Sir Peter Parker - a man of many parts

Sir Peter Parker is well known as a top manager. He finally chose a career in business but there were always other things he wanted to do as well.

He studied history at Oxford University between 1947 and 1950, but he had many other interests. He wanted to be a sportsman: he played rugby for the University team and for his home town. He also wanted to be an actor and, when he was a student, he acted in a lot of plays. In 1948, he played the long and difficult role of Hamlet. He wanted to be a politician — in the same year, he was chairman of the University Labour Club. Three years later, he was a candidate for parliament in his home town, Bedford. He lost the election, but he increased his party's vote.

In 1956, Peter Parker organized a big international conference on The Human Problems of Industry' — the chairman was Prince Philip. He worked as a manager for a number of companies during the 1950s and 1960s, and later became well known to the public as Chairman of British Rail. He joined British Rail in 1976, and left in 1983. In 1978, he was awarded a knighthood by the Queen, and became Sir Peter Parker. He received another award from the Queen in 1993 for his 'contribution to public life'.

He is currently Chairman of several companies, including Mitsubishi Electric (UK), who appointed him in 1984. He was the first non-Japanese to become chairman of a Japanese company. In 1991, the Japanese Government awarded him the 'Grand Cordon of the Order of the Sacred Treasure.'

He wrote his autobiography, For Starters, in 1989.

The Levi's Story

LEVI'S make the most famous and popular trousers in the world. They are made of very strong cotton which originally came from Nîmes in France. 'De Nîmes' became denim.

Levi Strauss was a German immigrant who arrived in San Francisco in 1853. First, he made tents for gold prospectors. Then, he started to make trousers from the same material. In 1873, Levi's dyed the trousers blue. Levi's headquarters today is still in San Francisco and, in 1993, they sold 50 million pairs of their '501' blue jeans.

The company was not always successful. In the 1980s, they had problems but they changed management and, in 1985, Bob Haas became President of the company. With large investment in marketing and advertising, Levi's relaunched the original 501 jeans. The campaign was a huge success. In Great Britain the advertising was so successful that sales of 501 jeans rose by 800%!

Today, about 16,000,000 pairs of 501 jeans are sold in Western Europe and they are all made in factories in Scotland and France. More than half of Levi's profits come from exports.

The factory in France employs about 540 people who produce 18,000 pairs of jeans per day. With thirty-five factories in the US, Levi's is a major employer, particularly in the South. Unfortunately, because Levi's are such a popular product there are many 'pirate' copies made also. In 1993, for example, police throughout the world found 2,000,000 fake pairs of Levi's jeans.

In the future, Levi's hope that more companies will allow casual dress so that sales will rise as office employees to wear jeans to work. Just what Levi Strauss designed more than one hundred years ago — working trousers!

SO YOU WANT TO BE SUCCESSFUL AT WORK?

WE'RE HERE TO TELL YOU HOW.

First, tidiness. Did you know that the higher you are in an organization, the tidier your office should be? When you start out, make sure you put up lots of urgent messages on the wall next to your desk. That way people will see how hard you're working, But as you progress, untidiness can be seen as a sign of inefficiency, Lee Wassermann, the head of MCA Records, used to visit all the offices late every evening and throw any loose paperwork into the bin. 'If you can't get it done before you leave, 'he told his executives, 'you can't be doing it right.'

Never, ever throw away papers in your filing cabinet. They may take up a lot of space, but if you decide to throw them away, it's absolutely certain that you'll need them the very next day. The film producer, Sam Goldwyn, realized this, His secretary once asked him if she could destroy the files that were more than ten years old. 'Sure,' he said, 'but keep copies.'

If you wish to avoid making a decision, either send a memo or set up a committee to conduct an in-depth study'. If you actually want to reach a decision toss a coin. Yes, seriously! When the coin is in the air you will realize how you want the coin to land and the decision will be made.

If you want to get on in the office, first improve you job title. After all, 'administrative communications executive' sounds much better than 'post clerk'. If promotion is out of the question, try for a rise instead. Here, the basic rule is: never be afraid to ask.

In the 1950s, Tommy Docherty played alongside the great footballer, Tom Finney, for Preston North End, at that time one of the most successful English, football clubs. Both received the maximum wage of £15 during the season, but in the summer Docherty used to get £2 less than the great man. Docherty complained to the manager that this was unfair. But you're not as good a player as Finney, 'he was told. I am during the summer,' replied Docherty. He got his rise.