On September 20th 2012, Mr Peter V. Handal, Chairman and CEO of Dale Carnegie Training flew in from the United States of America to present Jack Petchey CBE with the prestigious Dale Carnegie Leadership Award.
The Leadership Award recognises organisations or individuals who have truly demonstrated that the development of their organisation has been achieved through a commitment to the development of people.
In his first years of business Jack Petchey, now aged 87, picked up a copy of the infamous book “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie. It was a moment that changed his life! He promptly signed up for a Dale Carnegie Course and that decision was one that undoubtedly contributed to him becoming one of London’s most successful entrepreneurs.
Jack’s entrepreneurial ventures have spanned travel, property and investments. He founded companies, such as Petchey Holdings Plc and Petchey Leisure, turning them into multi-million pound empires. But he is perhaps best known by many for his commitment to supporting youth projects, predominantly across his home turf of London and Essex. In the last 12 years he has sought to inspire a generation through The Jack Petchey Foundation, a charitable trust that has invested well over £75 million into raising young people’s aspirations, rewarding their achievements and encouraging them to achieve more in life.
From humble beginnings, Jack was born in 1925 to poor working class parents in Plaistow, East London. Despite leaving school at the age of 14 with no qualifications, he had already begun to demonstrate the entrepreneurial skills that would aid his later success. Following his discharge from the Fleet Air Arm in 1947 he invested his whole life savings (nearly £60) in a car to found a car hire business.
His exposure to Dale Carnegie Training gave him the self-belief and skills to build his business and to go on to found many more!
All his life he has carried a commitment to the basic principles of management learnt through Dale Carnegie. His belief in reward as a powerful motivator for change has been implemented in his staff reward schemes and now been developed even further through the Jack Petchey Award Scheme, operating in over 2000 youth clubs and schools across London and Essex. Another saying from Dale Carnegie was “Don’t criticise, condemn or complain” and to this day Jack carries a small cardboard disc in his pocket as a permanent reminder! His aim has always been to encourage staff to give their best.
Now, with a focus on the work of the Foundation, his heart’s desire is to enable young people to access the ‘power’ of positive thinking, to believe in themselves, to learn how to capture their dreams and turn them into reality by setting goals, learning new skills and sheer dogged determination! With this in mind he is currently exploring some new training programmes to be delivered to young people through schools.
It is only the second time that this Award has been approved and awarded by the Board of Directors of Dale Carnegie Training to a businessman in London, “and there is none more deserving than Jack!” says Clive Thompson, of Dale Carnegie, London.
The Dale Carnegie Leadership Award, established in 1985, was given to The Ford Motor Company that same year and in subsequent years to such well known organisations as Coca-Cola, Adidas, Boeing, Four Seasons Hotel, Daimler-Chrysler and SAS Scandinavian Airlines.
Jack Petchey joins a long chain of the world’s greatest businessmen and through his Foundation it is hoped his legacy will be to continue to inspire a generation. Jack said: “I feel really proud to accept this award, Dale Carnegie was such an inspiration for me; I just hope that future generations of young people will be able to see that they can achieve – if they really believe they can, they can!”
