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<\/figure>\nPeter Vardy: fatherly influence<\/p>\n
From selling cars to setting up lessons in leadership, Peter Vardy is on a new journey, he tells JOHN GLOVER <\/strong><\/h4>\n
\nLeadership comes in many forms. A politician, a successful entrepreneur or maybe an inspirational boss. It is often stereotyped and misunderstood, but automotive entrepreneur Peter Vardy has never made a secret of the influence his father had on him. And he is drawing on that experience to help others learn the craft of leading others.<\/p>\n
Vardy is best known for the car dealerships that he set up and ran after his father, also Peter, sold the family business. He\u2019s since offloaded the showrooms and made the transition into the financing side of car ownership. He also has a passion for leadership and wants to make it more accessible and better understood, believing that doing so could help the UK, and Scotland in particular.<\/p>\n
Vardy is behind the Glasgow leadership summit, The Calling, an event in Glasgow on 2 October targeting politicians, business people, charity workers, and anyone else who wants to learn from, and be inspired by, great leaders. Among the speakers is Olympic cyclist Sir Chris Hoy, the head of Street Soccer David Duke, and Jo Salter, Britain\u2019s first female fast jet pilot. At the core of Vardy\u2019s approach to the event are the lessons his father taught him. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe had a slogan, \u2018in pursuit of excellence\u2019. It was always about trying to have the best quality business. I learned about having a clear vision of where you want to go, and a strategy on how to get there. Another thing was the importance of the right leadership team, the right team of people in the right seats.\u201d<\/p>\n
The lesson Vardy returns to most, though, is what his father did as he was building his business. The government approached him to help turn around failing schools in the North East.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would have said, I\u2019m too busy, I\u2019ve got a company to run, it\u2019s making money, I\u2019m going in this direction with my strategy. I don\u2019t know how I\u2019d have reconciled stepping out of my lane to do that. But he did it.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe worked out that if teachers could focus on teaching, the thing they\u2019re good at, they\u2019d get better at it, so he brought HR, finance, and IT into the school environment, to let head teachers lead teaching.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe put the right structure in the schools, and lo and behold, schools went from a 47% GCSE pass rate to 98%. He did that five times, over five schools.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vardy, 47, is unambiguous about what he considers his father\u2019s real legacy. \u201cI\u2019d argue his biggest success wasn\u2019t the shiny thing about cars, thousands of people employed and all that. His biggest success was probably teaching 6,000 young people a year, from some of the most difficult areas of the North East, and achieving those pass rates, and changing a whole generation\u2019s life opportunities, across two generations, over 25 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
After his father broke his leg in Edinburgh and had to get an operation, the surgeon who operated on him was one of the ex-pupils in one of those schools in the North East.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe surgeon said, \u2018I wanted to operate on you myself because I saw your name and I wanted to do it myself, because of who you were\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vardy adds: \u201cWhen you see an example like that as a leader, and see how they did it, it gives you a pattern to follow. I might not achieve as much as him, but I could have a stab at it, because I can see how it\u2019s done.\u201d<\/p>\n
That same instinct to build something with lasting impact, rather than simply commercial success, is what led Vardy to launch The Calling.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought, well, why don\u2019t we do something that\u2019s more Scottish, something that would fit with our time and our generation? I didn\u2019t see anything in Scotland that was similar. I thought, why don\u2019t we put on a leadership conference in Glasgow?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a pilot. We\u2019d like to do it for the next five years, that would be our ambition. But you also have to see whether it fits with the audience that\u2019s coming, and whether they\u2019re getting value from it. If it\u2019s not what people want, then at least we\u2019ve tried.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vardy says said the responses from the speakers has exceeded his expectations, singling out American author Todd Henry. \u201cHe said, \u2018what else can I do for you?\u2019 I wasn\u2019t expecting that question. He asked if I wanted him to reprint his book and rewrite the first couple of pages for everyone coming to the event. Some of these guys and girls have been very, very generous.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Vardy name has been synonymous with the automotive industry for more than a century. His grandfather, Reg Vardy, started his business journey by selling coal from a handcart in Sunderland. His son, now Sir Peter, is worth around \u00a3140m, according to the Sunday Times Rich List.<\/em> <\/p>\nThe young Vardy\u2019s move into the car dealing business began in 2006 when his father stepped down as chairman of Reg Vardy and sold it to Pendragon for \u00a3506m. In May of that year Vardy junior set up Peter Vardy Ltd, and by June he had opened his first dealership in Perth.<\/p>\n
Sir Peter instilled a strong sense of philanthropy in the younger Peter and the Peter Vardy Foundation delivers grants to numerous Christian charities, including Premier, Alpha and The Message Trust.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In recent years Vardy junior has steadily exited the car retail market. In 2023, he axed the Carz used car supermarket sites and a year later he sold the majority of the dealerships to Parks Automotive Group. In May this year he offloaded the Porsche dealerships to Dutch firm Van Mossel Automotive Group.<\/p>\n
His business focus is now on CarMoney and real estate, while, Peter Vardy Global Ventures invests in startups.<\/p>\n
Vardy, who has four children under the age of ten, is clear that he has no intention of building a business empire for them to inherit: a decision shaped by his own experience of being given the freedom to build something himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m quite keen that my kids are allowed to go and do whatever they want to do, so if they want to be a professional sports person, or they want to work in the church, or they want to work in business, or work for somebody.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just want to encourage them, whatever it is, that feeds their tank. I don\u2019t want to leave them a business that they had to run or be part of, that wasn\u2019t what their strength was in.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome family businesses get handed down, and that\u2019s right for other families. For me personally, with my kids, that\u2019s not something I wanted to do. I want to try and help them find the thing they were good at and encourage them to be good at that thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
CarMoney, the car finance business, and Silver Bullet, the software company later bought by Keyloop, both followed that pattern. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur track record has been mobility, automotive, start, build, sell,\u201d he said. \u201cAs we look forward as a family, we\u2019ve clearly taken that into account in terms of what we do next.\u201d<\/p>\n
Additional research by Terry Murden<\/em><\/p>\n\nLike this:<\/h3>\n
The young Vardy\u2019s move into the car dealing business began in 2006 when his father stepped down as chairman of Reg Vardy and sold it to Pendragon for \u00a3506m. In May of that year Vardy junior set up Peter Vardy Ltd, and by June he had opened his first dealership in Perth.<\/p>\n
Sir Peter instilled a strong sense of philanthropy in the younger Peter and the Peter Vardy Foundation delivers grants to numerous Christian charities, including Premier, Alpha and The Message Trust.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In recent years Vardy junior has steadily exited the car retail market. In 2023, he axed the Carz used car supermarket sites and a year later he sold the majority of the dealerships to Parks Automotive Group. In May this year he offloaded the Porsche dealerships to Dutch firm Van Mossel Automotive Group.<\/p>\n
His business focus is now on CarMoney and real estate, while, Peter Vardy Global Ventures invests in startups.<\/p>\n
Vardy, who has four children under the age of ten, is clear that he has no intention of building a business empire for them to inherit: a decision shaped by his own experience of being given the freedom to build something himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m quite keen that my kids are allowed to go and do whatever they want to do, so if they want to be a professional sports person, or they want to work in the church, or they want to work in business, or work for somebody.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just want to encourage them, whatever it is, that feeds their tank. I don\u2019t want to leave them a business that they had to run or be part of, that wasn\u2019t what their strength was in.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome family businesses get handed down, and that\u2019s right for other families. For me personally, with my kids, that\u2019s not something I wanted to do. I want to try and help them find the thing they were good at and encourage them to be good at that thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
CarMoney, the car finance business, and Silver Bullet, the software company later bought by Keyloop, both followed that pattern. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur track record has been mobility, automotive, start, build, sell,\u201d he said. \u201cAs we look forward as a family, we\u2019ve clearly taken that into account in terms of what we do next.\u201d<\/p>\n
Additional research by Terry Murden<\/em><\/p>\nLike this:<\/h3>\n