Executive Network

Case Studies - Understanding the customer

Bagnall & Morris Waste Services

With 170 employees and a turnover of £22 million, Bagnall & Morris Waste Services is one of the North West’s leading players in the commercial waste management sector.

Chief Executive Peter Cooke joined the family-owned business last year, with a brief to help it grow to the next level. At the Manchester Round-table Peter spoke of his belief in personal development through practical experience and, after the event, he told us a little more about this.

“When you join any company you have a responsibility to get to know that business inside-out,” he explains. “I’ve been working in the waste services sector for 17 years and the first thing I’ve done when starting with a new employer is to go out on the trucks or work in the recycling centre, so I can see how things are done on the frontline.”

Though he’s presently a CEO, Peter’s background is in finance. Indeed he was FD at his previous employer before being promoted to Managing Director. “I don’t think I would have been able to make the jump across to a broader managerial responsibility if I hadn’t developed a degree of operational flair through getting my hands dirty,” he adds.

At B&M ‘getting his hands dirty’ meant undertaking an orientation week that saw him working at the company’s recycling centre in Bromborough and spending days out on lorries collecting commercial waste, the vast majority of which B&M aims to recycle rather than sending to landfill.

He continues: “At one client premises we were collecting black refuse sacks from a large storeroom, underneath which we found hundreds of bales of unsold newspapers just sitting there. Together with our operational team we were able to put together an additional recycling service that the client signed up for, helping to turn a loss-making contract into a profitable one.”

Such hands-on experience is not reserved purely for senior managers at B&M. Every new recruit to the company’s finance team spends their part of their first week out on the lorries to learn the ropes, because, as Peter points out: “It’s harder to account for a 1,100 litre bin if you don’t know what it looks like.”

He adds that both the FD and the lorry crews are very supportive of this initiative, which has proven to be a good morale-booster as well as giving office-based staff a genuine feel for how the company earns its money.

On an ongoing basis, finance staff also attend monthly department head meetings which are focused on commercial matters. “Management here are very open and willing to share knowledge; we have seen some of that commerciality rubbing off on our finance team, which can only be good for their future careers,” Peter concludes.

Download the full Bagnall & Morris Waste Services case study. 

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