Another day, another successful entrepreneur who deserves our attention. One of the best ways to learn more about the business world and to pep up your spirits when you’re feeling blue is to examine the ways in which other business men and women have made their fortunes. These lessons are even easier to swallow if you learn that the person in question hasn’t simply been gifted their current success and has had to work to earn what they’ve achieved.

That’s why Sir Phillip Green is a prime example of this kind of entrepreneur. Although he is now worth nearly 4.5 billion pounds and ranks at the 9th richest person in the UK, things weren’t always so. Looking at the growth of his empire and the twists and turns of his career should help invigorate the desire to success in even the most jaded of business people.

Sir Philip was born in 1952 to a middle class London family who moved to Hampstead in the north of the city when he was a lad. He went to a now defunct boarding school when he was nine, but things took a turn for the worse in his personal life when his father died when he was just 12. It often seems that the earlier you are forced to fend for yourself the more success you’re able to achieve in business, and for Sir Phillip the death of his father left him as the head of the family business. By 15 he was working at importing shoes and this took him on travels around the world to various global business centres. He continued the import theme when he came back home and started his first business with a loan for £20 000 selling imported jeans to retailers in London. Using his experience in retail and knowledge of the markets in London and abroad he made a lot of money buying up the stock of designer outlets which were closing down. He spruced up the merchandise with a quick chemical clean, rented some space to sell them and got down to it.

He first came to the attention of retail bigwigs and made his first million in one fell swoop with the purchase and turn-around of a failing chain of Jeans shops. He walked away from the deal after an incredibly short amount of time, pocketing over £6 million for himself. This was to be the first of many impressive feats within the retail business, taking a company which everyone else had given up on and turning a failure into a notable success.

In 1988 Sir Phillip took on the role of managing a chain of discount clothing stores, but things didn’t work out too well for him in this instance as he was forced out in 1992 by shareholders who weren’t satisfied by the falling profit levels. This experience did however give him the chance to meet other entrepreneurs who shared his business ideals and who would prove to be powerful allies in his future ventures.

The 1990s saw further growth for Sir Phillip in his path towards moguldom. Firstly he bought up a department store chain and then spent many years selling off the locations to other retailers. He then used his entrepreneurial contacts to bankroll the takeover of the Olympus group of sporting equipment shops. In doing so, he took on the £30 million debt of the company, but just three years after the takeover in 1998 he sold the chain for £550 million to JJB sports. This brought him to the attention of the Barclay Brothers who would then go on to fund some of his most profitable deals.

The end of the 20th century saw the first of three takeover bids that Sir Phillip launched against Marks and Spencer. The initial hostility of the first bid caused M&S shareholders to block it. M&S has become an unattainable nemesis for Green ever since, and time will tell as to whether he’ll try and buy the group again. In the interim he bought another failing chain, British Home Stores, re-branded them as BHS and turned the business around to generate profits in excess of £200 million. In order to seal the deal he put up millions of his own money as well as huge loans, but clearly he knew he was backing a winner. 2002 saw his purchase of the Arcadia Group which gave him control of 12% of the UK clothes retail market and has since confirmed his place in the retail hall of fame.

It’s been reported that Sir Phillip was also chosen to be a part of The Apprentice before Alan Sugar, but his M&S bid and another takeover bid kept him too busy to get involved. Hopefully Sir Phillip’s story has provided a little bit of inspiration and a reminder to all of us that nothing in life is certain, particularly in the business world, but that the rewards ultimately come to those motivated enough to seek them!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

You might also like to read...