Chapter Three,
I landed on British soil in the early evening of August 9th 2011. I was met by one of TT's students who happens to own a Limo company. I remember that it was still light out and as we headed to my hotel It was euphoric to see all the London iconic sights that I had seen on TV in the US my whole life. The driver called MB on his cell to let him know that the Eagle has landed. He handed me the phone and after a brief discussion MB told me he would meet me at my hotel at 7:30 AM.
The next morning MB arrived as scheduled and we went for my first English breakfast. After breakfast, we walked to the TT office which was a few blocks away. I was a little surprised to see that the office was on a secluded block that seemed to be away from the main stream of London. We entered the building and went up to the third floor where TT had it's space.
When we walked into the space I was impressed with the size of the space MB had acquired for his company. This certainly made me feel that he was committed to the success of the company and its growth. However I also immediately noticed some other things as I entered. The first thing was that the feel of the space was horrible, it was dull and lifeless. There was a lack of energy, and more than half of the desks were empty. As I looked towards the back of this very long space, I noticed that there were cartons (maybe about 100) piled up about 6 feet high and it was an eyesore. To get to the point, the space looked like a bomb had hit it and no one bothered to clean up the mess.
As MB walked me around to introduce me to the staff, it became obvious to me that MB had billed me to everyone as the second coming of Jesus(no disrespect I am a Catholic) I will never forget the warm greeting that I received from everyone.
We finally went to the very back of the space and went into MBs office. It was then that I met Ben Tuckey. MB had previously explained to me that Ben was a Jr. Partner who had invested a half a million pounds to secure his position in the company. MB had also previously explained that while Ben was a partner in the company that he(MB)made the final decisions. The 3 of us engaged in a general
business conversation for about an hour. Realizing that Ben had to be comfortable with me, I asked Ben to interview me and that no topic was off limits. We talked for sometime about my background, my family, my hobbies and outside interests etc. Ben and I connected immediately and I quickly realized that this is someone that I would have no problem working with and I could tell that Ben felt the same way.
When we were done, MB told me he wanted to introduce me to his sales manager, Mike Gallop. On the way to the sales office he told me that he did not want Mike Gallop to feel threatened by my presence and that I should make him feel confident that I was not there to replace him and that my role would be at a higher level and that he would be reporting to me and not MB any longer.
I spent most of the day with Mike Gallop, getting to know him and picking his brain. In no time at all I concluded that Mike Gallop was intelligent, hard working and good at what he does. I remember thinking to myself how great it will be working with MG and bringing him to the next level of Sales Management.
At some point that day MG explained to me that the biggest challenge that I would face is MB. He explained that MB was stubborn, a control freak, unreasonable, did not understand sales and marketing but swears that he does and listens to no one no matter how correct they may be. I told MG that he did not tell me anything I wasn't aware of . I assured MG that I had the skills and experience to manage the situation and that MB had already given me the green light if I came on board. What MG did not know is that I had already spoken with MB about these issues and that MB had agreed that if I took the position I would have autonomy. Back in the OTA days, when MB and I worked together, he observed how I went toe to toe with the owner and told me that was one of the things that he admired about me, my willingness to go to battle for what I knew was the correct way to grow this type of a business. In fact when I told MB that I am not a yes man and I would always fight for what I believe he said, " if you are a yes man than one of us is not necessary in the company". You'll notice that I put this in quotes, this is because I heard this over and over from MB as time went on. If only he really bought into his own words.
The day conclude with a workshop at 6:30. I was thrilled that I could get to see for myself how this was being handled as workshops are the life blood of this type of operation. I sat in the back of the room and started taking notes on all the changes that were needed. I came up with 2 pages(about 30 items) of changes that I would institute immediately if I decided to come on board. To this day MB never asked me to see this list.
The workshop concluded and day one was over. I left that day concluding in my own mind that if this company can stay afloat with all the wrong things I observed, my coming on board and correcting all this would have an immediate positive affect on the business.
Tomorrow I'll discuss day 2 in London.
As always have a great day!!
