Monday interview: Michael O’Hare, TBR Global
MICHAEL O’Hare says his company is a specialist in “ground transportation management”, a phrase that conjures up images of lorries loaded down with fertiliser, timber, pet food or some other dull yet worthy commodity. In reality, TBR Global moves people between destinations that would likely be described as anything other than mundane.
His drivers chauffeur executives from some of the world’s biggest listed companies to board meetings and investor presentations in cities such as Geneva, Hong Kong, London and New York. From its headquarters in Glasgow, TBR has developed software to ensure these journeys run smoothly to schedule – a tricky task in a jam-packed day of corporate meetings.
A typical day in an investors’ roadshow – where company executives meet with their biggest shareholders – can include up to eight separate meetings across a busy city centre. If one of those meetings runs late, or a car tyre goes flat, or if traffic grinds to a halt, then the schedule is quickly at risk of descending into disarray.
“Their days are so tightly packed that they are depending on the driver to make up that five minutes from the meeting running over,” O’Hare says. “If you can’t make up that five minutes, then you have to phone ahead and explain what is happening. The worst thing you can do is not inform the client that the car is running late.”
But it’s not all high-octane business meetings, as many of these companies sponsor some of the biggest social events around, and want to get their staff and guests to the party on time.
TBR takes customers to the likes of the Brit Awards and the Baftas, plus sporting events such as Wimbledon. Two of its clients – EY and Rolex – were official sponsors of last year’s Ryder Cup, which in a way takes O’Hare back to the inception of his career.
The son of a hotelier, O’Hare did odd jobs from an early age around the family-owned Sherbrooke Castle Hotel in Pollokshields before taking up golf at the age of 14. With no thoughts of going to university – his schooling was hampered by his dyslexia – O’Hare always figured he would work for himself in one way or another.
Though he carried on with various tasks around Sherbrooke, as he grew up he spent more and more time on the course at nearby Gleddoch Golf Club. He became a full-time golfer at the age of 18, turned pro a year later and spent the next couple of years trying to make it on the tour.
“You imagine yourself doing that as a career, but effectively I wasn’t good enough,” O’Hare recalls.
His hand was forced in 1986 when his father, John, suffered a heart attack. The younger O’Hare took over the running of Sherbrooke, a popular wedding venue in Glasgow’s south side.
He spotted the opportunity to provide car services for weddings at the hotel, and went on to set up Charlton Chauffeur Drive in 1991. The hotel and transportation businesses ran pretty much in tandem until 1997, when O’Hare’s sister and brother-in-law bought out Sherbrooke.
O’Hare’s share of the money allowed him to get office and garage space at an industrial estate in Glasgow’s Birkmyre Road, where what is today known as TBR remains headquartered. The company had by that time branched out into the corporate market, and in 1999 business really started to take off. That year, existing client Deutsche Bank expanded its contract with TBR to include all of the European ground transportation needs of its equity floor. O’Hare knew then that he needed a rigorous system of quality control, and started on what would become a two-year project to develop the software system that he believes sets his business apart from the rest.
The project was initially outsourced to a software developer, but the end product didn’t match up to the real-world demands of Deutsche Bank. O’Hare eventually hired an in-house team who wrote the programme in about six months.