News - Midlands
Sailing the high seas again
"Diana is booked for delivery next Wednesday, so please understand if communications get a little patchy over the next couple of weeks. I'll do my best to get back to you quickly and normal service will be resumed shortly no doubt. All the best, John."
The day before my lunch with John Crabtree the omens weren't looking good. The casual email I had sent to confirm our rendezvous at Birmingham's swanky new Opus restaurant had been greeted with the above. From earlier communication I had known Crabtree junior number six was on its way, but hadn't realised it was quite this imminent.
However, 90 minutes later and we're back on. "Jim, will be there and looking forward to it." Sent from one Blackberry wireless handheld.
Come the luncheon I was a little worried I might somehow be getting in the way of rather more pressing matters. However, spot on 12.30pm in through the back door (more of this later) swoops Crabtree attired in open neck Ralph Lauren shirt, beaming as a proud new father. "Excuse me, I must just go for a pee" are his first words.
He returns to tell me that his newly-born daughter actually came into the world the week before. "We were absolutely convinced it would be a boy so we haven't even come up with a name yet. Last night we were thinking of Jessica, or maybe just Sickie," he jokes. I challenge him to come up with a name by the end of lunch.
So have I got this right I ask, checking my facts. The famed Mr Crabtree, the man who made Birmingham's largest law firm Wragge & Co the empire it is today, is changing nappies again? "Afraid so. That's three of each now: three boys and three girls." This man's legacy clearly isn't just in the legal world.
It's actually been a momentous year for Crabtree. The birth of his sixth child (with his third wife) comes barely six months after his father's death.
I ask how influential his father was, a world renowned ear and throat surgeon. "To be frank he was a difficult man. He was brought up in the days when doctors were gods. He got his own way over everything, including at home. He was not a great listener. It taught me that you cannot always just take the majority view. You have to be a people person, you have to listen to people. I was always on my feet at Wragges, talking to people, getting people engaged," he says.
That includes giving people the benefit of the doubt. "I will not judge people, there are always two sides to a story." Crabtree makes the point again later during a discussion over Rover. "In attacking the former Rover directors Digby (Jones) was prepared to go where others weren't, including me. I would like to hear the directors' story," he says.
Talking of Digby brings us back for a second to the new arrival: "He's her godfather you know. He sent me a very rude text when she was born. I couldn't possibly reveal what he said."
Meanwhile, talk of getting people engaged at Wragge & Co brings us to Crabtree's introductory speeches to new staff which, I venture, have become the stuff of legend. "Really, do people say that? You know I'm not particularly sociable. I was very, very shy as a youngster and I can even be shy now. I also still get really nervous if I'm doing a speech. I did one the other week at a gala dinner at the Hippodrome Theatre and I was as nervous as hell," he says.
After my initial surprise at such a revelation I have no reason not to believe him. "You know I'm really just a family man to be honest. I don't crave lots of attention."
I can certainly believe that too given it's taken me the best part of six months to persuade Crabtree to meet me. Initially he insisted that he would rather talk about his charitable causes - of which there are many including the extraordinary £32.2m he has helped raise for deaf blind charity Sense (surely a place in the Honours List beckons?) - rather than Crabtree the man.
I countered that the Midlands business community would be extremely interested in Crabtree's wider views on business.
Still remarkably just 56, Crabtree spent his whole career at Wragge & Co becoming managing partner in the early 1990s at the depths of a recession. He admits the story could have been very, very different. Instead, by reaching beyond Birmingham for business, he oversaw an expansion of a firm whose impact is still felt in the city's professional services market to this day.
Crabtree stepped down two years ago to make way for his successor Quentin Poole and now does just a day a month with the firm. "Why did I go? Oh, it was definitely time to get out, I had been in charge long enough." Crabtree has since built up a string of directorships in industry including chairmanships of three businesses - Birmingham engineering firm Metalrax, environmental consultancy SLR Holdings and Birmingham accountants MGI Wenham Major. He is also a non-executive director of Nottingham-based recruitment firm Staffline.
Surely people were falling over themselves to offer you jobs, I suggest?
"You might be surprised to hear it wasn't quite that simple. I have always been a worrier, I always worry whether I have got something right. I was never over confident that I would find lots of roles. Even now when I take on a new role I seriously ask myself whether I am up to the task.
I suppose when it comes to my chairmanships I must be now."
Again, I'm surprised Crabtree could ever doubt himself. Surely he is the consummate chairman. He is a people man, a man who can read cultures of business very quickly, while his legendary diplomacy is always handy in the turmoil of boardrooms. He adds: "You could say all my new roles are linked. It does not make a difference what the company is. The issues for Metalrax are just the same as those for Staffline. Of course it is different if you are chief executive, but if you are chairman it is all about finding the right people, making sure the culture is right, finding the bit where you can make a difference."
Crabtree is clearly at ease with his new lifestyle - both at home and work. Indeed, he is off to be interviewed for another unspecified role straight after our lunch.
Talking of which, it is no coincidence that he has chosen restaurateur Ann Tonks' new eaterie in the city's commercial core for our meeting. Crabtree's back door entrance is explained by the fact that he is one of several private investors who backed Ann when banks and venture capitalists refused to stump up the cash for the project.
Sitting near the giant window engraved with the giant S of the word Opus, Crabtree is relieved that the building work is now all finished. "You know a few weeks back the S was missing. It would have read: oh poo," he jokes.
On a more serious note he is full of admiration for Ann's entrepreneurial spirit in a notoriously cut-throat business. "Excuse the language but you need real balls to open up a restaurant and I've said to Ann that she's really brave to be doing this. If this venture fails, and I obviously sincerely hope it won't, the loser won't be me but Ann."
The conversation brings us to a wider discussion about the perils of starting a business in Britain today. "It's not easy, not least because of the extraordinary regulation. My wife set up her own business from home five years ago selling wedding favours. You would not believe the sheer bureaucracy she faced. This country is still against being entrepreneurial. The list of regulations just goes on and on," he says.
Crabtree is worried too about the impact on tomorrow's generation of business leaders: "I don't think it makes this generation particularly entrepreneurial. Today students seem to want share option schemes and to pay off their debt."
The radical in Crabtree (he admits to spending two weeks in a sleeping bag for a sit-in during his student days) also makes him fear that today's students don't appear quite as willing to engage in the world around them.
"Whether that's a bad thing I'm not sure but I do think you need some healthy outside interests. While at Wragges I was always really encouraged to do things outside the office and that was really significant for me. There are plenty of things these twenty-somethings could be doing to enrich themselves, take the arts or theatre for instance."
Crabree himself clearly loves the arts, and is certainly an ambassador for the city's arts scene via his links to the Hippodrome Theatre.
"It's one of the jewels of Birmingham but we probably don't do enough to shout about it enough. The same is probably true of Birmingham as a whole. We do need
a stronger collective message. We always get it wrong when we say we are competing with Manchester or London. What we need to do is find our role in the UK economy. We often get it wrong with the language," he says.
Crabtree insists that people like the new head of Marketing Birmingham, Neil Rami, are doing a great job, but that there is a long way to go. I suggest that Crabtree should join him in becoming a wider ambassador for the city. "You're probably right," he says. "I would like to do more to bring together Birmingham's business leaders. There is a danger that us business leaders all get set in our ways, that we don't shout loud enough together or work enough together."
And what of Birmingham's professional services community? Is he surprised at its seemingly unstoppable growth? "In some respects no as it is capable of doing any kind of work. The big imponderable is always staff, something that I was always really conscious of at Wragges. Getting people up here from London was and remains a challenge."
Closer to home, what of the partnership model, what is its future? Does he think proposals to widen the ownership of law firms is a goer? Crabtree believes that the forces of conservatism will remain strong:
"I still believe the partnership model is the right one for professional services firms. Put it this way, I don't think Wragge & Co will be rushing out and getting venture capital (VC) backing."
As Crabtree's afternoon appointment beckons he apologises that he will soon have to dash, although we treat ourselves to a plate of biscuits adorned with cream and various exotic sauces first, while he washes the meal down with a pot of Earl Grey.
I ask if he has thought of a name yet. If not, I suggest he may have to delegate the task to his other children, revealing that my parents had given me and my brother a list of options to choose from when naming my sister - only to then completely ignore them.
"That's not a bad idea although such lists aren't always a good thing. Some years ago I bought a new sailing boat with two friends and we couldn't agree on a name. We each drew up our suggestions and they had a laugh by both coming up with the name gobbler. They insisted rules were rules and that the boat had to be named that and I got in a right grump. When it came to launching the boat they had named her Tantrum," says Crabtree.
Time yet for plenty of those with the new arrival, which has also played havoc with Crabtree's great passion for the high seas. "What with the kid and everything I sold the boat I co-owned earlier this year," he laments. "Although I can see myself getting another before too long," he whispers.
Postscript: Message from Blackberry wireless:
"It's Jessica".
The day before my lunch with John Crabtree the omens weren't looking good. The casual email I had sent to confirm our rendezvous at Birmingham's swanky new Opus restaurant had been greeted with the above. From earlier communication I had known Crabtree junior number six was on its way, but hadn't realised it was quite this imminent.
However, 90 minutes later and we're back on. "Jim, will be there and looking forward to it." Sent from one Blackberry wireless handheld.
Come the luncheon I was a little worried I might somehow be getting in the way of rather more pressing matters. However, spot on 12.30pm in through the back door (more of this later) swoops Crabtree attired in open neck Ralph Lauren shirt, beaming as a proud new father. "Excuse me, I must just go for a pee" are his first words.
He returns to tell me that his newly-born daughter actually came into the world the week before. "We were absolutely convinced it would be a boy so we haven't even come up with a name yet. Last night we were thinking of Jessica, or maybe just Sickie," he jokes. I challenge him to come up with a name by the end of lunch.
So have I got this right I ask, checking my facts. The famed Mr Crabtree, the man who made Birmingham's largest law firm Wragge & Co the empire it is today, is changing nappies again? "Afraid so. That's three of each now: three boys and three girls." This man's legacy clearly isn't just in the legal world.
It's actually been a momentous year for Crabtree. The birth of his sixth child (with his third wife) comes barely six months after his father's death.
I ask how influential his father was, a world renowned ear and throat surgeon. "To be frank he was a difficult man. He was brought up in the days when doctors were gods. He got his own way over everything, including at home. He was not a great listener. It taught me that you cannot always just take the majority view. You have to be a people person, you have to listen to people. I was always on my feet at Wragges, talking to people, getting people engaged," he says.
That includes giving people the benefit of the doubt. "I will not judge people, there are always two sides to a story." Crabtree makes the point again later during a discussion over Rover. "In attacking the former Rover directors Digby (Jones) was prepared to go where others weren't, including me. I would like to hear the directors' story," he says.
Talking of Digby brings us back for a second to the new arrival: "He's her godfather you know. He sent me a very rude text when she was born. I couldn't possibly reveal what he said."
Meanwhile, talk of getting people engaged at Wragge & Co brings us to Crabtree's introductory speeches to new staff which, I venture, have become the stuff of legend. "Really, do people say that? You know I'm not particularly sociable. I was very, very shy as a youngster and I can even be shy now. I also still get really nervous if I'm doing a speech. I did one the other week at a gala dinner at the Hippodrome Theatre and I was as nervous as hell," he says.
After my initial surprise at such a revelation I have no reason not to believe him. "You know I'm really just a family man to be honest. I don't crave lots of attention."
I can certainly believe that too given it's taken me the best part of six months to persuade Crabtree to meet me. Initially he insisted that he would rather talk about his charitable causes - of which there are many including the extraordinary £32.2m he has helped raise for deaf blind charity Sense (surely a place in the Honours List beckons?) - rather than Crabtree the man.
I countered that the Midlands business community would be extremely interested in Crabtree's wider views on business.
Still remarkably just 56, Crabtree spent his whole career at Wragge & Co becoming managing partner in the early 1990s at the depths of a recession. He admits the story could have been very, very different. Instead, by reaching beyond Birmingham for business, he oversaw an expansion of a firm whose impact is still felt in the city's professional services market to this day.
Crabtree stepped down two years ago to make way for his successor Quentin Poole and now does just a day a month with the firm. "Why did I go? Oh, it was definitely time to get out, I had been in charge long enough." Crabtree has since built up a string of directorships in industry including chairmanships of three businesses - Birmingham engineering firm Metalrax, environmental consultancy SLR Holdings and Birmingham accountants MGI Wenham Major. He is also a non-executive director of Nottingham-based recruitment firm Staffline.
Surely people were falling over themselves to offer you jobs, I suggest?
"You might be surprised to hear it wasn't quite that simple. I have always been a worrier, I always worry whether I have got something right. I was never over confident that I would find lots of roles. Even now when I take on a new role I seriously ask myself whether I am up to the task.
I suppose when it comes to my chairmanships I must be now."
Again, I'm surprised Crabtree could ever doubt himself. Surely he is the consummate chairman. He is a people man, a man who can read cultures of business very quickly, while his legendary diplomacy is always handy in the turmoil of boardrooms. He adds: "You could say all my new roles are linked. It does not make a difference what the company is. The issues for Metalrax are just the same as those for Staffline. Of course it is different if you are chief executive, but if you are chairman it is all about finding the right people, making sure the culture is right, finding the bit where you can make a difference."
Crabtree is clearly at ease with his new lifestyle - both at home and work. Indeed, he is off to be interviewed for another unspecified role straight after our lunch.
Talking of which, it is no coincidence that he has chosen restaurateur Ann Tonks' new eaterie in the city's commercial core for our meeting. Crabtree's back door entrance is explained by the fact that he is one of several private investors who backed Ann when banks and venture capitalists refused to stump up the cash for the project.
Sitting near the giant window engraved with the giant S of the word Opus, Crabtree is relieved that the building work is now all finished. "You know a few weeks back the S was missing. It would have read: oh poo," he jokes.
On a more serious note he is full of admiration for Ann's entrepreneurial spirit in a notoriously cut-throat business. "Excuse the language but you need real balls to open up a restaurant and I've said to Ann that she's really brave to be doing this. If this venture fails, and I obviously sincerely hope it won't, the loser won't be me but Ann."
The conversation brings us to a wider discussion about the perils of starting a business in Britain today. "It's not easy, not least because of the extraordinary regulation. My wife set up her own business from home five years ago selling wedding favours. You would not believe the sheer bureaucracy she faced. This country is still against being entrepreneurial. The list of regulations just goes on and on," he says.
Crabtree is worried too about the impact on tomorrow's generation of business leaders: "I don't think it makes this generation particularly entrepreneurial. Today students seem to want share option schemes and to pay off their debt."
The radical in Crabtree (he admits to spending two weeks in a sleeping bag for a sit-in during his student days) also makes him fear that today's students don't appear quite as willing to engage in the world around them.
"Whether that's a bad thing I'm not sure but I do think you need some healthy outside interests. While at Wragges I was always really encouraged to do things outside the office and that was really significant for me. There are plenty of things these twenty-somethings could be doing to enrich themselves, take the arts or theatre for instance."
Crabree himself clearly loves the arts, and is certainly an ambassador for the city's arts scene via his links to the Hippodrome Theatre.
"It's one of the jewels of Birmingham but we probably don't do enough to shout about it enough. The same is probably true of Birmingham as a whole. We do need
a stronger collective message. We always get it wrong when we say we are competing with Manchester or London. What we need to do is find our role in the UK economy. We often get it wrong with the language," he says.
Crabtree insists that people like the new head of Marketing Birmingham, Neil Rami, are doing a great job, but that there is a long way to go. I suggest that Crabtree should join him in becoming a wider ambassador for the city. "You're probably right," he says. "I would like to do more to bring together Birmingham's business leaders. There is a danger that us business leaders all get set in our ways, that we don't shout loud enough together or work enough together."
And what of Birmingham's professional services community? Is he surprised at its seemingly unstoppable growth? "In some respects no as it is capable of doing any kind of work. The big imponderable is always staff, something that I was always really conscious of at Wragges. Getting people up here from London was and remains a challenge."
Closer to home, what of the partnership model, what is its future? Does he think proposals to widen the ownership of law firms is a goer? Crabtree believes that the forces of conservatism will remain strong:
"I still believe the partnership model is the right one for professional services firms. Put it this way, I don't think Wragge & Co will be rushing out and getting venture capital (VC) backing."
As Crabtree's afternoon appointment beckons he apologises that he will soon have to dash, although we treat ourselves to a plate of biscuits adorned with cream and various exotic sauces first, while he washes the meal down with a pot of Earl Grey.
I ask if he has thought of a name yet. If not, I suggest he may have to delegate the task to his other children, revealing that my parents had given me and my brother a list of options to choose from when naming my sister - only to then completely ignore them.
"That's not a bad idea although such lists aren't always a good thing. Some years ago I bought a new sailing boat with two friends and we couldn't agree on a name. We each drew up our suggestions and they had a laugh by both coming up with the name gobbler. They insisted rules were rules and that the boat had to be named that and I got in a right grump. When it came to launching the boat they had named her Tantrum," says Crabtree.
Time yet for plenty of those with the new arrival, which has also played havoc with Crabtree's great passion for the high seas. "What with the kid and everything I sold the boat I co-owned earlier this year," he laments. "Although I can see myself getting another before too long," he whispers.
Postscript: Message from Blackberry wireless:
"It's Jessica".