Alan Clarke Interview part three
Yesterday Clarke discussed The Bridge's reaction to his illness, today he explains the plans already in place in preparation for long-term absence and how it affected his own situation so quickly after concluding the MBO.
Truth be told, Brian and Jonathan had a very simple plan for such a set of circumstances when they were in charge.
As our clients will tell you, Brian and Jonathan had for some time taken very much a back seat in the business. This was part of the ‘master plan’ we’d all had for years that at some point they would leave and David, Frank, Margaret and I would assume control of the Agency.
So, getting to the point, they always knew that if one of David, Frank, Margaret or I us was to be indisposed for some period of time then Brian or Jonathan could step in to the appropriate shoes and become more hands on again.
But it didn’t happen quite that way!
They had left the business a couple of weeks before my diagnosis was confirmed and, in fairness to them, when I told him I was seriously ill Brian immediately offered to do whatever he could to help us out – and given he had just retired and was full of plans to travel and enjoying himself in the short term he offered to put those on the back burner and come back in to the office if that was what was required.
David, Margaret, Frank decided that they needed to stand on their own two feet and along with the rest of the team at the Bridge did a superb job of dividing up my responsibilities and kept things on an even keel. I would also want to draw particular note to the wonderful response of the Agency’s clients who, to a person, offered their total support to us in the circumstances and were nothing other that supportive throughout.
Unfortunately things like key man insurance were not top of our agenda in the days immediately post purchase and, anyway, my trip to the GP on 29 Jan would have meant this illness would not have been included. Needless to say we have very appropriate cover in place now!
In general, the issue of key man cover is a crippler for any small business. It’s quite simply impossible to have a realistic plan in place in case the worst happens. You can think through what you might do but when it hits the fan you simply have to react and rely on the strength of the relationships you have within the business, with clients and with others in the industry (suppliers and competitors).
The best people to enlighten this are the guys at Frame. I’d like to think there was no one in our industry that wouldn’t have gone out of their way to help them after Alan’s tragic death (I’d like to think that’s the case...I’d doubt it’s universally true).
Tomorrow, Clarke lists the lessons he's learned from his experiences with throat cancer and the long recovery process he faces.
The Bridge is a member of the Marketing Industry Network.