Ruby McGregor-Smith was appointed chief executive of MITIE Group plc – the FTSE 250 strategic outsourcing and energy services company – back in March 2007.
In attaining that position, this charming and at all times self-effacing woman joined a small band of females working at companies named in the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 listings who hold CEO status.
Not only that, the always smartly attired McGregor-Smith became the inaugural Asian woman to be appointed in such a role within those celebrated – not to say revered – FTSE groupings.
In the intervening period, it’s fair to say McGregor-Smith’s achievements in furthering the success of MITIE – and all the while preserving the organisation’s strongly held model of offering opportunities to people whatever their background – have been considerable.
A Chartered accountant by profession and an obvious intellectual, she has been able to grow the MITIE Group’s business while maintaining the founding principles of rewarding success.
At the same time, McGregor-Smith has enabled MITIE to continue with its equity reward structures (structures which have been – quite literally, in some cases – life-changing for so many individuals).
No time for hierarchical structures
How would McGregor-Smith describe her managerial style? “I don’t believe in hierarchies, Brian,” she told me as we sat down to chat at the opulent Culloden Hotel on the outskirts of Belfast (the venue for an evening reception and dinner marking the official launch day of MiTec, MITIE’s new security hub… more of which anon).
“We’re open plan and very flat structured,” continued McGregor-Smith, who undertook her professional accountancy training with Stoy Hayward before moving on to tackle a range of commercial and financial roles within Serco Group plc (where she was instrumental in a number of its successful business developments and public-private sector partnering arrangements).
“At MITIE Group, I’ve always taken the view that I’m one employee of 60,000. I think the way we work motivates people better, and makes them feel more part of a team.”
For McGregor-Smith, there would be “nothing worse” than having lots of management and lots of different levels in the organisation. “I don’t think that’s the way you get the best out of people. The managerial style here is open, engaging and naturally entrepreneurial.”
Encouraging individuals to fulfil potential
The ethos instilled by McGregor-Smith at MITIE Group, it seems, is all about backing people to fulfil their potential.
“We want to encourage everyone to go as far with their ideas as they can,” chipped in McGregor-Smith. “That task certainly becomes tougher as you increase as a company in size and scope, and it’s always on my mind. We need to be as flexible as possible to accommodate our clients’ needs.”
McGregor-Smith first moved to MITIE in 2002, joining the Board as group finance director. A short three years later she was promoted to group chief operating officer, and then became group CEO.
Since joining the fold, McGregor-Smith has presided over an operation wherein MITIE has grown its revenue from GB pound 0.5 billion to over GB pound 1.8 billion, in turn continuing the group’s unbroken track record of profit and revenue expansion.
Indeed, her role in driving that successful growth in what’s a uniquely cultured organisation has been nothing less than critical.
At times, McGregor-Smith openly challenged the practices of what had been a relatively small growth business, introducing new and more robust systems, developing the commercial side of the equation, recruiting key personnel who fit with MITIE’s entrepreneurial culture and influencing its acquisitions strategy.
Focus on the security business
Speaking of acquisitions… You’ll be aware that circa 2003-2004, MITIE harboured a dream around creating what McGregor-Smith referred to as “a fantastic quality security business”. The company absolutely believed this was something essential it needed to realise for a burgeoning client base.
A number of security operations – Trident, The Watch Security and then Initial – were acquired and subsequently brought under MITIE’s wing to increase the scale and breadth of its security offering.
At the time, there was also a realisation that two developments then on the horizon would fundamentally change the industry.
“First, licensing and regulation courtesy of the Security Industry Authority would change the dynamic of the industry in general,” said McGregor-Smith before ordering some more mineral water. “For us as a company, we were also attuned to the emergence and use of new technology.”
Both developments have come to pass. “Over the last two-to-three years, we’ve seen the use of technology completely change the way in which we deliver a lot of our services, including security,” urged MITIE’s leader.
MiTec: a launch pad for the company
As far as McGregor-Smith’s concerned, the MiTec opening – reported exclusively by SMT Online (see the right hand panel of this page for a link to the feature) – is very much the launch pad for the company to say: ‘This is what we can do with remotely-monitored services’.
“We certainly believe MiTec is cutting-edge in terms of its technology,” urged McGregor-Smith. “For our clients, it will be a huge addition to supporting them with their security management solutions.”
MiTec, then, is going to play a vital role in the ongoing development of MITIE’s security business. “Certainly in terms of where we dreamt of being, I think MiTec’s opening finally marks the beginning of why we are different as a security provider in the fields in which we operate.”
McGregor-Smith went on to state: “We believe in best service and giving clients the very best integrated service, from monitoring and response through to using the right technology in tandem with security guarding, and making sure that all of those services are expertly delivered on the ground.”
Leaning forward from her chair, McGregor-Smith then opined: “I always knew we had the capability to be a big security solutions provider, Brian, and it’s great to see everyone finally realising how big we can actually be with the launch of MiTec.”
Importance of staff communications
All 12,000 of MITIE’s security officers across the UK can now log in to the iSAMS portal hosted at MiTec, review their shift patterns, examine what tasks they’re going to be performing and where, apply for time off and access relevant forms they might need.
As far as McGregor-Smith’s concerned, this development in communications is absolutely vital.
“When you operate a business like MITIE’s, and you have a lot of people on the ground who are not necessarily office-based, it’s incredibly important that you use up-to-date technology to communicate with them.”
iSAMS has been received extremely well, it appears. “You can run employee engagement surveys with this solution,” enthused McGregor-Smith, “and find out what the guys and girls are focusing on and thinking about in relation to their work. This is a classic example of how technology is making a massive difference to the ways in which we engage with our people.”
That engagement obviously extends to the outside world, too. McGregor-Smith is a staunch advocate of social media, and has swiftly caught the zeitgeist in embedding this philosophy within the company.
Engaging with Facebook and Twitter
“We’re now on Facebook and Twitter,” said McGregor-Smith, just as my own BlackBerry informed me someone had replied to a recent tweet from SMT Online. “That’s how youngsters communicate these days. It’s another avenue to help support communicators in the group, and it’s becoming an increasingly important one.”
Of course there have been stories aplenty in the national media about individuals who’ve not yet worked out the demarcation lines for their own output on Twitter, Facebook and MySpace, etc, in terms of where work stops and private lives begin.
What some companies view as infringements have, on occasion, ended in reasonably high profile dismissals, so how does McGregor-Smith view these open messaging platforms in light of such occurrences?
“We’re not really worried about that aspect, Brian,” she told me without any pause for thought. “Yes, they’re open platforms, but it’s really important to encourage good, honest and open communication. If you show faith and trust in your people I firmly believe they’ll use social media in the correct way and in the right context. It’s an important plank for us in terms of our group communications strategy, and that’s not going to change.”
The Corporate Social Responsibility agenda
If you’ve been following SMT Online these last few years and more, you’ll know from the articles we’ve published that the wholesale Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) agenda is really important to MITIE Group.
“If you take a look at CSR, and consider the employees first and foremost, for a people-based company like ourselves to deliver the best service to our clients we must have the best people working for us. The onus is squarely on us to attract the best calibre of people in every facet of the business.”
Perpetuating that theme, what really matters to McGregor-Smith is being an equal opportunities employer and having the right diversity mix across the group. When talking about diversity, though, by her own admission she takes the issue much wider than perhaps most would do.
“It’s not just about race or sex,” McGregor-Smith told me. “Rather, it’s around issues like disability and every other kind of differentiator you can possibly have that pertains to a diverse workforce, and actually saying: ‘Look beyond what you immediately see in order to source the best talent.'”
McGregor-Smith added: “If you do that, ultimately what you will deliver to your clients is the best service. That’s the right thing for MITIE to do.”
Given this philosophy, it’s no surprise to learn that MITIE’s employment policies are very much focused around the CSR agenda and the core area of diversity. “It’s all about really helping to educate our staff, too. We just ran a Diversity Week where lots of our people attended workshops so that they could begin to understand how to work with minority groups and recruit in a more diverse way.”
Recently, MITIE involved no less than 100 16-year-old girls in construction work on a site in Manchester. “We’re about emphasising the truism that talent comes in all shapes and sizes,” explained the Group CEO.
“We should never underestimate the talent we have at our disposal here in the UK, particularly as the skills shortage becomes more and more of an acute challenge for companies like ourselves.”
Talking about the environment
After its people, MITIE talks about the environment in relation to the CSR agenda and what the company should be doing in that area.
“Like many other organisations we have set targets to reduce CO2 emissions, mainly through the vehicles we use and the buildings we occupy,” said McGregor-Smith.
“We’re also an energy services company these days, so the whole carbon care programme has come to the fore. Decentralised projects are involved here in terms of the waste-to-energy debate.”
At many of MITIE’s offices you’ll now see poster campaigns advising people to, for example, switch off the lights out of hours, etc. Clearly, McGregor-Smith wants everyone to engage fully with the green agenda.
Having bought the Dalkia business, MITIE tends to win quite a bit of security work through its engineering packages. For instance, the company has just signed a landmark 15-year energy deal with the Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust in north London.
“There’s a realisation that when we’re going in to look after heat, light and power, we can also secure a building. We’re starting to do different things with the group, which I believe is important in order to maintain impetus and growth.”
Looking towards apprenticeships
The third area of CSR focus for MITIE rests with apprenticeships. “It’s about getting disadvantaged kids into work,” suggested McGregor-Smith.
“As a big employer we’re keen on apprenticeships. We very much take the view that if we work with apprentices successfully then many of them will, and do go on to have great careers in our business. Apprentices do really well for us, so we’re very keen to increase their number.”
That’s not just rhetoric, either. MITIE has just signed up to a Jobs Pledge in London. “In the London area, we’ve agreed that we’ll take on 2,000 disadvantaged young people across the whole group over the next three years. They’ll be in the 18-24 age range. Many of our teams are quite young in any case due to the nature of the work we do.”
The latest CSR report issued by MITIE also touches on talent management and succession planning, and how this corporate manages those functions.
“Making sure you have personal development plans in place for your employees is fundamental,” stated McGregor-Smith.
Just before Christmas, the company recruited a new HR director in the shape of Katherine Thomas. Thomas joined the business from BT where she was group talent and leadership director for five years, and responsible for the talent agenda of BT’s 105,000 employees worldwide. Before joining BT, Thomas served as managing director of Serco’s Best Practice Centre.
“Again, from our point of view when it came to Katherine’s recruitment and appointment the focus was all about employing the right talent as we enlarge as a business. As I said, Brian, the best people will deliver the best service to our clients.”
Perceptions of the current business climate
Given the recessionary backdrop that refuses to disappear, how does McGregor-Smith view the business climate at the present time?
“I think for the group overall we’ve still grown through the recession, more through acquisition in the last couple of years if truth be told, but we do feel the business climate is now a little more positive for outsourcing.”
McGregor-Smith would expect to see MITIE’s growth rates trend upwards as clients look for all of its services to be delivered as part of ever-bigger bundles.
“The fact that we’ve added more and more technology to our offering is innovative, and clients are looking for that. What sits behind our service provision these days is really quite sophisticated. That in itself is incredibly important.”
MITIE’s leader believes there’s “a fair amount” of market opportunity to be had just now. “Our markets are still hugely fragmented. We have less than 5% market share in all of our markets except for security, where that figure stands at around 12%. In other words, there’s definite scope for growth, not just in the UK and Ireland where we’ve won a lot of work recently, but also further afield. We’ve not long ago signed our first European contract with Rolls-Royce, which has now gone live.”
MITIE’s ambitions beyond UK shores are very much driven by its customers and what they need. According to McGregor-Smith, more of MITIE’s clients are desiring procurement on a European-wide basis.
“The markets are interesting across Europe. You have to be quite pragmatic in terms of which countries you wish to operate in depending on your market share and presentation, etc. I do think that there are some really good opportunities out there.”
Over the next five years, it’s likely MITIE will further spread its business wings overseas. “You could look at some of our individual service lines and say there’s no reason why we couldn’t provide solutions in Europe depending on what the client base requires.”
MITIE Group in The Times Top 50
On the same day I sat down to interview McGregor-Smith, it was announced by The Times that MITIE Group plc is one of the newspaper’s Top 50 places for women to work. An outward manifestation, perhaps, of the fact that this outsourcer does work extremely hard to attract a bigger cohort of female employees.
At its leader’s behest, the company has introduced and is now trialling a variety of schemes to support women across the business. These include flexible working hours (and a flexi-leave system), home working and a compressed working fortnight option, childcare vouchers and additional annual leave purchase schemes.
McGregor-Smith – who has established “a mentoring circle” for black, Asian and minority ethnic female staff – commented: “We’re of course delighted about The Times accolade. We’ve introduced a mentoring programme for our rising female stars as well as a twice-yearly Employee Forum to discuss gender achievements, progress and new initiatives.”
McGregor-Smith was keen to point out that it has been “an interesting few years” in MITIE, but also that she feels matters at hand will become even more interesting as time passes.
“We have the capabilities to do much more. What you see with MiTec is just the beginning of some of those really big capabilities showing through.”
Faith in the security operation
It’s massively pleasing to witness the faith McGregor-Smith has placed – and continues to place – in the company’s security division.
“They’ve done really well this year,” she enthused. “MiTec’s launch marks the beginning of the next phase for them.”
It’s pretty fair to say McGregor-Smith did put her own name on the line when buying Initial. “We had a plan. We invested a huge amount of money in acquisitions, and now there’s MiTec. It’s very important to us that the security element of the group’s business is a success.”
Indeed, for McGregor-Smith her faith has already been repaid. “I think the security team at MITIE is beginning to realise its full potential which, for me, is fantastic to see. That’s what our company philosophy is all about.”
Security Management Today Online and Info4Security would like to thank Ruby McGregor-Smith for her invaluable assistance with this article
Free Download: The Video Surveillance Report 2023
Discover the latest developments in the rapidly-evolving video surveillance sector by downloading the 2023 Video Surveillance Report. Over 500 responses to our survey, which come from integrators to consultants and heads of security, inform our analysis of the latest trends including AI, the state of the video surveillance market, uptake of the cloud, and the wider economic and geopolitical events impacting the sector!
Download for FREE to discover top industry insight around the latest innovations in video surveillance systems.
