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Life full of surprises
In the latest of our regular series profiling the leading business figures of Leeds and Yorkshire, we meet Margaret Wood, a successful entrepreneur who found her inspiration amidst personal heartbreak and who is now giving up a considerable amount of her time to helping advise and inspire others.
Tell us about your formative years.
I grew up in Harrogate and left school aged 16, because my parents didn't consider it "appropriate" for a young woman to attend university.
When I was 20 I married my husband, Tony, and became a full-time housewife and mother. Tony was an engineer and he owned a business that made industrial control panels. We were very happy.
Sadly, Tony died in 1986 and I became a widow, aged just 39. I had three teenage children to support and no visible means of income.
My family and friends presumed that I would marry again. One relative told me it would be "unacceptable" if I continued as a single mother.
They only wanted what they thought was best for me, but my world had collapsed.
Tell us about ICW UK and how you came to found it, as well as your other business interests.
ICW UK designs and manufactures industrial glazed units used by organisations and enterprises including Corus and Formula One.
Our bespoke products include high-strength windows for crane cabs, security windows for ticket booths in fairgrounds and public parks as well as fire-retardant units in warehouses and on public transport around the world.
Current projects include sourcing MRSA-resistant windows for mobile hospital diagnostic units.
I founded ICW UK in 1993, as a memorial to Tony. Before he became ill, he had been working on a new idea for high-strength glazing for crane cabs.
Despite my lack of business experience and practical engineering expertise, I was determined to continue his work. It helped me to come to terms with what had happened.
In the early days, a lot of people thought I was the secretary, but not any more!
In 2002, I was a finalist in the Female Inventor of the Year awards, after developing a touch-sensitive window system for use on buses and trains.
Since then, high-profile visitors to our factory in Horbury have included Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Cabinet Minister Ed Balls.
My husband always believed in my abilities. Even so, I think he would be surprised and delighted by the company I have built up.
Explain your business philosophy.
Achievements are to be celebrated, but don't get carried away by your own success.
Become complacent, or over-confident, and reality will come crashing in sooner or later. Just look at what has happened to our bankers.
I've come a long way and, sometimes, when I look at who I used to be and who I am now, I can barely recognise myself.
But I think it's important for me to remember my roots and keep my feet on the ground. So once a week I snap on my rubber gloves and clean the factory toilets, before retiring to the kitchen to prepare a tea round for the boys on my factory floor.
If you weren't doing the job you are doing now, where might you be – or where might you like to have been?
I'd like to think that I would be sunning myself in the Bahamas, but in truth I don't know.
Life is full of surprises: 30 years ago, if you had told me where I would be now, I would have been incredulous.
I would probably be an adventurer of some sort – I've always relished a challenge.
What do you feel are the major business issues which affect West Yorkshire and the country in general?
The current recession has thrown up a liberal smattering of challenges and obstacles.
In addition to these, I am concerned that skills and ideas are being depleted.
Too many people are nervous about going into business, especially in the current climate. It's a tragedy because our county is filled with bright, sharp minds – entrepreneurs in the making.
Why waste this potential?
Yorkshire people have the grit and determination to succeed and it's up to their leaders and public servants to provide the tools to achieve.
Although basic educational needs are delivered by educational authorities, bodies such as Yorkshire Forward can set the agenda by ensuring a "joined-up" approach that accelerates opportunities, access and resources to those keen to develop. Equally, businesses need support to drive learning and development.
If you had the power to tackle the issues listed above, how would you go about it?
I am already tackling them! I have long been grateful for all the opportunities afforded me by the business community here in West Yorkshire.
When I started out, I was on my own. My confidence was easily dented, and at times I felt like running away.
At that time I was fortunate to receive the staunch support of my peers and organisations including Business Link.
They provided plenty of advice, and a springboard that allowed me to prove myself.
Now I am determined to give something back. As the chair of Wakefield First, the District Development Agency for Wakefield and District, I lobby key business leaders, politicians and stakeholders on behalf of the area's businesses.
Wakefield First provides resources to existing businesses, and gives support to young people who want to set up on their own.
As president of the Mid-Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce, I am accountable to 1,400 businesses across Kirklees, Wakefield and Calderdale.
I also sit on the board of Forward Ladies, the popular networking and business support group for women in the north of England.
Looking at the engineering sector, what do you feel are the challenges it faces currently and how will you be addressing them?
To my mind, one of the biggest challenges revolves around cut-price production in the Far East. We have sold our technologies and, in many cases, lost our zeal for innovation.
However, it is our ability to innovate that gives us our competitive edge.
I am also concerned that because we have lost a lot of our business to cheaper production lines overseas, we are also losing valuable skills.
It's all very well churning thousands of engineering graduates out of universities, but real-life experience is far more valuable.
This is particularly pertinent to engineering because it used to be that people in our sector retired early, meaning that skillbases must be renewed regularly.
We have lots of great people here and lots of great small businesses. We need to recognise and nurture them.
We need to create environments within which new talents can emerge. We need to support our talent, and help them to enhance their skills.
As a regional business ambassador, these are some of my priorities. I'm keen to use the lessons I have learned to help support and guide other engineering companies – particularly those seeking fresh injections of creativity and innovation.
My experience of nearly two decades in the industry can help bosses who feel isolated in making decisions and lack a network of contacts.
Who in the world most impresses you a) in business and b) in life generally?
Bill Gates and Sir Ken Morrison. Leaders are only as good as their teams – clearly, both these businessmen have and had top-notch teams. I admire both men for their focus and dedication.
Bill Gates has changed the world for the better: first with Microsoft, and now with his heavyweight charitable foundation.
Sir Ken Morrison shows why Yorkshire people make good business leaders: he is a very driven man who loves his family and has never been frightened to tell it as it is.
I was awarded the Special Judges' Prize at last year's Yorkshire Institute of Directors Awards last year, and the very next day Sir Ken telephoned to congratulate me on the win.
I was surprised, delighted and impressed: it is clear to me that despite his success, he remains a "people person".
Away from the office, where are we most likely to find you?
After rushing around all morning and all afternoon, my favourite part of the day is the evening when I return home, relax in my conservatory and look out into the garden.
In the summer, I love to watch the sun going down. In the half light, the air is sharp and crisp. I can relax, reflect and unwind. It's my thinking time.
I'm also a keen horsewoman. Horses are wonderful animals: you can talk to them and although they don't talk back, they understand you perfectly.
I have enjoyed some exhilarating horse-riding holidays: galloping through surf in Portugal, navigating mountain ranges and riding up near-vertical sand dunes on Australia's West Coast.
You're hosting a dinner party and can invite one extra person from history – either living or dead. Who would you invite and why?
I would like to cheat and invite two people.
I would invite my husband and say, look: everything that we talked about and everything that you taught me, I have put to good use.
He always said that I could do whatever I set my mind to, and I'd like to thank him for setting me on this path.
My second choice is Elizabeth I. She was a woman thrown into a male-dominated world, but she wouldn't let anything – or anyone – throw her.
What gumption! She remained single, took difficult decisions, did her job brilliantly and was not prepared to compromise. I'd love to pick her brains.
MY CV
MARGARET WOOD
Age: 61.
Marital Status: Widowed with three adult children, two daughters and one son.
Career History: Founded ICW (UK) Ltd in 1993. Appointed chairman of wakefield First and president of the Mid-Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce in 2007.
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