David Revagliatte meets Stuart Rodriguez, CEO of professional services provider, the Gibro Group. Stuart takes us on a journey through his career to date. He shares his experiences leading a family business over the last two decades. As the former chair of the Gibraltar Federation of Small Businesses and owner of a Gibraltar-based football club, Stuart draws parallels between managing a business and running a football club.
Scott Simmons from Legal Balance pops in to chat with Harriet Seed about the importance of business development within the legal sector. They explore how technology and AI are revolutionising client interactions and the world of finance.
Thanks for listening to the Gibraltar Business Podcast by the GFSB! Follow us on Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook!
David Revagliatte meets Stuart Rodriguez, CEO of professional services provider, the Gibro Group. Stuart takes us on a journey through his career to date. He shares his experiences leading a family business over the last two decades. As the former chair of the Gibraltar Federation of Small Businesses and owner of a Gibraltar-based football club, Stuart draws parallels between managing a business and running a football club.
Scott Simmons from Legal Balance pops in to chat with Harriet Seed about the importance of business development within the legal sector. They explore how technology and AI are revolutionising client interactions and the world of finance.
Thanks for listening to the Gibraltar Business Podcast by the GFSB! Follow us on Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook!
Hello and welcome to the Gibraltar Business Podcast, where we meet the individuals running business in Gibraltar. Each episode is like a mini masterclass in business and leadership. I'm your host, david Revagliate. Whether you've just found us or have been with us since the start, welcome to the show. The Gibraltar Business Podcast is brought to you by the GFSB and is sponsored by Gibraltar International Bank that shares our passion for business. This week we meet Stuart Rodriguez, ceo of the Gibral Group. This Gibral Group was established in 1975 by the late Brian Perez and has since become a multi-jurisdictional provider of professional services delivered by independent businesses located in Gibraltar, spain, portugal and Malta.
Speaker 1:Later in the episode we're here from Scott Simmons from Legal Balance, a firm that supports legal firms with business development. Scott tells Harriet Seed that the billable hour, according to him, is dead. I hope you enjoy the show. So, stuart, thank you for joining me on the Gibraltar Business Podcast. Yes, it's a pleasure to be here, david. Well, obviously we know each other for the last two years that we've worked together at the Gibral Group, but of course, all of our listeners don't have that knowledge of you or don't know you. So can you give me a bit of background as to what the Gibral Group does?
Speaker 3:Yes, the Gibral Group is a collection of companies and the common ownership and that common ownership being through a family and, by extension, the group companies, come together and work in a very interconnected way that delivers to, ultimately, the client or the customer, delivers a level of service within a holistic branch of services. These services could be legal, they could be corporate trusts, accounting and being service providers. It's in the client's interest. In my view although obviously I'm a little bit biased saying that, but in my view it's in the client's interest to have all these services under one umbrella.
Speaker 1:So you'd say Gibraltar is known for this kind of work, for professional services, and there are others in the sector. What is it then that makes Gibral Group different?
Speaker 3:Well, apart from being family owned, we like to treat the team leaders and the members of staff, of course, from top to bottom, as if they were family. This means not mollycoddling them, like sometimes happens in families, but in having the benefits of an arm around the shoulder, but also having the capacity to be able to sit down, like good families do, and be able to thrash out tough situations for the benefit of the family, which ultimately leads to business success nine times out of ten.
Speaker 1:So you find obviously that's very much about the internal culture. Does that then reflect for clients? What's that that brings that difference to clients as well?
Speaker 3:We like to feel that, but I think we need to ask the clients that question not myself.
Speaker 1:So, stuart, you were just so that our listeners can get to know a bit more about your background. Before Gibral, can you tell us a bit about those early kind of experiences and your route to business?
Speaker 3:Yes, I think since childhood I've always had an adventurous, entrepreneurial mind. I do remember many moons ago selling newspapers. I specifically remember it was the panorama newspaper and I used to go selling these from door to door near to where I lived, and I used to be very proud of the fact that I was able to generate my own income and that philosophy has always helped me to achieve things and to hopefully get like-minded people to do the same, because sometimes people just in a little push in the right direction to be able to fulfill their potential. And I think, without wanting to speak too much about myself, I think I've been able to do that on several occasions. Actually, when I went away to study, I used to knock on doors on my return for the summer and I wasn't just able to generate work or get jobs for myself, but I was also able to do so for a lot of my friends who can testify to that. On one occasion we ended up doing a whole summer of work hand on a luxury 60 meter vessel in Sotomayor and there were four of us travelling every morning at 7 o'clock and coming back in the afternoon. And I also distinctly recall one particular summer where I was working as an intern in a law firm from 9 to 5 pm, then I was doing pizza delivery work from 7 to 10 pm and then, to top it all, I was doing security work for a local company for from 11 pm to 2 pm at night. So in general, I think a work ethic was born from a very early age and this has always stood me in good stead, I feel, and just as a matter of a side interest, my son actually.
Speaker 3:He came home with his friend and he said look how much money I've made. And I said really, how have you done this? And he, without me prompting him, he'd been knocking on some neighbor's door and offering to walk their dogs along with his friend for a small donation. And he came home with I think it was 25 pound and he was over the moon with himself. And then I asked him what are you going to do with the money? And he said well, I've got a day of school soon and I'm going to go to the local shop and start to buy accessories for the dogs, so I can not just walk their dog but also sell them some goods from door to door.
Speaker 3:So it's true, you've got that, and he just brought back a lot of these early memories which sometimes, due to the cycle and the pressures of work and getting things done and managing people with, sometimes forget these routes. So seeing my son carry out these unprompted roles, or whatever you want to call them, brought back a lot of these happy memories from when these small traits start to develop in your character which you then take on to work life.
Speaker 1:I bet right it must be feeling for you right now proud but also proud and excited to see you in this entrepreneurial spirit being passed on right. Well, I hope so. Are you sure you haven't prompted him too much? I've got a lot of memories. You haven't prompted him too much.
Speaker 3:Absolutely certain.
Speaker 1:So, of course, look, you've got that entrepreneurial spirit. You're young, you're growing up in Gibraltar, you've got these jobs on the go that I think the wearing many hats part will resonate with a lot of listeners who might be running businesses or starting out as well. Why, then, choose law to go? You spent a bit of time with law. Why did you choose the legal route rather than entrepreneurial? And can they be the same thing?
Speaker 3:I think there's a bit of taboo in mixing those with each other, but I think that I don't really agree with them being separate and distinct. I think being entrepreneurial and being a lawyer work very well hand in hand, because law is a wonderful profession that you can just extend to many facets of the finance center, which we're very grateful to have on our doorstep. And coming back to the question of why law and how did that happen? Well, it's another of the stories that I sometimes discuss within family circles, and this goes back to an earlier memory, when I went out fishing with my father and my sister and it was a horrible rainy day and after an hour or so we called it a day.
Speaker 3:My father dropped my sister off at home and he took me for a coffee. I still remember the place where it was and he just said I think you should be a lawyer, I think that profession suits you. He was a police officer at the time, so he loved law and he really instilled that idea in me. And from that day on and I was 10 years old, wow, from that day on, there was nothing else that I really wanted to be other than, obviously, a footpeller but then you realize your limits.
Speaker 1:So you come back. I think you were looking at your timeline and what your career trajectory has been. You start off very much in those entrepreneurial days. In 1999, you were appointed to the board of the Giro group. In 2015, you were appointed as its CEO. What were some of the key milestones in that journey?
Speaker 3:Well, just to clarify, I was appointed to the board in 1999, but I became a very young managing director in 2002. So essentially I was a de facto CEO from that point. I officially I became CEO some seven or eight years ago, but that was due to a structural change of the titles within our organization. So that journey was a wonderful journey, and it still is, of course. But it's a journey that started with me getting to know my mentor, the late Brian Perez, and forging a, I think, a very wonderful team with a clear vision on growing a business.
Speaker 3:I'm not just growing it locally, but he had the foresight of opening up a law office in Spain, which I think was the first of its of its kind back then, some 25 years ago. But he always had the vision I had. I had the, the can do attitude I'd like to think, and the hard work, perseverance and, I think, the capacity to bring people together and and achieve goals. And this, essentially, has been my lifetime project. And bringing in together handpicked leaders with different specialties has helped us to grow and create what we have now, which is a multi disciplinary group of companies and a family ownership working together like a family, and I think this is what distinguishes us locally.
Speaker 1:Okay, so as we've worked together. I know, I know the Gipro group. It's multi jurisdictional, as you say, which translates as has an international presence, as you say. You've you've handpicked leaders that must have its own kind of challenges or bring its challenges for you. As a leader, how do you overcome challenges, and what are some of them?
Speaker 3:Yes, I think business per se is relatively easy. The hard part is dealing with people and the business really, or the success, is defined by how you treat these people, be they staff managers, fellow directors and, most importantly, the clients, because without this last group of people you have nothing. Retaining good people and recruit and recruiting good people to, I think, is fundamental to the success of any business, and this challenge is overcome by being honest, be it in good or not so good situations, and also changing along with the times, because without changing, evolving and adapting, your business with either die very slowly or relatively quickly.
Speaker 1:So Gipro has over the years done that right, so diversified and changed.
Speaker 3:I think any successful business in any day and age has to do that. It has to look at itself, know what can improve and also being able to identify areas that can generate growth and lead you to achieve your goals and success.
Speaker 1:Okay so, Stuart, many people listening might not know this, but you were once chair of the Gibraltar Federation of Small Businesses. In fact, you're not the first chair to come and be as a guest on the show. What are your memories of that time as chair of the GFSB, and how do you feel businesses changed locally?
Speaker 3:Yes. Well, firstly, it was an absolute honor to be chairperson of the GFSB. I had been on the board for, I would say, around 15 years, watching great people lead the Federation and be part of the boards. I learned a lot from a very early stage in my career my profession career and working with wonderful people like the likes of Mary Lou Guerrero, and her passion and her energy was a sight to behold, to be honest. And recently I caught up with her and had a very nice lunch and you know she still had that fire and that passion in her, which was wonderful to see.
Speaker 3:In terms of the business landscape, well, gibraltar really has changed dramatically beyond recognition. The finance center is a resounding success story for Gibraltar PLC. For a little town which is also a nation with a unique set of quirky characteristics, it is truly amazing to see what has been achieved. We are now a truly international, cosmopolitan, prosperous, peaceful territory that, in my view, should be the envy of the entire world, and this without mentioning how we live together in harmony, regardless of religion, faith or orientation. And to add to that, I think we're only a safe cross-border treaty away from turbocharging our economy to levels that really few of us can only imagine. Conversely, and I have to say this, the other side of the coin is that if we, if that this is not achieved, we could end the stagnation or indeed worse.
Speaker 1:I think that resonates with a lot with myself and a lot of people and a lot of my guests over the last few seasons. Actually, we are waiting on the outcome, we are operating under uncertainty, but I do think that Gibraltar's businesses are resilient, just because of the nature of that. So, fingers crossed, it happens. I want to change that completely now and I wanted to bring in one of your other interests and passions, which I know is football. You're a Liverpool FC supporter. You'll never walk alone, it's true. I'm not going to hold that against you, but as a keen football fan and former owner of a local football club, can you draw any parallels between leading a business and managing a football club?
Speaker 3:I certainly can, because From a very young age I was obsessed with reading football managers autobiographies or biographies in particular. I think I've read most of them, regardless of which team they represented, and in fact I think the Alex Ferguson one is one of my favourites. I was going to ask you who stood out. Yes, well, that one did Brian Clough's Walking on Water, bill Shankly, bob Paisley, the Daglish Daglish one is one. All of them stand out and the psyche in managing leading, whether it's football or business, is very similar.
Speaker 3:In football, you need a good goalkeeper, a strong spine which is through your central defender, then you centre midfield and then you strike out.
Speaker 3:You normally tend to concentrate on building that spine and then the rest develops naturally or compliments the spine, but business is really no difference. You need to have key leaders in the right positions, whether it's a small business, a medium or a large one, and you need to allow those people to flourish, to have the confidence and your trust that they can do the job whilst they're out there on the pitch or whilst they're out there in a team meeting or with clients. It's essentially the same, and I think this precise point is hammered home very well by using again Alex Ferguson's Sir Alex Ferguson's example, where he rewrote part of his main autobiography and he changed the title to leading and he was invited by the Harvard Business University to talk about leadership, and it was fascinating to see how many of these principles transcend normal business. And why shouldn't they? You're leading people, you have an idea, you have a plan, you have your objectives and you need to achieve them. Is there any difference to business?
Speaker 1:I don't think so. When you think of the psychology, as you say, team dynamics and we're talking about some of these teams are elite. They're worth billions in terms of their operations I think it's about time that it looked for leadership and how to pull teams together. So it's not a surprise to me. I asked my listeners is it a surprise to you? Wanted to kind of go back to Gipro and can you tell us about a recent initiative or project that the Gipro group has undertaken, under your leadership, Maybe, and see if we can mix it up where you've used any of those football dynamics to achieve success?
Speaker 3:Well, I'm not sure whether any football analogy here would be applicable, but one particular project which I'm particularly proud of is when, three or four years ago, we spotted a gap in the market. I mean, traditionally we were lawyers, company trust managers, etc. But we saw that there was an opportunity to create our own accountancy arm, and we're part of an international network of accountants and actually we're one of the few at the time that didn't have a fully fledged accountancy practice. So we decided to create what is now known as Numerica Accounting Services to provide in-house services to a client base, and I'm very pleased to say that these few years later, we now boast five qualified accountants and there's plenty room for growth. And it's one of these additions that we make to a group of companies that ultimately and ultimately creates a team that is stronger than the sum of its parts, and that is what I think have helped to achieve in all these years.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I came across that on your site. You know it's very much a team you can trust and I do think that reflects what the JABRO group is. Stuart, looking forward again, keep on going back and forth, but what trends do you see shaping the future of business and finance?
Speaker 3:Well, technology is a big one, and the way that clients and customers interact will surely change with again with the use of technology, which in some cases are steps forward and in other cases I'm not too sure whether they are. Artificial intelligence is becoming, you know, a subject that is on the tip of everyone's lips, and when you look into what artificial intelligence can create, it can be quite scary. Will that ever replace the interpersonal nature of a face-to-face meeting? Maybe not now, straight away, but trends are changing very drastically. You only have to look at your own children to see how they communicate, to realize that that is the client of the future, and you have to cater for what clients demand. Again, going back to the analogy of having to adapt and evolve over time and I'm sure that that will come not just through social media and good PR, but also in the way that we interact, and I think COVID has accelerated a lot of these trends. The working from home culture, zoom meetings and the like, you know, are reshaping the way that we work.
Speaker 1:Yeah, actually, later on in this episode, we'll meet Scott Simmons, who is from Legal Balance, and he's got some ideas about how AI impacts legal services as well, so listen in for that one you mentioned, obviously, I think, if you're looking at innovating and adapting, gibro's gonna be celebrating its 50th year in business in a couple of years' time, so it's obviously being able to do that quite successfully. What are your hopes and goals for the future, for the next 50 years?
Speaker 3:Well, it's a very good question, because sometimes you cannot look too far ahead. As they say, man plans and God laughs. Sure, but having said that, you always need to have a plan, a clear vision going forward, and for that it is finding new ways of generating income, new ways of diversifying the services of the group in a way that complements the group being greater than the sum of its parts. And that is where we are at the moment trying to identify these opportunities and being able to grow in a sustainable and profitable manner.
Speaker 1:So, stuart, last question and it's one that I tend to ask most of my guests, a variation of, at least and you may have already given us the answer. But, reflecting on your career, what's been that most valuable piece of advice or lesson so far?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think there's one that really sums it up for me, and that was that when I first started off, I had a job offer of sorts from a long time ago.
Speaker 3:I had a job offer of sorts from a large Gibraltar law firm and then I had one from the smaller law firm at the time which is where we are now, which really had just one lawyer who'd recently departed.
Speaker 3:So I was looking to step into those shoes and I had both opportunities and I went to see my grandfather, who was a very wily old Scot of life stories and uncanny advice and he was probably my best friend at the time and I used to go for him for advice. And when I set out both opportunities and I put it on the table and I said no, grandad, what would you do? Grandad, I'm not sure what to do here and he just summed it up perfectly by saying you can either be a very small cog in a big machine or a very big cog in a small machine. And I don't think I look back following those words and it was clear to me what I wanted to do, which is to get a project that was small but take it somewhere, rather than just be maybe a number in a bigger firm, having to cut your teeth at that level. Was I right or wrong? I'm not sure.
Speaker 1:It's from where I'm sitting. It sounds like you're right.
Speaker 3:Yes, but, and that advice has always stuck in my mind because it was outstanding advice at the time.
Speaker 1:I think it sends a message from your father telling you look, you'd suit a legal career to your grandfather giving this advice about. I guess what he's saying there is think about what you want and that decision comes through right.
Speaker 3:Yes, ultimately it's down to family.
Speaker 1:Family is super important. You work at Givry, witches, family and Stuart. Thank you so much for your time and that's it. They're up, and thank you for putting up with me.
Speaker 4:Hello Scott, Thank you so much for joining us today. Can you please tell us a little bit about Legal Balance? Who is it and what does it do?
Speaker 2:Hi there, Harriet. Thank you so much for having me so Legal Balance. When we describe ourselves, we say that we are a toolkit for turning lawyers into rain makers. So what we do is we provide lawyers with the tools, tips and techniques to get out to the marketplace, give clients the best advice and win more work. We coach clients on subjects around leadership, mindset, culture and habits. We train clients on how to sell and cross-sell, how to network confidently and with purpose and how to give a kind of presentations that people really enjoy and make other lawyers jealous. And then we consult for law firms, providing them with strategies that they can take out into the marketplace to help them build organically as the foundation for the future of their business. Now, our market is lawyers, but everything that we teach actually cuts across all of professional services, and I suppose what we'll talk about in a moment is changing, so that's going to mean that that will how it impacts all of professional services in the future.
Speaker 4:Well, you have a segue quite nicely into the next question what is new with Legal Balance?
Speaker 2:Right. So, as I sort of just mentioned, one of the things that we do is we provide training courses, and the big one that we provide is called the BD Breakthrough Blueprint and it's a two-day course and it covers all of the things that we talked about just now, and what we're finding is the changing way in which people are learning means they want to do it at their own pace and they want to be able to get access to whatever they want, and so we are turning the BD Breakthrough Blueprint into a digital course and it's going to be coming out. All things being equal, it's coming out at the end of October and we're really excited about it because it's just. It breaks down really nicely and really simply that selling is not difficult.
Speaker 2:It really isn't. I used to be a lawyer, so I know what it's like to have that dual conflict of winning the work and doing the work. And sometimes we have this view that sells people like Jordan Belford you have to be the Wolf of Wall Street, but actually that's not the case at all. Lawyers aren't taught how to sell and it creates this idea in their minds that they can't do it, but it's beyond them. But actually selling is really simple. You start from a place of wanting to help and everything else just falls into place.
Speaker 2:And with the sort of coming now of AI, ai is going to change everything across all of professional services. It's going to do the work that traditionally lawyers, accountants, wealth managers you name it, any professional who saw their remit as in certain areas like research or drafting or something like that AI is going to do it all. And so for lawyers and across all of professional services, they have to reevaluate who they are, and they are, and always have been, advisors. We seem to have forgotten that, that we are advisors, and so whatever it is that AI can and will do and I've already seen some amazing things that AI can do in the league of profession but whatever it can do. It's an aid. It's going to make us better at being advisors and that's really exciting. And if lawyers want to go into the 21st century and really be advisors, they're going to have to understand modern consultative selling principles.
Speaker 4:Yeah, as you said, I mean, ai is something that I think is going to end up affecting quite a lot of businesses across the board, so it's good that you're sort of taking the initiative and creating something that will allow for businesses to cope with kind of the differences that AI will bring and things like that. So if people want to get in touch with you, how can they go about that?
Speaker 2:You can reach out to me, scottsimmons, at legalbalancecouk. I'm on Instagram. You find me a little bit on TikTok the website is legalbalancecouk but you will find me every single day on LinkedIn. I am on there. I'm starting conversations, I'm commenting on other people's posts. I love being on LinkedIn. I think it's the most amazing platform. So if you're on LinkedIn and you want to have a chat, you'll find me on there. So please do come and find me.
Speaker 4:Okay, thank you very much for coming to talk to us today, scott, and I wish you all the best with your launch End of October. Yeah, yes, perfect.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much.
Speaker 1:And that's a wrap for this episode of the Gibraltar Business Podcast. Thank you to our guests, stuart Rodriguez from the Gibraltar Group and Scott Simmons from Legal Balance. Thank you to the team at the GFSB, our sponsor, the Gibraltar International Bank, and to everyone who contributes to the project and keeps the podcast going from strength to strength. Thank you, of course, to you for tuning in. Without you, the show wouldn't exist. So thank you. I hope you've enjoyed listening. If you want to contact the show, please do so on any of our social channels or directly via the GFSB. So it's a goodbye from me for another week. In the meantime, keep your eyes on the prize and reach for your goals. See you next time.