Do you really trust your business partner? 

I was privileged to attend a dinner reception hosted by Martin Naughton owner of GlenDimplex, a company he calls International not Global. Michael gave a touching and inspirational speech talking about his success but yet modest in what he said. 

We were hosted in the Portrait restaurant on board the beautiful ship called ‘The World’ which in itself is an amazing business story which you should check out on Google.  She was docked in Dubai for a few days before going off on a tour of the Gulf and then on to the Far-East. 

So back to Martin, he is a very successful business man who started off in Newry, Northern Ireland with a staff of 7 people in 1973. Today GlenDimplex is a power-house across the globe with business in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Far-East and Australia. Their turnover is approximately $1.5 billion per year and they have over 8,500 staff.  This organization is still growing with more acquisitions on the cards.

Martin told us how he started the business and the challenges and successes along the way, then he mentioned an acquisition he recently acquired. He said he originally wanted to take over this particular business about 15 years ago but the owner did not want to sell. Move on 15 years and Martin met this friend again who is now in his late 80’s and still working in his successful business. 

The friend said his sons and daughters were doing very well and in their 50’s but no one was interested in taking over the company. His grandchildren too were very successful but again no interest in the family business. So here he was in his eighties with a company he had built up and loved but did not want it to be sold off to people who would probably destroy the culture and fabric of the business. 

Martin agreed to buy the business off him, but his friend said only under two conditions, firstly Martin had to keep him on for a few more years, as he didn’t want to retire just yet (remember he’s in his 80’s) and secondly there would be no contract just a handshake. Imagine trusting someone to that level that a handshake was all that was needed. Well, that’s exactly what happened. Obviously some paperwork was needed but the lesson here is how far would you trust your business partner and as Michael explained his partner said if we have a contact that would suggest that you intend to take me to court at some stage otherwise why would we need one? I found this fascinating. 

I know some people would say it was madness but think about it, a partnership built on trust. It’s a shame we don’t have more people like this in both Government and business. The world might be a better place. Would you have the courage to operate this way? Well in reality you need to know who you are dealing with and remember Martin and his friend had a long-term relationship. 

On completion of the dinner service Martin insisted on introducing the chefs, their assistants and the waiting staff so we could show our appreciation of their efforts on producing an amazing meal.  I was impressed with his humility, I was impressed by his persona and his attitude, to not only his own staff but even to the staff of the restaurant. 

So what can we learn from this? 

For me the take-away’s were look at your business partnerships and see if you would really trust your business partners. If not why not? What can you do to rectify that situation? 

What can you do to recognize your backroom staff and show them how important they are to you? 

Do you really need to change the culture of a successful and thriving business? This is an area I see a lot of issues with. The number of Organisations that insist that they must be branded on the owning company, have management that fit the owning company’s culture and then with those changes the new business starts to struggle. 

Martin is very successful, he manages his people well, he cares about people not just profits and that’s what makes him successful. I believe we can learn a lot from people like him.