Marie Cooper, “What’s the worst that can happen?”

Marie Cooper is Chief Executive of engineering business CBE Plus Group. Right now she finds herself stalking Jenson Button on Twitter with a view to him participating in a Get up to Speed with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths) event.

CBE Plus Group was assembled in 2016 by Marie and Chris Brown, her chief operating officer, who provides the technical expertise behind the organisation. The four businesses within the group comprise CNC machining, electroless-nickel plating, laboratories, and gear cutting.

Marie ascribes her rise to CEO to her willingness to take opportunities and ask “What is the worst that can happen?”

She intended going to university but had a car accident that prevented her taking her A levels. When she had recovered she trained to be a bus driver. She left after six months to work in the accounts department at DC Cook, a car dealership. When they went into receivership in 2001 Marie found herself “overpaid and underqualified.” She took a job at David Brown Union Pumps, who paid for her to train as a management accountant and ultimately to become ACCA qualified.

Subsequently she moved to Flow Group in Sheffield as Finance Manager. After five years, she took the opportunity to participate in a management buy-out. She built up the business between 2010 and 2015 when they were bought by Parker-Hannifin Corporation. In her new role as plant manager she missed the ability to operate entrepreneurially, so left after 12 months, along with Chris Brown, to form Cooper-Brown Enterprises.

Marie’s advice regarding creating a unified group culture is to “have a lot of patience and take things slowly.” You have to understand the (Elisabeth Kubler-Ross) change curve and expect resistance to change. It’s also about making the most of the available talent within the business. “It’s all about people; people in the business, customers, and suppliers.”

Marie sees her leadership as being “to empower, inspire, and create a next generation bigger, better and stronger.” She seeks to “get the best out of people, enhance their strengths, and develop their weaknesses.”

Her proudest achievements include winning the Young FD of the Year 2012, Manufacturer of the Year 2015, and Businessperson of the Year 2015. She is also enormously proud of being part of the CBE Plus team.

She thinks it is important to learn from mistakes and says you need to “trust your instincts, do the right thing, and move forward.”

She defines success as seeing CBE Plus face the future with a stronger management team than it has at present. Marie considers retirement to be “doing something different”, for example developing her work with schools and sharing her experience with others.

Apprenticeships are close to Marie’s heart: BG Engineering won its category in the North Midlands and South Yorkshire Apprenticeship Awards and CBE Plus were one of exhibitors at Get Up to Speed with STEM in 2019. Marie is a trustee at the Work-Wise Foundation and an Enterprise Advisor.

Marie says there is not a particular business that she is trying to emulate. “There are a lot of great businesses out there, and a lot that have shared their experience with us.” “The more I networked the more I learnt.” She hasn’t met a business yet that is not prepared to share their expertise and experience.

Marie talks about “changing a person or changing a person” but doesn’t do so lightly. You should have given them every opportunity to develop themselves, educate themselves and be mentored before you take a decision to replace them. But in the final analysis “we can’t have one person jeopardising everybody else.”

Marie has met a number of inspiring people during her career, but one that stands out is Gordon Bridge, the finance director of AES Seal. He was willing to share his experiences and allow people to visit his business, helping Marie and Chris to transform President Engineering. Now CBE Plus open their doors to other businesses to pass that expertise on.

Gordon also helped Marie, a 35-year old FD “in a man’s world”, feel comfortable and confident.

Chris Brown is the other half of CBE Plus. He has skills that are complementary to Marie’s entrepreneurial drive and strategic thinking and “that is what makes it work.” They had already worked together for 10 years before they struck out on their own. His quiet and measured approach balances Marie’s action orientation. They have similar values in terms of developing staff, doing the right thing, delivering expertise, being the best.

Marie’s self-care regime warrants attention! She does have supportive friends and family, and has found walking her beagle, Belle, provides her with opportunities for exercise, reflection, and ideas generation – she takes a notebook with her. She encourages her board to find time to zoom out and reflect.

Marie’s reading is a combination of fiction and business magazines. Someone bought her ‘How to Be Calm’ by Anna Barnes for Christmas as a joke but she has found it helpful.

Her advice to her 20-year old self would be “Don’t be frightened to take opportunities.”

Her husband, Gary, is also a finance director, but is more like Chris Brown in personality. Like Gordon, he is also someone who has encouraged and believed in Marie.

Hugh Facey (episode 8) is not keen on accountants running businesses. Marie has a lot of respect for Hugh and would agree with him! – as a business leader she is an entrepreneur and strategist as well as a financial expert. She has always asked “what does the business want to do?” before asking “where do we get the money from to do it?”

Like Hugh she has given her employees an interest in the business, albeit from a profit-sharing scheme rather than a shareholding.

By listening to others, such as Rob Graham at Go Outdoors and Chris Rea at AES Seal, Marie has learnt to employ people better than herself and empower them to do what they are good at. Ultimately you want the business to be bigger, better and stronger and you need to recruit accordingly.

Marie and Chris are building a culture around safety, quality, delivery, teamwork, and diversity. Positivity is also an important element. “It’s like when the sun is shining…”