Life was good. My work life balance was in order and I was even turning out for Barnet RFC. My shoulder was never quite right but with my fitness greatly improved by running around the area I was keen to have a go. The occasional game in the thirds soon became a starting spot in the 1st XV and whilst I never regained a serious level it was great fun. I made it my business to keep my early rugby career quiet. Most knew me as the bloke who joined from Finchley. I did all sorts of committee jobs and I was in charge of ‘teas’. Well err to be honest Liz was. Once a week she would concoct a stew that would be served with a large dollop of smash. In truth the only upside to this episode was we got a card to the local cash and carry which was always a fun outing. We bought all sorts of things in bulk.
My business life was blossoming. Whilst still the recognised ‘contact point’ for all things shipping I was now a fully fledged general ‘sales man’. I was producing large revenues for the firm and learning loads about how pension funds, insurance funds and private individual unit trusts and Investment trusts worked. I had some excellent advice from an a old sage and I was lucky because, based upon my life experience, I found it totally natural to seek and crucially take advice. The basic message I got was as follows. You have two ears and one mouth so listen twice as much as you talk to your clients. Learn about them, their particular requirements. If possible get to know their families. I took this advice on board and most business conversations would often start with a discussion about a sick dog or a garden project. It all created ‘trust’ and trust is the most important thing in an advisory business. My rugby background again served me well and I found I had a network. Client A would meet Client B at a lunch maybe. Client A might say ‘have you met that Dennis Elliott over at Laurence Prust?’ ‘He is a good man a fine rugby payer’ (although many had never seen me play). If the man in question was keen on rugby he might note the name and give me a call. Some would some didn’t. Another word of advice I received was ‘ the most important people are your biggest clients” “Never take them for granted and build the big clients into huge ones’. It was all such good advice.
Over time I built up a long list of clients who were genuinely friends. My litmus test was if I could call a ‘client’ and roundly abuse them verbally for five minutes before getting down to business then they were ‘OK’ and worth cultivating. I was able to take clients to lunch in fine restaurants, go on trips to sporting events and all sorts of other things. From the outside it might all seem rather unusual but there was a deadly serious side to it. My clients were typically very well educated people with the huge responsibility of managing other peoples money. In some cases hundreds of millions of pounds. When it came down to the dessert course the requirement to justify my firms recommendation to buy shares in British Aerospace, as an example, needed to be well rehearsed, accurate and ultimately successful as an investment. On balance I did well and my network and reputation grew such that one day Dan mentioned I was involved in a preliminary review for a partnership of the firm.
Laurence Prust had its own fund management division. Its clients were very wealth individuals who were cared for by a crew of very serious minded individuals all very ‘public school’ and ‘fair play’. The chief man of the division was Bill Stuttaford who was a very successful fund manager and a man of considerable reputation. He was later to become Sir Bill Stuttaford Chairman of th Conservative Party and some one who did more for charity than any one else I have ever met. Our paths were to cross in later life but one day he invited me to come and address his division at their weekly meeting ‘on anything that might interest us from your work with the institutions’ was the brief.
It was very daunting addressing an audience of about 100 people. They were all scrupulously polite such that I had to rein my humour inmate least for the first few meetings.To begin with I talked about shipping shares which was my fall back subject for many years to come. in this area I had had an expertise. An opinion which, whilst it could always be challenged, was unlikely to fall down under cross examination. Over the weeks and months I broadened my agenda and I would arrive at the meeting with perhaps ‘six of the “most interesting” things I had heard in the previous week’. Sometimes it would be more sometimes less. To prepare for this talk I would ask all my clients the same question. ‘Anything really interesting on your horizon”. Often the answer would be no but on many occasions I would get some snippet of information or perhaps some warning of a possible roadblock ahead. Put together my talks became things of quality. The thoughts of Dennis Elliott haha! It was a new methodology I had discovered and soon my own clients were receiving a version of the talks and my reputation for being someone who was interesting and well informed took a step forward. On occasion my theories or predictions would come true and people would marvel at my insight.
One afternoon a phone call came in. ‘Hello’, ‘is that Dennis Elliott?’, can you talk?. It was a man called Rupert something or-other and he declared himself to be a ‘headhunter’. Your name has been given to me by a client as being an outstanding young salesman and a major firm is interested in talking to you.
In those days in the City there were several ‘major’ firms who were typically long standing with partnerships where son would often follow father. Pubic school and Oxbridge dominated. Elite arrogant companies which generated huge revenues for their partners. The term ‘stockbroker belt’ brings to mind areas of huge houses in magnificent settings in the home counties. Partners of these organisations were coining it.
There was however a challenge to the old order. It was called Phillips and Drew. It had a wholly different approach to the other firms as its methodology in forecasting market trends was wholly based on ‘top down’ economics. Its employees were known as incredibly hard working. Most had a redbrick university back ground. Nearly all had economic degrees and together they had created a big change in the city such that they, on merit, had moved to the very top rungs of the ladder in terms of business transacted. Their Chief Economist Paul Neil would be the first to appear on the TV after a budget or any major government announcement. His strong Northern accent in sharp contrast to the typical city type, his intellect the peer of any. If not the very top dog they were, as an organisation, on the podium. They became the acceptable face of The City Of london.
I met Paul Smallwood in The East India Club just off Oxford Street. It was ‘love at first sight’. He was tall elegant, very polished in his demeanour and yet his shoes had been repaired, many times, on the outside! His shirt missed a button and his cuffs were showing wear. He chose my food for me and set off telling me why I would be successful at P& D. He was under the impression I still played for the Harlequins. I tried to put him right but he was not interested. He explained to me that Phillips and Drew were tearing up the league tables on all fronts but that they had attracted a workforce which, although very hard working were a little ‘dull’ and as a result some of the largest clients in the city were still to become fans of the firm. ‘We need someone different’ he said ‘someone with a real personality’. ‘I think it could be you”. As if it was a plant in walked another man, George Gray. George was quite simply a wonderful man. Hugely intelligent, educated at Oxford, fluent in German and French although purposefully delivered in an English accent. His wife, I later learned, was a delightful woman and came from the North of England and whilst an airess to a famous toy company fortune was well and truly grounded. She also probably kept her husbands feet planted too. George was a scratch golfer and had the tendency to be over tactile which I was never sure was a way of controlling people or else making them feel uncomfortable. A needless detail maybe but true. Any way George sat down and Paul introduced George as ‘my future boss’-err this is going bit quick I thought. George asked my view on the forthcoming budget and whether the recent GDP contraction was likely to continue. I grinned and cheerfully explained they had ‘got the wrong man’ as I did not have clue! Smallwood laughed. ‘Excellent” “I knew it”, ‘you are exactly what we want- something different’. He seemed satisfied sent for the bill but then ‘made me’ drink a few ports. George and I chatted about various things and I discovered George had a good sense of humour. Suddenly Smallwood adopted a secretive pose. Remember this he said ‘My dogs name is Rose and I have an Investment Committee review taking place next Thursday the 12th and I will need some help preparing my paper’. “What?”He was off into the night. George assured me that whilst totally eccentric paul Smallwood was the best person to work for he had ever known. Deadly serious, hugely competitive, yet polite, kind and fair. In his own right he was formidable producer as a business man as clients just loved him.
The following morning I was at my desk early feeling not a little confused and indeed a bit overhung. My phone rang. It was Smallwood. In a sort of stage whisper he asked me to tell him the name of his dog and what event he was preparing for in the coming months. I had listened so I passed the test. He later told me that on many occasions clients will tell you important facts when you may have been drinking. Those who find alcohol impairs their memory are not born to be successful. It was an odd test but apparently I passed.
It all moved quickly. I was offered a position working for George Gray in the International Team (I was not quite sure what that meant). The overall commander of the division was Paul Smallwood and there were around 40 people in the team. Advising clients not only in the UK but all over the world. I was offered a small salary hike but I was to be put on a profit sharing scheme of which few details were explained. The message from the go between, the headhunter, was this was my chance to join the premier league the big time. Laurence Prust is an excellent form but Phillis and Drew… Hmmm! Dan hardly tried to talk me out of it. Indeed I think he was secretly proud his man had been noticed and had been found attractive by atop firm. he stated muttering something about my partnership likely to go through but promptly stopped. he put on hid jacket and ordering me to follow he headed fr our favourite wine bar and bought me a bottle of champagne-and then another. Ooer I was in the big time. Could I cope Gulp!!
Tales of a Life Well Lived 