Grown from a handful of staff in the late eighties, this week saw an agreement to sell JTC for around £2.3bn – which must make it one of the greatest success stories of Jersey’s recent economic history.
At a time when our economy is diplomatically described as “sluggish,” and growth is hard to find with the combined drag of high costs and extensive regulation putting entrepreneurialism on the back-foot, it is a local success story which really needs to be called out and celebrated.
JTC is an example of what can be done. It might have taken a little over 37 years, but from that humble beginning in 1987 it has steadily grown to a business employing 2,300 people with more than 14,000 clients in over 100 countries.
Those employees are all shareholders in the business, meaning a significant number of islanders will now benefit from its sale, just as they have benefited previously from payments as the company steadily grew – it is likely that much of that benefit will also flow into and around the local economy.
The driving force behind the business has been its CEO Nigel Le Quesne, and among his comments this week when the sale agreement was announced, was a sentence which often gets missed in a wider culture which prioritises short-term success and recognition over long-term gain:
“We have always sought to do what is best for the company at any given time and take action that will make JTC an even better business for future generations of employee-owners.”
Mr Le Quesne and his team have steadily built a business over four decades, working on the basis that they are really there to build something of value for the future.
That’s not easy with such an intense pressure for instant success. But one interesting perspective on the JTC story is to use it to look at what can be achieved with a longer-term perspective, as a “custodian.”
Clearly, our electoral cycle is four years rather than four decades, and the ballot box can be as unforgiving as the most brutal boardroom.
However, it is still interesting to consider for a moment what can be achieved with a clear long-term vision, a team pulling together in the same direction to achieve that vision, and always having your eye on what’s good for future generations.
When taken together, those factors would mean always asking the question, “is this going to make Jersey stronger or weaker in the future?” That’s a valuable perspective.
