Allan Gray has made his last
pitch as Sales Director for LSI and is leaving.
We spoke to him just before he finally locked the door of his office for
one last time;
Allan Gray along with his
brother Peter Gray started Language Specialists International in 1986. Together they ran the school until selling it
to Neath and Port Talbot
College
“Very few people know that
you spent time in Prison, Allan. How did that happen?”
“Well let’s start with the
teaching and LSI, shall we?
I suppose my first
experience in teaching would be in 1969, when I was taking a gap year,
completely broke, entirely unqualified and in Madrid
Then moving on a bit, I
started working in tourism and from there I was in the Emirates (from 1976 to
1980) working in freight forwarding. At
the time I was making reasonable money and I knew Peter was at a loose end back
in England
Almost immediately he got a
job teaching and found that not only was he a natural but he really enjoyed
it. I had to move to the Northern Emirates
and I suggested he start his own operation, (It was around 1979, I would have
been about 30 at the time and he would have been about 22). With some help and
a business plan he started a school in Sharjah and within 2 years he had virtually
conquered the whole of the Northern Emirates! He discovered he had an absolute
talent for developing, building and managing language schools. He was a natural
genius! Peter stayed and I left the
Emirates and went back to Holland
Three years down the line he
decided he wanted to open a school in the UK
We found a place in Bosham,
near Chichester , and in March 1985 we set up
the Chichester English Study Centre.
Peter did all the groundwork, and the background stuff, but you know
when we started we were just a catastrophe waiting to happen! What we knew about running a business in the UK
The business side just
didn’t translate from the Middle East to the UK
After two years we decided
we had to move. We took a blank sheet of paper and identified all the things we
wanted for a location and made a list of all the mistakes we had made and tried
to learn from them. Eventually we found
that Portsmouth Portsmouth
I suppose the lowest point
was the first Gulf War when every single one of our bookings were
cancelled. We only had two students in
the school, both French and both called André and we really thought we were
going to go under. Thankfully it all started to pick up again.
The highest points? It’s
actually been a wonderful experience, I have had the privilege of working with
absolutely lovely people, doing a job which for most of the time has been
enormous fun. I was not rich, I am still
not rich but most of the time I have been able to live rich! I have travelled all over the world, stayed
in wonderful hotels, met really interesting and lovely people, you can’t call
that a bad life! It is really hard to put your finger on the highest point, but
maybe it was when we found out we had sold our previous building at a really
good profit and were able to move into our current building (May 1997) which is
massively bigger, do it up how we wanted and be massively proud. Probably the highest point in my career as
the company salesman was the day we signed our biggest training contract. I was dancing down the street, singing at the
top of my voice, heaven knows what the locals thought of me! And… we still have
that contract today.
How do I feel about leaving?
Very mixed, quite schizophrenic. This is my baby, I have spent 29 years of my
life bringing it up so it feels very strange. But professionally I suppose I
feel that I have achieved everything I set out to and some, and I want to use
the motivation and energy for other things now. The job hasn’t changed much,
and maybe it’s time to move on.
The answer to what I’ll miss
the most and the least is the same thing, it’s the people. I will miss the fun
and interaction, I love being able to outrage people, but on the other hand, I
am a bit of a maverick so managing a team is sometimes a bit challenging, the
two things don’t necessarily go together.
 |
| The very last Management meeting with Allan at the helm |
If I could change anything
about the history of LSI? I think that would be starting a school with the
knowledge that we have now!
The best piece of advice I
could give to anyone going into marketing? I would say learn about your
customers and listen to them.
Outside of LSI I love
travelling, cooking, reading, my family and friends and my adorable grand
daughter, and so I’m looking forward to spending more time on those things. So
my plans for the future? I would say Gin and Tonic in the right hand, buttocks
in the sand and iPad in the left hand.
And back to the prison
time? Well it was in the Emirates. It
was only for a few hours but I had stopped a cheque which at that time there was
illegal, but it got sorted out very quickly.
LSI will just not be the
same without Allan, it wouldn't have existed if it hadn't been for his extraordinary talent, and he is going to be missed enormously by all of those
who have been lucky enough to get to know him.
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| Allan's leaving party - speeches, dancing and tears! |
Bye Allan - and thank you!
