Mehmooda Duke MBE DL – Chairman of Leicestershire CCC
Tell us about Mehmooda Duke
I am a Lawyer by profession and spend my life running a business and bringing claims against doctors and hospitals. I hike, I climb mountains, I played hockey for 7 years and did Shotokan Karate for 5 years; my biggest regret was stopping before I got my black belt and missing out on getting my Cambridge Blue after a Varsity match against Oxford.
Skills which I have picked up on my journey all come in handy today.
I started life as a school teacher and after a year, I decided that I would retrain and do law, but being a lawyer wasn’t enough for me because I had a dream from the age of about 11 to own my own successful business; at age 11 I didn’t know what that business would be or how I would do it. The dream is all I saw. What I didn’t see were the failures along the way, challenges that I had not foreseen and moments which I had not planned for. There have been many failures, many successes, many lessons, and many amazing surprises along the way. I will share with you some of the most defining ones.
The Business Child
As a child, I used to make celebration cakes and sell them; I used to sell posters in school and make a small profit; I used to apply for catalogues and get the free gifts and take orders from friends at school with a small mark up. Some of you (and I give away my age now) may remember the Mike Reid Breakfast Show on Radio 1? I got a sought after ‘Tee Hee’ mug by writing in and having my article readout on the radio. I regularly had things read out on Radio 1 and got sent gifts. So, in a small way, I was always looking for opportunities. I was hard-wired to negotiate. Being of Indian origin I had haggling in my blood. I even haggled in Harrods once and had money knocked off a pair of boots!.
Being Brave
Life for me began in Blackburn at a comprehensive school where I was School Captain. I went to Cambridge University and started life as a teacher of Comparative Religion. My mum had always wanted me to be a teacher, ‘It is a safe career. You will have lots of holidays and it is a great career if you want to have a family.’ She was right about that. I loved teaching; loved the children and creating new possibilities for them every day, but I didn’t feel that I had reached my own full potential in life. So I took the bold step of changing my career after a year. Too afraid to tell my mum, I told her after I had resigned from my job when it was too late to change my mind!
Rude Awakenings
My biggest shock came on my first day when the class tutor asked if there was anyone in the room who had not got a training contract. Out of 200 hands, only three went up; one of them was mine. My first rude awakening! Over lunch the same day serendipity played a part and I learned about a medical firm I should apply to – Hempsons. I called them and asked if they had any training contracts. I had just missed the deadline! My second rude awakening! What I didn’t know was that this was one of the top firms in Medical law at the time. We didn’t have the internet in those days. Had I known this I would have been too afraid to even apply.
However, they told me that if I got my application in that day they would consider it. I tidied up my CV, got in my car, and took it to the central post office in Liverpool. I had my CV bound and made myself a logo. I was a perfectionist and even if it looked cheesy, it would look different from everyone else’s.
I got an interview. I took a train to London and went to the law firm in Covent Garden wearing a home – made chocolate brown suit that my Grandma had made for me dreaming that one day I might wear a smart (er) designer suit!
The experience was terrifying. I was completely out of my comfort zone. After 2 grueling interviews, rare as hen’s teeth, I had secured my training contract. Six months before the end of my training contract however, I found out that Hempsons were not keeping me on after qualification. Out of three trainees, I was the failure. But I was also very lucky because I had made relationships in the legal world over the 18 months I had been there. These relationships helped me to make connections which in turn helped me to get another job in London at another medical law firm, Capsticks, a firm run by the Boss and his wife. I have a clear memory of walking past the Boss and his wife’s car every morning parked in their own spaces. “One day that will be me!” I said.
The dream revised
Every lawyer wants to be a partner in a law firm. I was no different. The promise of partnership was the sweet carrot that kept me going. In 2000 I was headhunted by a National law firm and was promised a partnership in 12–18 months. When I was then looked over for partnership, I realised that the time had come to leave. I was never going to become a senior partner by climbing the corporate ladder. The time had come to take the brave step of giving up one dream for another. I would now go and set up my law firm.
May 2003
I moved from London to Leicester in December 2002 and on the 12th of May 2003 I found myself in a one-bedroom flat on London Road with nothing more than a mobile telephone, an ancient laptop, and a £35,000 loan from my father. NTL came to install nine telephone lines because that was the smallest number that they could install. I had no clients. No one knew who I was. I had no work, no staff, no secretary, no receptionist, nothing! I was in a flat with threadbare carpets and a desk. My filing cabinet was a tidy box. I didn’t even know how to do my job properly – all I knew was how to defend doctors, not sue them!!
I did the cleaning, the photocopying, the marketing, the accounting, the books, the fee earning. I took the post to the post office, went to the bank, and did the networking. I was even the receptionist!
As with any business, it is important to do your market research and find out who the competition is. My competition was five established big-name law firms in Leicester.
How was little old me going to compete in this market place? The answer was simple – deliver quality and have a USP (unique selling point)! Mine was that I had a unique insight into the defendant world. I was happy to grow slowly and steadily and build a good reputation for quality work. If I did this then I knew that success would come organically.
Keep your overheads down!
One of the tips my parents gave me was to avoid spending too much unnecessary money, so when I spent £10,000 (out of my startup £35,000) on my first advert in the yellow pages, they were shocked. I asked the first client that came to me why they chose me; they said that if I could afford such a big advert then I must be good! An interesting lesson in psychology. Needless to say, that case more than paid for that advert.
That said, the lesson in keeping your overheads down is a wise one and I have always maintained the importance of keeping an eye on this especially when starting out.
Growth and Cashflow
Medical negligence cases take about five to six years from inception to bring in any money. It was therefore critical to have some quick wins, and cashflow was crucial if the firm was to survive. I, therefore, devised a strategy for day to day survival as I built up the bigger cases.
Although my dream was to have a business, I had no training in business and I so often got things wrong. Hard work and perseverance over the next 17 years has paid off and I have not looked back.
Teamwork, Effective Growth and Reputation
The most important thing that I have learned is the value of my team. Over the years I have learned that the best team has a diversity of skill and knowledge and a strong leader. Everyone brings different strengths to the team and makes a different and positive contribution. I have learned to surround myself with the best people available, who can deliver to the firm’s high standards.
Stakeholders are vital – external people who form part of your success are also as I see it, key members of the team and these relationships need to be valued and nurtured;
At one stage I felt that all the firm’s clients needed to see me. How wrong was I? I learned not to be afraid to let go. The best piece of advice that I was given was to train my team in such a way that ensured clients received a high-quality standard of service, irrespective of whom they were dealing with at the firm. A key factor in growing the business, and helping to ensure the consistency of quality, was having reliable processes that could be followed.
These are all skills that have stood me in good stead in life and also in the role that I currently hold at Leicestershire County Cricket Club as Chairman.
From 2015 to 2016 I was the President of Leicestershire Law Society, the first Asian female to hold this position in the Law Society’s 155-year history and the seventh female. This was a terrifying thought when I was first asked but very rewarding. Being Chair of LCCC is however even more terrifying but equally rewarding and a huge honour.
Lessons Learnt
- Be patient and don’t expect a quick win; it takes time to grow a quality business and it is important to grow at a pace you can handle. It took me five years to see the kind of profit that made me feel like I had been successful.
- Aim high but be conservative in your projections – if you do this you will be able to cater for any unexpected disappointment.
- Be afraid, but use this fear to propel you instead of debilitating you. I was afraid to grow my business. I was afraid to network and get out there, but it was only when I did that the business grew. I was afraid of hiring too many members of staff and letting go. As a business owner, my instinct was to stay in control, but the best thing I did was to empower people in my organisation. It not only makes individuals feel and know that they are valued, it frees me up to do the things that I love doing.
- Enlist the help of other professionals – they will always be willing to help. For eight years I have been part of a Business group, and the professionals in it are so supportive and have been an amazing part of my journey.
- There is no such thing as a bad decision, even if it feels that way sometimes. I have had bad hires, staff who have been challenging, and even if it felt like a disaster at the time, I learned for next time what worked and what didn’t.
You are the first female Chair in the history of County Cricket in the UK. How have you arrived at your role at LCCC?
That is an interesting question as you would expect me to say that I have a background in cricket and have been involved in cricket a long time; short of playing cricket as a child on the street and a life of watching cricket with my dad, that is as far as I can say my involvement in cricket had been until 2017 when I was approached by a fellow former President of Leicestershire Law Society to become a Board advisor and sit on the Management Sub Committee at LCCC. I had also had the privilege of meeting the then CEO Wasim Khan MBE only a few weeks earlier. Between them, they persuaded me to apply to the Board as an advisor.
It was a steep learning curve for me as watching the game and understanding how the wider work of professional sport works are worlds apart. It has taken a lot of hard work and dedication and time but I have loved every minute.
I then applied to be a nominated director in 2019 – LCCC has undergone some governance changes and has a very diverse Board with diverse skills and backgrounds. Being a lawyer, I had an opportunity to offer these skills to the Board.
I was successful and became a director in March 2019 and voted in as Chairman in May 2019. I have just been appointed Chairman for a second term.
Whilst I may not have the wider cricket knowledge to bring to the table, what I bring is leadership, strategic, business, and legal skills. As mentioned earlier, a successful team needs a variety of skills and expertise.
So my advice to anyone reading this and wondering about getting involved at the Board level is to go for it and focus on what you bring to the table, not what you don’t. For any woman thinking of getting involved, my advice would be, don’t think about your gender; just think about the role and the contribution you make as an individual. Whatever you do, always aim to be judged on merit; gender or race should not be part of the equation!
What are your immediate aims personally and as a county cricket club?
Personally, I want to climb more mountains! In 2018 I climbed Kilimanjaro and I can’t wait to do more climbing and walking and exploring. I would like to finish writing my book and eventually devote my life to charity work with orphans and young girls. I set up Leading Ladies Global in 2016 and my aim is to continue helping women and girls to believe in dreaming big and flying high.
As a County Cricket Club, I want to see us win; win at every level and in the wider sense of the word. I would like to see success on the field and off the field, see the Club continue its expansion into the Community, see us make LCCC a place where people from all backgrounds feel at home; to change some of the long standing perceptions and barriers which prevent growth.
The South Asian community has a long and rich history in Leicester with pioneers in business and in the industry, as well as a passionate cricketing community; why is there a clear disconnect between them and LCCC?
From my limited experience, it is not for the want of trying and efforts have been made but financial stability and sustainability at home are necessary for growth. It is no secret that LCCC has for over a decade struggled and whilst it had a period of stability for a few years under Wasim Khan MBE, there has been some more recent instability and change in personnel. Instability brings an element of risk when developing relationships. We understand that trust is key to developing strong relationships and aims to improve the trust that our local community has in us. LCCC can benefit the local community in many ways and aims to do everything in its power to showcase the benefits that come with what we have to offer.
We feel strongly that our local cricketing community needs to be able to see that there is a route into the game through what we can offer. It is important to have local heroes for others to develop their own aspirations. We have some local heroes from the Asian Community and it would be great to have more.
You cannot be what you cannot see and if we don’t develop our own talent, we risk losing the connection with our local cricket community as they see a closed door and not a clear pathway. Witnessing success from local cricketers is something that local businesses can support and engage with. We hope to see more of this support going forward.
We hope that with the hard work and vision of our Community team, our Academy plans, and the vision of Alastair Maiden and Jigar Naik, we can make some inroads.
Our Academy currently has six players on it, and they are all from a BAME background. Five of those players are from South Asian communities and our hopes for the future are to keep a good pipeline of talent from diverse backgrounds and see those players make the step into First XI cricket. We have a fantastic role model in Jigar for that. Our aim generally is to bring more young players through our system and have them as the core of our team.
LCB have been one of the core cities with considerable funding from the ECB being channelled. Has there been any real example of connectivity and subsequent change that has been to the benefit of the SA community in Leicester?
Leicester has benefitted from substantial funding through the ECB’s South Asian Core Cities Funding in recent years, with a very clear remit to increase the number of individuals aged 14+ who participate in cricket related activities. This has meant a need for innovation and reaching new participants, allowing the core cricket community to continue to operate as they already do and with encouragement to link to these projects as a way of increasing membership and providing an exit route for those taking part in LCCC’s Community delivery.
We have achieved great success in increasing the number of females involved in the game through the delivery of the Bolly Cric-Hit programme, leading to more south Asian females taking part in Women’s Softball Festivals and the Women’s indoor cricket leagues that we have run. We have seen a rise in the number of South Asian males and females who have attended coaching courses through a clear drive to engage in inspiring others to be involved.
Festivals and large-scale events have been supported by our delivery team where we have helped to deliver cricket activity and promote the game to those in attendance. The family events have seen success in programmes such as All Stars Cricket where the opportunity to pick up a bat and ball from an early age is promoted and enjoyed.
Engaging with some 6000 at the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup Trophy Tour celebration, delivering a cricket tournament at 2019 Memon Festival at Leicester Caribbean Cricket Club while streaming the England v India World Cup Match on a big screen (4000 attendings) and promoting cricket opportunities and attendance at LCCC through ticket giveaways at the 2018 Eid Festival are just some of the highlights.
All that said and done, we acknowledge that there is still an enormous amount of work to be done. We aim to better support our Clubs to deliver a cricket offering that meets the needs of the local community.
We have engaged increasing numbers through the informal delivery of cricket and are keen to better link club and community delivery to sustain players within the game.
We have an opportunity to forge new links with clubs from other sports and are currently exploring the prospect of a collaboration with a large local football club with a large South Asian player base, a community of around 1000 members. These presents reach beyond the existing game and of course, we hope will drive more sports-minded people to connect with cricket on all levels.
Where are the LCB in their strategy of helping sustain and grow cricket within the SA cricketing community?
I should point out that the LCB is one of the few CB’s which have merged with the LCCC. This happened during the time when Wasim Khan MBE was CEO.
We are extremely passionate about this and have set up and engaged a diverse group to steer our planning for the future. NACC is a part of this, and we are grateful for the invaluable input from Gulfraz. We have met a couple of times and are in the process of pulling together clear plans that will aim to enhance LCCC’s relevance to our local Diverse Community. We are fully aware that engagement is not a one-way thing and is clear that in order to engage the local South Asian Cricketing community in all that LCCC has to offer we must support them to enjoy a sustainable future. This is not necessarily a different ambition to any cricket club; however, we acknowledge that there are unique challenges faced by some clubs that mean the development of facilities is difficult. Many, not all, of our South Asian Cricketers, play at grounds managed by Local Authorities and this often means hiring a facility on a ‘Pay as you Play’ basis. Our strategy aims to improve the pitch quality as well as the amenities available to increase player satisfaction and prolonged engagement. Time and funding are crucial here, this is not something that will happen overnight and we are clear that making changes that can be witnessed will increase engagement and satisfaction within players and club officials.
Could relationships with local community be they South Asian business/industry in Leicester be better/stronger and if so why has it taken so long?
We are constantly looking at ways to improve relationships with our local community.
We are delighted to have on our Board, 3 members from the Asian Community and changes at Board level will hopefully help to drive change. That said, change doesn’t happen overnight. Our newest Board director is Shahid Sheikh OBE from Clifton Packaging Group and he brings with him a wealth of relevant knowledge and experience.
Over the years, however, changes in personnel at LCCC may have affected the ability to develop some relationships but the strong relationships which we do have with many local businesses are continually being developed.
Our links with LCCDO are absolutely vital and are key to the success of LCCC connecting with the established cricket community. It would be fair to say that the journey together has not progressed at the pace that we might have hoped or liked on either side. We are aware that we may not always have got things right but we are delighted that LCCDO is a part of our SA Strategy group and we are confident that with community collaboration we will build a trusting relationship and see some success in the not too distant future.
We have a lot to offer our local community and we are always looking for ways to learn and improve the ways in which the needs of a more diverse audience can be met.
Openness to new and innovative ideas and direct involvement of Community ambassadors all have an important role to play in improving links between the community and LCCC. Recent developments include opening up the LCCC for mehndi parties, Eid parties, corporate Eid events, and Bollywood themed parties, and cinema viewings are just some of the ideas we have for engagement from the commercial side, driven by a member of the community itself.
What does good look like for LCB/LCCC?
Being able to provide an inspiring offer that is relevant to our local community. Being able to see a diverse audience on a regular basis at LCCC matches and community initiatives. Being able to hand on heart say that we are meeting the needs of our local community and being confident that we are fully inclusive on all fronts.
I hope you will agree that we are making some progress. We are probably the only county who has had an Asian CEO and now an Asian Chair; we have a diverse board, we have diversity within our staff with key individuals like Jigar Naik and Dips Patel making a huge difference.
As a club led by our new CEO Sean Jarvis, we have a clear ambition to engage our local community and I hope that in time we will be envied by others with the engagement that we will evidence.
