Ian Mawdsley Profit through common sense

A business mentor can help you fulfill your company's potential writes Lynne Walsh.

As for those who mentor and advise businesses, the rollcall includes Ian Mawdsley. The name may not mean a lot, unless you happen to be one of the companies who benefit from his wise counsel. Jamie Hughes, managing director of Pace Telecom in Wrexham explains how much he owes to Mawdsley, who's involvement with the business started some three years' ago.

The business is unrecognisable: turnover is up by 500 per cent to around six million, we've doubled the workforce to more than fourty people, profits are up by three-hundred per cent and we're getting ready to float on AIM.

It's a long way from the father-and-son firm started with £50 in 1993. Back then they were in the photocopying and communication equipment market before moving into the mobile phone market. The business now operates from five locations, and has more than 16,000 business and residential customers. As Hughes put it, When Ian came in, we were a very small business, struggling to cope with its disorganised workforce, with no hope of growing any larger without the whole thing grinding to a halt. According to Mawdsley this situation is fairly typical and the business had grown like Topsy. It had evolved without being strategic in any way.

Although Hughes is evangelical about mentoring now, he was not quite so keen at the start. We were hoping to attract some funding from the WDA, and as part of the process, they insisted we had a business review we didn't particularly want one, but thought we ought to go through the motions. The review highlighted the need for specialist support, which evolved into formal mentoring by Mawdsley through the WDA Mentoring scheme.

The subsequent changes brought about by mentoring proved to be beneficial but it was far from an easy process. For Pace Telecom there was to be a lot of change, with some staff leaving along the way, and Hughes recalled his mentor's early words, He said there would be a lot of hard work and a lot of tears in putting the business where it deserved to be, and yes, there have been both.

A key area for change was the structure of the company. There were 17 people reporting directly to the MD. Nowadays the simpler hierarchy has two directors, financial services and business development services. But did Hughes feel that through delegating he was losing control? No, I have more control even though it's not so hands-on. I don't have so many headaches, either.

Mawdsley then helped the senior management team to focus on systems, particularly the activities of the sales team, making changes to monitoring and controls. We looked at how business performance was being measured - for example, what success various sales activities achieved. Throughout the whole process maintaining objectivity was crucial for the mentor and directors alike. Experienced senior WDA mentor, Alan Black, comments, It needs that impartiality. You can bounce ideas off a mentor, in confidence. Managers really should take a step back from the day-to-day things and work out the forward strategy. Where are we going, what's going to happen? That is where they need the help. And we are never prescriptive never. That would be extremely wrong of us. We always say Look, you are the person running this company.

What does Black have to say of the sceptics' view that mentors are failed business people, or don't understand the stresses and strains of hands-on management? We meet resistance; of course we do. It's OK for a mentor to meet resistance! Many owner/managers have been growing their business, flying by the seat of their pants up to a point. They realise that they're moving into areas in which they have no expertise areas which require more discipline.

The ill-deserved reputation, in some quarters, that mentors inhabit an ivory tower too remote from the business world, has a familiar ring for Ian Mawdsley. However at the ripe old age of 26, Mawdsley worked for United Biscuits and was put in charge of a major project in today's terms, valued at around £40 million. He's managed up to 140 people, and ran his own business. I know what it's like to wake up at 3am, wondering if the customers are going to pay you, so that you can get the wages from the bank.

Companies who have benefited from mentoring often mention the advantage of working with someone who has the experience to empathise with their situation. Jamie Hughes put it plainly: Pace Telecom has got a friend they can trust and call on when in need. With a lot of initial sceptism, we took the WDA's initial advice to use a management consultant and thereafter a mentor. I can honestly say that was the best decision we have made in the 11 years we have been in business. If you ever come across a company sceptical about the benefits of using an external consultant or mentor, then please ask them to call me.

A glowing recommendation indeed, and based on the evidence, welldeserved. Hughes forecasts that turnover could rise to £10 million this year. Last year it won a British Small Business Champion for Wales award. The judges praised the visionary skills and flair of the owners, and the way they listen to their customers. And although the MD has insisted that the mentor should get much of the thanks, Mawdsley, in true mentoring style, has summed it up a little differently: Jamie has a vision, and he can identify a business opportunity when he sees one. He has a really loyal, committed team around him and he's compassionate; he realises that people are the centre of the business.