IN the first of a new series looking at some of the major personalities interviewed in The Journal and Evening Gazette recently, Northern Rock chief executive Gary Hoffman speaks about the bank, football and loyal staff.
ON CONNECTING WITH HIS STAFF: “Whatever position I am in, I’ve always talked to customers most days, picked up complaints most days and talked to colleagues every day. The first session I had this morning was to talk to a group of colleagues working on problems we have with car parking.”
ON BARCLAYS SPONSORING THE PREMIER LEAGUE: “I signed the deal to sponsor the Premier League (for Barclays) the weekend that Coventry were relegated from it. It broke my heart putting pen to paper on the deal knowing that Coventry would not be in the Premier League and that they might never return.”
ON SPONSORSHIP: “I think done well (sponsorship) is an important part of the marketing mix. But in order to do it well you have to choose something that aligns with what your business wants to achieve and you have to put your name to it. You need either naming rights or your name closely associated with it. So Barclays Premier League works, Northern Rock on Newcastle works, but who sponsors the Olympics? People spend tens of millions sponsoring the Olympics, but no one knows who it is. So what’s the point?”
ON THE COLLAPSE OF NORTHERN ROCK: “No one predicted what happened. I think there is a feature in the industry that those small, very successful building societies that tried to become big, successful banks were always going to find their model and capability challenged when the going got tough. And I would say Northern Rock alongside Halifax and others were part of that.”
ON HIS FIRST DAYS WITH NORTHERN ROCK: “My first official date (in the job) was October 1, 2008, and the world fell apart on the 8th with Lehman Brothers, so it was an intense first few weeks. We put in place and recommended to the Government a new strategy that involved splitting the company in two.”
ON HIS FUTURE: “I am here as long as it takes to stabilise Northern Rock, transform Northern Rock and get it moving forward and that could be five years or five minutes is the way I’ve always looked at it. But I’m not looking for the next job because I’ve had a more successful career than I ever expected to.”
ON THE ROCK’S TURNAROUND: “If I look back 12 months and ask did I expect that we would make this much progress in 12 months, of course, I was hoping that we would, but did I think that we would be as far forward as we are? I think that we certainly feel we have come a very long way in a short time.”
ON NORTHERN ROCK STAFF: “I’ve always thought that we had the people, the attitude and the vision to pull through, but were there times in the depths of the banking crisis that it wasn’t clear whether lots of banks would survive including Northern Rock? Absolutely. There were times during my time here that I thought Northern Rock might not survive.”
ON STRAIGHT TALKING: “I always remember the phrase, ‘It’s important to read the writing on the wall before your back is against it’ and I think we were very straight with the problems that we had.”
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