Eight years ago Optix managing director, Trevor Rowley, gathered willing users of the company’s practice management software together for an inaugural conference. The idea was to provide his customers with assistance in a relatively informal setting, an opportunity taken by 37 people that first year.
Fast-forward to the eighth edition, which was held at the Chesford Grange Hotel in Warwickshire on March 10-11, and the pace at which this event has evolved is made clear. For a start this year’s event attracted total of 304 delegates, representing a more than eight-fold increase. Significantly the conference now has an attendant exhibition section, with the likes of Essilor, Alcon and Beausoleil vying for the attention of those in attendance. However, perhaps the biggest change of all is the array of world class speakers addressing the conference, with former New Labour director of communication and strategy Alistair Campbell the biggest name at this year’s event.
‘It is very flattering that we have so many people here,’ said Rowley while introducing the conference. ‘I really appreciate everyone coming. The companies that are exhibiting are sponsors and they allow us to get the great speakers in and I’m very grateful to them too.
‘We use feedback from the previous year to improve the event every year. It is clear that people like having speakers outside of the usual optical crowd. We’ve also expanded the more technical streams outside of the main speakers to ensure people can get information and assistance on whatever aspect of our software they need.’
Greatest mistakes
[CaptionComponent="1149"]The opening speaker was Gerald Ratner, the jewellery tycoon who infamously destroyed his business by making a speech in which he referred to his wares as ‘total crap’ and also said that a Marks & Spencer prawn sandwich would last longer than some of the earrings he sold.
Ratner humorously discussed what it is like to be considered a benchmark for idiocy, making the point he often comes out as number one in newspaper article and television shows compiling the greatest mistakes in history.
‘Still I suppose it is good to be number one no matter what the circumstance – a win is a win at the end of the day,’ joked Ratner. ‘I’m defined by that mistake but I’ve actually made many more that I don’t get credit for because the speech gaff was so big.’
Other debacles included a lack of vital market research before expanding into the Netherlands and selling Seiko watches for no profit due to a badly thought-out special offer.
In the aftermath of his speech, the value of the Ratner Group fell by around £500m and eventually resulting in Ratner leaving his own company and spending several years in the doldrums. A successful health club venture got Ratner back on his feet and he now runs a online jewellery business.
Practical lessons from his experiences included not publicising mistakes. After vast newspaper coverage of his speech, Ratner decided to go on Wogan (a television talkshow) to clear the matter up. ‘Unfortunately this only had the effect of making the gaff even more well known,’ noted Ratner.
Ratner revealed he owned six optical practices during the 1980s and that he liked them because the mark-up on glasses was even bigger than that on jewellery. Taking questions from the audience, he predicted the Apple watch will be the ‘biggest flop of all time’ and that he owes his return to success to cycling 22 miles every day on a carbon fibre road bike.
Addicted to speed
Former land speed record holder Richard Noble was next up to the podium. The Scotsman held the record from 1983-1997 and was subsequently project director of Thrust SSC, the first land vehicle to exceed the speed of sound and which currently holds the record at 763mph. Noble is now planning a new record attempt with Bloodhound SSC, which he hopes will exceed 1,000mph.
Noble talked about the history of the land speed record, making the point that any successful attempt has to push back the boundaries of engineering. An example of this was modelling aerodynamics on a computer some 10 years before it became common practice in Formula 1 motorsport.
With the Bloodhound project, Noble has stimulated interest by making all data generated in testing and, in due course, the actual record attempt available via the internet in real time.
‘Schools in 238 countries around the world are following the project because we are making this information available. The children love it and my hope is some will be inspired to go into engineering themselves. The UK has a shortage of engineers to meet the challenges of the age and we need to attract more – particularly women.’
In practical terms Noble said that managing such a difficult international project essentially boils down to overcoming a series of problems, not so different in general terms to running a business.
Completing the programme on Monday was advertising professional Rita Clifton who presented on ‘Brands, business and sustainable value’. ‘The only way in any sector to build long-term sustainable value is through building a brand,’ Clifton said. ‘I don’t see people as a business’s greatest asset. People can die, retire or move to rival and take your customers with them.’
She noted that now is a good time to build a brand as in the digital age you do not need an extensive marketing budget to do it and the important thing is to concentrate on the fundamentals of your business.
‘People might expect it to be all YouTube videos and social engagement and that does have value but the crucial thing is being a really good business. If you deliver something of value reliably every day you will have customers out there helping to promote you.’
Clifton then analysed some leading brands and identified what can be learnt from them.
‘There are three key characteristics of a top brand: clarity, coherence, and leadership. Take BMW, it has a clear message of precision engineering across its spaces and all parts of the customer experience. Google organise the web, they have a coherent defined culture that makes everything feel fun. People want to work for them and happy employees equals happy clients. Apple benefited by having a leader like Steve Jobs at the forefront, epitomising the company.’
Casting her eye over the optical industry, Clifton felt it was a ‘same, same sector’ with opportunities to do things differently and stand out.
Following the opening day’s programme guests enjoyed a lavish gala dinner complete with live music before reconvening in the main conference hall on Tuesday morning.
Building a future
[CaptionComponent="1150"]Anyone feeling a little under the weather after a late night was soon re-energised by Kevin Gaskell speaking on the topic of ‘Building a world class future’.
Gaskell has a very strong background in turning around failing or faltering companies. At 33 he was appointed managing director at Porsche, where he oversaw a huge growth and restored prestige to the brand. Moving on to a similar role at BMW he led the company to three successive years of record growth. Gaskell opened his address by asking how do ordinary people achieve extraordinary results.
‘I think it is about saying to people we are going on a journey – let’s build something extraordinary together. BMW was an interesting brand in a reasonable position when I took over so I initially hoped for modest growth of 3 per cent. But once I got to know the company it was clear that there were opportunities everywhere.
‘The 500 per cent growth was achieved with the same team as before – I didn’t go out and buy in some kind of management all-star teams. I believe people are astonishing and the only limitations are those that people place upon themselves.’
Gaskell acknowledged that changing a business is scary but said it was all about moving fast, potentially making mistakes – but learning from them immediately and moving ahead again.
‘Nobody cares what your business used to do. What are you doing now and in the future to benefit me?’ he said. ‘Challenge the established rules. Listen to quiet people, engage the crazy people, all these people have huge resources to give. My own objective is to be the dumbest person in the room and give all the power away to enable others.
Away from business Gaskell has walked to both the south and north poles raising money for cancer charity.
‘A lot of the challenges – the cold, the physical exertion, the logistics – were things we could plan for. One night we were forced by the weather to camp on some thin ice and all through the night we could hear strange clicking and whistling noises. When I asked the expedition guide what these were in the morning, he said it was a pod of Orcas trying to break through the ice and attack us. You will find situations in business too where there’s simply nothing you can do to stop things going wrong. The important thing is to keep going and make every day count.’
Political spotlight
[CaptionComponent="1151"]Closing the event was Alistair Campbell, who spent several years at the heart of the British government as Tony Blair’s right hand man.
Opening with a joke about how the number of ties in any audience is usually inversely proportional to the number of people with hangovers and a confession that he uses £2 ready-readers, Campbell talked about what can be learned from hyper-achievers in disparate fields including business, sports and politics.
This is the subject of his latest book Winners: And what we can learn from them, which is informed by interviews and anecdotes from the likes of Nelson Mandela, Richard Branson, Alex Ferguson and Warren Buffett.
‘Warren Buffet advises people to split a piece of paper in two and use one half to list the qualities of the person they most admire and the other to list the qualities of the person they least admire. He says this brings clarity to what you should be aiming to be.
Campbell made the point that everyone needs a team behind them.
‘Mandela personified hope for South Africa but he still needed people from all sections of the country to actually implement change. The biggest sports stars, be it Lionel Messi, Bradley Wiggins or Floyd Mayweather all stand on the shoulders of their teams and support staff.’
On a more personal note Campbell revealed some of the methods he has used to cope with extreme pressure in the past. ‘During the Chilcot Inquiry [into the Iraq War], I worked with sports psychologist Andy McCann and talked through all the things that could go wrong sequentially from not sleeping the night before to getting mobbed by the press and falling over on the way in. He put me in the mindset that no matter what happened I would simply pick myself up and calmly carry on.’
‘About five days before the 1997 election I got some good advice from Sir Alex Ferguson. I felt under a lot of pressure as people had stopped going directly to Tony [Blair] and Alex used the horse racing analogy of putting the blinkers on – focus only on what is most important and have people look after anything else themselves.’
