In business, trust comes from the top down. Once it’s there, it flows throughout the organisation, to its employees, suppliers and customers. It also impacts job seekers considering potential places of employment.
That’s something Patrick Atkinson, chief executive of Chadwicks Group, the builders’ merchants and home improvement specialists, knows first-hand.
He was working for French building materials giant Saint-Gobain in Paris when he was approached to make the move home and take up the role of chief operating officer at Grafton Merchanting, part of the same group.
Alongside a desire to move home, and not keep travelling to 40 countries a year, it was the group’s reputation that encouraged him to say yes.
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Within two years he was promoted to his current role, heading up an organisation of just under 2,000 people.
Since taking the top job, Atkinson has overseen a period of immense change, including bringing its Heiton Buckley business under the Chadwicks umbrella.
“Both Heiton and Chadwicks were PLCs that had come together in 2005 but never been integrated. And there were also smaller, independent companies, like Eddies in Drogheda and Barretts of Ballinasloe, that had also been bought but never integrated either,” says Atkinson.
He started that process by introducing an integrated IT system.
But while having four different ERP systems was “really frustrating” it was also a symptom of a wider issue. “Because of that lack of integration, they had never aligned the culture,” he explains.
“The result was that there were loads of different cultures across the business.”
Remedying that required serious work. “It probably took about three years of solid work, including a lot of workshopping,” explains Atkinson.
He rolled out a major investment programme to ensure all branches were upgraded to a similar standard, re-merchandised and rebranded. The work also included “harmonisation in terms of the customer experience”.
“When we had some momentum with that, we were able to say, you’re sitting under the Chadwicks’ banner now, let’s understand what the Chadwicks’ culture is,” he says.
“That involved bringing people in together in groups, down to branch manager level, and really getting them to buy into and contribute to future strategy, with what the business would look like in five years, in 10 years, what their role was in that, and how we were going to do things.”
The result ever since has been, “slow but steady progress”, he says, helped by a strong focus on communication, including from him.
“I do a blog every Friday and have done since I took over,” he explains.
“It’s the result of what I’ve seen while I’m out and about in branches and always speaks to our values. For example, it could be about one of our people who is retiring after 50 years of service, or it could be about one of the graduates we have in, because we value our people. If somebody has done something entrepreneurial, ambitious, or sustainable, I’ll talk about that.”
While it’s always very current, it’s not always good news, he points out, but being straight with staff is part of how he builds trust as a leader.
“It needs to be honest. I always say to my team, I’m never going to tell you a lie, but I’m always going to do what I say I’m going to do,” he explains.
“It’s about being authentic. It’s also about building mutual trust. You need to demonstrate trust, which means empowering people to do what it is they’ve been asked to do and trusting them to do it.”
Having a high level of trust creates “a safe space”, he adds. “The interdependency that comes from it helps productivity and collegiality because everyone understands what they have to do. No one wants to let anyone down when there’s a high level of trust in an organisation.”
A low staff turnover is another of the dividends.
As the business has continued on the acquisition trail, that helps ensure the success of transactions.
“When we talk to possible acquisitions, they want to know what the culture is like at Chadwicks, and what impact it will have on their people and how they are treated,” says Atkinson. “We’re happy to tell them they’ll be treated like every other colleague - which is why 90 per cent of the people in the businesses we buy stay with us.”
