Mike Kent, a manufacturing and e-commerce journey

Mike Kent is Co-Founder and Managing Director of Kitlocker, Sheffield sportswear manufacturer and distributor, and an Associate Lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University.

Kitlocker is an online retailer specialising in sportswear, and employing around 100 staff.

Before Mike and his fellow MD Tom Ward ran Kitlocker they studied at Sheffield Hallam and played volleyball. After university Tom had the opportunity to play volleyball professionally, but opted to join Mike in implementing the business plan that Mike had produced in his second year.

Mike wouldn’t necessarily commend the approach Tom and Mike took to equip themselves for success. In the early years they were “incredibly insular.” Only after the first decade did they become more externally facing. Building out their sales and marketing function was a catalyst for this.

Recently the business has started to look at its education and training needs, but that’s more with an eye on the next generation of leaders in the business rather than on the founders.

Mike sees his leadership role as being about “understanding where we are, where we are heading, and shaping the company to cater for the step changes that we encounter.” As the company has grown, making plans and communicating them has become more challenging.

The aspects of thebusiness that enthuse Mike are problem-solving, particularly in relation to the e-commerce and manufacturing systems, and the people. Mike is intent onensuring that the company’s strategy, systems, and people are congruent.

Mike’s approach to leadership has evolved with the business and experience, and is a blend of empathy for team members, support for the development of individuals, and quite an ”autocratic” style. A directive style is not natural to him, but has been a response to the young talent the company has recruited via University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) placement schemes.

His favourite takeaway from SHU’s ‘Leading through Health and Wellbeing’ course (which Mike, Dave Hembrough and Chris Whitehead have all completed) is “ruthless on the issue, gentle on the person.”

He concurs with Peter’s Drucker’s quote “culture eats strategy for breakfast.” Kitlocker, however, does not have a single culture, indeed that would be challenging, because its teams are quite varied in character. The business is thinking about how it facilitates an effective culture in each department.

The company’s story helps it in the recruitment of talent. When it comes to retention, the aim is to equip leaders to be more supportive and empathetic in relation to their teams. This needs to be embedded into the appraisal and development systems for all staff.

Mike is proud of what Kitlocker’s teams have achieved, rather than what he has achieved (and there’s still plenty more to do). The company hasn’t made any “cataclysmic” mistakes, but it’s made many smaller mistakes and has learnt from them.

One of Mike’s inspirations in starting the company was Jagged Globe, a company that lead climbing and mountaineering expeditions. They gave a two-hour talk to Mike’s Business Studies course on what the business does and their experiences as an SME. When Tom Ward said “Let’s do this” Mike cast his mind back to that presentation, which he felt was “a really cool journey.”

Mike’s book recommendations are “Creativity Inc” by Catmull and Wallace, which is about managing creativity at Pixar, and “Good to Great” by Jim Collins. Mike is a fan of “The High Performance Podcast.”

A growing business and a young family tend to crowd out Mike’s self-care regime, but he has become more aware of the importance of it as he has grown older. He has been working at his exercise regime, but also self-development, and “being mindful of being mindful.”

His advice to his 20-year old self would be “Don’t be so insular.” Paying more attention to other companies and the external environment generally would have helped Kitlocker to see the bigger picture. Working more closely with suppliers, and Nike and Adidas, in recent years has greatly improved their understanding of the market.