1960s WORK
0115 Fired Again
It's taken me years to get my head around the problems I experienced at Cussons -- and in the other companies that I worked for. But, at Cussons I seem to have been marked out as a sacrificial lamb very soon after Hugh Goodwin was pushed out with a nervous breakdown. I was a marked man since I was Hugh's choice. I was even more marked when I went against the MD on a number of key issues. The end result was, after 18 months, I got my marching orders. Again, fortunately, I was given three months notice.
Even so, it was once more a terrible time. It had its consolations though, since I was a home with the children and a had more contact with them than I ever had been in my time at work. I've always been a workaholic, or at least been pushed to work long hours to justify my position. Now, fired, I was able to go out for long walks with the children through the countryside. I particularly remember walking with Miles through the local woods, getting a real sense of family bonding. It echoed a similar walk guide taken in the days of my youth through Eastham woods with my father.
But I had to find another job and once more began the round of applications and job chasing. This time I covered a number of the management consultancies. In particular I went after McKinsey. This was the creme de la creme of consultancies. Its special feature was its personnel director, Brigadier Langstaff, who was so impressive that you automatically wanted a job with them. I passed all the various tests and the interviews with the various managers, and was about to be hired by them. The final hurdle, though, was that I had to spend half a day working with one of their consultants -- to see whether both of us were happy with my joining. I have to say that both sides recognised it was a mistake. On my side I was horrified when the consultant said “The first thing you must do when you get into any project is to sell the next job”. Thus, you couldn't get on with the consultancy work – which is what attracted me - until you sold a couple more years of work and got it on the books! I just couldn't cope with the idea of in affect being a salesman. Maybe it was because of my sales experience in retail outlets. Anyway, it wasn't my scene. Paradoxically, later on, the opposite was the case when I -- as part of my career development -- was forced to be a salesman at IBM; and yet found the job was actually that of a consultant!
Even so as the task of finding a job became more and more urgent, I eventually settled for a job with another consultancy -- AIC -- who did actually hire me. Unfortunately it was at the time when they had to retrench and I never got my job; though in theory I was hired by them, since I was given three months payment in lieu of notice!
I went through a whole range of the job interviews. Accordingly, there were - once more after three months - a number of offers. One of these was from my old company, FCB, who wanted to hire me for their new promotions manager. Another was with Lever Brothers, again as promotions manager. The most senior, I suppose was as general manager of the Far East division one of the pharmaceutical companies. In that case, I just felt nervous about the risks involved.
Eventually, though, I found myself selected for interview at BTR. BTR was, at that time, starting out to become a conglomerate; though it was still largely based in the field of rubber -- particularly conveyor belts, It had, however, long since got rid of its tyre business. The job looked attractive, since it was called Group Business Manager. Indeed it was very attractive, since it involved handling, with general manager responsibilities, a division with something like £8 million turnover and two factories -- employing 700 workers. It seemed like a dream come true, but I didn't expect to get the job.
I remember travelling up, from London, to the interview at a hotel near the factory in Burton on Trent. It was November fifth – and, as I looked out of the train windows, fireworks went off everywhere. We met that evening at the local hotel, which was very luxurious. The whole process was conducted by the Tavistock Institute -- by their consultancy arm -- and was very sophisticated.
Thus, the first evening, the separate candidates met over dinner, to discover that we were having dinner with an equivalent number of BTR staff. I realised later that this was part of the recruitment process and their chitchat was designed to learn a lot about us. Even more terrifying the head of the division, John Cahill, unexpectedly stood up and made a speech about what the job was. In turn, each of us were then forced, at a moment's notice, to make a similar speech about our own background!
The following morning we went into the offices at the factory. There we were set a range of intelligence and personality tests. Having been for jobs at the consultancies, I was very used to these; which helped. In particular, though, I was given a Rorschach Blot test by a psychologist from the Tavistock itself.
Then, while they marked up the tests, we were taken round factory; each one of us with one of the factory managers. Again, as I later realised, this was just as much a test. If you didn't show interest you were out. We then met for a series of round the table discussions, which - to see how we were performing - were also monitored by various BTR managers. At the end of that, half the people were sent home -- they weren't even interviewed. This left four of us to be grilled, and I mean really grilled, by the managers and the psychologist. At the end of the day I and another guy were selected. I got the general manager job and he got a consultant job.
I later learned that John Cahill - who liked me - chose me, where the managing director (who I never got on with) was against me. In the event I was chosen for what, for a long time, was my highest powered job.
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