cutting marketing costs
Yudu sees SMEs as a significant target for its services; digital publishing reducing costs
of marketing whenever a digital copy of brochures, reports and catalogues can be supplied.
product set on page 88) might serve only to printing completely. Even if 50% of their re-
confirm that view. cipients could accept material online, how-
The track record of Richard Stephenson, ever, that would be significant progress.”
however, would suggest that the business was By any of the accepted criteria, Yudu is an
very much a profit-focused enterprise which SME; its management acutely conscious of
had identified a demand for services that the pressures under which the sector is oper-
could be provided with minimal impact on the ating. Its chairman accepts that the coarse
environment. granularity of an enterprise regime that divides
The company sees SMEs as a significant all business into ‘large’ and ‘the rest’ probably
target for those services; digital publishing re- fails to serve the interests of the smaller end
ducing their costs of marketing whenever a of the spectrum, compared with running larger
digital copy of brochures, reports and cata- organisations within the same broad band.
logues can be supplied as an alternative to “In management terms, there is a huge
conventional printed media. change in culture required when you move
from a business with half dozen employees.
Driven by need to cut costs
Problems start to appear when a more formal
structure is created and staff start reporting
As Stephenson noted, “Customers have to be through tiers of middle management.
realists, and their primary concern must be to “A totally different set of management skills
cut costs. The fact that their carbon footprint is involved. When an SME gets away from its
is also being reduced in the process will be core purpose and becomes involved in the kind
seen as something of a bonus but will not be of change issues that only a large company
the primary reason for adopting digital can really handle, that is when problems start.”
publishing.
“Some organisations have made the transi-
tion completely, but it would clearly not be
Different relationship with SME
feasible for many to eliminate conventional In one important respect, Mr Stephenson is
able to draw an important distinction between
small and larger businesses, citing his own
relationship with the digital publishing com-
pany: “Yudu is the love of my life. To make it
happen takes much sacrifice and passion and
drive. I chose to invest in the business, and
that requires a high degree of dedication to
make it work.
“It is much more real than working in many
much larger businesses: it is a highly creative
process fuelled by adrenalin, but it is enor-
mously satisfying.”
How that investment came to be made re-
“In management terms, there is a huge change in culture
veals something of the chairman’s business
required when you move from a business with half dozen
activities. Rejecting the label of ‘business
angel’ – a vehicle which BERR sees as an
employees. Problems start to appear when a more formal
important link in the financing of small busi-
nesses – he explained that he had been
structure is created and staff start reporting through tiers of
involved in pro bono work advising small com-
middle management.
panies for a Manchester University incubator.
84
The Informed Executive
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