Life Stager, Rebel, Evangelist –
What type of Founder are you?
I have a rather unusual CV. I have mostly worked for Founders – as an employee, as a NED, and as a consultant. And I am one – albeit rather modest in scale.
I like them.
I like Founders where they are in situ.
I like Founders where their ideology still rules the roost – long after they have departed.
In my early career, I worked for Terence Conran and Anita and Gordon Roddick, for Gary Withers and Rodney Fitch, for Roger Dopson and Nick Bonham. They were all owner occupiers, and I learnt how Founder businesses operate and what makes them sparkle, and, sometimes, sadly, what makes them lose their sparkle.
As Circus, we have enjoyed working for Selfridges and John Lewis, for The White Company and Charles Tyrwhitt, for Pukka Herbs and Virgin, and many others. In each Founder and Founder Legacy business, we start by understanding the root of the business. What prompted the business to start, and why. What of this context is still relevant for today, and tomorrow, and what is old school, and defunct. This is interesting work, historical, emotional and functional; commercial and cultural. Always delicate and careful.
Along the way, we have mapped three particular typologies:
The Life Stagers: This is where a personal experience opens eyes to gap in the market/opportunity; I’m pregnant, ill, buying a house, getting married, moving to the country – I need something, there is a gap; there must be others like me. Driven by wanting to add something new to the market – helpful, pragmatic, creative. Chrissie Rucker has achieved just this with The White Company, as have Emma Bridgewater, Ella Woodward and many others.
The Rebels: More of a rule breaker. Frustrated by the status quo; feel it is outmoded/unfair as an experience. There must be a better way of servicing this need – energetic, inventive, pacey. Fine exemplars would be Richard Branson or James Dyson with their maverick determination to break rules to invent a better future. And from the past, Harry Gordon Selfridge an impresario of the imagination.
The Evangelists: Want to change society – broader than a particular category or product; they want to illuminate an injustice, or change a set of behaviours. Driven by conviction and a desire to create a movement – Mark Constantine with Lush, Yves Chouinard from Patagonia, or from the past – John Spedan Lewis with his belief in a different model.
Founders might be a serial entrepreneur or a one off, an impresario or a geek, a hustler or a provocateur. But what they all share is energy, confidence, and chutzpah. And, at some stage, they will need to eat their greens.
Written by Dilys Maltby
See Dilys in conversation on this topic here
See films on Founders here
Header image: illustration by Nick Maland
