Joseph Wan

Joseph Wan’s honesty is as striking as his politeness. For someone so measured and unflappable, the Harvey Nichols chief executive’s views are impassioned, his management style no-nonsense.

“We don’t talk about economic recovery at all. Forget about it,” he has said. On UK politics in the run-up to the general election: “There are so many things that are harmful to businesses that I am at a loss for words to describe their nonsense.” And the state of luxury retailing: “It’s a question of accepting that there has been such a catastrophic change of the total landscape in luxury retailing and focusing our minds on evaluating what those changes are and how we shall adapt to those changes and move on.”

And after almost 20 years at the helm of one of the UK’s most iconic luxury stores, much continues to change.

After revealing last week that trade at even the most upmarket of retailers has slowed as shoppers contend with the lack of “feel-good factor”, Wan is already thinking ahead.

“There is always something we can do and I don’t want to sit still,” he says, with characteristic determination.

Despite notching up a healthy 15% rise in profits to £16.1m in the year to the end of March, like-for-likes at the retailer have slowed as wealthy shoppers curb their spending.

Wan is fighting back, however. He plans to hit the high street by opening smaller store formats in prime retail locations where there is no space for a full-line department store. He will trial a beauty-only offer called Beauty Bazaar by Harvey Nichols and says that could only be the beginning. Next could be

a chain of cafes or wine bars “to rival Starbucks” and even a fashion-only concept, but only if Harvey Nichols’ fledgling own-label offer takes off.

An accountant by trade, Wan doesn’t waste words, something that is reflected in his style of management, which he terms “participative”. Meetings are brief and to the point and, as long as the numbers are being hit, Wan is happy. He has surrounded himself with a strong product and operational team including buying director Averyl Oates and retail operations director Martin Schofield and is said to be respected by those who work with him.

When he joined the retailer - drafted in in 1992 by Dickson Concepts, which bought the business from the Burton Group the year before - he admits it was a culture shock for the Harvey Nichols team.

The previous management was “on liquid lunches”, claims Wan. He says: “There was no limit on travel, nothing, so clearly how could you introduce profit if there was no control before?”

Within his first five years, he had doubled profits and led an IPO.

“A lot of people stayed with me because they could see that way of running a business was wrong,” he says.

Prior to Wan joining, the company was unable to take ownership of what it was doing, he says. A generous bonus scheme was never triggered, so Wan introduced a less generous scheme but one that was given out more often.

Wan explains: “Because [employees] are invited and motivated to contribute, rather than just doing as they are told, they feel that they belong to a family, that’s how loyalty and motivation is built.

“I like to involve all of them in all different kind of decisions,” he says, before adding with that no-nonsense approach, “although, ultimately, when it comes to it, I will be the one to make the difficult decisions, and take responsibility.”