Chris Dobbs
Founder and Managing Director of Working Style Ltd.
Starting
the Business
The main drive behind Chris’s desire to start his company was not
through desire for money, but out of necessity for a job. It was 1987, only
months after the New Zealand Stock Market Crash, when Chris, fresh out of university
with a sizeable student debt, that he wandered into a fabric shop, and got an
idea of making his own shirts, to try to make some money. With the help of 2
others, Chris used the door-to-door sales approach to sell his shirts and within
six months, he was selling 100 shirts per week. In order to change the perception
of his operations from the “cheap and dodgy” stereotype that door
to door salesmen are often confronted with, Chris opened his first retain outlet
in Parnell, Auckland, where he continues to run his operations from today. From
that point on, Working Style Ltd continued to grow, and currently has six stores
operating in New Zealand, employing 25 people with an annual turnover of approximately
$8.5 million.
The
Key to running a Business
Chris sees that service is the key to a successful business. It is not so much
to do with the product, rather the building and maintaining of relationships
with customers. Chris believes that too many businesses are focusing on the
wrong areas and thus they lack personality. Chris sees that to maintain excellent
service, an excellent proprietorship is essential. He believes that personality,
which is a major part of success in business, comes with proprietorship. The
product is not as important as customer and employee retention.
Our
Views
Chris was extremely interesting to listen to. His views differed somewhat from
other Company leaders, in that people are the business, not the product. It
doesn’t matter what area the business is operating in, as long as it keeps
the customers happy and the relationships strong, the business will be successful.
Quotes
“The single, easiest way to be successful in business is to hold on
to your people.”
“The customer is always right – I don’t believe that today.”
“It’s hard to start a business, but it’s equally as hard to
continually run a business year after year.”
Contributed by: Andrew Tringham