Tell us about your formative years

Coming from a military family background we were brought up in a fairly imperialistic way, which influenced our views in some ways.

I spent my first 17 years moving regularly from one military base to another. In fact, I went to four schools in various parts of the UK and abroad between the ages of 11 and 16.

That kind of background can be unsettling but, on the other hand, it does force you to become flexible and adaptable if you want to get on and I suppose it teaches you to become independent in the way you think and act.

I enjoyed growing up on bases in the middle of nowhere, so being outside in the country, playing lots of sport, was the order of the day. I loved it.

I didn't really get serious about what I wanted to do until I got into my mid-20s. I did go through college and on to university, studying mechanical engineering at Nottingham, but I am ashamed to admit that I dropped out halfway through as I felt I wasn't really cut out to be an engineer. I then spent my time basically bumming around, playing in bands, having various jobs from dishwasher through to labouring etc.

Tell us about Zenith and how you came to the firm

Many people ask me about my career background and I realise that I don't really have one.

I started my first job when I was 23, nearly 24, when I went to work for C D Bramall Fleet Services, which was the fleet management arm of Bramall Motor Group. In my mind, this was just a part-time solution to clear off bank debts before I started travelling again.

However, just at the time I joined the business, it was taken over by Avis and our management team decided to split away and form their own company. Although I was young and very naïve, it seemed like a good opportunity and, as I had an opinion about most things, they asked me if I would like to try my hand at becoming a sales executive.

So, 19 years ago, June 6, 1989, the management team at Bramall's, headed by Henry Dean, walked out from Avis and started Zenith the next day. Henry Dean acted not only as the leader of the business but as a primary influence on my life.

He taught me the importance of doing the right thing and, in fact, Henry's approach was very much: do the right thing and the success, the money and the plaudits will follow.

That's the way that he founded the business and, hopefully, they are the principles I have taken on board and have been central to the way I have thought about the development of Zenith over the years.

Being asked by the shareholder directors to take on the role of managing director was the biggest surprise of all. Henry was looking to retire and I was honoured to accept.

The Zenith shareholder directors were, I believe, an enlightened group of people. They allowed me to take the business forward in a way I thought was right and bring in new talent to the business.

Then, about six or seven years ago, they allowed the new management team to buy into the business.

Although our shareholding then was relatively small, it was significant and important to us. Consequently, the business really started to take off and grow and those same original shareholders reaped the rewards of their decision later.

Henry Dean also wanted the business he had formed to continue as an independent entity after he and the founding shareholders had retired.

At the end of 2003, when those shareholders wanted to exit, there was a strong consensus to allow the younger directors, including me, to buy the business via an MBO.

I will always be grateful to them for allowing us to do this. The rest is, as they say, history and – two more MBOs later – the business is continuing to develop. In May, we completed our first acquisition.

Explain your business philosophy

My business philosophy is very simple: You must have good principles by which you deal with your colleagues and customers. You must also be aware of movements within the market and genuinely embrace change in order to drive forward. Never accept that where you got to yesterday is good enough for tomorrow.

In our business, particularly, things tend to revolve around access to knowledge and speed of response, so I always try to put myself in the place of the customer. It's always a question of how we give the customer what he or she wants in the simplest and most pain-free way. There's obviously quite a lot more to our philosophy than that but, when you really distil it down to its basics, that's about it.

If you weren't doing the job you are doing now, where might you be – or where might you like to be?

As I said earlier, I grew up largely in the country and that's the place where I probably felt and still feel the most comfortable and at ease with myself.

As a boy, I was very interested in forestry work and liked the wide, open space. So, if I could do another job, that would probably be it.

I have also been incredibly interested in history and politics and that kind of stuff, so the other thing I would possibly like to have a go at is becoming more full-time in that kind of area, maybe even flirting with academia – if that's not too pretentious.

What do you feel are the major business issues which affect Leeds and the country in general?

Where do you start? Leeds is a great city that is fantastically placed geographically and culturally within the UK. However, a couple of things that need sorting out quickly are transport infrastructure and delivering more of a cultural life into the city.

There's no doubt we need more investment in both these areas to create not only a vibrant commercial environment but to try to create a more attractive cultural hinterland – if that's not too airy-fairy! I think all the basic building blocks are there for Leeds to become an even more important and successful business and cultural force.

With regard to the country in general, there is no doubt that the Government has lost sight of what's important, certainly as far as the business environment is concerned.

Stability and clarity are almost the only watchwords that it needs to keep at the back of its mind, but there has been such a profusion of different initiatives, legislation and thinking that this has caused pretty much every major sector of the British economy huge problems over the past ten years.

It is very clear to me that less is more and that legislation should only be there to guard against mis-use rather than to try to manipulate managed markets.

The other key area of concern for business is transport infrastructure and costs. In many ways, business has been a soft touch in the past and should become far more politically active – albeit on a non-party-political footing – to enforce and drive through positive change and investment into the country.

If you had the power to tackle the issues listed above, how would you go about it?

The first thing I would do is stop any current legislation. I would then look at how we could simplify every aspect of business life, from tax through to bureaucracy, including the creation of a non-party-political 40 to 50-year transport strategy.

This strategy would need to take a long view, to get underneath the country's infrastructure issues – everything from the planning regime through to how that integrates with local councils and businesses.

It would take decades to deliver proper structural change. At present, what we tend to do is lurch from one initiative or project to another without really having a clear idea of what it is we are trying to achieve.

The problem is that the benefits of starting a long-term strategy process will be enjoyed only by later generations – by which time I will probably be long gone!

I think a real problem in this country is that we have lost our historical perspective of our place in the world. We seem to have lost our sense of who we are and where we come from. Unless you know these things, it's hard to work out where you are going.

Looking at your own business sector in Leeds, what do feel are the challenges it faces currently and how will you address them?

Zenith is very much a national business that is linked into much wider multi-national issues.

Most of our customers are large multi-national organisations, so I suppose that it probably doesn't make too much difference whether we are based in Leeds or Brighton.

However, as a proud Yorkshireman, the challenges I mentioned of transport infrastructure and developing the cultural life of the city are very important.

Who in the world most impresses you a) in business and b) in life generally?

I always admire people who have a great idea and lay their lives on the line to deliver it. One person that springs to mind from our industry is Gregg Connell from Epyx.

On a personal level, it's more difficult to cite specific examples, as I admire people in a number of different fields – such as the David Attenboroughs of this world, who are successful in more than one area.

Away from the office, where are we most likely to find you?

No contest. I'd be on the west coast of Scotland. It's wild and rural and takes me back to my childhood.

You're hosting a dinner party and can invite one extra person from history – either living or dead. Who would you invite?

I'd invite Julius Caesar because of his fascinating life story and the fact that he literally changed the course of history.


My CV

Andrew Iain Cope

Age: 43.

Status: Married with four children.

Schooling: Varied, father was in the Armed Forces. Nottingham Trent University, mechanical engineering.

Founder member of Zenith Vehicle Contracts at its incorporation in 1989, then fleet sales executive.

Promoted to sales and marketing manager. 1994.

Promoted to sales and marketing director. 1996.

Promoted to managing director. 1998.

Management buy-in. 2001.

Management buy-out (MBO) with 3i. 2003.

Secondary MBO with Dunedin. 2005.

Tertiary MBO with Barclays. 2007.

Led acquisition of Provecta for undisclosed sum, taking Zenith fleet to 26,000 vehicles. 2008.