London - Richard Thompson is nursing a hangover.
The previous evening he had taken a group of clients, media people and colleagues ten-pin bowling at the Ham Yard Hotel, near the offices of the M&C Saatchi Merlin talent agency he runs.
He is cagey over the identity of the guests, but his client list is a roll call of sporting stars: runner Mo Farah, cricketer Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff, footballer Jamie Redknapp and his wife Louise, rugby star Matt Dawson and models David Gandy and Jodie Kidd.
Thompson, a South London working-class boy made good, sold Merlin Elite, the management company he founded, to advertising giant M&C Saatchi in 2013, but remained as chief executive.
His speciality, he says, is reinvention – helping stars create a new identity so they don’t dwindle into nonentities when they are past their peak.
“Jodie Kidd is an example. She was at the top of her game as a model but we encouraged her to do a guest slot on Top Gear that reinvented her as a high-octane racer girl. It totally changed people’s perception of her,” he says.
Some sportspeople are reluctant to accept their best days are behind them. “I persuaded Matt Dawson to retire. He had been offered two more years at his club, Wasps. But my view was that if you are the first of the winning 2003 World Cup squad to break out, it puts you ahead of the rest.
“I told him, “You are not first pick all the time any more, so go now.” It was a gamble because we hadn’t secured the Question Of Sport captaincy, which he has now had for 12 years.’
Anyone hoping for longevity in the workplace, Thompson says, can learn lessons from the stars. ‘”veryone has a shelf life. It does come brutally early for many sportspeople and entertainers, but it applies to all of us.
“Look at entertainers like Bowie or Madonna who have had long careers – they are always evolving. If you suddenly realise you need to reinvent yourself, you are five years too late. You need to be continually looking for subtle changes to keep yourself fresh, interesting and relevant. This is relevant for anyone managing their career.”
He reckons corporate leadership roles have a natural life of five to seven years. “In most cases, after that, people run out of steam. They need new challenges.”
He had a successful music management business that he sold in the late 2000s, with clients such as Geri Halliwell, Natalie Imbruglia and Jay Kay of Jamiroquai.
Thompson himself is an example of successful self-reinvention. He grew up in a working-class family in the suburbs of South London and went to Cheam High School, which by his account sounds like a teenage dystopia. Unlike many of the pupils, he says he channelled his energies into sport rather than glue-sniffing but was told he was not bright enough to take O-levels. “That was an epiphany. I was bright but not academic. Mum and Dad were told I could sit them if they paid, and it was £5 an O-level, which they couldn’t really afford. I sat six and got six As.”
He left school at 16, started his first business at 19 and was a millionaire by 29, but those early experiences made a mark.
“To see my headmaster being beaten up, that did leave an impression. Kids would leave at 16 with no chance of getting a job and all they would do was hang around the gates and terrorise pupils. We had to be locked in classrooms because former pupils would come in on motorbikes and ride down the corridors.”
It appears incongruous that a man telling tales like these should also be chairman of Debrett’s People Of Today. Normally seen as the publisher of the snob’s bible, Debrett’s has, he claims, “become one of the key voices for social mobility” – another example of adapting to the changing times.
“I thought Debrett’s was like Downton Abbey, but there are brilliant role models in there. We wanted to single people out who had come from tougher backgrounds and achieved success.”
The current generation, he believes, will find it much harder to climb the social ladder. “Our children could be the first since the War to be going backwards, to achieve less than their parents. They may not get a mortgage until their 40s, or they may not be able to afford to live in London. The decision to can grammar schools contributed more to the loss of social mobility than anything.”
Companies now strive to recruit women and ethnic minorities, but Thompson believes they could achieve social diversity by taking people from less well-off backgrounds. “Just look at the Cabinet, the government. There has to be a focus on class.”
On the subject of politics, I wonder how he would advise David Cameron on life after No 10. “Politicians are all about legacy. John Major is a friend of mine. He is a highly influential figure and his respect has grown outside of office, in contrast with Blair. Cameron could learn a lot from him.
“If you are a politician, or a chairman or chief executive of a company, then when you are gone you are gone. Don’t keep hankering for it – move on and do something else.”
Daily Mail