Aspire
Q3
GSH's motto is "Always on"- what's the story behind it and how does it translate into your daily business?
Ian Scarr-Hall: "Always on" was a suggestion from our board in the USA. I would translate "Always on" to "Aspire". Why is that? In my opinion this word incorporates many of the characteristics at GSH, because everybody in the company should aspire and wish to aspire, not only within their comfort-zone.
Rachael Scarr- Hall: A few years ago, we published a booklet titled "Innovate and Aspire" which talks about the family culture in the business and how the company grew from the UK to across the world. It also explains how we do our work, how we serve our clients, how we help them and aspire to do our possible best when they request our help. GSH has always been very innovative, starting with the heating coil systems through to modern days, where our engineers are highly technical. This has helped us to get through the times. Another example of how we try to aspire is the environment, which my father has always been passionate about, long before the topic was so much in focus. We can make a difference by looking after our clients' buildings which only function when served by an array of energy services such as power, heat, cooling, lighting and hot water. Energy is a critical enabler of contemporary life, and our energy specialists manage the enormous complexity of these energy systems. They establish suitable maintenance regimes, innovating the way energy consumption is managed, controlled and minimised. Or take the example of India, where we look after various manufacturing sides. Here we use a simple but innovative mechanism: a large, three-storey-tall boiler which runs the entire manufacturing plant. Instead of coal, which is a high-carbon emitter, we mix biomass fuel (e.g. from coconuts) and other biomass products (e.g. pellets) with the coal and hence emit less carbon. This mechanism won us an award in the UK of which we are very proud. We consider ourselves to be quite different. Even though we are a global company, we offer bespoke solutions for our clients. This is something that sets us apart from other international companies.
Q4
Studies show that family businesses do better than listed companies not only in hard times, but also over long business cycles. What's your view and rationale based on your own experience?
Ian Scarr-Hall: Our approach has always been that we do not only want to give it a mere try, but to "come and stay" when it comes to our clients. And our clients really appreciate that. Obviously, we made mistakes, but we always recovered and learnt from them. Suddenly, clients became personal friends and to this day, this is a characteristic of GSH: clients become almost part of the GSH family, and in return, we become part of their family. You don't get that to the same extent at other larger companies, whose clients neither meet the owners nor sometimes know who they are. At GSH this is different: when we introduce ourselves, we can proudly say that we own the company and that our family has owned the company since 1895. It implies that we are here to stay, through thick and thin. In my opinion, this is something that sets every family business apart and makes it much stronger, also because this builds up a pride within and of the company, that the client sees. Also, as a family-run company, we have the freedom to take a long-term outlook, setting aside the distorting effects of quarterly stock market reporting and external demands for near-term gains. We benefit from being able to look past temporary distractions, thereby taking decisions that make sense beyond the immediate horizon. Our clients benefit from the experience and perspective that an enduring family business brings.