meet
Page 48
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
David Philip
• The loose-limbed figure with the boyish smile who has just been 'made general manager of Reynolds big new truck centre in Barking is not just another of Ford's bright young men following the worldwide drift from manufacturer to retailer — though he is that, too. David Philip is a third-generation Ford man whose paternal grandfather was one of the three pioneers who began importing American Ford cars into Britain in 1909. The three of them — Perry, Philip and Bates — operated from premises in Longacre, London, and became closely involved in the British Ford company when it was set up in Manchester — David's grandfather became chief buyer there and later in Dagenham.
His father, with 44 years' service at Ford, has recently been busy with the move of the parts division to Daventry, but before that he ran the parts operation from Aveley and it's ten to one that the technical spares literature you've read as an operator was prepared by him.
With such a family background it was no surprise that David entered Ford from school but it amuses him that, in his 12 years with the company, he and his father and his brother (a buyer) never once met in the course of business.
His first job was coking in the finance department (-if we cut this Cortina pipe by 2 in. what will it save us in a year?") and after two years in finance he moved to the export division — to what he describes as one of the best jobs in the world for a young man of 21: entertaining overseas visitors to London,
He survived that to take a brief personnel post in marketing before plunging into truck sales, where he really made his mark and became London zone manager, liaising between company and dealers and getting to know many of the big fleet operators in the process. One of a zone manager's tasks is to encourage franchise holders to set up modern truck facilities : one of David's "clients" was Reynolds — and when the man selected to manage the centre dropped out, David couldn't resist the challenge.
Now, he says, he has to prove that he can practice what he preached. Still. only 30. he has a firm grasp of what management is about. His great ambition at Barking is to widen the scope, going into leasing, contract hire, contract maintenance and so forth on a sizeable scale. Operators are more and more demanding a total service, and he sees the successful truck dealer of five years', hence being the one who can supply it, seven days
a week and possibly round the clock. B.C.