Recruiters reflect on Baroness Thatcher’s passing
9 April 2013
Following the death of Baroness Thatcher yesterday, recruiters have been reflecting on her period in office, and its significance for their own businesses, and the wider staffing industry.
Tue, 9 Apr 2013Following the death of Baroness Thatcher yesterday, recruiters have been reflecting on her period in office, and its significance for their own businesses, and the wider staffing industry.
Tim Watts, lifetime president of Pertemps Network Group, recalls that the then Mrs Thatcher visited Pertemps headquarters twice. “She was a great character, and in private she was incredibly relaxed,” Watts tells Recruiter.
Watts recounted how after dining with Thatcher, he asked her if she would like to say a few words. “She looked at me and said ‘Well Tim, I thought you would like to say something as well, I suggest you go first’ before adding ‘I always have the last word’.”
Watts credits her policy of liberalising the banks with allowing him to borrow money for the first time, thereby setting him on his way to building Pertemps into the £600m-a-year turnover company it is today. “All this is down to the policies of Mrs Thatcher,” he says.
John Maxted, who set up HR recruiter Digby Morgan in 1988 during the then Prime Minister’s third and final term, tells Recruiter: “If it hadn’t been for Mrs Thatcher, I wouldn’t have set up my business then.” Maxted says the same applies to a lot of others in the recruitment industry.
Maxted, who has been selected as a parliamentary candidate for the Conservative Party, though without yet being allocated to a specific constituency, says it was Thatcher’s policy of de-regulating financial services that created great opportunities for his own company and for others in what became a burgeoning industry. “The liberalisation of employment legislation was very important,” he adds.
“She created a culture and a sense of opportunity in society in the 80s where people felt in control of their own destiny… There was the sense that if you were prepared to work hard they could be successful, and that is exactly what happened to me,” says Maxted.
Tim Watts, lifetime president of Pertemps Network Group, recalls that the then Mrs Thatcher visited Pertemps headquarters twice. “She was a great character, and in private she was incredibly relaxed,” Watts tells Recruiter.
Watts recounted how after dining with Thatcher, he asked her if she would like to say a few words. “She looked at me and said ‘Well Tim, I thought you would like to say something as well, I suggest you go first’ before adding ‘I always have the last word’.”
Watts credits her policy of liberalising the banks with allowing him to borrow money for the first time, thereby setting him on his way to building Pertemps into the £600m-a-year turnover company it is today. “All this is down to the policies of Mrs Thatcher,” he says.
John Maxted, who set up HR recruiter Digby Morgan in 1988 during the then Prime Minister’s third and final term, tells Recruiter: “If it hadn’t been for Mrs Thatcher, I wouldn’t have set up my business then.” Maxted says the same applies to a lot of others in the recruitment industry.
Maxted, who has been selected as a parliamentary candidate for the Conservative Party, though without yet being allocated to a specific constituency, says it was Thatcher’s policy of de-regulating financial services that created great opportunities for his own company and for others in what became a burgeoning industry. “The liberalisation of employment legislation was very important,” he adds.
“She created a culture and a sense of opportunity in society in the 80s where people felt in control of their own destiny… There was the sense that if you were prepared to work hard they could be successful, and that is exactly what happened to me,” says Maxted.
