Download OP News April 2012 - The Perse School

David: “We got intotable tennis at The Perseand I’m still better thanWarren.”Warren: “He’s the best;I’m the second best.”David: “We’ve a pooltable too. It’s great forgetting people together,talking.”Warren: “The bar helpsas well…”Asked about the present financial woesfacing Britain, Warren said: “2008 wasa scary time in the November wheneverything crashed. Our revenue was downwith everyone else’s. It was the first timewe’d not beaten the previous month. We’dbeen growing at 20 per cent per month…“It forced us to look very carefully at whatwe were spending money on; at what reallymattered to our customers. Thankfully, itbounced straight back in December/Januaryand then we went on to record months.”The harder financial climate persuadedpeople to curb spending while they waitedto see what would happen. They thenbegan spending again but wanted the sameoutlay to work that much harder, whichchimes very well with the enduring qualityof bespoke tailoring.David and Warren have replaced the cigarsmoke and leather chair image of tailoringwith something altogether friendlier andfunkier. With moves into women’s tailoring,organising a competition for youngdesigners and allying themselves to coolbrands and charities they are staying at thecutting edge …Their Bermondsey HQ, housed in the postindustrialchic of an old Peak Freans’ biscuitwarehouse, regularly sees staff bonding overgames of ping pong.The list of satisfied customers includesSultan Kosen, at 8’ 1” the world’s tallestman – “measured entirely online and a firsttime fit!” – Will Greenwood and RickEdwards! So who is the dream customer?Warren: “I would love to tailor for DanielCraig.” Because of his physique? “Becausehe’s James Bond.”William Reeve (1990)In 1985, aged 13, I switched schools toThe Perse. I came from a school in Oxfordwhich was ostensibly similar. But givenmy passions, The Perse was a far better fitfor me.I had been a computer fanatic for a fewyears, and The Perse in the 1980s wasan amazing place to love computers. Thecomputer club, using the school’s dozenBBC Micros, was actively patronised by theSpence-Jones brothers (alumni, in the early1970s), whose company gave me my firstpaid employment over the summer of 1988.The club set its sights high and several of uswrote software that was technically superiorto anything on the commercial market atthat time.During this time, aged 15, I co-wrote a gamecalled Pipeline. The game was commerciallypublished with a top games publisher. Ithad been set on a North Sea oil rig but thePiper Alpha tragedy necessitated a re-design,which unfortunately (for my academicrecord, at least!) coincided with my GCSEs.Despite the inevitable clashes with schoolpriorities, the Head, Dr Martin Stephen, wasvery supportive, for which I remain extremelygrateful.Much as I loved A Levels, particularlyEconomics taught by Charles Proud, I foundFurther Maths so hard that I decided Ineeded a year off before Oxford University.Building a business hadn’t occurred to meby then. My Perse background helped secureme a pre-university year at IBM in Londonand, after my degree, a job in themanagement consultancy McKinsey & Co.But after two years there I left the world ofemployment and started my first company,Fletcher Research.They say your first successful company isluck, but the second demonstrates skill.My first certainly benefited from luck, but infact my second company, LOVEFiLM.com,became far better known than the first.Now I’ve moved on, and am now workingon finding a third business to build.John Simms (1955)After decades working in the spheres ofoptical instrument design and colourmonitoring, OP John Simms (1955) writes:I can say many things about this life asan entrepreneur, all of which are particularto my experience, but a few might bemore broadly relevant:• Understand and work with yourstrengths, associate with others whocomplement you.• Spend time with successful entrepreneurs– they love to share their experience, andmaybe cash, with you.• Resign yourself to 60-hour weeks,periods of being broke, no vacationsand major stresses at home.• Be flexible, keep trying differentproducts, markets, approaches, untilsomething works.• Make sure that the eventual valueof your enterprise is worth the manysacrifices.• Luck is essential, look for it, recognize it,and grasp it.I’m very glad I took this path. I was nota leader at school, college, or until Ifound my comfort zone in the secondcompany. Others who were leaders atschool and college often ended up inlarge organisations, Leadership is notentrepreneurship. To be an entrepreneur,you need self-confidence and a willingnessto gamble everything on your ownjudgment, which is why being anentrepreneur can sometimes be verylonely, but can also be very exciting andrewarding to those with the intestinalfortitude to give it a serious try.Read John’s article in fullhere: www.perse.co.uk/old-perseansPage 6