Chief Exec Review

CEO Fraser Haran

Companies like ours that aspire to progress successfully through the generations must have the courage and foresight to redefine their direction when performance starts to drift. We recognised this in 2003 as we entered our 4th generation as a business. We had found that after a long period of growth, our results had deteriorated and our purpose was vague, resulting in different and sometimes conflicting strategies within the Group. Our challenge was straight forward. We had to re-align the Group under one direction - under one vision. This we did. Put simply - by our 150th anniversary in 2023, we wanted to become the best family business in Scotland.

Initially our Vision was broad - linking our culture and management style with the development of the best people, ideas and processes within our Group. The destination may have been unclear but our direction was set. However as we have progressed, we have continually defined what our future should look like and how our progress should be measured. We recognise that to succeed, we have to build momentum within each of our businesses and most importantly, we have to keep it simple!

Over the last 5 years, we have removed loss making activities; concentrated on specialist market sectors; invested in technology, people & product development; and acquired complimentary businesses. Our strategy is being implemented successfully and our performance has been recognised by the wider business community. We are getting better at what we do and yet we recognise that there is a long way to go to be the best. That's the challenge we have set ourselves.