Maybe that’s why we’re in the state we’re in.
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Michelle Handforth, Network Rail Regional Managing Director resigns
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To be fair the replacement manager might be in a lower grade or with lesser allowances in contract. They may also be entitled to less performance-related pay. However a few tens of thousands of pounds saved from the management resources is a rounding error in the context of an organisation the size of Network Rail.
Very true, but not being “on the spot” is not going to help. Not being prepared to move says a lot about her, I’m afraid.
evergreenadam
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Of course it is, see it every day in many walks of life.
They never get held accountable and put the blame on their underlings, while being paid excessive amounts for their lack of tangible skills. Usually spend two or three years in the job before moving on to their next victim just before the proverbial hits the fan and only really care about getting some good PR to promote themselves in advance of their next job application. The entire ‘management culture’ in this country has become a gravy train and we are all paying for it.
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Just systematic of business all over. You get a piece of paper from a university in business management and they think they know everything. When I started on the railway nearly all senior managers had worked there way up from the bottom. Yes there were graduate trainees but they weren't let loose on anything important until they had learnt the job. Otherwise the staff would eat them for breakfast. That was 35 years ago and they were on the whole career railwaymen first and career managers second. Now thew swan in cock things up and bugger off when it all goes wrong. With a payout. This is unfortunately the norm now in most businesses. Remember there are three ways of doing things on the railway.
1) The right way.
2) The wrong way.
3) The railway way, which is usually an amalgamation of the first two,mostly!
1) The right way.
2) The wrong way.
3) The railway way, which is usually an amalgamation of the first two,mostly!
You can't be a doctor without a medical degree and appropriate foundation training. You can't design a bridge without an MEng or equivalent. You can't be a UN conference interpreter without a degree in modern languages and interpretation.
The problem you're describing is the senior doctors, engineers and translators are still going to be managed by someone in any organisation. Overwhelmingly those people won't be technically skilled at the profession they're managing, because it needs very different skills to get right. Alternatively those people could be independents running their own small business, but if so they'll be contracting out lots of work running the actual business because that's not in their skills. Their skills are focused on the technical work.
The railway industry has a great call for highly-skilled labour, almost as much as the three professions above, and does need a lot of it to deliver for the end consumer, so I can understand why people feel it would be more useful to have a large business manager who is familiar with the context of the industry. But in reality most of them are adequately familiar.
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Dai Corner
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Her CV is publicly available here
uk.linkedin.com
She has a law degree, is a qualified barrister and has worked for the railways before; 2 years or so as Commercial Director of GNER. None of her appointments listed have lasted more than 4 years and 2 months.
This quotation gives an idea of where she feels her skills lie
Michelle Handforth - Regional Managing Director Wales & Western - Network Rail | LinkedIn
Passionate, globally-experienced & sector-versatile Business Leader, with a track record of success; shaping/implementing transformation strategies, driving brand/proposition innovation, identifying incremental revenue streams & cost management solutions delivering YoY top/bottom line growth in...
She has a law degree, is a qualified barrister and has worked for the railways before; 2 years or so as Commercial Director of GNER. None of her appointments listed have lasted more than 4 years and 2 months.
This quotation gives an idea of where she feels her skills lie
3.5 years is a long time. Normally 2 - 2.5 years for that sort of role
Alanko
Member
Your degree certificate from the University of Life is starting to peep out a wee bit there. Sour grapes perhaps?
The idea that senior management all need to be 'lifers' who have slogged their way up through the same organisation/industry since they joined at 16 as apprentices is now incredibly antiquated. If nothing else, it doesn't exactly bring fresh ideas into the workplace. Very few people, beyond those on the cusp of retirement, are that loyal to their employers anymore.
Sir Felix Pole
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I see that her time as Commercial Director GNER coincided with the financial meltdown and its replacement by National Express.
Bertie the bus
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I thought 3 was just 2 but at twice the cost.
thedbdiboy
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That was because Sea Containers was unable to meet the financial guarantees due to the 2008 economic crash. I don't think that can be pinned on their Commercial Director!
Mikey C
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To me she looks far more suited for a commercial role, say in a rail franchise (as per her previous rail experience), rather than Network Rail, which is much more about managing projects and safety critical expenditure.Her CV is publicly available here
Michelle Handforth - Regional Managing Director Wales & Western - Network Rail | LinkedIn
Passionate, globally-experienced & sector-versatile Business Leader, with a track record of success; shaping/implementing transformation strategies, driving brand/proposition innovation, identifying incremental revenue streams & cost management solutions delivering YoY top/bottom line growth in...
She has a law degree, is a qualified barrister and has worked for the railways before; 2 years or so as Commercial Director of GNER. None of her appointments listed have lasted more than 4 years and 2 months.
This quotation gives an idea of where she feels her skills lie
It’s often called incredibly antiquated, but how do you expect someone to manage something they don’t understand? The idea that everything is just numbers, some of which are too big, is what has got many of our public services into the sorry state they are today.
You cannot make sound decisions on prioritisation, budget allocation etc, without a solid understanding of the entirety of your business.
To be clear I’m not saying they have to come from the specific company, but they should have experience in the industry outside of upper management. As for new ideas that’s just rubbish, people who have come from in an industry know how it is run and often see areas for improvement for themselves. Someone coming from outside will end up bringing ideas which arent relevant and can be dangerous when forced through with a limited understanding of the business.
AlterEgo
Veteran Member
A fairly meagre salary in context and nothing like what could be earned in the wholly private sector. £300K is modest for this level of responsibility. NR Western is a very large organisation with a significant public responsibility. Citing what the PM earns isn't helpful.
A big problem is the railway doesn't get the best people because it isn't the most attractive proposition for C-suite employees; you can earn a lot more abroad with the right skillset.
It is if a contractor is involved
Maybe you are right. But I've seen plenty of supposed "new" ideas which have been tried and failed before. Maybe I'm getting too cynical in my old age , I'm not saying they all have had to be hands on the tools though. Just that they parachute in without understanding the nature of the staff on the job.
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Partially. I may have such a degree, but I certainly don't know everything. Beeching didn't have a background of a railway lifer, but certainly got things going.
However, there's a whole organisation at NR headquarters which is all about policy and such like. This in turn has a number of geographical Regions, who are there to actually do the work, inside this general policy framework. What seems to have happened here, unfortunately, is that a "policy wonk", as us despised lot (see above) term them, has managed to get into an operational top management role, but with skills which just duplicate what is done at HQ. And that's the square peg in the round hole. Read that CV. However could anyone in executive HR at NR HQ have thought that fitted?
Given not only 7-day working, but the amount of effort that goes on at weekends and overnight, it is indeed difficult to see how someone living as far away as Aberdeen could possibly manage, at the operational level, such a geographical territory that goes down to Penzance. Especially as all your managers who are running the show live on the patch.
I wonder if she ever read Gerry Fiennes' book. Especially the bit where he had effectively the same job in the same area, at Paddington, 60 years beforehand. And the bit about how many times he (and his family) had to move house, to live where the job was.
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JerryHarbottle
New Member
Can’t work out where the 3 1/2 years came from. Announced by Network Rail in March 2021 that Michelle Handforth was joining Network Rail from Aberdeen Harbour Board. Joining occurring in the mid Summer of that year; so barely 2 1/2 years in role. Noted above is commentary on being time served - her predecessor was; with them joining BR as a teenager with a very successful career, working in Control, local ops manager, General Manager, Route Director etc. When I moved into operational railway management role I was told I had to live on the patch. Makes you think.
Isnt staff maintainance cuts, and lack of funding to do the jobs the main problem ? Then the H&S Exec come in a have their say on what can and can't be done, that everyone did for years and years with no issues.
Mind you living in Aberdeen and using flights to get to work sometimes is not going to endear you to the public either !
Ops staff now, have to live within, or supposed to live within an hours travelling time, and a maximum of a 14 hr day door to door.
43096
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Absolute rubbish. I’ve known plenty of people come in to the industry I’m in (not the railway) and been very successful (getting to very senior management positions). What they had in common was an open mind, a willingness to talk to and learn from people at every level and excellent self-awareness of their own strengths and weaknesses. In short it is about the individual and you can’t generalise.
The Planner
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But which route do you take to the top? it isn't all ops and front line or engineering etc.. how do you acquire the finance, personnel, project management, sponsorship, delivery etc side of it?
Fundamentally is the job to manage projects (which I would have thought was the job of the Chief Operating Officer ) or managing people. There are people who can do one but not the other. I used to be a teacher ; there are plenty of good teachers who are useless in management roles. On the other hand they do need to know what the job entails.
Someone who is "Managing Director" of a large organisation needs to have an appropriate understanding of all this. Because while you don't actually do any of these tasks, you appoint people to each one who does have the detailed competence in their own area, plus them knowing sufficient about the others to have a professional cross-discipline discussion. Board meetings, government cabinet, all are the same.
The ORR investigation, plus Andrew Haines' comments after the Paddington meltdown (whether he had been personally involved or not, one hopes), points to what the business world calls a "lack of confidence", and normal people call "no good". My hunch is Haines told her to go when the ORR announcement became known internally, which would be even before the public announcement.
No it isn’t. You can gain an insight at any level as long as you have the right attitude, skill set and desire to learn. Unfortunately certain people go in “all guns blazing” and don’t accept the insight of their subordinates and experienced colleagues. You also ensure the right people below you are the right fit and get the right mix of, experience and subject matter excellence whilst not micromanaging but maintaining accountability.
Or they may have too many external demands placed onto them. For instance NR by the DFT/Treasury.
Headline positions in Government rarely encompass just one job - the chief exec where i work also does the chief returning office job as well as a couple of others. He get a full time salary for each of them as well so it'll double the money he's paid. The PM gets a load of other perks as well.
And I think this might be the issue, because the number that have the right attitude seems to be rather slim. Someone doesn't have to have risen the whole way through, but they also shouldn't be thrown into a top level management position with absolutely no experience, there should also be some level of learning before the job, no just to get them used to it, but yo check they have the right attitude. There are examples in every government department where people are brought in and don't care about their actual position, only trimming the budget and cutting whatever they can with no regard to its actual function.
A good manager would seek out the opinions of those who are "on the front line", and would accept arguments from the technical experts along the lines of "If you do x, then I fear y consequences". Now, there will be times management have to make hard decisions that those technical experts will disagree with, but any good manager I have ever worked for has listened to my and my colleagues input, for the simple reason that they were people leaders, and not experts in the field! (Not Railway for context)
I agree that there is an argument for managers who aren't experts in the field, but that relies on them be good managers. My point is increasingly management is being sourced from outside, but because of the lower pay they end up not being those good managers, and that is when they believe they know best, don't listen to those under them and start making reckless and dangerous decisions.
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