Business Insight 61 – Politicians (blog & vlog)

None of the above was allowed to slow up the expansion of the company. Firstly, we were growing out of our head office in Mark Lane. Eastbourne Council had encouraged the building of large office blocks

in the town centre, in the forlorn hope that companies would base their headquarters there, but not enough if any did. A very low offer of £320,000 for the freehold of a 10,000 sq. ft. new but never occupied building was accepted.

Mark Lane was sold, and ambitious layouts were designed for the 3 floors of open space that was 38 St. Leonard’s Road. The entire top floor was set aside for the directors of the company, and their secretaries; partitions erected to reveal ‘Dallas’ style offices for us all, with a magnificent boardroom for good measure. The middle floor was set aside for training purposes, both for salesmen and fitters. The ground floor was for the Eastbourne retail salesforce, the accounts team, and a huge reception area with a couple of adjacent offices for interview purposes.

There was a big reception for the ‘Official Opening’. If we hadn’t before, we certainly were now announcing the arrival of a big, local and successful company. Ian Gow, the MP for Eastbourne, happily accepted the invitation to ‘cut the tape’; he was PPP to Margaret Thatcher, and had just become the Minister for Housing in her Government. In his speech, he praised entrepreneurialism and said we were the wealth creators; he and his type were merely the spenders of the product of our success. He was an excellent MP.

The IRA murdered Ian Gow on the 30th July 1990, by blowing up his car with him in it; on his drive outside his home where he lived in Hankham, a village near Eastbourne.

INSIGHT 61:- I’ve met a lot of politicians in my life and unfortunately I am very rarely impressed. Ian Gow was the exception: he was impeccable, clever and humble. 

 

Leave a Reply