Mike Jennings likes to play it fair in business. Straight, unfussy, but, above all, fair. After all, if you’re treated fairly, you tend to reciprocate. But that’s not Mike’s agenda. It’s just his approach. He’s not courting loyalty from his tenants by insisting on treating them fairly. It’s just his way, his modus operandi, his raison d’être.

“One of our key values in business is fairness and fairness means different things to different people. Take, for example, business negotiation. Normally, the seller states a price and the buyer tries to negotiate, and often they will meet in the middle. We don’t do that. We say ‘these are the premises and this is what we think is a fair price and this is the reason why we think it is a fair price.’ If the potential tenant doesn’t agree with the price, then we will go to the next interested party. However, if the prospective tenant then says, ‘I really want this unit, but at the moment I can’t afford it’, then the dynamics change.

“We like to get to know our tenants, and that means from the first time we meet them. We help evaluate their needs and the parameters within which they are working. What constraints do they face, what hopes do they have? We can then help to house them suitably, to make sure they are comfortable and their business is given the best possible environment in which to breathe and flourish. That makes sense doesn’t it? Why stifle a business unnecessarily, especially a new business? We want to prolong the enthusiasm of a new business, the vitality of an entrepreneur, not flood it with rules and regulations…. and invoices!

“The whole deal of renting premises is not about the price of the premises, it’s about what is fair and understanding and empathising with the prospective tenant. What is right for them now and what is right for them in the future. Most people who run businesses have got worries about property. They worry whether the property is too big, is it too small, where are they going to go if they need to expand, what happens if they expand in the future and they haven’t moved in time, can they get out of the lease, can they get a new lease easily, do they have to assign the lease? All of these issues are swirling around whilst they are trying to run their business. We take this fear and worry out of the equation and replace it with empathy.

“We like to know our tenants’ businesses so that there are no surprises when it comes to either upsizing or downsizing. The tenants make our business work, and we help them to perform, to deliver, and if they are successful, our business is successful. Having an awareness of their business allows us time to accommodate their requirements. Again, it’s pragmatic. Put unnecessary pressure on a business and it is bound to have implications.”

It’s important to define Mike’s interpretation of successful here. “Success equals happiness. It doesn’t mean they are necessarily growing, it means they are making enough money to earn a decent living. Some businesses grow and they have other issues. They have to take on more staff, bigger premises and they have issues with customers. We try to make it as easy as possible for businesses to grow and deal with the ensuing problems they face, but if they don’t grow, it doesn’t mean they aren’t successful.”

Overheads are an unavoidable burden to every business, but some overheads are, in Mike’s opinion, unnecessary. “A lot of landlords, particularly for a large site, have  some pretty hefty upfront costs with agents and solicitors. Typically, an agent could be 10% of the first year’s rent and a solicitor could cost several thousand pounds for both the incoming tenant and for the landlord. We have found a way to avoid those costs by doing it ourselves. Our in house, trend setting four page lease for example is quick to read and easy to understand and helps build trust and relationships with our tenants. It is a fact that all of our tenants can leave with a maximum of three months notice, but, in most cases, they usually choose to stay because of the business environment we have created.”

Fairness is just one of Mike’s highly commendable business principles. Add to this courtesy, honesty and trust and you get an overall picture as to how the landlord and tenant relationship works when Mike Jennings is your landlord. Warm and cuddly? Maybe. But it works, and it works very well.

“Relationships and constant communication help to enable a business to grow, but are equally vital when things take a turn for the worse. When a business struggles, for whatever reason, we will talk to them, help them, enable them to recover. There may be variables which the business can’t control, and we are there to listen, understand and help. It’s a two way street, so if the business doesn’t communicate, how can we understand, and, more importantly, how can we help. By helping a tenant through a tough time, and enabling it to get back on track only serves to solidify our relationship with them.

One of the key motivators for Mike in his day to day dealings with his tenants is being able to work with an owner who is the manager and daily controller of the business. “Once you separate ownership and control, the business becomes more risk averse, slower, and turgid. The motive in the business tends then to be purely profit because the people that manage a business think that they are doing the best for their owner by making profit the prime motive. All of these motivational theories which are based purely on profit frankly annoy me. What really motivates individuals is not financial wealth, it is happiness. What makes people happy is the independence, the freedom of running your own business. The people I am dealing with are lovely people, and they are, above all, happy.”

Mike has created a community, and in a world where sustainability is high on most agendas, Mike believes social sustainability lives and breathes at his business parks. “I remember going to meetings where we had people from the public sector in to talk about sustainability. They were happy to discuss economic and environmental sustainability, but when it came to explaining social sustainability, they were flummoxed. I started thinking about what it could be and to me it’s about community. To me it’s about how you involve people, get people working together, so they are supportive and help each other. Not just people who run businesses, but also people who work in businesses, how do you get them involved. How can we link people from the local villages into what we are doing for businesses on the business park? We are looking at setting up a Homeworkers’ Hub, which is going to be a cafe style premises. It will have therapy rooms and meeting rooms and a café. It will be open for anyone to come in and sit down and have meetings there. The building is there, but it is in concept at the moment.”

This is Mike’s vision for business in the future, particularly small business (up to ten employees), where the owner drives the business and they will be interested in ethics, green issues and doing business properly.

‘The whole scandal of ministerial expenses and bank bonuses is a massive turn off for those of us who do business the right way, and these sorts of episodes are not sustainable. Such scandals have promoted qualities such as business ethics and the importance of human relationships in business. You have to choose your clients, in our case tenants, carefully, which we do. You have to choose your suppliers carefully, and above all you have to be very good with your staff. Staff have to be first class, and that doesn’t mean well educated or well trained. It doesn’t mean that they have got experience, because you can give your experience. They have to have the same values. They have to be courteous, they have to be fair, and they have to have empathy with the people they are serving.”

Being cynical, I put to Mike that this approach is simply a way to ensure his staff are loyal, that they stay with him and don’t get poached, after all, the only problem with good staff is that they become a target for others. I couldn’t be further from the truth in my presumption, which visibly angers Mike. “What I am doing here is building a team, where we all share the same values, good honest values which we feel are right and fair. This means investing in training and other benefits, but that is my choice. I want to develop each and every member of staff so that they benefit and the team benefits. If their future lies elsewhere, they leave with my blessing and I start again. The same goes for tenants. If they outgrow their premises, my team has played a part in helping that business to grow, and for that they deserve, and get, immense credit. Just because I invest in my staff and tenants, it doesn’t mean they are attached to me. If there was any form of attachment, I would say that was wrong. Staff and tenants alike are free to take whatever course suits them and I know the team and tenants we have reflect that fairness in business works.

For Mike Jennings, work is a pleasure, perhaps, even by his own admission, an addiction, but not just his business. A champion for small business locally, Mike spends a considerable amount of time focusing on Oxfordshire small businesses. “Almost ninety per cent of businesses in Oxfordshire employ less than five people, and the vast majority are ‘sole traders who receive next to nothing in terms of help and advice. The majority of help from government is aimed at much larger businesses, presumably based on the assumption that the larger businesses are the more likely to grow. But every small business has the potential to grow. Take for example one of our tenants who started his business last year on the park with £5,000. He knew where he wanted to be, he knew what he wanted and he wanted to be quick. He set up a business doing internet sales of garments and now, a year later, he is turning over £1m a year, he is employing six people, and he has not stopped innovating.”

Many B4 readers will know that the Thames Business Advice Centre was set up in 1985, and for more than twenty years built up an excellent reputation for helping new and growing businesses across Oxfordshire. After a brief hiatus, Mike and his fellow TBAC directors have given this excellent organization fresh impetus and now operate out of six centres in the county, offering start-up premises to members together with a free mentoring service, with all profits being reinvested in the mentoring services.

“Everyone in business should have a mentor. Ask a successful businessman or woman if they want help, and the majority will say ‘no’, even if it is free. Ask again, and explain the benefits of mentoring, highlight the sheer depth of experience they can draw on from the mentors, and even the most successful entrepreneur should at least consider the offer. Think of the ideal person to help with your business, someone who has been there and experienced the highs and the lows. That’s the advice and experience you need to tap in to and that is why so many mentors are successfully helping so many business individuals, and getting so much personal satisfaction as a result.

“Those being mentored are amazed at the quality of the advice which is given free and therefore comes from the heart.. The service is growing and we are now actively seeking more mentors.”

Mike is also spearheading the launch of a skills centre at his Garsington site, which will be primed around showing people what it is like to be an entrepreneur, but it will also be ethically and value based, as Mike explains. “It will teach what fairness is about, why trust is important and how fast trust works in business. It is not just going to be about marketing and selling and finance and how to deal with the bank. What we want to do is teach people the basics of running a business and also that you don’t have to focus on profit all of the time. There are other motives for being in business. The skills centre will aim to put the heart and soul back into doing business.”

As if that wasn’t enough, Mike is also involved in the Frederick’s Foundation, a micro finance organisation for people who can’t get money from the bank, as Mike explains. “They want to set up in Oxfordshire and need £250,000 of donations to start lending, and we are exploring ways of making it work alongside TBAC.”

Mike Jennings has created a virtuous circle of success and happiness. Through his own business, TBAC and the proposed new skills centre, he is enabling his business philosophy to percolate throughout Oxfordshire businesses. Mike’s confidence in everything he does will undoubtedly benefit those individuals and businesses he engages with. There is something quite old fashioned in his principles, but at the same time, bizarrely, incredibly forward-thinking. Maybe it goes to prove that everything goes in cycles, and that Mike is re-igniting the cycle of fairness in business.