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First though, Blatchford joined ICL to get some outside experience. It was certainly an experience. “We would be working hard on a new project but the marketing department kept changing its mind,” he explains. “The company also had this habit of having more than one team working on a particular project, which taught me how not to manage resources. It was dis-illusioning; being master of your own destiny suddenly became more appealing. “I was very much a techie, not a businessman, so I really had to rely on the management team at Blatchfords. In a family-owned business the staff expect you to go into it and eventually become MD, so there isn’t the politics; instead, because everything happened so quickly, they rallied round.”
Just as well, because the very month that Blatchford became MD, the department of Health decided that it was going to completely review its procurement of artificial limbs. “So not only was I new to business, but I found myself facing a changing market and having discussions with government,” he recalls. “Having so little experience helped in a way; because I had no pre-conceived ideas I had much more of an open mind.
“I was fine with the finance, but the difficult issues were about people management, realising that sometimes you have to say no. I decided to have a trial run at it with the works manager at the time, who was adversarial. It was something about simplifying the way we were booking goods in. I discovered that in a family owned business, people expect it to be a slightly autocratic organisation, and that the counter-balance is that they have more security and tenure.
“What I also realised is that to grow a family-owned business, you have to accept that some people in the management team are not going to be able to make the journey. I have had to separate family and firm, because as the only child there’s been no choice but to recruit talent from outside.” Perhaps a measure of how disciplined he became is the time he made his cousin redundant.
One of the early changes came when Blatchford discovered that the numbers crunched for tenders won by the company had resulted in bids, which were too low. Immediately, with a new finance director, he split service and products into separate business units so that both could be developed but not at each other’s expense in terms of management resource. Separate GMs were appointed, and Blatchford thought he was going to spend less time in the day-to-day business. “But it turned out to be a nightmare,” he explains. “I discovered that I didn’t like not being fully in the picture, and found that the two directors, each with a strong personality, were doing what they thought best for their business, not the group.
“Of course, having the right strategy but not implementing it successfully is better than having the wrong strategy and implementing it well. Fortunately, we hadn’t been that good at implementation.” Blatchford recognised that in his market, where maybe 85% of what the company sells is purchased with government funding in one way or another, the impetus for revenue growth has to come from new products, otherwise the most that can be achieved is a little bit more than the rate of inflation.
“A revolutionary product means you have to devote resources to educating the market, but as a consequence of raising the profile of your company, it means sales of your other products don’t decline so much,” he says.
One of the latest developments is the first prosthetic foot using hydraulics in the ankle to replicate natural movement. “I believe in good, simple engineering,” explains Blatchford, “and what is particularly attractive about the Echelon Foot is that it has no electronics - a competing product delivers half the functions and costs twice as much.
“There are a number of constraints on our ability to become more global. I don’t want private equity finance, so large-scale acquisitions are not an option. So we work in partnership, setting up joint ventures which at the very least mean we can familiarise ourselves with the cultural differences in that country. The plan is to have wholly-owned subsidiaries and joint ventures for our larger markets.
“We treated a patient in Malaysia who expressed an interest in taking our business into India. He set up a joint venture, which is owned 50% by us, fifteen years ago, and it has achieved 20% growth a year. It employs 150 people. In Russia we appointed a distributor who clearly knows more about how the wheels turn in that country than we do. He told us that we wouldn’t really be able to compete in the long term without having a physical presence, so we’re opening a centre out there which we’ll 30% own.”
Blatchford completed his MBA from the Open University in 1997. “I’m in two minds about the relative value of qualifications,” he says. “Vocational training means that the skills can be specifically applied, but a broader education is important as well because you learn the ability to step back and evaluate; vocational by itself can be too limiting. “I also believe that success comes from being bright enough to pick things up, to know what’s important, and to have the drive and motivation to keep on going regardless of the obstacles in your way.
I’m not claiming the credit, which belongs to the last three generations. For example, my father’s development of carbon fibre components reduced product weight by some 40%. He also came up with the Endolite brand name.”
As well as sitting on the government’s Healthcare Industries Task Force, Blatchford has served as chairman of the British Healthcare Trades Association. “You need an effective trade organisation for lobbying and to influence government,” he suggests. “Someone has to be prepared to devote time and energy, and I thought it might as well be me.
“I’m a firm believer in being open and above board. Say what you mean and mean what you say. Honesty and transparency mean you will find it easier to build a reputation for yourself and credibility. Of course there are times when you have to shade things, and I’m not suggesting that it’s always a good idea to show everyone your hand, but the point I’m making is: don’t lie or try to create a false impression.”
For more information contact:
Ben Blease
Marketing Manager
+44 (0)1256 316609
benb@blatchford.co.uk
Chas.A. Blatchford & Sons Ltd
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