A modest shirt-maker with an inspiring outfit
IT’S not uncommon for successful entrepreneurs to be modest, but it rarely comes across as entirely genuine. The self-effacing Nicholas Charles Tyrwhitt Wheeler is the real deal.
For Wheeler, the customer is king. He says: “One of the defining moments in my whole life was when I worked at Harrods and they put me in the golfwear department. I spent a day with the guy who had then run it for 20 years.” At the end of it he made a list of ten things that he thought he could do better. He came in the next day and was called into the office. He thought he was being promoted, but he was moved into luggage. Wheeler knew he didn’t want to run his business like that. Even now, he greets all new starters, saying to them: “Look, all I want you to do is to think, if this were my business, what would I do and then do it?”
As a business grows it’s necessary to rely on other people. At the start he was able to do everything, but now when he goes to the warehouse in Milton Keynes he says you almost can’t see their hands because they are moving so fast. This, he thinks, goes for every part of the business.
Like most people who always wanted to start their own business, Wheeler never liked being told what to do. Although he had a fantastic time consulting at Bain & Company for a couple of years, he thinks he was born to be an entrepreneur. Although he hesitates, checking himself: “I say that now but, as you probably start to look at things with rose-tinted spectacles. What you remember is not necessarily the truth.” Wheeler splits entrepreneurs into two categories – those who are born with it in them and those that later spot an opportunity.
Wheeler’s boldness of vision is in his facility to accept what is within his control. As he accepts that others are better at certain things than him – resisting micromanagement and allowing growth – he also accepts that he has no power over broad shifts in the market. Charles Tyrwhitt sells through shops, mail order and the internet. Wheeler’s business is profiting from the relatively high take-up of internet sales in the UK, but he doesn’t see this growth as guaranteed: “What rate this will carry on growing is difficult to say and I’m not in the business of trying to predict what it is going to be. If it carries on growing and people stop going to stores then our focus will be on the internet. While if it stops growing our focus will be more on stores. We are in the lucky position of not having to look into a crystal ball and decide. We just follow the market.” Wheeler thinks “the really important thing is to look at what the customer wants.”
Wheeler admits he has learnt a lot and made mistakes in the process. “Typically the things you learn are the things that people have told you on day one. Like that retail is all about location. Everyone tells you that, but it’s funny how you don’t really believe things until you actually find out for yourself.” And despite the tough economic conditions the business has doubled in the last three years: “We hope we are going to double in the next three years.” Although everyone tells him he should get into the Bric countries, he is hesitant of over-expansion: “It’s about controlled growth.” Plenty of companies would give away equity by the bucket load for controlled growth in which their business doubles over three years.
The interview ends with an anecdote that I think is telling of both the man and the business. “You get this undeserved air of power because I started the business. It’s quite funny really. I put my email address on every single product that goes out, so I get emails from lots of customers. I get emails saying that Nancy in the call centre is fantastic. I pop around and see Nancy and say ‘well done’ to her. And I’m thinking I’m more scared of Nancy than she is of me. And she thinks it’s just fantastic. That’s what it’s all about.”
CV NICK WHEELER
Company name: Charles Tyrwhitt
Job title: Founder and chairman
Turnover: £105m
Number of staff: 532
Age: 47
Born: Ludlow, Shropshire
Lives: Oxfordshire
Studied: Eton and Bristol University
Drinking: Mint tea
Currently Reading: Born to Run, by Christopher McDougall
Favourite business book: Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson
Motto: “Anybody can do it”
Talents: Falling off horses
Hero: Vashon James Wheeler – my grandfather – who carried on flying after his crew had baled out
First ambition: To have my own business