their bit is in terms of the whole but I have heard other entrepreneurs say it is very difficult to let go of other areas, whereas I’ve never felt that- I employ them because they are better at that specific function than I am- I draw my judgement based upon what they present to me.”
So, with the right team around you, what does a founder like Paul focus his energy on? As he explains, “for our market-share and turnover we are very high profile and that attracts great people to want to come and work with us. We also put a huge amount of focus on living our brand values. I would say about 25% of my time is just spent thinking about company culture. Do we have a culture that lives our brand? Is it entrepreneurial? Is it motivating? Does everybody understand it? So I have a very open relationship with the team, for example, today I’ve asked that nobody comes into the office. I want them to spend time thinking about how we are going to fulfil our company ambition of a 1 billion tiny tummy touch points. If there is just one idea amongst forty people which makes a difference and takes us that step further to achieving our goal, then I think the day has added more value than having everybody in the office. Some have chosen to go to nurseries, some to supermarkets, some to suppliers, some may go for a walk and some may even choose to take the day off and not do any work at all. But I’m prepared to take that risk because it gives people autonomy and an understanding of parts of the business they may not otherwise have time to do and gives them focus of the culture of the business. All of those things are more motivating than a cash bonus.”
In a competitive market innovation is key, but for Paul coming up with ideas has never been a problem. What he does find a challenge is, “filtering and focusing. Filtering ideas so you’re left with the two or three really good ones is far more challenging than having a pile of them. We’re a relatively small team and therefore we focus on our customer first, second and last. From asking consumers what they are missing from their lives, to then coming up with a product idea and asking consumers if they would use them and how they would fit in to their lives.
Because we start with the idea of the consumer I think it has meant that whilst we’ve had a few products we’ve needed to tweak there have been no disasters.”
Paul has a word of caution and advice for any budding entrepreneur, “left
field
things constantly come in to us. You plan your week and then suddenly something will happen, whether it’s on a legal aspect, quality or people and so the trick is to be prepared for those things. We have an incredibly professional business continuity plan, crisis management plan and backup plans to try and anticipate when things go wrong. It’s all about how you manage things when they go wrong. When does an issue become a crisis, well the answer is it doesn’t if you can manage it properly.”
During his journey there have been a remarkable number of successes and a few unexpected twists for Paul, “I took pouches into baby food because I thought children would find them tactile and would be attracted by the colours and especially if they could feed themselves which is an incredibly important developmental point. Whilst I thought about the convenience for parents it’s been far more important than I ever really considered. What we ended up doing is fundamentally change a form of packaging and how baby food was presented to us. The massive challenge with a package is a parent can’t see the contents whereas they can with a jar. As a new brand how could we get them to believe what they couldn’t see was superior and why would they pay a higher price?’
The past year has been a meteoric rise for the profile of Ella’s Kitchen and on top of being Ella’s Dad, Paul can
boast to being a multi-award winning entrepreneur but the balance between work and family life has not always been an easy one, “It’s really difficult. In the early days of developing the brand and product I got the benefit of being around the house and being able to teach my son Paddy how to ride his bike, Ella to learn her ABC’s. Because I could spend the days with my family and work during the evenings. Now day’s my wife is a director of the business on our social and giving side so we have to remind ourselves not to talk about work all the time. As a family we sit down for dinner together and make time to spend together. Tomorrow is Ella’s speech day and I’m going to go. As an entrepreneur I am able to go there without having to ask anyone.”
With the 6 year long target of achieving 200 million ‘tiny tummy touch points’ on track for 2012, what else does Paul Lindley have planned for Ella’s Kitchen in 2012? Well he has further global ambitions, “we aim to launch successfully in three new markets we are lining up. To reach the 200 million target and really to continue to get those amazing tweets, Facebook posts and emails which we get from consumers who tell use just how important our product is to their lives. Hearing those stories back is fantastic and more rewarding than the P&L. If we can inspire more people and kids to have a healthier life then that’s what we set out to do.”
27 entrepreneurcountry
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