James A. Reed (entrepreneur)
James A. Reed (born April 1963) is a British businessman. He is chairman and chief executive of the Reed group of companies. He is the son of Sir Alec Reed, who founded the company in 1960. He is also chairman of The Big Give Trust, a match-funding charity sponsored and supported in part by the Reed Foundation and the Reed family; the organisation has raised over £191m for UK-registered charities. Education. Reed attended Scaitcliffe prep school and St Paul's. He graduated from Christ Church, Oxford in 1984 with a degree in  Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) and subsequently gained an MBA from the Harvard Business School, where his father briefly joined him to study. At Oxford, Reed was political editor of "Samizdat", a magazine for political science students. At Harvard he produced a case study and video about slum improvement works in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Titled "In The Shadow of The City", the case study was taught at Harvard and other universities. Reed was travel editor of "Harbus News", the Harvard Business School's student news organisation. Early career. Reed's first job was in a cemetery, levelling graves at a  burial site in Old Windsor. In an interview with The Independent newspaper Reed said: "It was miserable, it was cold, it was horrible and hard - and I didn't last very long at it." After graduating from Oxford in 1984, Reed sought to work for an entrepreneur. He wrote a speculative job application to Gordon and Anita Roddick of the Body Shop plc before starting work on the shop floor in the firm's stores in Brighton and Great Marlborough Street, London. The Roddicks subsequently employed him as assistant to then-chairman Gordon. Reed has described his time at the  Body Shop as his transition from university to the world of work. He has cited Anita Roddick as an influence, saying: "If a bottle of jojoba hand lotion wasn't displayed properly on the shelf, she'd pull you up on it. And I really liked that - that combination of real drive and enthusiasm, and getting the details right." During 1985–1986 Reed worked as a media planner and buyer for Saatchi & Saatchi plc, where he planned and managed advertising campaigns for British Rail, Club 18-30, Eurotunnel and Procter and Gamble. From 1987 to 1988 Reed worked for Afghanaid and  Help the Aged, co-ordinating relief and development programmes in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Soviet-occupied Afghanistan. In Afghanistan he established a village assistance programme for farmers affected by regional conflict. He also co-ordinated fundraising, publicity and sponsorship services for Afghanaid, and reported on the Afghan conflict for The Independent newspaper. To enter Afghanistan from Pakistan's border, Reed travelled disguised as an Afghan with a party of Mujahideen rebels. Following his graduation from Harvard in 1990, Reed began a two-year production course at the BBC, where he worked as an assistant producer on documentaries and factual programmes. These  included BBC TV's "Business Matters", for which Reed produced "Crazy Ways for Crazy Days", a 50-minute documentary about management guru Tom Peters, and "The Pros and The Cons", an inside view of prison privatisation at Strangeways. After the Tom Peters documentary grossed £1m, Reed requested funding to make a similar programme – but was turned down, leading him to grow dissatisfied with his employment at the BBC. Reed became a non-executive director of Reed in 1992. In a 2014 radio interview, Reed spoke of the circumstances leading up to joining the family business full-time: "Joining  the family business wasn't a "fait accompli". When my father got to 60 he said, 'James, there's not much point having a family business if there isn't any family in it'. I'd been sitting on the fence for some time. Then one day he said, ‘That job that I have been talking to you about? It’s going to be in The Sunday Times "Appointments" section next week – do you want to apply or not?' That got me off the fence! I was fearful of following him. He was a very successful entrepreneur who'd set  up this business and he was well loved in the business. I was worried about failing. That fear of failure probably kept me on the fence for longer than it should have done." Reed Group. Reed joined the Reed Group full-time in April 1994, as director of operations. He became Chief Executive in February 1997. To symbolise the handover of control of the company, Reed's father presented him with a conductor's baton. The baton now hangs on the wall of Reed's personal office at the company's headquarters in Covent Garden, London. In press interviews, Reed  is often asked to respond to the accusation that his appointment to the family business was an act of nepotism, a point he consistently concedes. In a 2010 "Guardian" interview he said "There is no other way of describing it". Reed's father is quoted as believing that family-run businesses "...cut out a lot of company politics". Reed succeeded his father to the position of chairman in 2004. Reed has said that he considers his three most significant contributions to the Reed Group to be the development of reed.co.uk, the advent of Reed in Partnership and the globalisation of  the company. Under his leadership the company's turnover has grown from £150m to £1.1bn. In June 2018 he relocated Reed Group's corporate HQ from Malta to the UK, citing the firm's predominantly British operations and his personal confidence in Britain's economy post-Brexit. Welfare-to-work (Reed in Partnership). In 1997 the-then Paymaster General Geoffrey Robinson invited Reed to bid for contracts issued by the Blair Government, in which some of the traditional work of Job Centres was outsourced to the private sector. As of 2011, Reed in Partnership employs 900 staff  and has expanded the business into Poland and Australia. De-listing. As chief executive, Reed delisted Reed Executive from the UK Stock Exchange in 2003, buying back the company for 140p per share, at a valuation of £62.6m, an 18% premium to the previous day's closing price. Shares in Reed Executive rose 15% following the announcement. At the time, some financial commentators suggested that the Reed family were taking advantage of a lull in the firm's share price, in the wake of both a cyclical downturn and the controversy over Reed's decision to spin off  Reed Health. Two years later Reed would launch a £38m hostile takeover for Reed Health, following which the company eventually came back under the Reed family's control. Reed stated that the firm was delisted because it no longer had need of outside capital. In his autobiography, Reed's father suggested that the de-listing was due in part to the publication of the Higgs and Cadbury reports into public company governance, both of which called for wide-ranging restrictions upon directors and their appointments. reed.co.uk. reed.co.uk was the first recruitment website offered by a recruitment agency in  the UK. It launched in 1995 with 40 vacancies. It now hosts over 3.3 million jobs per year. The company's first website was suggested and built by a young IT contractor nicknamed "Pancake the Clown", after the contractor's sideline business as a children's entertainer. Reed later said: "The truth of the matter is, I got Pancake the Clown to build our first prototype." Reed has also spoken of being "horrified" when a young member of staff suggested that the website should offer vacancies advertised by rival recruitment firms. Reed would go on to approve the experiment; the  scheme began in May 2000 and by November of the same year over 2000 rival firms had registered on the site. Reed would go on to credit the idea as being the foundation of the firm's online strategy. The junior staff member was paid a £100,000 bonus for his suggestion. Media commentary. Reed regularly comments in the media on employment issues, such as the minimum wage, apprenticeships, automation, workplace skills, employee engagement, taxation reform for family businesses and jobs for prisoners and ex-prisoners. He has called for state contracts to be held back from firms that deliberately  delay payment to creditors. Citing the collapse of Carillion and the £2bn it owed to its suppliers, Reed characterised late-paying firms as "drunk-drivers". He has also encouraged school-leavers to consider joining the workplace instead of attending university, and has called upon Oxbridge universities to increase their intake by doubling their semesters. Reed predicted a 'tsunami of job losses' during the 2020 COVID-19 epidemic, but later became more bullish on the UK economy. In 2022 he commented on the shift in the balance of power toward employees and hybrid working, a change he predicted would last "...for  the duration of this business cycle at least". Reed supports remote work. Reed is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). He was formerly an associate of the Prime Minister's Delivery Unit and a member of the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR)'s business-led Taskforce on Race Equality and Diversity in the Private Sector. In the run-up to the 2010 general election, Reed conducted public video-interviews with the three parliamentary candidates nominated for the role of Secretary of State (Steve Webb, Yvette Cooper and Theresa May), asking questions sent in by  job hunters. For the 2017 general election, Reed's cross-party interviews were conducted with Damien Hinds, Debbie Abrahams and Baroness Kramer. Television appearances. Between 2008 and 2018, Reed was depicted in a series of humorous TV adverts featuring the actor and comedian Rufus Jones. The adverts begin with Jones introducing himself as James Reed. Jones' portrayal of Reed is a knowingly over-acted caricature of a comic book superhero, one who has the superpower to transform job-hunters into their ideal job role. In one advert Reed makes a cameo appearance as an ice cream seller who is transformed  into a nightclub DJ. The adverts have received more than 28 million YouTube views. Some have been directed by the previous year's winners of Reed's annual Short Film Competition. Reed has made appearances in Series 11, 13 and 15 of BBC TV's "The Apprentice". Philanthropy. Reed is a trustee of several Reed family charitable initiatives, including the Reed Foundation and The Big Give Trust. The Big Give is sponsored and supported by the Reed Foundation, which was gifted an 18% stake in Reed Group by the Reed family, leading "The Guardian" newspaper to write that Reed employees  ...effectively work one day a week to fund good causes. The Big Give was founded by James's father Sir Alec Reed in 2007; it is now chaired by James and has helped to raise over £191m for UK-registered charities. During the COVID-19 pandemic Reed re-launched the "Keep Britain Working" campaign, originally launched after the 2008 financial crisis. Alongside Lord Sugar, Lord Bamford, Luke Johnson, James Timpson and others, Reed called upon CEOs to protect jobs by sacrificing management salaries and company profits. During the campaign Reed declined his salary from the family business. He also  donated £100,000 from personal funds to the National Emergencies Trust (NET), which was matched by a £100,000 donation from the Reed Foundation made via The Big Give, whose campaign for NET raised £1.36m in total. Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, The Big Give raised over £3.5m for the Disasters Emergency Committee Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal. In the same year The Big Give raised £1.8m for women & girls charities, in co-ordination with International Women's Day. In January 2022 Reed signed the Armed Forces Covenant on behalf of Reed Recruitment, in  support of current and former service personnel in their transition away from the military. Grenfell Tower appeal. Reed's family home in London is within sight of Grenfell Tower. After witnessing the Grenfell Tower fire, Reed set up a Big Give charity appeal that raised £1m within 48 hours of the disaster. The appeal went on to raise £2.6m. Reed donated £100,000 of his own money and the Reed Foundation donated a further £100,000, alongside donations made by members of the public, businesses and local organisations. The proceeds were donated to The K&C Foundation . Reed has called for some of the appeal proceeds to be spent on an educational centre for residents of the area to learn coding and other digital skills, as part of a wider project to form a hub of digital companies in North Kensington. Publications. Section::::"Put Your Mindset to Work". Coauthored by Reed and Harvard lecturer Paul G. Stoltz, "Put Your Mindset to Work" was published by Portfolio Penguin in May 2011. The book highlights the importance of an employee's mindset, observing that 97% of employers value mindset over skill. The book identifies three elements of a desirable mindset , namely "Global, Good" and "Grit". The authors characterise a "Global" executive as one who sets their actions and decisions in a global context; a "Good" executive is sensitive to others and seeks to do good; an executive with "Grit" is tenacious in the workplace. The title entered the "USA Today" best-seller list in June 2011. It won a CMI "Management Book of the Year Award," in the Commuters' Read category. A second edition was published in August 2013, with endorsements from Timpson CEO James Timpson, Gordon Roddick and management author Jim Kouzes. Section::::"Why You: 101 Interview Questions You'll  Never Fear Again". Reed's second book with Penguin Portfolio is based on input from his network of hirers, recruiters and interviewees. Reed argues all interview questions are variations on 15 themes, referred to as "The Fateful Fifteen". He goes on to caution against relying on scripted answers alone, citing the interviewer's desire for a spontaneous and authentic conversation. The book was awarded a "Highly Recommended" by Bookbag.co.uk; the "Notting Hill Post" described it as "...essential reading". Section::::"The 7-Second CV: How to Land the Interview". The title refers to the critically brief amount of time that recruiters spend  reading a CV. Reed offers advice on presenting an immediately-impactful CV, honing a unique selling point and the role of social media profiles. The book was endorsed by Lord Sugar. Section::::"The Happy Recruiter". In June 2019 Reed published "The Happy Recruiter", a short book offering career advice for professional recruiters. Section::::"Life’s Work: 12 Proven Ways to Fast-Track Your Career". Published in January 2020, "Life's Work" is aimed at those about to choose or switch career. Reed argues that successful careers are built on ambition, positivity, self-knowledge and self-discipline. Successful executives tend to be sociable  and gregarious - but also “sustainably selfish”, establishing personal boundaries to protect against burnout. Reed also emphasises the importance of working in high-growth sectors, where structural change sweeps the individual onward - a phenomenon Reed likens to Poohsticks. In a 2020 interview with "Management Today", Reed described Dale Carnegie's "How To Win Friends And Influence People" as being the business book that "...resonated most with me". Personal life. Reed is married to Nicola. The couple live in London and Wiltshire and have six children. His hobbies are said to include running, riding and driving horses, football and mountaineering. Reed rides  a Vespa to work. He has participated in two of Reed's annual Alpine Leadership Challenges led by the alpinist Stefan Gatt. Reed has identified his father as the person he most admires in the recruitment industry, and King Alfred the Great as his boyhood hero. Awards. In 2019 Reed was voted top recruitment CEO on Glassdoor's "Employees' Choice" awards, and 20th CEO across all industries. In the same year he was named in the "Europe Staffing 100" list of recruitment professionals, published by "Staffing Industry Analysis." In 2020 "CEO Today" magazine named Reed in its ist of notable  CEOs. In 2021 the TIARA Recruitment Awards added Reed to the "Saffery Champness Hall of Fame", for his contribution to the recruitment industry.