‘If we can democratise art, the world’s a better place’

Beth Butterwick is managing director of Clarendon Fine Art, bringing over 30 years of retail leadership experience to her role after most recently serving as Jigsaw CEO. She oversees a network of more than 90 galleries across the UK, with 520 staff.

I cut my teeth at Marks and Spencer where I was on their graduate training programme — a five-star retail academy back in the early 90s — where I joined on a nine-month placement with 35 other graduates.

We did a whistle-stop tour of every aspect of the business so that you could go in and flourish in your designated department, be it commercial, with suppliers, learning from the factory floor and accounts. It was incredible.

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Reflecting back and managing my way through the hierarchy of M&S, it was quite political and male-orientated, but I did have 16 very happy years there. I transitioned from a trainee to leader of a £350 million division running the women’s accessory group.

As I’ve noticed in my career and gone for job roles, men and women are subtly different. I am generalising here, but there is a theme. If there’s a job spec, a man will think he’s got everything if they’ve got two of the skills, while women will agonise if they haven’t got all ten skills.

In the past perhaps that held women back because they just wanted to make sure they had all those skills.

My standout mentor was Kim Windsor, who was the first female director at M&S. A real champion of female leadership, confidence and belief, Kim was a pioneering female and taught all of us a lot about how you can forge your career, have confidence, believe in yourself and how you can have passion.

I went back to work when my son was five months old and then when my daughter was six months and I’ve never felt guilty about working. They tell me now that I’m a really good role model for them as they approach their first job, so I think women can have it all — you just have to make choices.

I’ve always leant into asking for help if I need it from a very early age — and it’s certainly helped as I’ve become a manager and then a CEO, and particularly in a public company as I was at Bonmarché, I’ve always surrounded myself with people that can help me, whether that’s a peer or at senior level.

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I think in the early stage of my career, I was so keen to move on really quickly and achieve things, but sometimes you have to go a bit slower just to achieve more over a longer period.

My father had the same career for 47 years, having started in the post room and ended up as CEO and chairman and I remember telling him that I was leaving. He said that I was mad and M&S is a career for life.

But I’m a very curious person. I’ve worked abroad, worked in private companies and public companies and you essentially take and learn skills with you.

I think leaders these days have to be visionaries. They have to be digitally savvy. I would say leaders now have to have a multitude, a suite of skills under their belts that perhaps they didn’t have to have before, but they also have to be very agile as well. And they have to be the culture champion, that’s really important.

The transition from going from 30 years in the fashion retail business into the art world has definitely given me some good challenges along the way this year. We’ve got 90 galleries, we’re on 11 cruise ships and the Clarendon board is steeped in incredible knowledge, which I don’t have.

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Clarendon’s proposition is very much about the experience that clients have in our galleries. Nearly 90% will have researched what they’re looking for or got some ideas online.

The art market’s changed slightly as well. There’s now a lot more resilience at the lower end and one of the things Clarendon looks at is our price range and now there is something for everyone, where we start with price points below one thousand pounds.

What Clarendon is absolutely fantastic at, and one of the things that attracted me to the business, is the fact that Helen Swaby’s [Clarendon Art CEO] proposition was about democratising the stuffy world of art.

If we can democratise art and make it accessible to all and have many more enthusiastic, passionate art collectors then the world’s a better place in my view.

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