What Richard Arkwright can teach us about Business Today
Last week, I was lucky enough to visit Cromford Mill, which is the site of a cotton mill that is considered by many to be the first example of a factory. The site, which unfortunately doesn’t contain any of the original machinery and only half of the original buildings, was brought alive by an excellent guided tour which included a very interesting (and detailed) description of the technological breakthroughs that Richard Arkwright made (and his legal battles to protect and extend his patents), his early life and his career as a businessman. We then went outside to see the buildings: I was very pleased to hear that some of the money for the ongoing restoration of the mill is coming from renting some of the buildings, which were originally designed with lots of windows in order to control the temperature, to local small businesses.
What struck me most about the talk was the fact that, while clearly possessing business acumen by the boat-load (or should that be barge-load as canals were the main way of transporting goods in the 1770’s), Arkwright’s honesty, integrity and concern for the welfare of his workers. Few specific examples of first two were given, but that’s not that surprising given that these two traits are ones that need to be present all the time. More details were given to Arkwright’s kindness to his workers, although very few of the measures he put in place were completely altruistic. For example, if a worker sent word that he or she was ill, then a doctor would be sent, not only to prescribe a cure but also to ensure that the illness was genuine: workers were given half pay when they were sick, not only because that’s “the right thing to do” but also that many of Arkwrights staff were trained in the use of the machinery and it cost money and time to find replacement workers if the ill didn’t return to work. Apart from providing jobs for the local population in the mill at higher rates-of-pay than a typical labourer would get, he also planted many tree and embarked on building programs (many for his own workers) to further create jobs locally. These measures, along with many other such as savings accounts which were introduced by his son, helped to ensure loyalty in an industry in which industrial sabotage was a huge problem, a commodity that still holds it’s value today.
