I have spent a lifetime in recruitment and I like to interview people, so I appreciate good questions. Peter Norris, Chairman of the Virgin Group, once asked me one over lunch: does your family have a purpose?
I promised to go away and reflect. Some weeks later, I came back to him: ‘Our purpose is to build businesses that are of benefit to society,’ I said. ‘And we enjoy connecting people, for good.’
That’s what we try to do every day at Reed, the largest family-owned recruitment firm in the world, and it reflects what Spear’s does so successfully too. So I am honoured to be asked to contribute this foreword.
Another good question I have been asked is: what’s your first memory of money, and how did it affect your attitude to it?
Mine was on a family holiday in Monaco in the early 1970s. My father held out a new £20 note and said: ‘If anyone can tell me who this is pictured on this note, they can have it.’ This got my immediate attention, and I could see that the person in the picture had a pile of books. The only writer I had heard of at that age was Shakespeare, so that’s what I said – and I was right.
[See also: Everything you need to know about The Spear’s 500]
However, my father was embarrassed to be seen to give such a large sum to one of his children in front of his friends and didn’t give me the note. That made me take money very seriously, and has done ever since.
Content from our partners
A third good question is: what’s the defining moment of your career so far?
That for me came in a double accident on the Matterhorn, where I came within inches of death and then shattered my leg. The time spent in recovery made me reconsider what I wanted to do with my life and led to Reed becoming a purpose-led company that is now part-owned by a charitable foundation: or what I call a Philanthropy Company, or PhilCo.
I think I am now one of the longest-serving chief executives around – I have seen nine prime ministers since I took over in February 1997. One of the main lessons I have learned along the way is the importance of your team. Who you choose to work with and how you pick them is paramount to your success. The information provided by Spear’s is hugely valuable in helping people identify and connect with the right partners and advisers, supporters and friends.
I remember when we were publicly listed, we were looking for a broker. The last one that came in said: ‘We could pitch to be your adviser, but we think you should be a private company.’ Their thinking and advice went beyond the question we had posed – and we chose to embrace it. The best advisers do that: make you think creatively. In a lifetime in business, I’m acutely aware that you are only as good as the people you work with internally and externally.
Trust is key to any good relationship. In business, there are two types of trust. One is based on integrity. The other comes from competence. You have to have both ingredients for a good, trusting relationship.
Businesses have a unique opportunity to build trust with their audiences: customers, employees (or as we call them, co-members) and the community. As trust in our other institutions is so damaged, business can take the lead and step up in the year ahead.
[See also: James Reed wins the Spear’s Impact Award in Association with Clinic Les Alpes]
One way we try to do that at Reed is through the charity we founded and I chair, Big Give. It works in a very simple way: we double donations made by the public to other charities taking part in different appeals across the year.
We bring in philanthropists, companies and foundations to act as our ‘champions’ and put up the money to match-fund public donations. There’s an opportunity for anyone who wants to engage philanthropically to have their funds multiplied, often several times, by Big Give. We have already raised £300 million for thousands of other charities and in 2025 we are aiming to raise more than ever before.
I hope that in future, the UK government may embrace a more American approach to philanthropy and incentivise giving in a much more coherent way. When the challenges we face as a society are as large as they are, governments alone cannot hope to solve them. We need to unleash a thousand small battalions by energising our third sector.
My father used to talk about helping people avoid what he called ‘financial obesity’. No-one should become financially obese. We need to offload a bit before it becomes bad for us. Yet the richest in the UK are giving away a smaller proportion of their income than they used to. And if you look at the FTSE 100, less than one per cent of their net profit goes to charity.
I want more of the top one per cent to do more through Big Give – and by joining the PhilCo movement, which encourages businesses to embed philanthropy into their ownership structure. It’s been good for our business, particularly for our co- members who feel motivated to work one day a week for charity. It has also been good for me as a leader. This year, I hope more of you will join us.
James Reed CBE, Chairman and CEO of Reed
