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Article: The Profile: The company that adapted to survive and went on to thrive; Alistair Houghton meets TALBOT SMITH, chairman of Robert Smith Group IN ASSOCIATION WITH Rensburg Sheppards.(Business)
- Article from:
- Daily Post (Liverpool, England)
- Article date:
- September 26, 2007
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 MGN Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Alistair Houghton
ADAPTABILITY - it's vital in any business, particularly one that wants to survive for 159 years.
Sometimes changes are planned, but sometimes decisions can prove to have benefits quite different from those expected.
To take just one example, when Talbot Smith's family firm, Robert Smith Group, bought a small Rainford company called Welding Units in 1979, it was just an add-on to a larger steel stockholding business.
At first it performed poorly, and Smith began to feel buying it had been a dreadful mistake.
But Welding Units dealt with the oil industry - and as North Sea oil took off in the 1980s, ...