Name: Melanie Yeomans
Organisation: Stripes Solicitors, Manchester Employees: 30
Job title: Director of Corporate and Commercial
Career highlights: I started my career with the international law firm, Clifford Chance. In my early days in London I was involved in some fabulous matters, including the flotation of Canary Wharf. I then spent 3 years in the Paris office where I headed the UK Corporate desk. . My time in both London and Paris brought me great opportunities and also gave me a great grounding.
The types of transactions I deal with now are obviously smaller but I firmly believe my early training instilled in me the importance of delivering an excellent service whatever the matter and whoever the client.
Who has had the biggest influence on your career to date? I’d have to say one of my supervisors at Clifford Chance when I was a trainee in the corporate team. He was a stickler for detail – such an important aspect of a lawyer’s role – but he also allowed me a good deal of responsibility on jobs even in the early days of my training and was hugely encouraging.
What are your key responsibilities? At Stripes we are very much partner-led so I am involved day-to-day on all matters for my clients. I act on a range of corporate and commercial matters: advising on sales and acquisitions of businesses, investments, shareholder arrangements, etc. I also work closely with the other members of the Corporate/Commercial team on business development and generally marketing the business.
What do you enjoy most and least about your role? I love the transactional side of my job and guiding a client from the very initial stages of a deal, be they selling or acquiring, through to completion is very rewarding.
On the downside, people in this profession can take themselves a little too seriously at times. It’s a dream to have a lawyer on the other side who is commercial and down to earth. Dealing with a lawyer with an over inflated ego is not good!
As a business leader, what’s the key to managing people? It’s important to encourage and to be approachable to people in the team and to recognise and reward excellence.
What are the biggest barriers to your organisation’s success? As an organisation we are well placed to take on the challenges of the current climate so I don’t see barriers as such – for us it’s much more a case of opportunities.
We are continuing to expand our commercial offering, having recently attracted some exceptionally high calibre lawyers from the bigger Manchester firms and this is enabling us to really enhance our ability to offer a high quality “City” service to clients at sensible and competitive rates.
How well do you feel this region is placed to weather the recession? It’s going to be a tough couple of years but I think there is a great sense of practicality and entrepreneurship in this region that will help us come out the other end in hopefully a stronger position than before.
There is a huge amount of talent in the North West and whilst it is easy to focus on the doom and gloom news there are many businesses who remain strong having been built up in a sensible and cautious way over the years.
What more could be done to help? We have been seeing a little more lending activity from the banks in recent months at a local level. This needs to continue to ensure that fundamentally good businesses are not unnecessarily driven under by an overly cautious approach and also to allow the many really good acquisition opportunities out there not to be lost due to lack of funding.
But it’s all too easy to point to funders as the only people who can get us out of these hard times.
As consumers we all have a responsibility to the region too. Where possible we should be looking to buy goods and services locally to support the area’s economy and to promote the region’s businesses as much as possible.
How has technology changed your life in the last five years? The BlackBerry has made it much easier to stay in touch with work when I’m away from the office (which I guess can be both good and bad – it can be impossible to switch off sometimes). My iPod has made gym sessions more bearable I suppose. That’s about as far as I have got with gadgets – Jamie, my 7-year-old nephew, is forever bemoaning my lack of knowledge of the latest technology!
How has it changed/impacted on your business in the same period? Response times for clients are so much quicker with advances in technology. So much of our work is now done by email that people expect immediate turnaround. The technology we have now enables us to do this and the internet increasingly allows us so much access to information that it’s much easier to keep up to date with happenings in our clients’ business areas which can be really valuable to us when advising.
If you weren’t doing what you’re doing now, what alternative career would you choose and why? I fear that I have passed the age now to fulfil my first dream to be a ballerina…, so I think it would have to be a designer florist in the Languedoc (admittedly a contrast to my current career!) which would combine my love of beautiful flowers with that particular region in the south of France. Definitely the place I will be retiring to.
Which sectors do you think will thrive/ struggle in the coming years? I think even when we exit the recession, the impact on people this time around has been so significant that most of us will continue to be cautious with how we spend our money.
Any business offering services or goods at the cheaper end of the market (particularly those who can guarantee quality at lower cost) will continue to thrive. Those in, for example, the repair industry too will do well as people adopt less of a “throw away” attitude.
The hospitality and travel industry I suspect will continue to struggle but again it comes down to quality of service. Established names even in this field who have built up a good reputation in the past and who have put customer care and loyalty at the top of their priority list will hopefully survive.
People do not stop spending on non-essentials completely in times like this. But they adopt a much more “choosy” attitude to who they spend with.
What do you feel are the key skills/qualities needed to run a successful business in the 21st Century? To be adaptable and knowlegedable about the changing needs of clients and customers is key. Investing in good people is important too as is ensuring high levels of service at all time. In challenging times people are much more likely to “shop around” so it’s the businesses (in no matter what sector) which maintain consistent high quality that will significantly reduce the risk of losing customers.
Which public figure do you admire most and why? I tend not to look up to public figures in general. I do have great admiration for people who work in the healthcare profession and the many charity workers in this country who work tirelessly to give people better lives. Basically, people who make a real difference to the lives of others are true inspirations.
In five words, describe your character: Determined, ambitious, hardworking, happy and caring.
Which actor/actress would you chose to play you in a film? Jennifer Aniston.
TheBusinessDesk.com, August 10 2009
Name: Melanie Yeomans
Organisation: Stripes Solicitors, Manchester
Employees: 30
Job title: Director of Corporate and Commercial
Career highlights: I started my career with the international law firm, Clifford Chance. In my early days in London I was involved in some fabulous matters, including the flotation of Canary Wharf. I then spent 3 years in the Paris office where I headed the UK Corporate desk. My time in both London and Paris brought me great opportunities and also gave me a great grounding.
The types of transactions I deal with now are obviously smaller but I firmly believe my early training instilled in me the importance of delivering an excellent service whatever the matter and whoever the client.
Who has had the biggest influence on your career to date? I’d have to say one of my supervisors at Clifford Chance when I was a trainee in the corporate team. He was a stickler for detail – such an important aspect of a lawyer’s role – but he also allowed me a good deal of responsibility on jobs even in the early days of my training and was hugely encouraging.
What are your key responsibilities? At Stripes we are very much partner-led so I am involved day-to-day on all matters for my clients. I act on a range of corporate and commercial matters: advising on sales and acquisitions of businesses, investments, shareholder arrangements, etc. I also work closely with the other members of the Corporate/Commercial team on business development and generally marketing the business.
What do you enjoy most and least about your role? I love the transactional side of my job and guiding a client from the very initial stages of a deal, be they selling or acquiring, through to completion is very rewarding.
On the downside, people in this profession can take themselves a little too seriously at times. It’s a dream to have a lawyer on the other side who is commercial and down to earth. Dealing with a lawyer with an over inflated ego is not good!
As a business leader, what’s the key to managing people? It’s important to encourage and to be approachable to people in the team and to recognise and reward excellence.
What are the biggest barriers to your organisation’s success? As an organisation we are well placed to take on the challenges of the current climate so I don’t see barriers as such – for us it’s much more a case of opportunities.
We are continuing to expand our commercial offering, having recently attracted some exceptionally high calibre lawyers from the bigger Manchester firms and this is enabling us to really enhance our ability to offer a high quality “City” service to clients at sensible and competitive rates.
How well do you feel this region is placed to weather the recession? It’s going to be a tough couple of years but I think there is a great sense of practicality and entrepreneurship in this region that will help us come out the other end in hopefully a stronger position than before.
There is a huge amount of talent in the North West and whilst it is easy to focus on the doom and gloom news there are many businesses who remain strong having been built up in a sensible and cautious way over the years.
What more could be done to help? We have been seeing a little more lending activity from the banks in recent months at a local level. This needs to continue to ensure that fundamentally good businesses are not unnecessarily driven under by an overly cautious approach and also to allow the many really good acquisition opportunities out there not to be lost due to lack of funding.
But it’s all too easy to point to funders as the only people who can get us out of these hard times.
As consumers we all have a responsibility to the region too. Where possible we should be looking to buy goods and services locally to support the area’s economy and to promote the region’s businesses as much as possible.
How has technology changed your life in the last five years? The BlackBerry has made it much easier to stay in touch with work when I’m away from the office (which I guess can be both good and bad – it can be impossible to switch off sometimes). My iPod has made gym sessions more bearable I suppose. That’s about as far as I have got with gadgets – Jamie, my 7-year-old nephew, is forever bemoaning my lack of knowledge of the latest technology!
How has it changed/impacted on your business in the same period? Response times for clients are so much quicker with advances in technology. So much of our work is now done by email that people expect immediate turnaround. The technology we have now enables us to do this and the internet increasingly allows us so much access to information that it’s much easier to keep up to date with happenings in our clients’ business areas which can be really valuable to us when advising.
If you weren’t doing what you’re doing now, what alternative career would you choose and why? I fear that I have passed the age now to fulfil my first dream to be a ballerina…, so I think it would have to be a designer florist in the Languedoc (admittedly a contrast to my current career!) which would combine my love of beautiful flowers with that particular region in the south of France. Definitely the place I will be retiring to.
Which sectors do you think will thrive/ struggle in the coming years? I think even when we exit the recession, the impact on people this time around has been so significant that most of us will continue to be cautious with how we spend our money.
Any business offering services or goods at the cheaper end of the market (particularly those who can guarantee quality at lower cost) will continue to thrive. Those in, for example, the repair industry too will do well as people adopt less of a “throw away” attitude.
The hospitality and travel industry I suspect will continue to struggle but again it comes down to quality of service. Established names even in this field who have built up a good reputation in the past and who have put customer care and loyalty at the top of their priority list will hopefully survive.
People do not stop spending on non-essentials completely in times like this. But they adopt a much more “choosy” attitude to who they spend with.
What do you feel are the key skills/qualities needed to run a successful business in the 21st Century? To be adaptable and knowlegedable about the changing needs of clients and customers is key. Investing in good people is important too as is ensuring high levels of service at all time. In challenging times people are much more likely to “shop around” so it’s the businesses (in no matter what sector) which maintain consistent high quality that will significantly reduce the risk of losing customers.
Which public figure do you admire most and why? I tend not to look up to public figures in general. I do have great admiration for people who work in the healthcare profession and the many charity workers in this country who work tirelessly to give people better lives. Basically, people who make a real difference to the lives of others are true inspirations.
In five words, describe your character: Determined, ambitious, hardworking, happy and caring.
Which actor/actress would you chose to play you in a film? Jennifer Aniston.
