Tibbett & Britten Times #25 - Hayes Anderson Limited

16 Mike Arrowsmith Interview
Tibbett & Britten Times Spring 2002
Face to face with
Mike Arrowsmith, 48, joined Tibbett & Britten in 1999 as Group Finance Director
and was appointed Group Chief Executive Officer in May 2001. Here he talks to
Tibbett & Britten Times about his career and aspirations for the Group.
T&BT: Mike, tell us something about your own background.
MRA: I was born in what is now Zimbabwe. My school and university life
was spent in Southern Africa, and I came to the UK with my wife,
Rosemary, in 1979. My first job was with a major computer company,
where I spent seven years before moving into the pharmaceutical and
consumer healthcare sectors. It was during a lengthy period with
SmithKline Beecham (now GlaxoSmithKline) that I first became closely
involved with international supply chain management.
T&BT: There’s a link there to logistics, then?
MRA: Absolutely. Before joining Tibbett & Britten my supply chain
experience was mainly from the customer’s perspective. But logistics
has often been a part of my overall responsibilities. For example, with
SmithKline Beecham we went through an extensive benchmarking
exercise comparing our own logistics operations against a number of
third-party suppliers. I was also closely involved in developing a fiveyear
manufacturing and supply chain strategy for SmithKline Beecham’s
worldwide consumer healthcare division.
T&BT: So what are your top three immediate objectives?
MRA: The most immediate aim is to release our potential
by eliminating the artificial divisional barriers created over the
years – hence the drive for integration, simplicity and clarity.
We need to identify and share best practice more efficiently to
avoid the waste that comes from constantly reinventing the
wheel. We must have effective communication channels in place
so that we can rapidly share ideas and information among
ourselves and with our customers. This will require increased
and better targeted investment in information technology.
Secondly, we need to continue improving the quality of our
operations. We must ensure that every employee has the skills to perform
to the standards we and our customers expect. As part of this we must
understand our customers better and work with them to drive down costs
and increase service levels throughout the supply chain.
Our third immediate objective is to identify and address areas of
financial under-performance within the Group.
I would like us to be seen by our customers as operationally excellent
and a core strategic partner, staffed by the best people in the industry
“
and making the best use of information technology.
”
T&BT: What other special experience do you bring to the Group T&BT: Where do you see Tibbett & Britten in five years’ time?
CEO position?
MRA: I would like us to be seen by our customers as operationally
MRA: For the past 15 years or so I have had strong international excellent and a core strategic partner, staffed by the best people in the
management experience in several key areas – information technology
deployment, change management, finance and investor relations.
Having worked for a number of highly market-driven companies I also
have a healthy appreciation of the importance of understanding what
the customer wants.
industry and making the best use of information technology. I see us
working for the majority of the premier fashion, grocery and consumer
retailers and manufacturers – not just in Europe and North America, but
also in selected markets in Asia, Latin America and Africa. During this time
we would have doubled the size of
T&BT: Are you planning
the business – not only in sales but
T&BT: How will you and the Chairman be dividing responsibilities?
any immediate changes to
also in profits – and strengthened
MRA: John Harvey remains as Executive Chairman and will focus on
the business?
our position as the premier supply
refining the Group’s strategy and developing partnerships with key chain management company in
MRA: We have already started
customers. My role is more operational – implementing the chosen our core sectors.
strengthening our senior
strategy and building a sound base for our future growth.
management team – especially at
T&BT: How will this be
the operational level – with the
appointments of Martin Graham, Doug Taylor and Mark Whiteling. This MRA:
achieved?
It’s about developing our core strengths, investing in our
process will continue, with the emphasis on internal promotion wherever
possible. We also need to integrate and simplify the business – particularly
in Europe – and good progress is already being made here too. Other
people and getting closer to our customers. It's about being smarter
and more agile than the competition.
T&BT: Can you be more specific about improving competitiveness?
priorities include developing an organisational structure that is more MRA: We operate in a tough trading environment – it’s the nature
customer responsive, streamlining our new business development activities
and providing a pool of expertise that can be shared across the Group.
of the industry, and is likely to remain so. To gain market share we
need to differentiate ourselves from our competitors, and there are