Close
Asset Finance will be 25 on April 13th, 2012.
Its CEO and co-founder, Roger Stone, retired on
March 31st, passing the reins to colleague of 18 years Mike
Randall.
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Stone, 64, feels he is leaving at the top of
his company’s performance.
“The 25th birthday seems like a natural time to
leave, and in my opinion Close Asset Finance has never been in
better shape. We are employing 435 people across 15 businesses, and
each and every one is built around the company’s core vision and
values.”
Stone says that in 25 years with CAF, it is
this highly codified culture he is most proud of, although he
hastens to add it has not been all his work.
“All our staff have had an input on the
development of these values” he says, pointing at a round emblem on
the wall of his Tolworth office that bears the words ‘Respect for
all, Excellent teamwork, Service excellence, Innovative expertise,
Empowerment and recognition’
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By GlobalDataTo hear Stone talk about these values is more
reminiscent of revolutionary China than of UK asset finance, and
this passion has been necessary – CAF was formed through many
acquisitions, and Stone has worked to avoid fragmentation and
isolation among those units.
“It’s important to have everyone facing in the
same direction, even while subsidiaries are free to pursue their
own objectives”, comments Mike Randall.
When meeting Stone, he is enthusiastic to show
a DVD of the group’s recent conference, where every single employee
gathered for presentations, refreshments, and even a colossal
435-person musical effort.
The cultural work continues on a daily basis,
too – each of CAF’s 15 units has a volunteer “champion” responsible
for promoting the values within that business unit, and selecting
employees of the month.
Stone is adamant that the zeal inherent in the
visions and values project is backed up by investment in training
and recruitment across the group.
For the last 2.5 years, CAF has been operating
a “grow your own” apprenticeship programme. Ten apprentices are
currently at large in the group’s sales force, beginning a two year
training plan that will see them working in every function of the
business.
It’s an old-fashioned and, Stone feels,
underused, approach to training: “When they come to lend money they
should know what the implications of their decisions are to every
part of the business.”
Another part of CAF’s recruitment policy, adds
Randall, is to recruit experts from industries the group lends
into, giving the example of Martin Collins of CAF’s commercial
vehicle finance division. CAF had financed his first vehicle when
he ran a business elsewhere, and when he later wanted to extend his
contract hire business, wrote a business plan that convinced CAF to
acquire it.
This support for entrepreneurs has been central
to CAF’s growth model over the last two and a half decades. Most
recently, one of the group’s success stories has come from the
establishment of subsidiary Close Leasing, formed when Neil Davies
and Paul Bartley approached the group with a proposition for
starting a new asset book.
“From little
acorns grow mighty oaks” says Stone. “we believe in giving
entrepreneurs support, but empowering them to make their own
decisions, so that they can prove what they can do over time.”
Roger’s own career is perhaps the most
conclusive example of this methodology.
He has been in finance since 1967, initially
with NWS Capital Bank, then later with BCT in 1982, before being
headhunted by Bank of Ireland.
He was part of the team of 4 that turned the
bank round to profitability, and which was soon looking to found a
new venture.
“Through 1986 and 1987 we walked the streets of
London and knocked on a lot of bank doors, but we found it
extremely difficult to find a partner. We were jilted at the altar
on two occasions dealing with equity funders and the like, but then
in February 1987 we met Rod Kent.”
Kent had bought Close Brothers in 1972. He was
looking for businesses to acquire in new markets, just as CAF is
now, and liked the look of the proposition offered by Stone and his
colleagues.
Close Asset Finance opened its doors for
business almost immediately and the rest, as they say, is
history.
Despite his retirement, Stone plans to
keep astonishingly busy – already this month he took the lead car
in a 2,000 mile, five vehicle drive across Africa in support of a
charity in Malawi.
Next up will be a horse ride across
Hungary, in what Stone calls “the first in a long list of things I
haven’t had time to do in the last 40 years.”
And in the long term?
“In a year’s time, I’ll take a long breath and
see where I am – then I’ll decide.”
