There’s no fixed path to success for a CEO

Andy Cook became CEO of Canine Partners in September 2009 - a charity that trains assistance dogs for people with disabilities.  He was dog-mad as a child, having his first aged twelve, and quickly became involved with the local dog club instructing at their obedience classes.  Andy studied Modern Languages (French and Italian) at Cambridge University - a four year course involving year out which he spent teaching in Italy. 

Back in Cambridge for the final year he resumed his involvement with dog training, was running a dog club and thinking about career choices.  His father was a teacher, he enjoyed teaching but most 

importantly Andy wanted to do something that made a difference. Having raised funds for Hearing Dogs their job advertisement for a kennel boy caught his eye.  He was offered the job and within weeks was promoted to do what he really wanted - train dogs. That was in 1988 and hasn’t looked backed, working his way up the organisation to Deputy CEO in 2003.

3 years later Hearing Dogs were recruiting for a new CEO - the natural next step for Andy, who was ready for a new challenge. He was the only candidate that got through to the second round of interviews that wasn’t an accountant. He then hit his first real set back - he didn’t get the job.  It was a massive knock, made worse by problems in his personal life.  Ready for a new challenge he discovered that Terry Knott, CEO of Canine Partners was recruiting a Director of Operations and wanted someone with the drive and vision to take over as CEO when he retired a few years later. 

Andy started at Canine Partners as Director of Operations in September 2006. His first day coincided with the first day Hearing Dogs was without a CEO as their newly appointed CEO had departed.  It was assumed that Andy would return to his former employer but he  told Terry and his team that he’d made his decision to move to Canine Partners and that’s where he was staying.

SFM: Tell me about Canine Partners’ exciting and challenging growth plans. 

Andy: From 2005 to 2008 Canine Partners grew from placing 11 dogs per year to placing 40 dogs per year and our plans were to continue this growth.  The training centre at Heyshott has a maximum capacity to train 60 dogs per year so our growth plans required investment in a new training centre.

The fundraising pipeline is long and slow, and it takes 18 months from choosing a puppy to placing it with a partner, so we are always planning 18 - 24 months ahead. During the latter part of 2008 we were budgeting for 2009 and looking ahead to 2010. In the autumn of 2008 the recession was starting to bite so we made the decision to flat line at 40 dogs per year for 3 years. Waiting to see how the recession affected us was too risky.

My first major new initiative when I took over as CEO was a consultation with all our stakeholders to find what we were good at, what we could do better, and what our stakeholders wanted us to be.  I believe that if you have plans to make major changes and you want them to be successful, it’s imperative that your involve your stakeholders, particularly when you are dependent on volunteers and corporate sponsors.

The consultation revealed some very interesting facts and I was surprised at some of the results. I thought the majority of the staff would say ‘small is beautiful’ and be opposed to expansion however the overriding feeling was that we must grow, but we must feel the same, continue to be excellent at what we do, and maintain our personal touch and the family feel. I knew we could achieve the proposed growth and maintain our personal touch with an additional training centre and more satellites.

Our growth plans necessitated developing a second training centre and to make them deliverable we went through an organisational restructure which made some fundamental changes to the way we operated.   One of the main challenges we face within our aftercare network is to maintain standards and make those involved in delivering the aftercare feel part of a team. Aftercare is provided by an extended family of “aftercare assistants” who work with us as-and-when required - my experience is that the more dogs and partnerships they work with, the better they become. Having representatives spread out hundreds of miles away from Heyshott is a challenge that is overcome by working through networks such as this: we also have national networks of puppy training satellites, puppy trainers, occupational therapists and volunteer supporter groups across the UK, working together as a team and supporting each other. We send out regular information from Heyshott too, so everyone knows what’s going on at the charity. 

In our restructure we also beefed up our puppy supply team (who have already increased numbers of pups from 67 to 110 in just a year) as well as our fundraising. These changes are now in place, the team is completely behind the expansion and the plans for a new training centre are well underway. All very exciting stuff!

SFM: When you took over as CEO you continued being Director of Operations too. These are both demanding roles - how did you manage?

Andy: When I was promoted from Director of Operations to CEO in September 2009 the recession was biting hard.  As Director of Operations I’d had a big influence on the running of the charity because 70-75% of what we do is operational and I had made some significant changes.  We were still working through the organisational restructure which I needed to see through.   My promotion was a great opportunity for me, but equally it gave those staff that wanted to take on more responsibility the chance to develop and be promoted.  I wanted my team to see that with hard work and the right attitude there were great opportunities for them within Canine Partners.  Also hiring expensive senior managers from outside the organisation was a financial risk we could do without and would send out the wrong messages internally and externally.

Some people say that the role of the CEO is 75% outward looking and 25% inward looking, however for the first couple of years I saw a need to be inwards looking to follow through the operational changes and ensure we had a solid base for our next phase of growth. Because I was promoted from within I also needed to show leadership, commitment and that I was prepared to roll up my sleeves when needed.  What I delivered at that stage was of far greater benefit to Canine Partners than spending the majority of my time away from Heyshott developing relationships with corporate partners etc.

I would have been happy to carry on with both roles, however with the acquisition of a second training centre on the horizon I recognised that my managers were starting to feel the impact so we recruited David Bailey as Director of Operations. He joined the team in February.  Like me, David’s 25 year career to date has been working with assistance dogs. He brings a wealth of skills and experience. David has worked alongside Canine Partners for a number of years in his previous roles and has been impressed by the commitment and dedication of the team here and their ability to deliver an excellent service in a relaxed manner. Something he wants to be part of and develop further.

SFM: How did you decide where to locate the new Canine Partners training centre?

Andy: We took a strategic approach to where we would locate the new training centre and considered Manchester, Scotland, the Midlands and East Anglia. Before I took over as CEO there was a rather competitive feel between us and Dogs for the Disabled - another charity that provides disabled people with assistance dogs. Both charities have a common goal, namely to provide a really good service to people with disabilities, so there’s nothing to be gained from being competitive.  I also know their CEO personally so we’ve agreed to adopt a more collaborative approach so we now bring our Chairs of Trustees together annually, to check our plans do not overlap.  We recognised a dead spot in the dog assistance field right in the centre of the country so we settled on the Loughborough area for our new training centre.

It’s a stroke of luck that David, our new Director of Operations, is from Nottingham so he’s spending four days a week here at the moment but once we’ve established we can get planning permission for the property we’ve identified as suitable he will spend more time in the Midlands.  Part of the organisational restructure involved managing roles by job function rather than location so David will have team members at both locations.

We have already set up a puppy satellite and fund raising committee in the Midlands and have a programme of events where we demonstrate our assistance dogs to raise awareness and get the fundraising underway in that area. 

SFM: Apart from deferring your growth plans did you have to make any other changes to weather the recession?

Andy:  As well as our decision to put the expansion plans on hold, we introduced concrete measures to monitor income and expenditure more closely and, as I mentioned, we didn’t recruit a Director of Operations when I was promoted. We do have a ‘make do and mend’ approach providing it doesn’t compromise our standards in any way.  Our income was OK and we ended up with a surplus thanks to a legacy. We hadn’t had many legacies previously so it’s not an income source we would ever rely upon. Most importantly our prudent approach and acting as soon as the recession began rather than waiting to see what happened meant we didn’t have to make any redundancies. As CEO I see myself responsible for the whole team so I’d have been losing sleep if we’d needed to lose staff. This year is going to be tough but we monitor everything closely and providing we’re careful we’ll deliver what we say we will.

SFM:  Training is often one of the first things to suffer in a recession - have you been able to provide your team with any training?

Andy: Since we did the organisational restructure the team is better placed and in a stronger position to take the growth plans forwards. We have introduced leadership training and coaching for every member of staff managing other staff.  As I’m a team leader it includes me!  The training has created an excellent support structure for our team leaders.

Once a month all the team leaders have a coaching session. And the beauty of it is that it’s free of charge! One of our corporate sponsors, Nestle Purina, put us in touch with a retired coach and management trainer who wanted to use his skills working with a charity pro bono.  Because our team leaders have good training and good support it has really helped them develop and has provided them with the tools to take on new challenges.

SFM: Do you find that being based in Midhurst, West Sussex affects your ability to attract high calibre staff?

Andy: Not at all.  I’ve worked with assistance dogs since I graduated so as well as knowing the sector inside out I have many friends in the industry too. People expect to relocate when they work in this field.  The hard work we put in to control costs, our continuing commitment to high standards, the restructuring and the everyday leader programme has paid off as the feeling with the industry is that Canine Partners has something special going on and it’s the place to work. It’s not just gossip as every week we get c.vs sent to us by people that want to work for Canine Partners. 

SFM: Tell me more about collaborating with third parties, like Dogs for the Disabled to give the disabled a really good service

Andy: Our aim to give a really good service to people with disabilities is driven by innovation and our ability to tailor-make the training of each dog for its chosen partner. If people have more than one disability then we’ll work together with other relevant charities. For example we trained the first dual canine partner/guide dog, for Steph who is visually impaired and uses an electric wheelchair. “Vegas” works brilliantly for Steph - we collaborated with Guide Dogs to train her. We are currently working with Hearing Dogs to train dual assistance dogs for people who are deaf and use wheelchairs. This collaborative work sometimes involves some compromise, for example the type of dog we might use. The majority of our dogs are quite large, such as Labradors and Retrievers because their size is ideal to help someone in a wheel chair and they tend to be nice patient dogs, however we might choose a smaller dog for a dual hearing dog - we have one in training at the moment. All of us work under the umbrella of Assistance Dogs UK, working together to make sure our respective dogs are allowed to accompany their human partners into public places.

We also join up with Headley Court Military Hospital to provide members of the armed forces with assistance dogs, with funding from Help for Heroes.  

SFM: What gives you a buzz?

Andy:  When I was thinking about a career I wanted to do something that really makes a difference as I thrive on change and challenge.  If you work with dogs and people, especially people with disabilities, you have to enjoy change and the challenges it brings.  Dogs and people change as they mature, added to which many disabilities worsen over time. Some conditions such as MS are unpredictable so you need to be able to react if things get worse. People that like control and having everything constant wouldn’t enjoy working in this environment.

I love working with dogs and providing innovative solutions to improve the quality of life for a disabled person gives me a real buzz. What I really want to do is to help a greater number of people.  It’s terrific to see the difference an assistance dog brings to someone’s quality of life.

SFM: What is your view of the role of a CEO?

Andy: Before I became CEO I attended a course designed for first time CEOs. The person delivering the course had the view that the role was stressful and it’s lonely at the top so you need a good support network in order to survive. He had a rather jaundiced view and seemed to have found the experience particularly stressful. I’m sure that in larger organisations it can be the case but it isn’t my experience.

We were undergoing a period of change when I was promoted so I felt I needed to roll up my sleeves and show my commitment to these changes by playing a significant part in the implementation. I also needed to show leadership which I couldn’t have done if I was off site building relationships.

Canine Partners is a small charity with a family feel and I’m lucky to have a very supportive Chair of Trustees.  As CEO I’m responsible for delivering our strategy and simultaneously maintaining that family feel.

I don’t think there is a set formula for being a successful CEO as every organisation is different and what is important to every business is different and changes over time. When the most important thing at Canine Partners was to restructure to put the foundations in place for growth my focus inward facing. Now that the organisational restructure is complete and we have a Director of Operations I am in a position to be more outwards facing and build relationships.

Summary

It’s quite clear Andy is passionate about and loves what he does. It’s a well known fact that we’re more likely to excel at things we enjoy.  Over two thousand years ago Aristotle (384-322 BC) said that ‘pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work’ and in his blog last August Tony Schwartz recommends that the first of six keys to being excellent at anything 
(http://www.theenergyproject.com/blog/six-keys-being-excellent-anything) is to ‘pursue what you love.’

Whilst passion can be infectious it isn’t nearly enough to keep everyone on board and focused. Andy has achieved major change at Canine Partners through his ability to hear everyone’s voice, to work as part of a team and roll up his sleeves whilst simultaneously demonstrating his ability as a leader. Prudent planning and controls when the recession first hit minimised risks and avoided sleepless nights further down the line and although growth plans were put on hold it didn’t stop Andy driving innovation forwards to develop dual trained dogs.

Andy said he couldn’t tell me whether people think he’s doing a good job as CEO but from what I’ve heard and what I saw during my couple of visits to Canine Partners if they were listed on a Stock Market I’d be investing in some shares.

Further information

Website www.caninepartners.co.uk/Index.htm

Newsletters www.caninepartners.co.uk/Newsletter

Annual Reviews - www.caninepartners.co.uk/reports_and_accounts

Headley Court Military Hospital - www.nhs.uk/Livewell/Militarymedicine/Pages/HeadleyCourt.aspx

Assistance Dogs UK - http://www.assistancedogs.org.uk/

Nestle Purina - http://www.purina.co.uk/Home/

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