The Tinker Bell Principle

We talk to John Bridge about his outstanding career

For nearly 20 years John Bridge was Managing Director of the haulage company built up by his father – C W Bridge Ltd. He is now Chief Executive of the Cambridgeshire Chambers of Commerce & Industry Ltd, an independent, dynamic business membership and services organisation accredited by the British Chambers of Commerce, as well as Chairman of Opportunity Peterborough, and a board member of the Greater Cambridge-Greater Peterborough Local Enterprise Partnership. Based in Huntingdon, he divides his time between Peterborough and Cambridge, and in 1997 was awarded the OBE for his services to the office of the prime minister, John Major.

FIRST THINGS FIRST – WHERE DID YOUR CAREER START?

I started my career in management training with the Marshall Group in Cambridge. Although my family had a haulage company, I really wanted to have my independence, and I agreed with my father that I would go off and make my own way to show that I could achieve things. I’ve always been independent. I continue to be independent – I like to see results based on my own efforts.

YOU LATER GRAVITATED BACK TOWARDS THE FAMILY BUSINESS. DID THAT SEEM LIKE A NATURAL PROGRESSION?

Not really! The Marshall Group gave me a very good foundation not only in the basics of management but also in human resource management. They sent me to Ashridge Management College, and I developed my expertise in that way. From the Marshall Group I was headhunted by a company up in the Midlands called the Ryland Vehicle Group, and then a division of the BTR group called Serck Services. Within Serck Services – motor trade components – I covered not only the whole of the UK, but 10 operations in the Middle East as well. So I got a lot of travel, and clearly I learnt a lot about the way large companies operate. After that I was contacted by Michael Marshall and went back to the Marshall Group again. When I’d been there a couple of years my father became ill and asked me to get involved with the family business, and we agreed that I’d do so for 12 months. That turned into close on 20 years!

DID THAT SEEM LIKE THE RIGHT TIME TO BE GOING BACK, HAVING PROVED YOUR INDEPENDENCE?

I’ve always liked challenges that are also interesting. Road haulage, at the time I went in – 1986 – was challenging, and the business had some key strategic issues that needed to be dealt with. Like anything, whenever I get involved with a job I like to find out what’s going on and how it ticks before I actually do anything because even if it’s not ticking the right way, you need to understand what’s happening in order to make your own judgements and decide which way you want to proceed.

YOU’RE INVOLVED IN VARIOUS CAPACITIES WITH A LARGE NUMBER OF BODIES, BUSINESSES AND ORGANISATIONS. HOW DO YOU KEEP ALL THOSE THINGS GOING?

I think that it’s part of what I enjoy doing. I’ve always been able to juggle many balls in the air at the same time. I like the variety, and I find I can concentrate 100% on whichever organisation it is as I deal with it. They do stimulate each other, too. At the end of the day, the key thing is it’s all about relationships with people. It’s a matter of developing those relationships, making sure that you’ve got the right people in the right places, because if you haven’t got that, then you’re never going to succeed.