It was 1985. Arthur was on a flight to India. He wanted to meet with some potential manufacturers that could produce the volume he needed for his thriving business. He had seen a nice mug in one of the expensive homeware chains so he decided to bring the mug with him to see if one of these potential suppliers would produce it for him in bulk. During the flight the plane hit turbulence, a bag fell from overhead luggage compartment. It was Arthurs' bag. Everything was in order but the mug received a hairline crack zig zagging down the side. He still produced the mug at one of the meetings. He asked the manufacturer could they make it. They said yes of course and would send 30 samples to him before he would press the button for the bulk order. These guys were eager to please as it would future orders which were huge. 6 weeks later Arthur received his package. The 30 samples as requested, each one with the hair line zig zag crack down the side. Mr Ryan was so impressed with the precision of the cracks on each mug that he immediately rang the supplier and placed an order for 3,000. This is one of the more famous stories but I experienced that myself many times. There were so many.
As I explained in part 1, Arthur used to like being on the ground with the managers and asking them questions into why items were not selling, and when he found out the answer he would be on the phone grilling the buyers into why they overbought , underbought. The poor buyers were always getting it. If they overbought they were in trouble because Arthur would have to markdown that item and it was as if you were taking money from his own pocket. If they underbought it was a missed opportunity and he would be putting pressure on them to get more of the item in. It was all about putting the pressure on. He was great at that and got the best out of people. Arthur made sure he had market traders under him and these guys were on the button. They knew what was in fashion and what to buy. In a sense this blog is more about one of the traders He had these in every country. He would ring them every day to check how trade was. Most of these 'commercial managers' were floor managers in head office at a particular moment in time. He would get to know them in the store. He would gain their trust and then he would send them abroad so he had one of his own in each country. It was all about knowing your stuff. He didn't care if you had 2 degrees from Oxford or worked on a pig farm. These were his guys. It was the most motleyist of motley crews. I had the pleasure of dealing with them all and they all had a screw loose but in a good way.
I will tell you a story about one of these guys. Lets call him Mr M. Mr M is now over all of 3 countries with a 3 billion pound revenue at the moment so Il keep his name out of it. So when I began in head office the year was 2007. It was around the time mobiles like the nokia 3310 started coming out. Anyway I was considered the kid. I was 22. The youngest was always the most technical so when I got the call to go up to Mr M, I knew he was having a problem with his desktop. So I walked into the office. Mr M was looking down at this thing on his desk. He was looking at it like it had just came down from space and landed on his desk.
So he said "They gave me this thing called a lapppp toooppp. What the fuck is it? "
So I went over the desk and opened it up for him. "Its a mobile computer Mr M".
"And what the fuck would I want one of these for?? I have a computer. Its there (points at desktop)"
"Maybe if you are working away from the office"
"Oh right, sure I never leave this place. waste of time"
The following week Mr M was asked to go to head up the Spanish operation. There is so many story's about Mr M that you could write a book. One such story was he arranged to play a prank on a new manager. He used to shout at everyone. He called the new manager up to the office and told him that the clocks were going back and he had to change the time on the clock above the building. Now the clock measured about 3 metres in circumference and the keyhole was about the size of my head. He gave the manager a tiny key. He told him he didn't care how he did it but it needed too get done. The new manager was shitting himself. He hired a cherry picker. Took up half the street and was on his way up to change the clock with the tiny key(clock was changed by a computer by the way ). When Mr M found out what was going on. He got me to get that "fecking eejet" down from the cherry picker. The new manager was not impressed and said he quit. Mr M told me to get him and go calm him down. He went easy on him for the next month.
The night of our christmas party was even funnier. We worked hard so we played hard. Mr M would spare no expense on our xmas night out. When we got to the restaurant we had a little too much to drink. We ordered the wine and there was so many of us that around 20 bottles were opened on the tables. The restaurant manager told us to keep it down but we were the only ones in there. Mr M wasn't happy . He decided we were leaving. The restaurant manager was happy. Mr M insisted that the wine we paid for was coming with us so we all had to wait while the restaurant staff corked up the 20 bottles. They put them in two plastic bags . Mr M took the bags and walked out. There was a bum across the road. He gave him the two bags and said "Happy christmas" and walked off.