Legend has it that Lord Heseltine mapped out his career on the back of an
envelope while at Oxford: millionaire in the 1950s; MP in the 1960s,
minister in the 1970s; Cabinet post in the 1980s; prime minister in the
1990s.
Legend also has it that when it became clear he would not fulfil his ultimate
ambition, with Labour’s 1997 election victory, he called the directors of
the publishing company formed to fulfil his initial goal and said: “Seen the
election result? Good. Clear a desk.”
Sitting in the Haymarket group’s offices in Hammersmith, where he works three
days a week as chairman, the 74-year-old former Conservative Deputy Prime
Minister acknowledges an outline of these events. “Politics was certainly
the reason I went into business,” he says, running a hand through a bouffant
untamed by age. “I wanted to be financially independent to pursue a
political career. And when it ended, it made sense to come back.”
It is an understatement to say that Haymarket, which recently celebrated its
50th anniversary, has left Lord Heseltine “financially independent”. Since
his return a decade ago, he has been buying out other shareholders in
Britain’s largest privately owned magazine group, increasing his family’s
stake, which was held in a blind trust during his ministerial career, from
just over 50 per cent to 87 per cent. The Sunday Times Rich List, puts the
family fortune at £200 million.
The man of many political nicknames, such as Tarzan, Hezza and the Mane Man,
says that he plans to buy the remainder of the company and is determined to
keep the business private. “I get very nice letters from people in the City
inviting me to lunch,” he says, “and my reply is always: ‘I would love to
see you, but I ought to tell you there is not a share for sale.’ There are
many advantages to family ownership, not least the fact you don’t have to
spend your life looking over your shoulder.”
He glances over his shoulder at hundreds of Haymarket titles lining his office
walls: Management Today, Horticulture Week, Practical Caravan. “This is an
industry which can go through good times and bad,” he says. “I have seen
what happens to other companies when things go wrong: their shares fall,
they get taken over, people get sacked. We can be more long-term.”
Doubtless his City lunch partners concede the risk, but also point out that
Haymarket is perhaps missing out on the ability to expand more aggressively.
Indeed, it is often suggested that Haymarket, like its founder, while having
experienced glittering success has never fulfilled its full potential.
Lord Saatchi, who worked under Lord Heseltine in the 1960s, once said that the
company could have become a “Murdoch-sized operation” with more focus,
though Lord Heseltine dismisses the remark. “Maurice is the master of the
overstatement,” he says. “I don’t think there are any grounds to believing
it . . . If you want to get bigger by acquiring outside debt, there is a
price to pay for that. In my view, an unnecessarily high price.”
Indeed, Hezza makes absolutely no apology for running Haymarket
conservatively. He is pleased it owns the freehold of most of its offices in
Britain. He is proud that most of its senior management have been around for
eons: one of the few new recruits is a finance director, who joined only
after his predecessor retired at 65, having come in 1968. He makes no secret
that he hates selling titles, referring to the 1981 disposal of Accountancy
Ageas you might refer to a death in the family.
Haymarket’s latest results, issued today, show that caution can be lucrative.
In 2006 the company had turnover of £244 million, up 7 per cent, and profit
(before tax, finance costs, amortisation, developments and disposals) of £30
million, up 3 per cent. Record turnover and profits, its chairman notes.
Haymarket has also continued to expand abroad – a quarter of revenue now
comes from outside Britain – and online in 2007. Lord Heseltine expects
online activities to be up to a tenth of sales and more than a tenth of
profits.
Progress on the web has been hard won. Initially Lord Heseltine was sceptical
about the internet. “I’m very cautious,” he told The
Independent in 1999. “I think huge sums of money are going to be lost.”
Ironically, he was one of those who lost huge sums. By the time the dot-com
crash came, Haymarket was running several new media titles, including Internet
Business, and had to write off about £8 million.
“I remember people from internet companies . . . talking about ‘burn rates’,
which was basically the rate at which they lost your money,” Lord Heseltine
says. “I admit we were scarred by what happened, but we didn’t pull out and
kept going and learnt important lessons. We now have meetings every month
monitoring every website and, by and large, they are all keeping to their
cost and revenue projections. With one of our most successful, What Car,
web revenue passed print revenue this year.”
The company renamed itself Haymarket Media Group to reflect its new emphasis,
but Lord Heseltine insists nothing has changed in its business approach.
“The philosophy with magazines has always been to try to produce the best
product on the market, and that remains our philosophy,” he says. Is he a
fan of the net? “Yes, I use it – when I want air fares or some gardening
information.” Has he used networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace?
“No. I wouldn’t want to give the impression that I sit in front of the PC
every day.”
Some might say that the admission demonstrates how Haymarket might benefit
from outside involvement. Others would point out that Lord Heseltine has
long admitted he doesn’t like reading (he was mildly dyslexic as a child)
and that it didn’t stop Haymarket becoming a successful publishing company.
Besides, he has plenty of people working for him to spot online trends and
opportunities – not least his son, Rupert, deputy chairman since 2005 and
intended to succeed him.
“Rupert and I have very similar ideas about the future of the company,” the
chairman says.
How long is Lord Heseltine planning to carry on as chairman? “To step off the
treadmill has consequences – unacceptable consequences, psychological,
physical . . .” He’ll carry on for as long as possible then? “Absolutely.”
He raises one of those famous furry eyebrows. “Why not?”
C.V.
Born: March 21, 1933, Swansea
Education: Shrewsbury School; Pembroke College, Oxford, where he was
president of students’ union
Career: After graduating, built a property business, before setting up
Haymarket. Member of Parliament for Henley from 1974 to 2001, held senior
political positions, including Environment Secretary (1979-83 and 1990-92),
Defence Secretary (1983-1986), President of the Board of Trade (1992-1995)
and Deputy Prime Minister (1995-1997).
Family: Married to Anne since 1962. Three children. Lives in London and
Northamptonshire
The leader questioned
If you could change one thing in the financial and commercial environment,
what would it be?
It has nothing to do with Haymarket. I would change the listing arrangements
for historic buildings. I created most of the current infrastructure, but if
I could go back I would make it much faster, much less bureaucratic. It
takes an age to get any sort of decision
What does leadership mean to you?
You need a clear sense of purpose of what you are trying to achieve, the best
and most talented team of people you can put together and then maximum
delegation. Delegation brings out the best in people. It frees up the boss
for the critical things the boss should do, seeing the big picture, being
ahead of the game, being able to pick up things that are going wrong. When I
was a secretary of state, I delegated every responsibility I had to a junior
minister. But you also have to have some control of who your ministers are.
I was always lucky in being able to persuade the prime minister to either
let me choose or at least, reject the ones I didn’t want
Does money motivate you?
Not really. There comes a point when having more makes no difference. I am
very fortunate, and I can do what I want to do. I have no desire to have jet
aircraft or yachts or anything like that. I have had a Jaguar since 1956. I
change it every two to three years
What gadget must you have?
My BlackBerry. I have it with me morning and noon . . . though I don’t quite
take it to bed. And then there is my PC arboretum catalogue. I was looking
at my old records the other day . . . up ’till 1997 I had manual records,
all in my own hand. It was so laborious and nightmarish!
How do you relax?
I relax in what I do. When it comes to holidays, my wife and I tend to look
for good snorkelling, good birds, good-quality hotels, isolation. I also
relax with the Times 2 crossword and the Polygon. It has become such an
obsession that we now take two copies of The Times every day
