£100k reshape at Maxwell Stewart

M&E specialist subcontractor Maxwell Stewart has spent £100,000 on a radical transformation of its entire business culture.

Chairman and founder Robert Stewart said: "I wanted to move from a blame culture to a service culture. I did a course at the Hertfordshire Business Link and it changed my life completely: they rip you apart and rebuild you.

"I said to one of the facilitators: 'how can we bring this through our business?' By working together we devised a programme for the staff."

By the time the programme's last module is completed in February, every employee will have been trained. Groups were picked at random, so directors and engineers, for instance, were together.

The company reported a £16m turnover last year, with pre-tax profit of £200,000. Turnover this year is forecast to jump to £24m. The company has 90 employees and the average contract size is between £2m and £3m.

In the 1980s, Stewart's father sold Lorne Stewart and his uncle sold Kyle Stewart, restrictive covenants being struck in both cases stopping family members from re-entering the M&E sector. But Stewart got itchy feet and found a way of making a return, setting up Maxwell Stewart in 1991 with former colleague John Sheehy.

"Over the past 18 months we've been looking at ourselves, trying to change the mind set of our staff," said Stewart. "There is a terrible blame culture in the construction industry, so we've trained staff to think out of the box."

That change has not been without pain. There has been a high staff turnover as many employees who were stuck in their ways had to go.

"The enlightened people stayed and like-minded newcomers have arrived," said Stewart. "Some who left didn't go voluntarily. I was surprised that people dug their heels in so hard and I had no alternative.

"It was frustrating for me for the first six months as I couldn't see any change. But with virtually everyone now through the seven modules, we are now seeing the benefits. We're not there yet, but we're trying."