BISH Student Interview - Andrew Fitzmaurice

Well, I have been really lucky in that I managed to work alongside some very interesting people, some really inspiring people that I've learned a lot from. And what I tried to do whenever I've had different roles, I try to learn off the people that I work with, and to try and take the best because you don't always see the best of everyone all the time. Let's try to take the best of what you see in people. And there was one person I used to work with who was a really inspiring person and he made everyone feel that worked with him that they were the best at that job, that there was no one else who could be as good at that job as they were. So he was a great motivator. And I think I learned from him that there's a saying that you catch a lot more flies with a spoonful of honey than you do with vinegar. So if you go around being happy and motivated and friendly and positive and appreciating what people have done, that will go a long way to making everyone feel like they want to be part of what you're trying to achieve as a group or organization. I think I've been lucky to work with some people I've really learned a lot from.

I think the challenging thing about being a CEO is that... I was talking to the IB group about this earlier and I was trying to put it into a few simple things without going on for too long about it. But there are two aspects to the role that are interesting. So firstly, you've got to take account of everyone in the organization, so you've got all the people, not just the students obviously, but the teaching staff, but also all of the other staff that work in the school, you know, the people that prepare the lunches and organize the buses and do all the other things that you need to make a school work, because you actually need nearly as many people again as the teaching staff in order to make a school work well. So to make sure that you're thinking about everybody – the students, the teachers, the other staff, and parents. So one thing is to try and think about all of the different stakeholders, the different people in the organization, to try and make sure that what you're doing works for everybody, so it doesn't just work for one group but works for all the groups. I think that's one thing. And then the other thing is that the chief executive is really responsible for resource allocation. Because if you think about the resources in anything, it's often finite, that there's only a certain amount that you've got. And so as the chief executive, you're the person responsible for allocating that resource and working out what's really important, given that you can't do everything all of the time, and focus on that to the maximum. And so I think they're the tricky bits of the job because you've got to ask everybody about what they think, and then you've got to work together and collaborate on how to take those resources. But as the chief exec, the responsibility ends with you; you're the person who is responsible for the decision on how the resources are allocated.

I think that's a really interesting point, is that the diversity of the schools is very important. So if we try to do, like McDonald's, try to have it exactly the same everywhere, that really doesn't work with schools; that's a disastrous strategy in schools. So in schools, what you have to do is you have to make sure that it's owned by the community that it serves, and then the community it serves – again, the students, the parents, and the teachers at that school. And it's really important that they feel that they own what's going on at the school. And so what you've got to try and do is make sense of the fact that you're 43 schools. So what value are you adding by being 43 schools instead of one school? So what can we do as Nord Anglia Education to make the British International School of Houston better? At the same time, how do we leave the control and the ownership of what's going on at the British International School of Houston in the hands of the people here in the school? And I think that's the big challenge of running a school group as diverse as this.

Well, I don't think you ever really think that you've become the finished article. You know, it's this thing, and I know it's a big philosophy in school here as well about being a lifelong learner. The students are actually referred to as learners. And for me, being a CEO isn't about saying, okay, now I've got the title and everything and therefore I'm going to sit in the big office and get a big desk with my name on the desk and sit there, right, that's it. I think the challenge is, like any role you do, trying to make sure that you keep learning and keep challenging yourself to get better.

The advice I would give about any job is that make sure you do that for the reasons that suit you, the right reasons for you. So don't force yourself down a route that you're not going to like. Because I think about this guy I used to work for, who was really inspiring, the great motivator who really made everyone feel great. He said to me, you know what, I'm the CEO, so I'm the senior of this organization, but if I was the person responsible for keeping the road outside clean, that'd be the cleanest road anywhere in England. I'd make sure that that was the Queen's beat. So he was just determined to do the best possible job he could because that suited his personality. But I think it's knowing what you want to do and giving yourself a role that you really feel that you're going to be happy in. So if you feel that whatever role you want to do, whether you want to be the person who keeps the road the cleanest or whether you want to run the organization or teach or whatever, make sure that that's something that you really want to do. Because if you're happy doing it and motivated doing it, then you'll be really good at it. If it's something that you're not sure about, you probably won't be good at the job. So rather than thinking I want to be a CEO, think about what kind of role you want, what you want to be, what you want to do. And then once you've chosen that, if you do want to go down the CEO route, if you want to be in charge of an organization, then plan your career so that you can experience lots of different things, because it's about all the different stakeholders and bringing everyone with you. That's really important.

Really enjoyed it.