Richard Richardson

John Barnes and Richard Richardson are an inspiring team, they are probably best known for their transformation of Harry Ramsden's Fish & Chip Shop and as the creators of Marketing Judo. However, prior to creating their own business successes they spent many years working with large international corporations. John Barnes had a successful career with blue-chip companies such as Procter & Gamble, Playtex, PepsiCo and UK MD of KFC. Whilst Richard Richardson began his career in marketing with Rowntree Mackintosh before spending the next 12 years with multi-national advertising agencies such as BBDO and Young & Rubicam. It was when John moved the KFC advertising account to Young & Rubicam that they met. Having worked so well together, John and Richard decided to give up their big company jobs and start a business partnership. Using the leverage of borrowed money they moved their families to Yorkshire and bought a fish and chip shop called Harry Ramsden's. Together they transformed Harry Ramsden's from a single restaurant in Yorkshire into a world famous brand. 12 years later, having opened in 7 countries, floated on the stock market and grown UK brand awareness from 17% to 73%, they sold to Granada-now Compass.

At Harry's they fell into a way of thinking, which they now call Marketing Judo.In Judo you use the weight of your opponent to your advantage. In Judo by moving quickly you can take your opponent by surprise and unbalance them. In Judo skill matters more than sheer size! Marketing Judo takes these same principles and applies them to business. Marketing Judo is not an academic concept. It's a practical, hands-on framework based on John & Richard's own experiences that they have found helpful in developing business strategies - whether you're a large blue chip organisation looking to stretch your budget further or a smaller company on a limited budget.

Since selling Harry Ramsden's, John Barnes has become Chairman of La Tasca Group PLC. As investors, he and Richard Richardson have seen the La Tasca business triple in size, expand to the USA and achieve a stock market listing. Aside from La Tasca John is a Director of a number of other companies including Caffe Nero PLC, Hardys and Hansons PLC, Zoo Digital Group PLC Sportech PLC and Interior Services Group PLC. Together they have also formed Marketing Judo Ltd, and written a book "Marketing Judo-Building your business using brains not budget" published by Prentice Hall Business. They are frequent speakers at corporate and industry conferences sharing their principles for success.