Yahoo Finance Sir Peter Rigby: 'entrepreneurs aren't made, they're born - the mentality is in their genes'
Speaking softly, Sir Peter Rigby is sharing his thoughts on entrepreneurialism. For those who fancy a career in business but aren’t certain that it’s for them, his advice can be boiled down to this: don’t bother.
“You can’t just say, ‘I want to be an entrepreneur’,” says the impeccably dressed 73-year-old, who still works at least five long days a week. “Entrepreneurs aren’t made, they’re born – it’s in the genes. You’ve got this driving urge to do things and you are never satisfied you have achieved all that can be achieved.”
Sitting in the beautifully appointed Mayfair offices of the Rigby Group, Sir Peter has achieved more than most entrepreneurs, creating a private business with annual revenues approaching £2bn and 7,500 staff.
Entrepreneurs aren’t made, they’re born – it’s in the genes. You’ve got this driving urge to do things and you are never satisfied you have achieved all that can be achieved
His initial dream of becoming an RAF officer didn’t work out. He had a flying scholarship but, prior to joining, his father lost his eyesight and with it his clerical job with a railway company.
“Becoming an RAF cadet was impractical. I thought I’d better get a job,” he says. Despite having no degree, “sheer luck” saw him land a graduate position at NCR, the US technology company.
“They didn’t know what to do with me, so they put me on a graduate intake. Information technology was only about 5pc of their business but I took to the application of logic,” he recalls of his 18-year-old self.
After five years, the realisation he was “more interested in talking to customers” saw him quit to join Honeywell, becoming the US company’s youngest branch manager in his early 20s.
In 1975, armed with £2,000 of savings, Sir Peter started a computer recruitment company. “The bank said, ‘Right, second mortgage on the house’. I said, ‘No, I’d rather do it on my own’.”
That business – Specialist Computer Recruitment (SCC) – was the foundation for the Rigby Group, which now encompasses airports, helicopter and air ambulance services, hotels, property development and financial services. Last year it posted sales of £1.8bn and a pre-tax profit of £22.3m.
The Rigby Group is still family owned, and the UK’s fifth-largest private business. Sir Peter holds 85pc of the organisation, with the rest split between his two sons, James and Steven, who work in the business, and his ex-wife. Having family in the business is important to Sir Peter, who was knighted in 2002 for services to IT and business. “My sons are both brilliant and the most important relationships I have,” he says.
However, it was no gilded path for James and Steven to their respective positions of chief executive and chief operating officer.
I like to build things. I don’t build them to sell them. A lot of people go into business with the primary objective of making as much money as possible as quickly as possible. That’s not for me
“Both came in at the bottom, up the hard way. They know the business inside out,” says Sir Peter. “Much of the company is a product of their thinking as much as mine, in some cases more.”
He enjoys it because it’s creative. “I like to build things. I don’t build them to sell them. A lot of people go into business with the primary objective of making as much money as possible as quickly as possible. That’s not for me.”
He is proud to have created a company that is “British owned, with pedigree, capability and integrity”. Against some of the recent anti-business rhetoric, Sir Peter’s views almost sound controversial.
“At the end of the day, creating wealth is what business is about,” he says. “Wealth creates taxes to fund public services. Some businesses will improve life in some form or other. Most businesses help lives by creating employment for people.”
He “absolutely” – a word he uses often – refutes any suggestion business is predominately a philosophical exercise for him: “You’d be dead in the water if you took a soft approach.” However, Sir Peter says that because of his modest upbringing he feels a responsibility to give something back. “Not everybody who creates wealth behaves badly, particularly if you come up the hard way. I meet many people in business who have a moral responsibility.”
But he admits he doesn’t much care for some elements of the British business establishment. The City “will sell anything” and “has a greed factor which is not good for the image of business”.
Despite his concerns, though, Sir Peter says the importance of business and enterprise to the country can’t be understated. However, he is concerned that it is in danger of being ignored in the UK. “We’ve got to start lauding business, not kicking it,” says Sir Peter.
He says this anger could be part of the reason for the vote to leave the EU; people were kicking out at business because it was failing to get the message across that it was a force for good. Industry should be “apolitical” he says, but that shouldn’t stop it from explaining a business argument – in his view that Britain is likely to be economically better off in the EU than out – to the man in the street.
Sir Peter, who campaigned for Remain, says “absolutely that message did not get through”. It isn’t just the man in the street that there are communication problems with. Government doesn’t seem to have much interest, either, he believes.
We have no protectionism here. The reason France has a nuclear industry, a shipbuilding industry, an aviation industry, a motor car building industry, is because of government intervention
“To leave the economy and business out of any discussion about the future of our nation is an absolute mistake because it is integral to the planning and the strategy of other nations who are our competitors,” says Sir Peter. “If we don’t take it seriously and don’t encourage inward investment and protect our own businesses, then we will lose out.”
He says he wants an industrial strategy in the UK that is not “just one of those political phrases that pops up”. He points to France for comparison.
“We have no protectionism here. The reason France has a nuclear industry, a shipbuilding industry, an aviation industry, a motor car building industry, is because of government intervention,” he says. For someone who has thrived in a free market, this seems surprising.
“Government doesn’t need to own them,” he counters. “Just hold a stake to give them encouragement to stay here.”
While government might not be doing so well, the Rigby Group is. The current year is looking to be the best in the company’s 42 years, with revenues of about £2.2bn. While relatively low profits might not be tolerated by a listed company, Sir Peter is quite happy with them.
“We don’t get caned for quarterly forecasts – we can take a longer-term view,” he says, citing resurfacing the runway at Exeter airport, a £7m investment he says might put a public company off. “We’re not looking to build something to sell it off.”
SCC remains the engine of the group, generating about 80pc of turnover. “My gambit has come from punch cards to artificial intelligence, like computing,” he says, fiddling with the top of his San Pellegrino bottle.
Technology may be the biggest part of Rigby Group but it is the aviation and hotel businesses that are firing Sir Peter’s imagination.
At his Midlands headquarters, his desk is made out of the tailplane of a Hawk jet – the kind flown by the Red Arrows – there’s a Martin-Baker Mk4 ejector seat on display, and a table made from a Rolls-Royce jet engine.
He still flies his own Squirrel helicopter and rattles off a list of aeroplanes and helicopters in the 24-strong fleet. The air ambulance operation employs 100 doctors and nurses, as well as pilots, and is pushing to take on big competitors in Europe, while the helicopter business is more niche, serving the Royal Navy out of Plymouth and providing search and rescue services in the Falklands.
“It’s demanding and specialised flying,” says Sir Peter in the calm tones of an experienced airman. “Flying off the back of warships and in some pretty austere conditions around the Falklands.” Such difficult work may open doors to other contracts but he admits Rigby Group is a “minnow” compared with international rivals.
The nine-property hotel business came about by accident. Having spent so much putting people up, the business looked for accommodation and ended up taking control of Mallory Court, the Warwickshire country house hotel. “I have always liked high standards of food and presentation, and I enjoyed bringing life back into that period building,” Sir Peter says.
It has grown, but he’s still intimately acquainted with all facets of the portfolio, explaining how he bought the largest hotel in the group, Bovey House in Dartmoor, out of administration and got it back to its former glory. He’s quick to name Martin, the hotel’s on-site falconer, who sometimes shocks guests by standing at the base of the property’s staircase with a golden eagle on his gloved hand.
He admits hotels might be a “passion project… but there’s nothing wrong with a bit of passion”.
Could this entrepreneur with a social conscience have been a loss to the RAF had he not decided he needed a better-paying job? “My mother said that to me,” says Sir Peter. “I admire so much about the military, but I wanted to create something. The RAF is an admirable career but not one in which there is the freedom of ideas and risk-taking you have in being an entrepreneur.”
