Reflections on 2015

Speciality Bites with

Paul Hargreaves

Chief executive of Cotswold Fayre

• Becoming a B Corp
• Top trend predictions for Christmas 2021
• Self-sacrifice: The importance of building a leadership legacy centred on others
• Undercover Boss
• Can/should bosses really be close friends with their staff?

“Nearly there!” we all cry. Just over another week to go before we can all put our feet up and relax for a couple of days, or a couple of weeks in some cases

Even if we wanted to stay open between Christmas and New Year we couldn’t as none of our suppliers are able to deliver to us, so we would simply end up with an empty warehouse in the New Year. So we have always taken the opportunity to close down completely and give everyone a decent break, so they come back fired up in January.

This time of year is often one of reflecting on the past 12 months and deciding what to take forward into 2016. As always I count it as a privilege to do what I do which involves travelling throughout the UK and beyond and meet lots of interesting people. This year started for me at the furthest point north on the European land mass in complete darkness for a week driving huskies, riding a snowmobile and staying in a snow hotel – possibly not quite what my wife had in mind for our honeymoon but great fun all the same. 

From that extreme to another – I have twice been to the equator to the children’s centre there, where we run agri-businesses with the aim of moving them towards self-sustainability. And finally progress is being made, with horticulture and a growing herd of 15 cows starting to bring home the bacon – or milk at least.  It has been encouraging to see this work heading the right direction, and I must thank many of our suppliers who have contributed via our charity ball and other events over the last few years to make this possible. The only downside was contracting malaria whilst in Jamaica in April, probably caught in Africa (but maybe not according to the doctors). This ended up with me being in a delirious state in a hospital for several days and took several weeks to fully recover, completely ruining the first half of the tennis season!

However, the most important event for me in 2015 was discovering that there is an organisation that exists to help businesses like mine, whose purpose is to attempt to change the world for good.  We became one of the 60 founding B Corporation companies within the UK. B stands for benefit and these are companies that have decided to not only try to be the “best in the world” but “best for the world”. For most businesses worldwide the only driving force is profit. However, a wind of change is blowing which doesn’t remove profit from the agenda, but adds in changing people and the planet for the better. To those steeped in the capitalist agenda it may seem crazy to have anything other than profit as the driving force, but I believe these types of businesses will become the norm not the exception. Just as it may have seemed mad 20 years ago for a shop to trade without having bricks and mortar high street premises, I think in a few years’ time it will seem just as mad for a business to exist with just having profit for shareholders as its only agenda. 

This is probably the last time you will hear from me before Christmas, so have a well-deserved break and a fabulous holiday season.