Archie Forster (Sir Archibald, 1928-2001) was Chairman / CEO etc of Esso = Exxon-in-the-UK. I met him occasionally, he being the top Esso participant in a joint venture I was involved with. He was a cheerful, bustling cove, but his business history told clearly of a dynamic and steely character, with much conventional success along the way (within the one-company career - and Exxon is an odd company).
Once he got to the top, however, there were reasons to doubt his judgement and what must have been a heads-down, over-confident, solo decision making style ...
The first story revolves around his determination to cash in the very valuable SW1 HQ property Esso occupied for many years - 1,200 people, multi-storey carpark, occupying more than an entire block on Victoria Street - and move somewhere cheaper. Esso's geography dictated somewhere west and possibly south of London: its worldscale refinery is at Fawley, near Southampton; it had a smaller refinery at Milford Haven; a research centre at Abingdon; and, not coincidentally, Forster lived in Winchester. When we met Esso folks, they'd give us the latest office relocation update like Father Ted used to update Dougal on tales from the confessional: although it was meant to be secret, all the Esso guys had their contacts in the company treasury who would tell them the addresses of where they were sending the latest batch of cheques made payable to estate agents. And so we learned of the search progressing along the M4 corridor, right out to Swindon - but seemingly there was something wrong with all of the sites they were offered.
Suddenly, a breakthrough! A big, cheap, brownfield site (the old Goblin Teasmade factory) became available near Leatherhead, right on the M25, on the London side of the motorway. Forster was delighted. Excellent transport links; south-westerly from London; and, he had heard from somewhere, if the move was within the M25 - and it was, just - no redundancy would need to be paid to staff that didn't want to leave SW1. Shedding staff without cost was part of the cunning plan.
Boy, was he wrong. (a) The 16 miles between SW1 and Goblin is far further than a move which is of such short distance, it lets you off making redundancy payments. Oh, and (b) although smack on the M25, it was not on a junction, and the nearest one is an absolute pig at rush hour. Loads of staff considered Leatherhead / M25 a much different proposition to the comfortable public-transport journey to Victoria SW1, and took the money. Being an upfront cost, the fat redundancy bill significantly impaired the deemed economic benefits of the relocation exercise, even if losing staff was part of the plan. But he ploughed on anyway.
Embarrassing enough for his dealings with his masters in Florham Park NJ: but the second tale is, if anything, even funnier worse ... to be continued.
ND
8 comments:
We used to say that YUGE decisions, such as which turbine to buy, were made by us but that trivial decisions, such as where company HQ should be, were made by the Chairman's wife.
I do enjoy your recounting of past events in what was / is clearly a far more interesting career than mine. And now I'm an old git, settling into the giggling immaturity of my seventies, I greatly enjoyed being reminded of the Goblin Teasmaid - the subject of many a childish schoolboy joke in days of yore. Thank you, ND; today has started well :-) .
Once upon a time a mid size company wanted to be bought up - principals wanted to cash in. Prestigous client list, good reputation. Along comes big US corporate wanting to use client base to launch a new adventurous venture. Principals trousered a goodly wedge.
But, despite all the due diligence crap Big Corp never twigged that the reputation and client selection was specifically designed never to do anything adventurous. The clients were never likely to buy Big Corp's new notions (rubbish anyway), but don't tell them. And they didn't buy, after 4 years Big Corp closed the UK operation and the big hitters were let go. Say no more guv.
A wicked irony was that some years previously the swashbuckling adventurous MD had been sold a US company by an extremely charming and extremely attractive US lady. But the company was err very shallow. So it was nice to think of trousers being taken down for a second time.
"the old Goblin Teasmade factory"
One of the delights of staying with my grandparents when a child in the 50s...
This
https://images.ehive.com/accounts/3102/objects/images/0732b4ea871a42728002724d5a9ccba5_l.jpg
was their model, with the fluted sides, cinema organ style... beyond sophisticated...
We have a Teasmade by Swan (I tend to assume made in China now), there is nowt like tea and Wordle now that we're both retired (well there's one thing...).
Keep the milk in a pre-chilled vacuum flask during the warmer months.
Any markets / bets on the size of Trump's tariffs? ATM the Guardian is slagging Starmer off, be funny if we're spared and he's our saviour ... we shall see.
"We have a Teasmade by Swan (I tend to assume made in China now), there is nowt like tea and Wordle now that we're both retired (well there's one thing...).
Keep the milk in a pre-chilled vacuum flask during the warmer months."
Kettle and teabag. Milk kept before bed time in a metal jug in the fridge. A cup of tea before getting up is non-negotiable.
I guess one could have a kettle by the bed, but tea from a teapot is nice. We have a tea-cosy too!
Post a Comment