Johnnie B good

The Growing Business website has a fun ‘Ten Secrets of Success’ interview with Johnnie Boden and Julian Granville, the driving forces behind the Boden clothing business. Today the brand turns over more than £250 million but, in 1995, it was on the verge of collapse. The piece gives some witty insight into how the pair turned the business around.

The interview is a well balanced mix of common sense such as ‘get your product right’ and ‘find the right team’ but also more holistic advice such as ‘enjoy year one’, ‘remember to laugh’ and, a bit more tricky this one, ‘get lucky’.

It also has a nice line about inviting useful people out for lunch but avoiding business dinners. Johnnie Boden was pleasantly surprised when Terry Leahy, formerly the CEO of Tesco, agreed to meet him for lunch and be pumped for advice. On a similar theme, he counsels against industry dinners.

As he puts it, ‘You’ll end up sitting next to some other entrepreneur who’s in ball bearings, and all he’ll want to do is drone on about his business while you drone on about yours. We were at one entrepreneurs’ dinner where I was on the top table with nine big cheeses – all on transmit, all booming, none listening to a word the other said. Every single one of us loathed it. Especially me – and I was the loudest them all.’