Noel Hodson
- Project management background:
1) TMP
Accounting Software – 1969/70 - Specified and compiled and co-authored in COBOL
the UK’s first single-entry accounting
software for professional use. Remotely managed the build-up of users and sold
the rights to the TMP business manager. An innovative 18 month project. The
business TMP Accounting flourished for fifteen years.
2)
McVeigh Hodson – Blackstone Franks 1970/80 – Commenced a firm of auditors and
accountants starting with one client. Recruited and managed 1,500 clients and
45 staff and partners. Raised the necessary finance (at today’s values, about
£5M). Acted as Production Manager for 10 years. Sold in-house to partners
Messrs Blackstone and Franks. A ten year project. At today’s values the firm’s
fees would be about £6M.
3)
Mallalieu Engineering – 1978/80 – Adopted a failing 5 man workshop with debts
after the owner died. Built it up to 50 craftsmen and 4 office staff. Improved
immeasurably the quality of specialist vehicles built there which included
Bentley Specials; Hand finished MGB’s, Vintage car rebuilds; 2 new prototype
cars and “Microdot” which, based on a Mini chassis, was the world’s first
petrol/electric hybrid; designed by William Towns, famous for Aston Martin
designs. Required dealing with a mass of red-tape including crash testing,
vehicle registrations, product liability insurances and exports. Stopped legal
threats from Rolls Royce Cars and won them over as supporters. Raised all the
finance, including the first-ever venture capital investment from POSSFUND, the
venture-arm of the Post-Office pension fund, managed by Mr Ralph Quartano.
Displayed cars in Bloomingdales shop windows, in Hollywood Boulevard; in New York; on Japanese TV and in a new
“market” structure attached to the Louvre in Paris. 3-4 years project; in today’s
values the finance peak was about £15M.
4) Hodson
and Associates – Morton Hodson and Co – the first ever UK Business Expansion
Specialists – 1980-87. I conceived the idea to operate this business
consultancy as a “teleworked” network. Built the firm from one office at my
home by franchising. Required licences and authorisations from the British
Franchise Association and from the DTI’s forerunner to the Financial Services
Authority – a massive red-tape exercise. Designed the adverts to win clients
and the adverts to win franchisees; and drafted all the legal agreements.
Designed appropriate home-offices for professionals. Designed training and
support mechanisms. For the first 5 years I briefed all the associates on all
client cases – about 100 per annum per associate; and I personally wrote 500
new business plans and found funding for all of them in respect of my own
client portfolio. Conceived, designed and published a quarterly magazine
“Inventors to Investors” that published about 50 cases at a time to
high-net-worth individuals. Built the firm to 38 UK offices and left in 1987. It
still operates as Morton Hodson & Co with 52 offices – just about UK saturation. I raised all the
required finance up to break-even; about £4M at today’s values and weathered
two major legal attempts to break-up the company.
Within
Morton Hodson & Co I personally raised money for and assisted in the
management of dozens of new enterprises ranging from TelSat – the forerunner of
Sky TV etc. to new hotels, to professional firms, to computer manufacturers, to
heavy engineering. My smallest case was a solo-operator, baby garments
maker.
5)
Docklands redevelopment – Jacob’s Island Company and associated projects –
1979-83 – I assisted 20 year old Andrew Wadsworth over his first 2 years to
start-up his London docklands
regeneration company, advising on all commercial matters and writing the
business forecasts and cash-flow projections. Jacobs Island grew to be a significant
docklands developer with contracts in progress of more than £100 million by
1985. I introduced the first two
high-net-worth investors, introduced the finance director and wrote the
forecasts for New Concordia Wharf that Lloyds Bank relied on to
finance that 90 apartment conversion; at today’s values a project worth about
£70M. The company still has its pavilion offices moored on the Thames near Tower Bridge and is a significant inner-city
regeneration developer.
6) The Southbank Technopark – 1980. I was hired
by Prof John Beishon the director of the Polytechnic of the Southbank, London, now the University of the
Southbank, to help to get the 30,000 sq ft (3,000 sq metres) techno-park built
and tenanted. This was very much a team effort, energetically led by Mr Jeffe
Jeffers who became the first manager of the building. We raised the £6M
costs/value from Prudential Properties and venture funds for new tenants from
Nat-West bank. The project involved sensitive negotiations and agreements with
trade unions operating at the Poly, and between the Techno-park and the
academic department heads so as to give business tenants access to jealously
guarded Polytechnic equipment. We ensured it was accepted as a member of the
respected UK Science Parks Association. I worked on the project for about 18
months.
7) The Oxford Research Science Park 1980-92 – An object lesson in
plagiarism.
I led
this exciting, major proposal for twelve years. There were numbers of obstacles
to overcome that included: persuading the Hebdomadal Council at the University
to accept university linked science parks in Oxford; winning the support of the
local and county planners; designing architects’ plans and responding to
tenders called by the British Rail Property Board (BRPB), the site being 20
acres at Oxford rail station; and not least, raising £80 million for our
300,000 sq. ft. (30,000 sq metres) plan. I built a high quality project team
including Wolfson College as partners and Sir Martin Wood
as a director, and we responded to BRPB’s tenders on 3 occasions some years
apart. Each time our bids won the open tenders – but surprisingly the tenders
were then withdrawn and BRPB refused to sell (to us). The end of this twelve year long and large
project was that Jonathan Aitken, a government Minister, won the ear of BRPB
(now RailTrack), acquired the site for/with his friend, the arms dealer Mr
Wafic Said, with the help of two of Margaret Thatcher’s Cabinet Advisers, who
are now (or were recently) both directors of Mr Said’s enterprise, The Said
Business School, and are (or were) senior officers in Oxford University. Even
more surprisingly the site has been developed almost exactly as we tendered,
with the same masses and positions of buildings, homes, roads, walkways and
offices – so somebody liked it, though they murdered the fine design for the
main building. Sadly, it is not an incubator for new science based businesses
as we had intended.
8)
Experts Unlimited 1997- to date – in 1996 I raised 500,000ecu from the European
Commission to test the novel concepts of Experts Unlimited in Scotland, Ireland
and Spain. This was a 2-3 year project that had as its main objective to
persuade European telephone companies to allow businesses to charge £90 an hour
by telephone. In Ireland we equipped business mentors
with, then scarce, mobile phones and ran a Dublin<->West Coast business
advice service. In Spain we tested a service for marketing
advice and practice with the help of Madrid University- and in Scotland we set up Tax-Line, charging the
public £1.50 a minute for advice. BT found it successful and introduced £1.50 a
minute for pre-vetted professional lines. The nearest developed example, though
free of charge, is now the NHS Health-Line which was inspired and enabled by
Experts Unlimited. I raised another
£400,000 commercially and we operated Tax-Line from a test office in High Wycombe from Mar-Jun 2000. It was a
success and we attracted the public to call in. When the venture capital world
has recovered from the dot.com collapses and scams – we will raise the £5m
required to launch Experts Unlimited in the UK, and ultimately overseas. I
managed all aspects of these actions including the business planning, reports
and finance-raising. (Ask me for a business plan).
9) DIPLOMAT, The European Charter for Telework.
– I co-applied and co-led this EC funded 3.4M ecu 50% funded project that
employed 60 professionals and academics across Europe. Led by Professor Dr. Josef
Hochgerner in Vienna at the University of Bodenkulture, our main objective was to write,
win consensus for and acquire VIP signatures for a Telework Charter. In tandem
we created much of the basic drafting now used for union agreements, IPR
considerations, fiscal and tax issues, training and all other aspects of
introducing the revolutionary concept of telework to mainstream European
persons of influence. I worked on this project for about 3 years – 2 years full
time. I was also primarily responsible for producing fiscal and tax
papers. At today’s values this was a £5M
project. Were we successful? In 1990 there were about 500 UK and 3,000 USA teleworkers – today there are
about 10M EU and 20M USA teleworkers. So we got something
right. Together with my book,
Teleworking Explained and my paper The Economics of Telework, this promotion of
the Information Society often involved me in media appearances – newspapers, TV
and radio. For signatories see – http://www.noelhodson.com\index_files\PAGETWO.htm
10) I have managed innumerable smaller projects,
at one time or another touching on almost all commercial and academic
activities, in the public and private sectors, and in all industrial sectors.
Noel
Hodson – May 2003.