Missed the 20%
Sir Clive Thompson, chief executive of Rentokil Initial, has found that hitting financial targets can be more costly than missing them
TO VISIT the boss of Rentokil Initial is rather like calling on a knight in his castle. Clive Thompson, knighted in 1996, has planted his standard at Felcourt, a manor near East Grinstead in West Sussex, complete with a sweeping staircase and 13 acres of lawns. It seems a glamorous head office for a business that disinfects toilets, sets rat-traps and treats wood-rot. But for the past 17 years, Sir Clive has managed to infuse Rentokil with a kind of glamour, by getting the group's profits to grow on average by 20% a year.
This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “Missed the 20%”
From the August 7th 1999 edition
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