“For all the right reasons, Corps Security has exhibited a rather regimented approach to the manner in which it operates. That’s not really the way I like to function, though. I say constantly to people that this business undoubtedly holds some fantastic values founded in the 19th Century, but now we have to place those values in a 21st Century context.”
That’s the firm belief of Wirral-born Peter Webster, the astute businessman who took up residency as CEO at Corps Security’s Cowcross Street base in The City on 1 December last year (and has wasted no time whatsoever in making a hugely positive mark on both the company and its 3,000-plus employees during the intervening three-month period).
Indeed, within a week of his arrival Webster had written to every single employee.
“I gave them an e-mail address and a contact number for them to reach me,” he noted as we chatted at length in his modern office in the company of Corps Security’s principal consultant Mike Bluestone and projects director Stuart Rutherford.
“Put simply, I’m here to help our staff do their job better. My philosophy is that nobody sets out to do a bad job in the morning, but it can sometimes be the case that management gets in the way of that ambition.”
Webster’s view of the security guarding world as it applies to Corps Security – and it’s quite correct – is that the only people who generate revenue for the business are its security personnel.
“The rest of us have to be accountable to those employees and, of course, our customers as they’re the primary stakeholders in what we do.”
Pausing for a moment’s thought, Webster – who greeted me with a firm handshake on arrival after my somewhat circuitous bus journey from Ludgate House – added: “What we must do is harness peoples’ motivation and allow them to do a good job. That means giving them the right skills, the right direction and terms of reference, and the correct brand of leadership. If those four elements are in place you’ll generally achieve the results you want.”
Running a consultative autocracy
By his own admission, Webster has gone on record many times as having said that he wholeheartedly supports the running of what he terms a “consultative autocracy”.
The premise of a consultative autocracy is that you have to engage everybody connected with the business and assimilate their buy-in before you can hope to move forward.
“You have to engage Stakeholders in whatever action or decision you’re taking, realise as wide a view as possible and, as the leader, make sure that you take everyone’s views into account,” suggested Webster in his wonderfully lilting Northern accent.
“One day, Brian, I’ll compile a book called ‘Consultative Autocracy’. Maybe you’d consider ghost-writing it for me?” Indeed I would.
Consultative autocracy also means being tough, though. “In the end,” continued the soft services specialist (more on that subject anon), “as the leader you have to take the decisions. That’s what you’re paid to do. This is not a democracy. You cannot run a business by committee.”
In a sometimes harsh post-regulation guarding environment that’s full of uncertainty (and wherein margins haven’t improved to any great degree), the solutions providers in that space require leaders who afford a clear vision and sense of direction.
That vision and direction must always be founded on consulting with the people in the business.
Webster is nothing if not a passionate advocate of such a leadership style, an admission readily supported courtesy of agreeing nods from Bluestone and Rutherford alike.
“Like any other business, you either stand still and die or you adapt and change and then survive,” explained Webster.
“We’re going through change just now, as I said, but I don’t believe in protracted changes. We consult, take a view, arrive at a decision and then execute change swiftly and efficiently.”
Fine and unique history
The Corps of Commissionaires Management – as it used to be named – was founded back in 1859. A benefactor by the name of Captain Sir Edward Walter established the organisation to provide gainful employment for ex-servicemen on return from the Crimean War.
Come 1969, membership of The Corps was opened up to former servants of the police, the merchant navy, the fire brigade and Her Majesty’s Coastguard.
The mid-1980s saw the start of a modernisation process – not unlike the one to which Webster has now ascribed himself – with the intention of transforming The Corps into a commercial business: part employment agency, part security company.
Between 2003 and 2007, mailroom, reception and building management solutions were added to The Corps’ repertoire.
Corps Security in 2011, though, is clearly a very different animal. This company’s not about trying to tackle five tasks at the same time. It’s not concentrating on tasks in parallel, either.
“We do things sequentially here,” ushered Webster. “That’s the policy in place now.”
Webster views Corps Security as “perfect” in terms of the business challenges that stretch before him. “I enjoy great support from non-executive Board members who are giving me the freedom to run the business in the way I see fit. I’m bereft of any barriers, and I’m very happy about that. Even my wife Tina has remarked that I’m happy when I return home from work.”
Delving a little deeper into ‘The Changing of Corps Security’, what does Webster believe to be the short-term challenges?
“There are some cultural and organisational challenges that need to be addressed within the business,” he replied swiftly. “That’s really all about me trying to create an atmosphere that will allow people to flourish.”
In terms of a broad overview, Webster told me he feels the business has perhaps tried to be too a little too corporate when really it needed to be – and needs to be going forward – a tad more entrepreneurial.
“It’s obvious that Corps Security has attempted to do things big businesses do internally, and that it perhaps didn’t and doesn’t need to do,” he asserted.
“I’m setting about dismantling some of the procedures that have been in place here which have acted as barriers to people doing their jobs properly. Clear terms of reference are essential.”
Empowering the people in the business
For Webster, running Corps Security is focused on empowering the people in the business to “go out there and feel that they’re supported rather than directed, led rather than controlled”.
He’s also very clear that with authority and autonomy comes accountability.
“The thing about Corps Security is that those who do know of the company usually have a misconception of it. I think we have to set out in our external communications what the company is all about, what it stands for and where it’s going. We have a great opportunity to carve a new niche for ourselves in a market where there has been much consolidation.”
It’s certainly true that Corps Security presently finds itself in a position where its space in the market – as defined by the specialist security solutions provider – has been emptying out over the last few months.
There are still some very worthy competitors in that space, of course, but Webster mentioned this truism can “only be good for us”.
Despite the fact he doesn’t emanate from a security background, Webster has already identified three types of guarding company operating at the national level in the UK.
“There’s the multinational global corporations who are security specialists. Then there are the integrated service providers who deliberately include security as part of their service.”
Webster likened the latter to a Neapolitan ice cream. “Can you really taste which is the strawberry segment and which is the chocolate or vanilla as everything’s blended together?”
The third category is the sole service specialist. “We are resolutely a single service security solutions specialist,” urged Webster. “That’s what we are.”
A point emphasised by the inaugural text on the Home Page of Corps Security’s recently revamped website, which reads: ‘We are not a multi-services provider… We are not an international security corporate… We are the leading supplier of specialist security solutions.’
Front and centre of the debate
Webster has deliberately placed himself front and centre of this debate for the last five or six years now, pretty much ever since the whole concept of Total Facilities Management was first mooted.
“I used to be a Board member of the Business Services Association, Brian, and I was also president of the Textile Services Association at one time and chairman of the Cleaning and Support Services Association. I would suggest that the quick-moving, innovative specialist will always win in the long run by providing a bespoke service and a more flexible approach. That specialist will create solutions, not just services.”
As far as Webster’s concerned, if the end user desires “a mass-produced product” then that’s fine.
“The global providers can give them that, but if customers actually and actively care about what they’re buying, and want more than a tick in the box, then they have to access the single-service specialist.”
Webster’s not from a wealthy background. He grew up on a Council estate on the Wirral and his father was a bus driver. This isn’t someone who has pretensions in life.
“I only ever admit to one qualification,” he said with a knowing smile before delivering a Tom O’Connor-like punchline. “That’s the cycling proficiency test I passed at nine years of age!”
At school, his favoured topics for study were physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics rather than the arts. “The harder subjects,” he opined. “I’m pretty good at numbers.”
On leaving school, Webster took his turn at college and then put his love of numbers to good use by training to become a quantity surveyor. A seven-year period spent working in various construction businesses was followed by a move into the aforementioned soft services arena.
From July 1998 through to August 2002, Webster served as managing director at Rentokil Initial UK Cleaning, a company with over 25,000 employees operating in the facilities services sector.
A three-year stint as managing director of Initial UK’s Washroom and Textile Services arm followed (where he was in charge of up to 3,000 members of staff).
September 2005 through to April 2008 saw Webster assume the role of divisional managing director at Rentokil Initial, again operating within the facilities services sector.
In Part Two, Peter Webster tells Brian Sims why he moved to Corps Security, discusses wider security sector issues (including regulation and policing) and examines the Corporate Social Responsibility agenda
