A FASCINATING insight into the world of security was shared on the Go Radio Business Show when Paul Connelly, chief executive of Glasgow-based CSS Ltd, joined hosts Lord Willie Haughey and Sir Tom Hunter.
Born and brought up in the Milton area of Glasgow and one of 10 siblings, Mr Connelly recalled how his parents instilled a strong work ethic in their children from an early age, with his mother telling him “if you fall down you get back up”.
“My parents were exceptionally hardworking people,” he said. “Dad worked in the yards on the Clyde and pubs at night and my mother cleaned schools in the morning and also had a wee job in Glasgow cleaning offices. They instilled a strong work ethic in us.”
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Mr Connelly, who founded the business with his brothers Jim – “the brains of the operation” – and Pat in 1986, told the show that his first taste of business came at the age of four when he ran errands for a neighbour. He also paid tribute to a teacher who “switched my light on” and introduced him to Scotland’s mountains on a school trip to Pitlochry.
Finding a job as an apprentice with a burglar alarm company after leaving school at 16, he said: “I took to it like a duck to water. It was my thing and I was really good at it. You were somewhere different all the time. I love people and met people from all walks of life.”
Progressing well in his career and gaining more responsibility plus earning more money, but realising that the industry was consolidating and changing, he went into business with his brothers. But it wasn’t all plain sailing, he said, recalling how, on Valentine’s Day 1987, he thought he’d made “the biggest mistake of my life”.
However, remembering his mother’s advice to get up when you fall down, he persevered, kept knocking on doors, and things improved. Jim’s brother-in-law, who had a business in London, then offered the brothers subcontracting work around the country. “We found our niche,” said Mr Connelly.
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“Jim was good at the back office, Pat could get the jobs done and deal with the men, and I could talk – I was the front-of-house song and dance, I could engage with people.”
Mr Connelly later recalled how he met former Glasgow cash-and-carry king Yaqub Ali which led to more work within the Asian community. The company grew from strength to strength but tragedy struck in 1990 when Jim died of a heart attack. However, the firm continued to grow and today employs 150 people plus 15 contractors, and is on track to turn over £15 million this year.
CSS has grown through acquisition and offers a wide and expanding range of services across east and west Scotland and the central belt.
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