The European issue | February 2008
Interim Spotlight
Bob Hartley, Uniq Prepared Foods, Evercreech
Your job title:
Operations Director
Your main responsibilities:
I am responsible for two factories on site, one making cottage cheese, and the other dairy based desserts. Along with the factories I am responsible for logistics and engineering. I have restructured my team since starting and now have six people reporting to me.
Your start date:
January 2008
I like the interim life because:
I have always looked for challenges and being an interim gives me fresh challenges with each contract I take. I also like being my own boss and having periods where I can take time out to recover and do things that you couldn’t achieve if you were limited to regular company holidays.
The greatest challenge in this role is:
To save money. I think it is the same with most interim operational roles. Every factory has to run lean and efficiently to enable the site to make a profit. I will be using my skills to look at how we use our labour and do we get the best out of our raw materials.
The person/brand/company I most admire is:
Having spent many years in the flavours industry it is from this sector that I pick my most admired company - and it is Firmenich.
Because:
As a competitor they always seemed to deliver quality, have a good customer reputation, were always in the forefront of technology and regularly turned in better profits than most of the sector.
My best ever job was:
Worldwide Director of Operations for the flavours division of Danisco A/S. It gave me my first chance of strategic management and the chance to travel the world. We grew the company from £50m to about £250m over five years through both organic growth and acquisition. There was always a real buzz about what was happening next.
And my worst ever was:
I would say I have never had a bad job because they were all challenging and fun at the time. In hindsight I guess being the factory manager of a poultry slaughterhouse was probably what I would class as the worst, purely for the type of work that was done each day.
When I'm not at work, I like to:
Walk. The lakes are my favourite walking place and I am trying to complete all the Wainwrights. I’ve done about 80 so far. If I can’t get to the lakes I walk around Northamptonshire and do a bit of geocaching, a outdoor treasure hunting game using Global Positioning System (GPS). When I can’t get out I continue my work on my family tree. I have about 6,000 people mapped into the family tree going back to the 15th century.
I use the periods between contracts to complete projects in and around the garden. I’ve built steps, patios, flowerbeds and decking over the past few years.
I think my best achievement is:
Designing and building a factory in China. I owned all parts of this project from the initial concept through justification and design to finally staffing and operating. The actual building work was managed by my Chinese counterparts but it still meant frequent trips to Shanghai to monitor progress.
In ten years time I'd like to be:
Probably retired (early of course) but I think I am more likely to be working in portfolio management rather than single interim contracts. I believe there is an opportunity for good interims to work in the SME market bringing their skills to a number of companies who possibly can’t afford a full time senior manager but could benefit from a few days a month to get them up to best practice.
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