Mike Lawton

Michelin Tyre Plc Stoke-on-Trent

Mike Lawton heads up communications in north Europe for one of the world’s leading tyre companies – Michelin. The Staffordshire University MBA graduate progressed from management in the pottery industry through to senior roles in one of the UK’s most recognisable brands.

He has lived and worked in Staffordshire almost all his life, growing up with the family pottery business, developing his managerial skills at Wedgwood and other Stoke-on-Trent based retailers, before joining Michelin. He is now responsible for communicating about all of Michelin’s products and promotional activities – from passenger car, commercial, agricultural and industrial tyres through to the famous Michelin Guide to hotels and restaurants.

Mike said: “My parents lived in Staffordshire, I grew up here, around their pottery business and, with the exception of an expatriation in Paris, I’ve lived here all my life. Choosing Staffordshire University was a natural decision. The MBA was flexible and fit around work. I thoroughly enjoyed it.”

Pottery to Rubber

Following the closure of the family business, Mike joined Wedgwood as a factory shop manager in 1989. He progressed and moved through several of Wedgwood’s brands and businesses before eventually becoming head of customer services. He then moved to Austin Reed as their head of customer services for retail and manufacturing.

Mike’s customer facing experience served him well when he joined Michelin in 2000. He said: “The company wanted to change their customer interface strategy when I joined. We needed to do something unique in terms of creating a customer facing organisation that offers a premium product in a commodity market.

“That’s when this new facility opened on Campbell Road in Stoke, where I’m based now. It became the single point for all customer service in the UK, dealing with the sale of tyres for almost every type of vehicle. We saved the company money by increasing efficiency by making use of technology to handle questions and processes. The changes were so successful we went through our European business doing the same, from Stockholm to Madrid.”

In 2002, Mike was expatriated and spent two years working in Paris, as European contact centre operations manager. He returned to the UK as head of administration, when he signed up to the MBA at Staffordshire University.

Master’s in Business

“I could see that people in other areas of the business were enrolling onto courses specific to their roles to learn new skills,” Mike recalled. “When I came back, I spoke to the managing director about the MBA and started the course at Staffs as it was flexible and fit around the travelling I was doing for work.

“I loved the course and working with other students, businesses and services such as the NHS. My dissertation was very rewarding as well, looking at the history of the Michelin Guide, and how a company that made tyres also became known for producing the world’s most trusted directory of luxury gastronomy.”

Mike then moved into the commercial division of Michelin, becoming commercial manager in 2005 and then Commercial Director for the agricultural and construction division in 2011. Finally, in January 2017, he took over as head of communications for north Europe.

He said: “The role is about creating the connections and stories that drive people towards the Michelin brand. We’re always looking for new and innovative ways of communicating with customers, including the next generation using evolving social media channels. We need to be talking to universities such as Staffs and other education institutions because that’s where the new ideas are coming from. We hope to do more in future.”

Year of graduation

2009