Take Robert (later Lord) Gavron, who founded St Ives in 1964 with £5,000 and went on to make a fortune for himself and many others in the industry as the company grew into the pre-eminent printer of the time. The group was floated on the stock market in 1985, the same year it acquired Clays. He was made a Labour peer in 1999. 

Or what about Felix Dennis, who, as a child, lived in his grandparents’ tiny terrace house with “no electricity, no indoor lavatory or bathroom ... no electric light, but gas and candles”. And went of to found his eponymous publishing business, and become a billionaire.

In seeking an understanding of what makes an outstanding leader in the world of print Adam Bernstein sought the advice of five people in the industry who have achieved.

Simon Biltcliffe 

Founder and executive chairman, Webmart 

Biltcliffe’s journey into the print industry was, he says, “an easy one” in that he applied for a job in a newspaper which happened to be with a printer, one of Robert Maxwell’s companies as it happens. He notes that at the time, “it was a very progressive organisation and Kathy Woodward, who later became the chief executive of the BPIF, obviously spotted something in me and put me on a directorship course for the group.” 

Sometime later, Biltcliffe was sent to Japan where in 1993, he saw, what we would now recognise as a Kindle. He says that it “blew my mind” and he went back to the group to talk about the device. Unfortunately, the company didn’t share his vision, so he left to set up his own business, Webmart, in 1996.

Rising to prominence

Biltcliffe is a firm believer in people rising to prominence through a mixture of innate talent, support from peers and family, tenacity, and in some way, the desire to succeed. However, he also reckons that there is an element of luck – “as the old adage goes in sales, the harder you work the luckier you get”. This is why he thinks that “there has also to be strong self-belief because there are many obstacles that have to be overcome to be successful... it is never a linear journey. Resilience is key”.

It’s logical that he sees success allied to risk. In particular, Biltcliffe recognises that there is always risk in business. For this reason he believes it is important “to be tolerant of uncertainty as innovation, by its very characteristic, is often counter-intuitive and risky. There has to be a high degree of failure otherwise it wouldn’t be innovative.”

But what makes a notable leader in Biltcliffe’s eyes? He cites a combination of people skills, drive determination and luck.

On top of that Biltcliffe suggests a knack for good timing; an idea brought to market too early won’t be adopted so reading the market is another key skill. Here he places great store in “having a trusted network around you to test ideas and to give sound advice”.

Prerequisites

Biltcliffe holds that individuals need certain prerequisites to be successful. He lists these as intellect, interpersonal empathy, and being trustworthy. He also believes in a mixture of nature and nurture along with “people believing in you early on in your career… we are all riven with self-doubt at certain times.” 

He also emphasises the importance of building a network that can be called upon during good times – and bad – for an alternative perspective. He knows that building such a network takes time but says that “if you think of business as a game of snakes and ladders, your network helps you find the ladders and avoid the snakes. It’s a much more efficient way of getting where you need to be”.

Problem solving and managing people

So, are successful business leaders innately good at problem solving and managing people, or are they just bloody-minded people who refuse to take ‘no’ for answer?

From Biltcliffe’s perspective, being able to work as a team and put the effort in are essential. As he highlights, “you need to bring everybody along with you wherever possible; I wouldn’t say successful leaders are bloody minded because this only lasts for a time and quite quickly you can lose the team”. At this point he comments that it will be interesting to see how Elon Musk does in the long-term as he fears “his people skills will ultimately lead to not a very happy life for him or those around him, which ultimately is what winning is about – enhancing people’s lives”.

Avoid ‘yesmen’

Another tip for Biltcliffe is to listen: “We’ve all been in organisations where you get group think, and this is a very destructive and dangerous position to be in.” He’s of the view that diversity of opinion is essential for long-term success and realising that it is the “strength of the team, not the strength of the individual that will lead to long-term business achievement”.

By the same token, Biltcliffe says to avoid the sense of invincibility. Harvey Weinstein (Miramax), Adam Neumann (WeWork), Dennis Muilenburg (Boeing) are typical of those that have fallen from grace for this reason. Interestingly, Biltcliffe contends that “the vast majority of those who have an over-inflated ego which leads to a path of destruction are men”. He reiterates that “having a diverse and empowered team at the very top around you is essential to mitigating this”.

To end

Biltcliffe’s parting advice is clear. Through LinkedIn, contact those that are admired within the industry who are at the very top. He says that it’s surprising how much time successful people give to young talent to support them on their journey. Such help can be invaluable as can introduce a new set of network contacts who can fast track an individual much more effectively than if they were doing it alone. Seek and ye shall find or as this proud Yorkshireman puts it, “if tha dunt ask, tha dunt get”.

Liz Shackleton

Managing director, Jamm Print and Production

Jamm Print and Production was established in 1995 and so will be 30 years old next year. It was set up by Liz Shackleton who wanted to develop a service particularly aimed at the not-for-profit sector. “I didn’t find anywhere doing that as I wanted – so I set up Jamm, together with a friend who was an accountant and had a whole raft of experience in the community and charity fields,” she says.

Developing the right experience

She had previously worked as production manager at Caledonian Press in London during which time she was involved in setting up direct mail fundraising for the African National Congress – this was while Nelson Mandela was still in prison. “This fundraising initiative was led by the amazing Lyndall Stein who taught me such a lot about what matters to non-profit organisations when they fundraise through the mail.”

Shared values

“In 1995 People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) started to fundraise in the UK, Germany and the Netherlands, and sent a leading US fundraiser to the UK to set up the campaign, who contacted me, on the recommendation of Lyndall. I’d never heard of PETA, but we arranged a meeting. 

“I was late. I had that morning been on a protest against the live export of sheep and lambs, and the traffic back from the Kent coast was heavier than anticipated. I apologised profusely and explained why I was late – and not exactly dressed for a business meeting – and learned very quickly who PETA were and what they stand for, which of course included opposition to the export of live animals. We got the opportunity to quote for their packs, and to be honest haven’t looked back since. Sometimes you just need a little bit of luck, and that was ours.”

Growing together

The company now works for charities in the UK, Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, France – and Australia, which is another story. Jamm has grown as its clients have grown and developed, adding new clients and new services to meet their needs, which gave Shackleton greater control of schedules and quality. Jamm now runs litho and digital printing kit, it has basic finishing capabilities – guillotine, folders, stitching line – in-house, along with laser and inkjet printers, card printers and significant data processing options.

Turn challenge into opportunity

By the time Brexit came along, a lot of Jamm’s revenue was coming from Europe. “Those customers made up a significant amount of our work and we were determined that the hard work we had put in to develop relationships with them was not going to go to waste. So at that point we set up Jamm Print & Production Europe, based in Prague.” Although production management and data processing is often handled by the company’s UK staff, production is based in the EU. “We’re growing there, with locally recruited clients joining long-standing ones in the UK.”

Adapt and overcome

When one client set up in Australia, it asked Jamm to provide services for it there. “We developed a slightly different model in Australia, emphasising donor services handled by a brilliant team who have a great reputation for the work they do.”

And this has been followed by an expansion into the US market: “We have just started Jamm Print and Production in the US. Again, this was client-led, as we have two charities we work for in the UK who required our service to grow their support in the US. That is very much in its infancy, but hopefully will start growing soon.”

Get close

Shackleton says the main reason for the success of the business is that it has built very close relationships with its clients. She says: “We aim to understand their requirements and anticipate them when we can. We are small enough that it isn’t a problem for us if a client wants us to do something a different way than others want. And we’re not precious about it.” 

Your biggest asset

Shackleton stresses the importance of getting the right people on board when setting up a new enterprise. “Build the best team you possibly can. I have been so lucky; Mike Prime, my director of mailing services, has been with Jamm for 27 years. Alberto Ciniccola, my print production director has been with us for 11 years. Will Ingram, our newest director, has been with us five years and has brought such a wealth of knowledge and experience in developing our data services. In return they are now shareholders of the company, and even more invested in its future.

“They are the backbone of this company. So I would also add: reward your team. That way they’ll stay.”

Graham Harris 

Retired former serial innovator and managing director of Tech-ni-Fold

Harris’ path to success took time. And plenty of it. As he tells, after working as a print finisher for 20 years, the last five as manager for Streamline Press in Leicester, he had an epiphany moment: “I was 36 years old and had this image of the grey-haired version of me still working long hours and weekends in a factory floor job for the same boss.” It really troubled him.

He says that he was “intensely passionate” about his job, particularly as he hadn’t been offered an apprenticeship. As a result, he says that he taught himself different and more time-effective ways to finish print, “born out of the simple reality that no one else volunteered to teach me”.

Hard graft

20 years of “hard graft” and developing his own ideas to improve the quality of his employer’s finished work wasn’t enough for him – he wanted much more.

So, as the story goes, in 1999 he invented the Tri-Creaser in two weeks and his “life changed beyond recognition. My simple creasing device would save companies an average of £10,000 per year and I sold 200 units in my first year as a side-line to my fulltime job”.

A year later he set up Tech-ni-Fold and soon, so he says, turned over around £1m – just from his garage. The company expanded through distributorship outlets worldwide and had created over 500 products up to his retirement in April 2023. His son and daughter run the company now.

That epiphany moment for Harris forced him to push the boundaries because “failure was never an option”. It should be said that Harris had no qualifications to his name and so his success “surprised a lot of people” he knew. 

Tenacity was key to his success for, as he says, “the hardest thing in business is trying to market and sell a product no one would ever believe was possible. Disrupting a market and going up against traditional solutions brings scepticism and rejection. I prided myself on building a loyal following of global customers who I had to win over because of those reasons”.

It’s more than luck

Harris believes in luck but doesn’t trust to it entirely. Instead, he thinks “that those who stand out will have spent time on their own plotting their course. Good leaders are not ‘busy fools’ running around trying to fix the day-to-day problems, they lock themselves out of all that stuff and only emerge when all the pieces fit nicely together in their mind”. Of course, this takes time, but it is so critical – “average leaders are afraid of silence and won’t believe in unpaid dreaming, they feel every hour must be accounted for on the time sheet”.

More to the point, he reckons that “most people who find success the first time around can repeat it again and again, that’s what happened with me”.

Qualities needed

Integrity is an important quality for Harris. And that means that employees’ individual needs must be met, whether to safeguard their well-being or to provide support through training. “People,” says Harris, “need to feel empowered and inspired.” Allied to this is honesty and transparency where “a good leader will encourage team members to reach their potential and point to their own mistakes to demonstrate that it’s okay to fail”.

Creativity is high on Harris’ list too – especially as during “the cycle of a business year so much can go wrong, and it needs a calm head to navigate through such challenges”. This for him is when great leaders come to the fore.

And then there’s the ability to “recruit the right people who can help grow a business in areas you are not so strong in” – the system has to generate leads and close sales.

A part of this means, from Harris’ standpoint, successful business leaders being good decision-makers, so that “when a solution to a problem is required, they don’t bury their heads in the sand – they make the call with conviction”. He recalls how he’s made the wrong decision at times but knew that he had support from the team because they understood that he had weighed up all options carefully.

It should be said that he sees some merit in being ruthless. Even so, Harris feels that “it is better to be considerate and thoughtful to opposing views as employees feel respected if they are heard – regardless of the final decision. ‘Ruling with an iron rod’ involves protecting one’s pride and we all know what often comes next”.

Harris emphasises that it’s important that “leaders know the market they operate in and look at future trends as it is essential to staying ahead of the competition”. Any failure to spend on research can make the business vulnerable.

Don’t be afraid

Ultimately Harris thinks that “top leaders are brave and are never afraid of diversifying”. They look to take their offerings to different sectors. And he gives an example. During the pandemic, the company moved into the greetings card industry where online companies were being set up from home – “we had entry-level products that helped to crease and cut cards more cost effectively”. 

Stephen Docherty 

Chairman of Bell & Bain

Docherty’s success is based on what he regards as hard work and doing what was asked of him as well as trying “to be better than the last guy”.

It’s all about effort

He details that he left a small printer in 1992 to join J Thomson colour printers in his hometown of Glasgow to become assistant bindery manager. As he says: “I have always been gifted with ability to fix machines or find a quicker way and within four years had moved to Bell & Bain – in 1996 – as binding manager.” He continued to grow and says that he helped to bring more modern equipment into Bell & Bain: “I did what I was told and never missed work and grew in character.” His next move was in to sales where he spent five years in the job. As a result of his efforts, he now owns both J Thomson and Bell & Bain.

As to why some rise to the top, Docherty takes the line “that you get up early, work hard, and go to bed early”. He isn’t naïve. He knows that some succeed because they “have the ability to see bottlenecks and find a cure… then they keep on curing and keep rules and discipline in place”. For him, this is best done by “getting a team to believe in you and believe in your vision”.

But is good leadership and success related to being a risk taker or is it be a composite of character, timing, luck and skill? For Docherty, the truth lies in a combination of all these traits. But importantly, he says to “never gamble and hope work comes in”. Instead, he says to “get the work and take the hit – then roll the dice and clear the bottleneck.”

Destined for great things

It’s hard for Docherty to extend an opinion on what makes one person a success over another. As he says: “I believe it depends on what you as a person deem success. Money? Power? Growth or survival? Like many, I started out to earn money but now I come to work to keep these people I work with safe in their jobs. Mapping out the future and keep training the young… now the hardest part but the most rewarding thing.”

But when it comes to being good at finding solutions and managing people he says that it’s about finding a way forward. Interestingly, he comments that most solutions to his problems come “in my sleep and most future plans are found in my dreams”.

Beyond that Docherty believes in being challenged – it is “ultra-important” – as it helps let everyone learn from their mistakes.

Avoiding risks

As to why some print leaders fail Docherty says that the cause is usually quite clear: they “do not believe what their wallet is telling them and buy equipment for work they hope to win but don’t”. 

He stresses something else that others in his position know – that “it can be a very lonely place being the boss and you can easily get down and it can all slip away”. Fortunately, he says that he is “a glass-half-full man and I find that having a good mix of male and female employees is the perfect solution”.

His advice to others – especially those in the early stages of their career? “Do not miss work and do not complain – just get it done.” To this he adds that successful employees should aim to “be the best they can and aim to be better than the guy above. Then be out there and be heard”. For him, “the person who puts obstacles in the path is the person who has lost sight of the goal. Be positive!”

Iain Clasper-Cotte 

Managing director of Northern Flags

“Accident rather than design” is how Clasper-Cotte found himself where he is today. As he explains, his role as group commercial and digital director for Bauer’s Radio division came to an abrupt end – “their choice” he comments.

Clasper-Cotte had just got divorced and was looking for a new role that allowed him to stay up north as his children were living with him and still needed to be close to their mother. “I decided I could not handle being in a large company again so was looking for an opportunity where I could really make my mark – with no big company politics.”

Being exceptional

Clasper-Cotte is clear that people rise to the top by “doing an exceptional job.” However, he’s also of the view “that some personal PR and understanding what the media needs from you to make a good story also helps”.

For him, becoming a successful leader requires some risk-taking along with having the right character, good timing, luck and skill. Clasper-Cotte thinks that these traits aren’t sufficient on their own as they miss out a key part of being successful – “recruiting a great team”. He believes that this is the most important single thing along with giving people the space to grow while accepting that the sum of the parts is always greater than the sum of the whole. He advocates “allowing staff to play to their strengths and making people feel safe in their position”.

Inner drive

But to become a truly exceptional leader (or entrepreneur), Clasper-Cotte says individuals need to “have an inner drive and a passion to succeed which not everyone has”. While he thinks that leadership can be refined and improved, it nevertheless “needs to be overlayed onto someone with that ability to drive themself and those around them”.

Of course, there’s much more to this. Says Clasper-Cotte: “The best leaders I have worked for always had a very clear vision and an ambition to set the bar higher. They also hired people better at delivering than themselves so that they could gently ensure that the path to the goal was delivered.”

Similarly, he’s keen on “good, constructive discussions”. This is “essential as not only does it ensure the correct decision but more importantly, perhaps, it ensures everyone buys into the strategy or the tactics”.

Some associate success with a form of arrogance. However, from experience Clasper-Cotte reckons that winners don’t necessarily turn out to be the most conceited people in the room. Indeed, he says that the two best leaders he has worked for were not at all arrogant. Rather, he says that they saw someone better than themselves elsewhere and “their inner competitiveness always drove them to succeed”.

Getting credit

To break glass ceilings Clasper-Cotte recommends working for an organisation that is not limited by strict upwards routes as “that can become really frustratingly slow if you have to progress through many stages to reach the top”. Further, he feels that smaller companies give employees an opportunity to shine as their contributions are more visible and, importantly, they “get an opportunity to have a wider role across multiple departments which I think really helps with experience as a leader”.

Regardless though, Clasper-Cotte considers it essential to “make sure that your boss gives you credit for what you do – that way if your progress is quick then everyone understands why”.

And of course, he has no problem with individuals making mistakes so long as they’re acknowledged and learnt from. In fact, he reckons that “often you learn more from your mistakes than when you get it right first time”.