Accelerating Potential: Leadership and Growth in the Luxury Automotive Sector

Sumi Thomas October 10, 2023

3 minutes read

Richard Leopold, Regional Director of Bentley for the UK, Middle East, Africa and India highlights the need for a leader to inspire and support the team’s growth while ensuring their complete participation in the vision-building process.

What was the best-ever lesson in leadership you’ve learned?

I’d say never underestimate the importance of establishing a clear team vision and common purpose. Many companies have a corporate vision and often this can be too far removed for those further down in the organisation. Ask your team, “What is our role in delivering on the company’s ambitions?” Set a team vision together and then agree on the values and behaviours that you all believe are required to deliver it. By involving the team, their ownership, engagement and subsequently motivation increase dramatically. In my experience, this creates a strong foundation for a high-performance team.

What was the greatest challenge you have faced in business?

It has to be managing the supply and demand situation at Bentley during Covid. My role at the time was to forecast the sales demand and recommend supply adjustments at the factory in Crewe. When the pandemic hit China, it wasn’t too hard to estimate the potential impact of a sales stop, but when the virus spread across the world, it was really challenging to assess how things could develop. The only way I could really handle the conversations with our Board was to create scenarios… best/mid/worst case, gather as many facts as possible and discuss probabilities. Whilst initially quite stressful, I really enjoyed leading the team through this volatile period and was very proud of how quickly we were able to adapt our plans and accelerate our decision-making.

To date, what has been your proudest moment in business?

I’d probably refer to an assignment I had in China during 2011-13. At this time, the car market was booming and we could see the luxury segment about to follow. We did an assessment of our representation and soon realised that we needed to double the size of our retail network. Typically, the appointment of a new retailer would take 3 months to run through the process – from appointment, through showroom build to opening. To secure our market potential, our aim was to do 12 appointments in 12 cities within 3 months. When I called our Headquarters in the UK, the guys thought we were crazy! Nevertheless, we didn’t falter in our desire to deliver the project. We assigned a team of 350 to build the showroom interiors offsite, appointed 5 marketing event teams and achieved our goal. Every Friday for 12 consecutive weeks we opened a new retailer across the vast territory. Bentley was firmly on the map and sales soared. Naturally, I feel proud looking back at this chapter.

Speaking honestly, what do you consider are the major difficulties about the particular industry you’re in?

Bentley operates in the luxury market. By definition, nobody needs luxury. Therefore, maintaining customer interest in our products and driving the brand’s emotional appeal are our biggest challenges. Our job is to innovate. Fortunately, at Bentley, we are blessed with a very capable “bespoking” division called Mulliner. Here we are able to make customer dreams a reality through a whole range of individualization options on the exterior and interior aspects of our cars.

What according to you are the key qualities or skills that every leader should possess to thrive?

I’d say that the main role of a leader is to inspire and support their team to achieve their full potential. You don’t need to be the expert, but you do need to ask the right questions and be inquisitive. Show belief in your team and in turn their confidence will increase. The results then follow.

What was a difficult business decision you had to make and how did you handle it?

The toughest decision is the one around reducing headcount. I’ve been in this situation a couple of times due to business criticality and it’s never pleasant. The key is to communicate clearly, be fair in the process and take the time to talk through the necessary changes with the involved parties.

Is there a particular saying or motto that guides you?

Believe in yourself. The rest will follow.