Edge Forum

Stelio Stefanou was the principal shareholder of Accord plc which was sold in 2007 at an enterprise value of £180 million. He now works on the board of two charities and has set up his own foundation, The Stefanou Foundation, which aims to develop scientific ideas into viable businesses and to empower some of the most vulnerable people in society to make a positive change in their lives and others’. Stelio believes “anyone who wants to achieve can achieve – it doesn’t depend on your academic background.”

What do you do?

That has changed in the last eighteen months; I was the Chairman of a company called Accord, which I sold in 2007. Since then I have set up a foundation, the Stefanou Foundation, and I also sit on the board of two charities.

Accord provided maintenance, environmental and management services. We employed a large number of people, carrying out a range of activities from repairing roads and sweeping streets to lawyers helping manage legal disputes. The the first contract was in 1994 when it was still part of John Doyle which was a  construction group owned by my brother and myself. By 1999 half the John Doyle Group was based on construction and the other half was the newer maintenance side. My brother liked construction and not maintenance; I liked maintenance and not construction, so it worked well between us and we demerged John Doyle Group. My brother kept the Doyle construction businesses and I formed Accord plc. In 1999 Accord was turning over £70 million and had 800 employees, and by the time the company was sold it was turning over £350 million and had 3500 employees.

What is your background?

I was born to Greek Cypriot parents, with British nationality, in Egypt, in an American car on the way to a French hospital! I was mainly educated here, apart from a few months of Greek school in Egypt.

My dad had a shop which he wanted to own to be his own boss. I used to work there for pocket money and my dad said ‘if you don’t work, you don’t get the money’. Sometimes I thought that was unfair, when I wanted to do something else on a Saturday, but it taught me a lot. On our way home on the train together, we used to work out the shop’s profit margins and expenses, which were quite simple tests but they stay with you all your life. When business gets complicated, you try to boil it down to these simple things. So working for my dad was how I got interested in business, although I didn’t see it that way at the time; I have three sisters and one brother and we all grew up that way.

Have you been back to your place of birth?

Only in recent times. We left Egypt partly because of the Suez crisis. The area around my dad’s shop was being bombed. Because we had British nationality we were detained and the shop was taken over, so we came to England to start a new life, and my father bought a new shop in Battersea. In his 40s, with nothing, he started again and supported his family. It taught me that “you should never be afraid of failure because you can always start again”.

What was your educational journey?

I got a degree in chemistry from Imperial College in London because my family bought me a chemistry set so I thought I wanted to be a scientist – since gaining my degree I’ve never used a single chemical equation in all my working life. I suppose the thing uni did was make me focus and learn. It was just by chance that in the final year you could do an auxiliary subject, so I chose management science. I was able to relate it to working in my dad’s shop, so that was the starting point.

Have you faced any challenges along the way?

The biggest challenge is dealing with uncertainty. Of course you look back and think ‘that led to that and it was all very logical’, but actually it was much more haphazard at the time. I would not change anything I did and I don’t think you can go through and achieve things unless you face challenges.  It is not easy to achieve, but I don’t want to be pessimistic – anybody who wants to achieve can achieve – it doesn’t depend on your academic background. Sometimes things are great, you’ve won a contract and it’s all going well – at other times you want to hide under the table – that’s the way business is.

Has anyone tried to knock you back?

I’ve never noticed. “You’re riding your bike and if you look on either side of you, you’ll fall off. No one’s going to stop you, if you want to achieve”.

What does success mean to you?

Achieving the things you want to achieve inside of you. “You can’t measure success according to others”.

I’ll let you into a secret: I’m nothing special. Anybody can do it – the only thing that stops people is that they let other people stop them. Any of you could do it – if you can overcome the fear of failure you can achieve anything. A lot of TV role models portray it as all about money, like on Dragon’s Den, showing rich people stepping out of a plane – no, that’s not real. You work with people, you get your joy out of people, and that’s how you succeed. 

What kept me striving for success was that you take responsibilities, not just for finances but for people. “We had 3500 employees and that’s 3500 families to consider”.

What advice would you give to young people wanting to make it in business?

You need a foundation – not necessarily an educational one, although that can help – but education is quite limited so you need something apart from that which gives you a basic understanding of the principles of business. You need to know how to make money, about making a profit and crucially about collecting your money – it’s all very well making a sale but until you’ve got the money it’s no good!

Experience is key, as are mistakes – that’s when you really learn.

I would advise young people to do what you enjoy. “I don’t think any business degree teaches you business; you’re more likely to get something out of what you do if you enjoy it”.

Why did you choose to work with charities and not just start another business?

I saw the sale of Accord as an opportunity to change my path in life. I could have become a director of another company after Accord, but that would have kept me on the same track and I wanted to try something new.

It was disorientating at first, I had to learn new skills. It would be easy to think ‘I’ve run businesses so I can just run charities’, but you can’t do that; I needed to learn how charities work.

Who is your role model?

My dad. Even though he was dead for most of my career, I think it’s about having someone in your mind, even when you’re with your colleagues or in a meeting. I had him in my mind when things were difficult and in the end I had faith that it would be alright.  Your role model can be anyone – your mother, your uncle, your teacher; you just need a hook and then the main thing is you don’t want to let them down.

People think of the logical matters like ‘what degree do I need?’ and ‘where should I work?’, but what’s inside is important - the emotional side is what really matters.

What are your future plans?

I want to develop the foundation which has two aims: one is about supporting the development of scientific ideas into business opportunities; it’s aimed at creating business in this country, where we really need it. The other aim is to help vulnerable people; what we hope to do is help people in social care, who may have suffered domestic violence for example, to train to become social workers themselves, to empower them and others.