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Biography of Scottish Entrepreneur Willie Haughey

A brief look at the inspiring life and career of one of the most successful Scots entrepreneurs of all time, Willie Haughey. From young school leaver to employer of 11,000 people, read on and learn about City Refrigeration’s business success story.

The Early Years
After leaving school at 15 with no qualifications, Scot entrepreneur Willie Haughey succeeded in building the biggest privately-owned facilities management company in Europe with a turnover of 400 million.

From a fledgling operation with just four employees in 1985, to a global giant employing 11,000 people, Glasgow-based entrepreneur Willie Haughey grew from a working-class Gorbals boy to the largest private employer in Scotland.

Delivering milk kept him in pocket money before the young Willie finally landing an apprenticeship with local firm Turner Refrigeration. After developing his engineering skills at Springburn College, Willie spent two and half years in Abu Dhabi, working on of lucrative air conditioning contracts for UTS Carrier (USA), in the oil-rich United Arab Emirates.

But Willie didn’t stop there – using his spare time to plan and establish contacts he laid the foundations for his own empire back home in Scotland.

With 70,000 of start-up capital and Willie’s life savings, City Refrigeration was born in 1985. The big idea start a refrigeration company that specialised in installing and servicing cooling systems for the drinks industry.

Willies determination and an self-belief, finally led to a breakthrough contract with major brewers Tennent Caledonian and the beginning of the success story. Before long every major brewer in Scotland were onboard, and propelled City Refrigeration into the fast lane as one of the fastest-growing private companies in Europe.

City Refrigeration Expands
In 1996 William Haughey had a stroke of genius that transformed City from being a moderately successful refrigeration business into a hugely successful facilities management company, with clients worldwide.

Following successful maintenance contracts for supermarket giant Asda in Scotland and the North of England, City Refrigeration’s stellar performance resulted in it’s contract being rolled out to every store in the UK.

Hot on their heels, several other major British companies such as House of Fraser, Waterstones and Ladbrokes now also appoint City, and with promising new opportunities opening up in the Middle East and Australia, plus longer-term plans to break into the US market, Willie confidently predicts that turnover will more than double over the next few years.

The considerable success of City Refrigeration has not been achieved with speculative ventures however. A careful approach combined with well cultivated, long-term partnerships with people and companies has been critical to City’s expansion plans.

But despite being a highly successful tycoon, Willie Haughey has always kept his feet on the ground. City Refrigerations brand new 23 million headquarters, which was opened by the former Prime Minister Gordon Brown in 2009, is located right in the heart of the old Gorbals district, on a site where Willie’s childhood home once stood.

Willie himself still marvels at the amazing co-incidence and chuckles at the thought that a streetwise kid from the Gorbals is now running his worldwide empire from his old backyard!

The recipient of a raft of awards and accolades, including honours from his native city Glasgow, an honorary doctorate by Glasgow Caledonian University and even been decorated by the Queen. The Sunday Times Rich List Dr Haughey OBE estimates his personal fortune at 50 million but, as you would expect, Willie never comments on speculation about his net worth.

Diploma Of Management Online – Learn How To Manage You Team Professionally

People who have skills to create or develop their own ways towards success can improve their chances for success greatly with the right training. Those who willing to see themselves sitting on the seat or want to be a leader, they must learn to hire or employee right and skilled people in their company, learn how to organize their day to day work load and also have capability to motivate their employees for an outstanding output in their respective fields. So, if you are thinking of going into the business world or want to establish your business in Australia, it is generally a good idea to enroll yourself into business administration course in Australia. This course allows you to get all these expertise from the comfort of your home through which you can step into the world of business world and can easily lead multiple teams as well.
Courses of management can not only improve your motivational and recruiting skills but also provide you project models and proven business processes through which you can polish and increase your efficiency and effectiveness. Sometimes it is really very difficult to handle too much workload, but knowing how to efficiently assign tasks to your team members and how to increase productivity in a limited time frame make a project successful. Almost every good management course in Australia focuses on the most important business strategies and information and eliminates the time-wasting irrelevant material.
Some business management training courses offer in person training while some offer completely online platform to polish management skills. The only of an in-person class is that it offers you a face-to-face time with the instructor. But, this way of learning is quite expensive and not offers flexible timings to sign up for the class. Thats why students need to adjust work and family schedules around the class. On the other hands, an online management course provides you tons of flexibility at a lower cost. Many still allow for access to trainers or instructors via live chat or e-mail.
Today, with the increase of modern science and technology, online schools are booming in all over the world. In the past, people would have questioned the validity and guarantee of an online course, but now they are open to the same as everything is authorized. In fact there are so many well reputed Australian colleges and universities that are offering online learning courses to raise the literacy standard in all over the world.
Many choose an online degree simply because of its convenience and flexibility. People who are tied up with responsibilities or are working full time with a demanding lifestyle can now enhance their skill set easily. For those who want to Study in Australia without living here, Australia offers best of best business colleges in Australia for online education. So, it is a golden chance to make some online search and get Diploma of management course in Australia from any best Business college in Australia. In this way, you learn about all the aspects of a business rather than focusing on just a single area of development.

John Leigh Wins Lifetime Achievement Award

Recognised for 40 years as key industry figure.

John Leigh, Managing Director of Europcar UK and National Car Rental, has received the highly coveted lifetime achievement accolade in the Holiday Autos Partner of the Year Awards, confirming his status as an industry legend. In acknowledging his enormous and positive influence which has helped to shape and evolve the sector, the Holiday Autos Partner of the Year Awards ceremony honoured John for his dedication and commitment to the vehicle rental industry.

The Award was presented by Brian Murphy, Group Managing Director of Lastminute.com at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

“The evening was very emotional for me and I feel proud to be honoured by the industry in this way,” said John Leigh. “The Award was a complete surprise and it means a great deal to me to be recognised by my colleagues and partners who have put this industry where it is today.

John Leigh began his working life promoting concerts of legendary acts like Roy Orbison and Pink Floyd. In 1967 he decided to get a proper job and joined Godfrey Davis eventually to become Europcar, where he held a number of management roles. In 1972 he joined Swan National where he enjoyed a successful career culminating in his appointment as Managing Director in 1990 shortly after it had rebranded itself as EuroDollar.

Following an MBO from TSB and the acquisition of EuroDollar by National Car Rental USA, John was given responsibility for launching National into the EMEA marketplace.

In February 2007, the European operation was acquired by Europcar and John was appointed Managing Director of Europcar UK Group the largest daily rental company in the country.

As Chairman of the BVRLA in 2006/7, John played a leading role in defining and implementing industry standards for quality and customer service. He is also a Vice President of Chelsea football club, as well as being a very active patron of the Make-A-Wish-Foundation, a charity that grants wishes to often terminally ill young people. Two years ago he was also honoured with an “Unsung Hero Award” by the Celebrity Guild of Great Britain in recognition of his charitable work.

“I cant think of anyone more deserving of this award than John” confirmed Brian Murphy of Holiday Autos. “He has been the driving force behind the success of the industry, not just the growth of his own business. His vision and dedication has led to many of the innovations car rental customers now take for granted and he continues to challenge and lead the sector forward to new levels of service.”

Increase Corporate Momentum And Focus With Business Management Training

There is a better than average probability you are employed by one of the three million family operated businesses spanning North America who are not less than twenty years old or older as either an owner, an heir, or possibly a manager.

Your economic long term future and that of your family, together with the business itself, is going to be dependant upon how successfully the company incorporates business management training at each level, to be able to succeed in the management and ownership passage from today’s management to another generation of leaders.

A lot of these productive companies, and they are successful companies because they are still in business long after others who were formed when they were, are now facing maybe their most significant challenge. Business management training at every level of the organization helps them beat the lengthy odds again and get through the transition to the next generation of owners.

One of the popular practical business management training programs is one that connects business owners, successors, and senior level supervisors with their peers in several similar businesses. When these kinds of people meet regularly to share management insights and experiences, everyone attending benefits.

Business history indicates that succeeding from one generation to the next is determined by how well one group consents to transfer management responsibilities to the next. In fact only about one-third of successful businesses achieve this transition. This is, I’m sure, where business management training is very useful.

Usually the company founding fathers were successful simply because they were sufficiently good at management making more right decisions than wrong ones and were sufficiently good at management to handle things that worked more often that the things that didn’t. For the senior generation owners to get the financial rewards of a lifetime of labor, the business must continue to grow and be successful, usually under the management of the next generation successors.

Accordingly, for the majority of companies, its time for business management training to systematically and logically teach the next generation of owners and managers everything they need to know to truly manage the business at some point. It supplies the details of where to start and how to complete the work, with a vision for the long term future that resonates with everyone close to the company. The successors in the typical family business are at least twenty years younger than the owner or whoever is in charge today.

It is also correct that virtually every twenty year old business with ten or over employees has at the least 2-3 key players who’re within ten years of the age of today’s older generation. These people were the followers who bet their future on the leader twenty or so years ago.

These essential supervisors are essential for the operation of the business both today and in the future. Business management training supplies a bridge from one generation to another because it empowers one generation as it supplies the other generation with the feeling of security that arises from trusting the management capabilities of the people they are leaving in charge.

Business management training for the senior generation leaders together with these key managers along with the members from the successor generation’s ownership-management team participating together can provide a seamless management transition, one that can be seamless, painless, and cost-effective for everyone.

Should you be seriously interested in developing business management training in your organization I urge you to click the link below and find out how a peer to peer business management mastermind group will help you and your organization accomplish its objectives.

Career prospects in business management

Managerial job is no easy task to perform. You should have proper vision and skills to manage any organization. There are some natural leaders who have better chances to make the most out of this profession. However, management can be taught in schools and thus several institutions are flooded with students who all are aspiring to make careers in business management. If you are one in the list, then you must be planning a lot of in terms of choosing a perfect management institute and a perfect course for you. But it will never be an easy task in India. Although there are so many management colleges in the country and some more are on the row to come soon, yet you can’t take all of them for granted when it comes to quality of education and other facilities. One thing is certain that there are no lacks of scopes in the field with so many small business houses and corporate organizations making their ventures in the country recently. There can be vacancies both in low level and in high level jobs. So, getting an entrance will never be a big issue for management graduates and post graduates. However, if you really want to use your degree in management as a ladder to climb on the corporate ladder then you must select one of quality management courses for you. There are so many things to consider for you. Firstly, know your own level of interest and choose courses according to that. You can get specialized training for a certain section of business and that actually is the need of the hour for you. If you are planning to enter into health industry, then relevant courses which focus mainly on health management can come handy for you. The course expenses, the placement facilities, the equipment and lab issues, the practical training and the teaching faculty are some very important things to check out for students who are planning for a business management course in India. Doing every selection right can pay dividends for you as well. Students can make things happen for them with methodical online and offline searches for a college in which they are planning to get admission.