Leading the leaders: Miles Templeman

Sep 10 2007 By Andrew Mernin

To say Miles Templeman’s CV is impressive is a huge understatement. As a marketing specialist he has helped promote major consumer brands such as Daz, Ribena, Lucozade and Levi’s jeans.

He has served as managing director of retail giant Threshers and then climbed to the helm of the Whitbread Beer Company.

More recently he has held a series of non-executive directorships and consultancy roles at Royal Mail, Ben Sherman and Accenture before becoming chief executive of Bulmers which was ultimately sold to Scottish & Newcastle.

Today, as head of the Institute of Directors (IoD), Templeman is charged with helping leaders across Britain deal with the challenges of doing business in the 21^st Century.

We caught up with management guru at the IoD’s recent North-East gala dinner in Newcastle to talk business, boardrooms and Brown.

What have you learned about business in the North-East from your latest visit?

My trip has been very much focused on looking at the Tees Valley and what businesses are doing there. There are  a lot of exciting plans there and it’s an area that I knew nothing about really. It’s got a good economic future and it’s an area that gets overlooked. Everyone knows about Newcastle but they don’t know about Tees Valley so the task is to raise awareness of it.

What do you think are the major challenges for directors in the North-East?

One of the big challenges which applies to regions like the North-East is the ability to develop skills and the ability to retain them. There’s always a danger in places like the North-East that a skilled workforce will naturally gravitate to London or, to some extents, Leeds. I think it’s very important that the whole region develop businesses where people want to stay.

Do you think there are too many different bodies charged with tackling the skills shortage?

I think there are too many bodies, too many groups and too many people involved but on the other hand we are beginning to move forward so shouldn’t worry too much. Even if there are too many bodies dealing with it I would say so what because all the energy you would have to spend sorting that out could be better spent elsewhere.

Are there enough initiatives to help develop the skills of senior members of businesses?

I don’t think the issue is at the top of the tree, I'm much more concerned about the skills of people at the middle and bottom end of a company.

Do you think directors are prepared for the introduction of the new Companies Act in October?

Yes I think so. A lot of the changes aren’t that severe and on the whole it’s not too bad for the smaller companies and in some ways they have less to worry about. Overall the Government has listened to the needs of business and my impression is that it’s been brought in sensibly and companies have been given time to do what they have to do.

There's been a lot in the press recently suggesting that directors are overpaid. What do you think?

I think there is a lot of confusion. There are a few directors in the City who have very big rewards but I cant say whether they’re overpaid or not. All I would say is that shareholders should make sure that if these guys are paid a lot then its performance based. It's a bit like top footballers, if they are playing well then they will be well paid. It's a market place and that's what they are worth.

How do you think Tony Blair and Gordon Brown compare as leaders?

I think Brown wants the job as Prime Minister to change things but you always felt with Blair he wanted the job to be a big player on the world stage. He was a very successful PM but was very much a high profile figure, a number two to George Bush. Brown is much more interested in changing things and from a business point of view could be very successful.