Interview with Joseph Keech, CFO of Christopher Ward
Tell Us About Your Journey
So me personally, background in law and finance, and as I stepped out of practice in finance, in particular, into luxury goods, into luxury events, into cosmetics, luxury car shows, and then now luxury watches. This one’s more interesting— luxury watches at a price point, which is great for a finance and process person. And I joined Christopher Ward in 2019, invited to join by the founders Mike France and Peter Ellis to start that Progression for the future and the expansion that we’re now in.
What Is the History of Christopher Ward?
Our founders’ dream of making watches accessible to everyone. The watch industry is an antiquated industry for the most part. It never had to change, never went through an industrial revolution where competition drove improvement and benefits for the consumer. So Christopher Ward was; its a challenger. We recognize ourselves as a challenger. And their dream was to put watches, quality watches, luxury watches on everyone’s wrist and make them accessible to all those that wanted them. And that doesn’t just mean all those that can afford them. So the history to egalitarian founders pushing boundaries of the industry started largely e-commerce for the first 15 to 20 years, all e-commerce driven. Largely grew in the UK, started to migrate west, and now we find ourselves heavily pushing the US market. We’ve escalated our creativity into a higher sphere of watchmaking. We call it the Atelier range, and we launched a watch called the Bel Canto, which won the equivalent of the watch Oscars. It’s called the GPHG Award. And that put us on the map in the industry, and since then it’s put us on the map with the consumers. And now it’s enabled us to put us on the map.
What Motivates You?
What motivates me is pretty simple — curiosity. I’m a very curious person. That’s curious at how things work and how to make things better. It doesn’t really matter what that is. Everyone grew up with Lego. I like building things. You don’t build things from the top, you build them from the bottom. You build things to last. You build things to stand up on their own feet. And you’re curious at how those things work and come together. And you’re never satisfied with with how it looks. That’s me.
What Challenges Have You Faced?
There’s a number of challenges whenever doing a business in any forum. Most of it is relationships. Most of it is people. Whether that’s people you’re dealing with, the customer, what does the customer want, how do we make things better for the customer. That’s always a challenge and it’s the most inherent challenge of any business. For us, that largely crystallizes in price point and what’s the selling price to the customer, and does it meet what they want for how much they want to spend? Partners, you know, do we have the right partners? Do you choose the right advisors to help you in those areas that you’re weak? No one can be brilliant at everything, so you choose the right partners. And internally, as a business grows, naturally there’s people that are outgrown by the business. Naturally there are people that you need to bring in to help the business grow further. That is the nature of life. So it’s always going to be people, it’s always going to be communication, and it’s always going to be partnerships. Trust and how do you navigate those stories within those different forums that are all very different but are all based around people.
What Advice Can You Offer to Other Entrepreneurs?
Quite often a business will worry about revenue and profit first and whether they’re spending too much or making enough. The best entrepreneurs and the best businesses always worry about the people and they always worry about the communication of the business. How do we narrate the business to a potential investor or a potential customer or the staff themselves? And managing people and managing customer expectations is core to all businesses. So numbers are important. CFO numbers are always important, but the people are the most important aspect of any business. And for an entrepreneur, the communication and the way you manage those people and talk to those people is the most important thing that I could advise a young entrepreneur to worry about.
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Where Do You See Christopher Ward in 3-5 Years?
Christopher Ward in 3 to 5 years, that’s an interesting one. We’re still at the start of our journey. Yeah, we’re 22 years in, but this time right now is really exciting. You know, we’re on the sharp edge of a Western expansion into the US. We’re growing in every major market that we’re in. And in 3 to 5 years, I see it largely where it is, but with a lot more going on. Sounds like a non-answer, but, you know, we have in the next year alone the intention to open up another 5 showrooms in the US, and a roadmap to circa another 20 in that period. We’re on the roadmap to being $150 million plus in that time period. Given the rate of headcount expansion in the last 2 years, I would expect to be in multiple places, multiple offices. And continuing that growth journey and continuing that challenger journey that we’re on and maybe making the odd new exciting watch along the line, which are also on the roadmap.
What Value Has Gesmer Updegrove Provided to Christopher Ward?
Gesmer’s been invaluable to Christopher Ward. Look, CFO for Christopher Ward going into a market that we are not native to. The US is, for the watch industry, is the major market in the world. And it comes with 50 different states that, for a European, behave like 50 different countries. And navigating that administrative minefield, that legal minefield, that tax minefield, that financial minefield is incredibly difficult. It’s even harder to do when to get traction there you need to sell first, and most salesmen are not orientated to worry about the legalities of setting up an incorporate or the legalities of state sales tax. Gesmer has been an invaluable source of advice to me as the number — numbers and legal brain in the business. And they’ve been invaluable in their network. The other partners from BBSI to Amplify to Starboard all came from connections with Gesmer, and I’m grateful to Steve and the other members of Gesmer for the journey we’ve been on to date and the journey we are still to go on.
Why Go With Gesmer?
The Boston, Gesmer, the US are very special places. Back to relationships, back to people, back to networks and communication, and back to being a builder. No one knows how to build everything. No one knows how to communicate to everyone. No one knows everyone. And so the more trusted partners you can have that are — that you trust, that provides solid advice and get the strategic direction that you’re trying to take as an entrepreneur is invaluable. And Gesmer get it, and they have the, the tools, and they come with the receipts to know when they don’t get it, they know the person that does, and they can connect. So trust and getting it.
