts began to yield results.

His investment in a hostile environment transformed the business. Within a few years sales had risen 10% against industry losses. He was the first to invest in BS5750. Within a couple of years he had acquired two of his major competitors and by the ‘90s he had become the market leader.

“What did he do?” you ask. It’s really quite straightforward. He understood his customers. He recognised the value they wanted. His improvements saved customers money which naturally increased demand for his product. Thus Cook generated a double advantage – higher value and lower cost.

When others saw what he had achieved they changed too. They sought to catch up and invoked intense battles … but that’s another story.
For more on how to manage in difficult times why not check out our coaching and workshop programmes in Services

There are two ways that work should be done inside your business: by SYSTEMS and PROCESSES.

Earlier we said that if your business depends on YOU, you don’t have a business you have a job! Well the solution is to be found in setting up systems and processes.

(1) Systems take the form of manuals, written scripts, standard forms, checklists, and standard letters and so on. For instance do you have systems for such things as identifying prospects, persistently chasing every prospect in a way that they are made to feel welcome, generating a continuous stream of referrals, recording and following up every single sales lead and much, much more?

Systems are so vitally important because…..anyone can …
• Operate them – so you can step away from working IN the business and concentrate more of your time working ON the business, and the other things that are important to you too.
• Run the system so the business is less dependent on any individual or group which means that you’ll never need to fear staff illnesses, retirements, defections and industrial disputes again.
• Replicate past success using the system.

The great thing about systems is that what you do, how you do it and the results you get all become more consistent and predictable – and you can achieve more – in less time!

Let’s move on…

(2) Processes One of the keys to making business more successful is to identify your most important processes, decide how they work and what they deliver and do everything possible to make improvements where necessary.

Processes are so vitally important because…they help to…
• Optimise the way you do things inside your business.
• Pin down the activities and responsibilities of your team, the links between team members and you, as well as the deliverables and timescales involved.
• Appreciate and understand the flow, the interactions, and the sub-processes and sub-activities that are constraining your performance.

It’s impossible to achieve optimum performance in your business with flawed processes. Most problems in business are due to faulty processes, not human problems, nor anything else. That’s why having a tool as powerful as a process is crucial to streamlining your business operation.

Points To Remember Are:

Concentrate on what you do best and outsource the rest so that you can get on and grow your business.

• Consider what your business does best, stick with it and recruit and outsource skills to help you achieve your goals!

• Many businesses deliver mediocre levels of performance because they fail to operate effective systems and processes.

A Valedictory Recommendation

I would like to wind up with a single deep-seated RECOMMENDATION, one that speaks of the character of the business owner. It is to be found in the tale of a great business leader, Andrew Cook, an individual that applied the skills we have covered in this Business Growth Series, but who in addition characterises what is best in human endeavour in the business world.

This factor we would suggest is the Ultimate Recommendation for Real Business Success!

But judge for yourself!

In the 1980s Andrew Cook, on taking over William Cook, a well established family owned engineering company, immediately invested in increased efficiency, quality and capacity in the industry’s least value segment – at a time when capacity was double the amount of industry sales– and industry output had been falling for a number of years.

Cook’s didn’t have the image of a Mercedes or an IBM amongst its customers. Neither was it a technological leader, nor did it possess secret processes to guarantee extra income. Conventional thinking would have suggested that Cook milks the business and leaves the industry, or goes into a higher value and differentiated niche. But no, Cook invested in capacity, capability and quality improvements.

Rivals thought he was mad… All seemed against him.

But his insight and efforts yielded results quickly. Within a few years sales had risen 10% against industry losses. He was the first to invest in BS5750. Within a couple of years he had acquired two of his major competitors and by the ‘90s he had become the market leader.

The recommendation we advocate here is concerned with one of the most admired human attributes of all – that of FORTITUDE.

William Cook’s own summing up of this ideology is to be found on the company’s web site;

“Press on. Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is
more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is
almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”

A Final Point To Remember Is:

He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. Proverbs 16:32