As the boss of UK retailer Waitrose, Mark Price was one of the most-respected businessmen in the UK. As the Rt. Hon. Lord Price, he's helping shape the policies that will prove all important for UK businesses post-Brexit. This article first appeared in ESM Issue 2 2018.
Two years on from his departure from upmarket UK retailer Waitrose, Mark Price, or the Rt. Hon. Lord Price, as he has been known since his election to the House of Lords in 2016, remains a much-respected figurehead for UK business.
Last September, the 57-year-old stepped down from the role of Minister of State for Trade, after an 18-month spell that was more eventful than anticipated (the Brexit vote occurred just four months into his tenure), yet he remains a powerful advocate for the UK business sector as it enters one of the most challenging periods in its history.
He’s also an accomplished author, having recently released Fairness for All, a treatise on the concept of ‘inclusive capitalism’, and Workplace Fables, a compendium of 147 true-life stories compiled from more than thirty years in the business world.
Both books close with a poem, The Machine, which envisages a workplace system at its most barbarous [Sample verse: ‘The machine doesn’t trust/The machine gives orders but doesn’t explain/The machine talks to you, but you can’t talk to it’]. A chilling thought in this Brexit-obsessed, Trumpian world of ours.
“The machine is my euphemism for capitalism – that it is ever more demanding and requires increasing efficiency,” Price explains. “If it’s unconstrained, then it doesn’t care about the consequences.”
Responding To New Realities
Indeed, Fairness for All, as the title suggests, was written in response to the Occupy protests that took place in London in 2011, which called attention to the increasing polarisation within capitalist societies, as well as an understanding that something had ‘gone awry’ with big business.
“Of course I believe in capitalism; as trade minister I travelled the world, to countries like China and Vietnam, and it’s clear that they see the capitalist model is best placed to lift people out of poverty,” he says. “However, I’m also aware that the model creates winners and losers.”
As Fairness For All discusses, there is an increasing awareness among business leaders that another way is possible.
“Look at Warren Buffett or Paul Polman,” says Price. “There’s a growing group of business leaders that are more thoughtful about investing – yes, they see the commercial advantage, but they also realise that big business has got to do more than just produce profits for its shareholders,” says Price.
“Whether business likes it or not, it will have to pay more heed to how people feel about the way it acts. You see the call going out to stop plastic going into the oceans. You’re starting to see people coming out and saying ‘the system isn’t fair’. What will be interesting to see is how business responds to that.”
Tailor The Offer
At the same time, business needs to ensure it stays relevant in the eyes of an increasingly discretionary consumer base, Price argues. Do today’s retailers really understand their shoppers needs?
“If you have a department store with lots of departments, it doesn’t mean you will be successful – each department has to be market leading of its own right,” Price tells ESM.
“Being ‘in the middle’ isn’t necessarily the issue; [fashion retailer] Next is in the middle market and does a fantastic job. Why? Because the quality and price is right. They don’t try to be cheap; they know who their customers are and they try to cater for them.”
He cites “great retailers” of the past, like Feargal Quinn of Ireland-based Superquinn and Lord Sainsbury of the eponymous UK chain, as having the ability to balance both the office-based bureaucracy and the ground-level thinking that make a successful retail operation.
“When Sainsbury’s was in its pomp, they used to say that Lord Sainsbury would know if a fly landed on a ham in their York supermarket,” he says.
“You have to engage your entire workforce – you have to make every employee care when there’s no milk, or when a customer can’t buy what they want, or when there’s a long queue at the checkout. The best businesses maintain that leadership link right throughout the workforce.”
The Macro Picture
As both a former government minister and longstanding business leader, Price has a better understanding than most as to when government should keep its nose out of business affairs, and when it has a role to play.
“My view is that government has a role to play in negotiating multilateral trade deals and bilateral trade deals – looking for ways to improve regulatory harmonisation and making the customs process smooth,” he explains. “There are areas in which the government can be useful in facilitating exports, for example.”
And as for the elephant in the room itself, Brexit? Depending on who you talk to, British firms will likely need all the help they can get once Great Britain exits the European Union, to say nothing of the short term vagaries of the UK economy. As we near closer to March 29, 2019, the anticipated exit date, Price is bullish that the UK will end up with a fair, honest, free trade agreement – it’s in nobody’s best interest for the EU or UK to embrace an alternative.
“I believe the UK will end up with a comprehensive trade agreement,” he says. “What people are trying to push at the moment are hypotheticals, which are not very helpful.”
For more information on Workplace Fables, or to order a copy, visit www.workplacefables.com
© 2018 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. To subscribe to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine, click here.
