[2010] 1960s WORK

The decade of the 1960s saw me leave Imperial College and start to build my career. Even when I thought I was destined to be a scientist, I also had long wanted to be an entrepreneur. Accordingly, putting science firmly behind me, I then saw my future as being a member of the board, and preferably its CEO, as the route to this. Because it involved so many aspects of commerce, and then was at the leading edge of business, I chose to start my career in marketing. This was where, at the time, the leading-edge action was . We were the advance guard of the new of society.

Within seven years I was to be close to my objective. I was to be in general management, promised a seat on the board of one of the major multinationals! But the first step on the ladder was a lowly position with an advertising agency. On the other hand, such agencies were, at the time, where the marketing action was. It was at a time not long after Doris Day and Rock Hudson had glamorized the whole world of advertising; and account executives were the YUPPIES of their day.

0136 Graduate Recruitment & FCB (0136T*) – my first real job, in an environment which generated many anecdotes
0168 FCB Stories (0168T*)
0139 Peter Bartlett & the Profumo Affair

But this time also saw the creation of the first brand managers, who really were the entrepreneurs of the 1960s, at least in the Fast Moving Goods (FMCG) sector where I found myself. And my first job within this field was with one of the leading-edge operators. I learnt a great deal, but was – for the first time – burnt by the office politics:

9268 PST - Phillips Scott and Turner (9268T*)
0157 Brand Management at PST – the crème de la crème of marketing
0188 PST planning – applying corporate strategy as it should be done
0135 Jobhunting in 1966 & Westons Biscuits – but leading to my first real fall and then recovery
0194 Psychoanalysis – and considerable personal introspection

But life was still good to me, for whilst still staying in the exhilarating world of brand management, the next job was the best of my life; though paradoxically it came in an industry which is now reviled for killing millions of its customers!

0111 Gallahers – training – entering on a career in an age old industry
0190 Gallaher – leaf – a skill just like wine tasting
0122 Gallahers Cigarette Production – but real mass production
0164 Gallahers - tobacco production – as well as hand-made production
0177 Tobacco Division – which, for the next 2 years, became my best ever home from home
0105 Gallahers market research – the best I ever conducted
0197 Condor to brand leader – leading to one of the great success stories of my life
0146 Condor advertising – and fun with the best agency I ever used
0126 Gallahers Commercials - creating my best advertising
0198 Gallahers & ATV television - with the occasional view of the wider world        
0161 Gallahers -- social life – but especially with good friends at work
0156 Gallahers -- John Elliott resigns – the end of the good times

I loved my work at Gallahers but, although I crept up the career ladder, my subsequent job at Cussons was personally debilitating and I hated it.

0107 Cussons - a small company with big ideas
0145 1001 Dri Foam – my most successful relaunch
0175 Cussons sales force
0167 McCann Ericsson – but there was trouble at the agency
0169 Cussons - financial madness – and even worse trouble at the top
0115 Fired Again - for supporting the wrong side

And, indeed, much the same was true of BTR. However, my general management job there – one in which I really did have total control of all the operations of my business group - saw me reaching close to my objective of a seat on the board. It was just that the (office) politics were horrendous, and the result was that I foreswore my ambition to ever be a CEO!

0151 BTR -- British Tyre and Rubber – as part of a rapidly growing conglomerate
0127 Polymeric Production (boots) – where this part of my empire was the first millstone around my neck
0101 BTR moulding shop – the second millstone around my neck
0183 BTR new products – the (false) hope for the future
0189 BTR management (0189T*) – a disaster waiting to happen
0160 My Week & BTR production control – a disaster already happening
0158 BTR politics and no hope – the noose tightens
0106 Burton car travel
0118 Burton job-hunting – and fired again, this time as a scapegoat

Indeed, the end result really was something of a disaster. I was fired for the third time. Where, however, I had previously chosen to bounce back – and indeed, despite my career history, some general management jobs were eventually on offer to me – I was by then totally disillusioned with senior management. My experience there had graphically shown that senior management had nothing to do with entrepreneurship but was all about the political infighting for power. So, I chose a very different path and went to IBM.

* Text only versions

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