Everyone knows that WINNS is a family run business. At some time or other all our children have worked in the business and, whilst some of them have now started up their own businesses, they still have an input and comment to make when requested and even when not requested.
But Karen and I have been in business together for as long as we have been married, which will soon be 40 years. Even when Karen left the business to become an Advanced Skills Special Needs teacher, she still maintained a guiding presence in the Company.
A lot of people ask whether what happens in the office carries over to home life and the honest answer is, Yes, but perhaps not in the way that they think.
Anyone who knows Karen will know that she has an enquiring mind. She’s the girl who avidly waited to watch Blue Peter for the sections where they showed you how things were made and loves ‘Inside the Factory’ with Greg wallace. 2 of her latest questions are, ‘How fresh does the squeezing of oranges have to be before it can be legitimately be called freshly squeezed orange juice? And ‘Where are all the bees that make the honey that is mass produced and sold in the supermarkets. When Karen began her degree she had to study philosophy. She hated it because, in her opinion, there were no answers and was pleased when she could concentrate her studies on Psychology and English. I tell you this because her phrase that either fills me with dread or anticipation is, ‘I’ve been thinking’.
The downside of the sharing of these thoughts is that when we bring them to the Board, we have already been thinking them through and are therefore a few stages ahead of everyone else, but at least we have ironed out the major issues or obstacles.
In her defence, I am a can do guy, an ideas man. Poor Karen has to constantly ‘think’ about the how.
If you think that being married means that your Chairman goes easy on you in the Board Room. Think again. Karen takes no prisoners if you haven’t done what you said you were going to do. The sense of displeasure if she has to carry over an item of the Action Plan without, in her opinion, sufficient reason, oozes across the room. If you, in her opinion, waffle on, you are quickly pushed on to the next point.
Karen will always put the business first. She is very conscious that other people’s lives are reliant upon the company’s existence. The teacher in her is also always seeking for people to achieve their potential.
Karen is always happy for me to be the face of the Company. She believes that operating below the radar allows her to make sure everything that should be happening is happening, that everyone is doing what they should be doing and as far as humanly possible, everyone is happy whilst doing it. It also allows her to ‘hear’ what people are saying and to help build on the for the good of the Company.
Karen also acts as an advocat for the client. She gets excited when she receives good service and frustrated when she receives poor service. Her aim is always for us to be a company providing a service that exceeds our client’s expectations. As she says, ‘It’s not hard. Just do what you said you were going to do’.
‘Do disagreements carry over to home?’
Is another question often asked. The honest answer is Yes, but not in a dramatic way. Karen is like Forest Gump, she loves walking and will often just go for a long walk and then come back with a solution or have found a way for me to realise that I was wrong 😂
‘Do you get time to switch off?’.
When you run your own business it is also a bit like a hobby. So you never really switch off but you don’t mind. The late night or pre dawn phone calls are fortunately very rare, but when they do come they often herald a problem and it’s good to have someone to sound out solutions with or who does not object to the disturbance.
‘Do people play you off against each other’.
They might try, but it doesn’t work. After 39 years, we are a strong team. I can be a man who is ‘furious’, whilst Karen will be ‘disapointed’. So employees feel more comfortable going to her first with problems. Karen will also often wait until an appropriate time to tell me things, but we don;t ever keep anything from each other, she just has the patience to wait for the right moment or once the problem has been solved.
I’m not sure that giving Karen the opportunity to respond and write a blog on being married to the Managing Director for nearly 40 years would be a wise thing to do, but you never know.
Here’s to the next 39 years.