Sinclair Beecham on His People Philosophy

I am a huge fan of Pret A Manger, the UK-based sandwich chain. It’s a combination of the enthusiasm and friendliness of their people with the quality of the product and systems focused on delivering a great service.

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Few remember it now but, when I set up in London in 1990, getting a lunchtime sandwich often took 15 minutes – you waited in the queue for them to be hand-made. Pret spotted this key annoyance and responded with both ready-made sandwiches and wall-to-wall tills.

I know that Pret A Manger has a real focus on their people. They have a tough recruitment, which I’m told only hires 1 in 7 of those that apply, and each new potential recruit has to work a day in a branch. They only get the job if the staff in that branch vote at the end of the day that they are good enough to join the team, so they are tested on their ability to do the job, not on how well they talk about it.

At the ClearlySo Social Business conference today I got the chance to ask Sinclair Beecham (co-founder of Pret a Manager and founder of The Hoxton Hotel) for his philosophy on the people in his businesses.

Sinclair Beecham on people

“When I started out I realised the pyramid was the wrong way round. The managers were at the top but it is your front-line staff who deal with your people. I realised you had to give your staff the power to make decisions. They are the people that matter.”

“It is that split second of interaction when your person makes eye contact with the customer. It’s either a good time or a bad time. It’s either somebody who cares about you or somebody who doesn’t. Everything we do is building to that moment in time to make sure it’s a great moment for your customer.”

“In the hotel business there are two key points of contact: when you arrive and when you leave. Most hotels rip you off. You discover at that second moment, when you leave, that they have found lots of extra charges to add on. Don’t treat your customers like that. Don’t treat your staff like that.”

We often think entrepreneurs have to invent something amazing to succeed. As his fellow panel member Lara Morgan (founder of Pacific Direct) said, “I make soap and Sinclair makes sandwiches for a living. Neither are radical products. It’s about how you provide a better service.”

Learn the 10 core principles to create a happy and productive workplace in Henry Stewart's book, The Happy Manifesto.

Support your aspiring and current managers to be empowering and confident leaders with Happy

Happy offers leadership programmes at Level 3, Level 5 and Level 7, from new managers/supervisor level all the way up to senior leadership teams and CEOs. These programmes are based on the ideas of trusting your people. They are practical and based on applying what yo’ve learnt. We aim to inspire and ignite change in your organisation, as well as giving you valuable management skills such as business strategy, decision-making, negotiation and project management.

We also offer programmes tailored specifically to people from Global Majority backgrounds. The content is the same, but have been designed to give new and experienced managers the skills they need to navigate organisational culture with a clearer perspective on their own potential, as well as building their confidence and expanding their professional strengths.

Henry Stewart

Henry is founder and Chief Happiness Officer of Happy Ltd, originally set up as Happy Computers in 1987. Inspired by Ricardo Semler’s book Maverick, he has built a company which has won multiple awards for some of the best customer service in the country and being one of the UK’s best places to work.

Henry was listed in the Guru Radar of the Thinkers 50 list of the most influential management thinkers in the world. “He is one of the thinkers who we believe will shape the future of business,” explained list compiler Stuart Crainer.

His first book, Relax, was published in 2009. His second book, the Happy Manifesto, was published in 2013 and was short-listed for Business Book of the Year.

You can find Henry on LinkedIn and follow @happyhenry on Twitter.