Photo by Jon Enoch

Photo by Jon Enoch

As the new managing director of Hall & Woodhouse, one of England’s leading regional breweries, Matt Kearsey (AMP 193, 2017) knows that the best-tasting beer requires more than premium hops and pure spring water. “We give the process the time it needs,” he says. “We don’t let it out of the gates if it’s not right.”

The company’s approach to growth is no different. “One of the benefits of a family business is that you’re able to plan for the long term,” Kearsey says of the brewery founded in 1777 by Dorset farmer Charles Hall. “It’s like a relay race. Our job is to take the baton and hand it over to the next generation in a better place than we found it.” He jokes that H&W builds a new brewery every 100 years. “That’s the sort of time frame we think about—not what return we can get over the next couple of years,” he says.

After joining the organization in 2009, Kearsey successfully remodeled its franchise pub business. “It was around the time of the big recession, and our business partners were struggling to make ends meet,” he says. To help out, H&W dropped its rent and profit requirements, which Kearsey describes as just another example of the company’s long-view thinking. “It was a brave decision,” he says, “but over the following five years, we grew the business well beyond where we started.”

Though Kearsey says his role as managing director feels like a natural evolution, he recognizes what’s at stake as the steward of a legacy brand. “We’ve been around 242 years, so we’re only a year younger than the United States of America,” he says. “You realize you’re responsible for something very precious. That’s humbling.”

How to come in from the outside

Align yourself with company culture and values. “When I think back to it, the whole selection process was about finding out whether I was a cultural fit for the business and vice versa. If I had a different set of values, I don’t think I’d have this job now.”

Park your ego at the door. “Remember you’re a custodian rather than the rock-and-roll star at the front of the business.”

Celebrate the organization’s strengths before making changes. “I talk about what makes us strong. Then I talk about our challenges. Then we do a lot of work on the vision, where we’d like the business to be. We actually spend a lot more time talking about our vision than strategy. You’ve got to create the ‘why’ for change. Otherwise complacency creeps in.”

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