A study of business leaders around the world recently found that the UK’s move on faster than in any other country apart from Brazil, Russian and India.
The average tenure at the top is 4.8 years, down from 8.3 years seven years ago, the research by PwC revealed.
No one has told the chairman of Connells Group, Stephen Shipperley (pictured, right), about this because this month he is celebrating his 40th anniversary with the company.
“My own experience is testament to the emphasis that the company places on developing people within this business, giving those with potential the opportunities to advance and progress,” he says.
“As a result, we have some of the best people in the industry and good people stay here. Most of our management, local, middle and senior, have been with the company 10, 20, 30 years.”
Stephen joined the company as a Negotiator at its Aylesbury branch in 1977, twenty years before some of today’s younger trainees were born.
He gave up the opportunity to go to university to join Connells direct from school and by 21 was a branch manager, helping the office become the most profitable in the company. By 1990, when he was in his early 30s, he was appointed a Connells Chief Executive and, in 2008, Chairman.
When Stephen joined the company it had just 20 branches and 150 employees but now, thanks largely to his belief in both organic growth as well as acquisition, it now has 600 branches and 7,000 employees.
Under his direction Connells has bought a raft of high-profile competitors including Sequence, Sharman Quinney, Burchell Edwards, Peter Alan, Gascoigne Halman, Rook Matthews Sayer.
Other high points from his CV include Connells partnerships with Skipton Building Society, being a founder member of Rightmove in 2000 and also a founder share holder in Zoopla in 2010.
Connells also says its chairman pioneered both selling mortgages within branches during the 1970s and opening seven days a week. It was also he who made the decision to buy online agent Hatched.co.uk in 2015, making Connells the first to dive into the digital deep end.
“Over the last 40 years, the industry has seen many changes and challenges, but the culture and ethos that I found when starting my career with Connells – one of entrepreneurship, innovation and a clear focus on attracting and retaining good people – still very much exists today,” he says.
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