Law firm CEO Alexandra Hatchman has revealed her template for growth 鈥� and admitted telling bad jokes is part of her leadership style.
She has lived and worked in Australia, Belgium, Spain and the US and 聽after returning to the UK in 2016, joined Fletchers Solicitors, and helped the firm grow its turnover from 拢18m to 拢45m during her five-year stay.
She鈥檚 also held senior roles at Marks & Spencer, Tesco and Accenture in the UK before joining Napthens in February 2022.
Hatchman said being seen as a human being is vital in leadership 鈥� which is where her reputation for telling bad jokes comes in.
鈥淵our CV is one thing, but actually it鈥檚 how you do business,鈥� she said. 鈥淵ou have to inspire people and they have to want to work for you. It鈥檚 an employee鈥檚 market so there is fierce competition out there. People join businesses and they leave bosses.
鈥淏efore I joined Napthens I went and visited multiple offices and introduced myself in person. I then reached out to every single person on LinkedIn, which obviously took some time and I wrote them an individual email personally.
鈥淭he last thing that I do, which I am absolutely known for, is I tell really bad jokes. As a leader, stuff like that really humanises you. My jokes are so bad that they鈥檙e funny.
鈥淢y mantra is to lead people with a wise head, with a kind heart and with strong backbone and use them in that order. You only use strength if you need to. But if you use wisdom first and then kindness second, that will take you an awfully long way.鈥�
Hatchman said she has a 鈥榖ottom up and top down鈥� approach to business.
鈥淚t鈥檚 important to do everything right, every time and doing it better and better by 1% every day,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 about the marginal gains that the cycling supremo Sir David Brailsford spoke about. You can go a long, long way when you do that.
鈥淵ou have to obsess about your customer. You have to understand how to serve them out and why they would want to buy from you. For me that whole customer obsession is absolutely paramount.鈥�
In her previous role she used data from Experian to better understand the needs and behaviour of her customers.
鈥淲e are living in a world of machine learning and AI,鈥� she said.
鈥淚 see a lot of businesses that kind of try and operate on instinct. I think that鈥檚 really good in many ways and a lot of founders have been really successful doing that.
鈥淢y challenge to them would be 鈥榶es, use your instinct, but then also use the data. Why don鈥檛 you use both of those and plug them together?鈥�
鈥淭he world is changing so fast that your instincts which have been fine-tuned on history may not be serving you right.鈥�
Hatchman said when businesses go from startup to scale-up they have to get the right foundations in place.
鈥淲e all know that businesses all too often will go bust while they鈥檙e growing, which always surprises me,鈥� she said.
鈥淭hey go bust while they鈥檙e growing because they focus so heavily on the top line. They forget about the bottom line and they forget about cash.
鈥淲hen you鈥檙e growing really fast, you have to take care of those foundations, because your weakest link is going to be exposed.鈥�
Napthens currently has a turnover of 拢20m and when it comes to recruitment, Hatchman鈥檚 advice is to recruit the best.
鈥淚 would always rather have five A鈥檚 in my team rather than 15 B and C players,鈥� she explained. 鈥淚 can absolutely move mountains with five A players but I can鈥檛 with 15 B and C players.
鈥淲hen you recruit attitude is very important because skills you can teach.鈥�