54 roundtable: accelerating growth ... continued from previous page
in Southampton and Salford, and getting broadcast industry experience curriculum- included. “When their course ends, having covered what my business needs, we employ the plum candidates. Within six to nine months they are contributing to our business, rather than being a long-term drain as you train them. That’s been an extremely successful pro-active policy for our business.”
Recruitment headhunting of their graduates was a problem, Phillips admitted.
minds. It’s the kids who come up with the clever ideas and know where the future is.”
Cooper: “There is a definite culture change among graduates. They are looking to be involved with well-aligned, clearly driven entrepreneurial businesses that know where they are going. There is also growing awareness that small businesses can offer a good employment environment with flexibility and high rewards that don’t always have to be monetary. Small businesses can create drive and incentivise their employees with much more meaning than larger entities.”
You can’t beat a good execution . . .
Murray asked if successful growth needed a clear consistent long-term strategic plan or whether businesses needed to be nimble and adaptable to their changing markets.
Richard Steer
Heynen: “You have to accept there is a real war over talent.” Staff retention needed to be more than just paying increasingly higher salaries. “The challenge for smaller businesses is how to put more on the table in terms of a flexible reward package to make them a preferred employer.” Along with an acceptable salary, factors such as breadth of responsibility, empowerment, opportunities to broaden experience, flexibility and the work/life balance needed to be considered more fully.
Steer agreed that appropriate reward and recognition is essential, but so is awareness of suitable talent. “Within our industry field, which is quite small, we aim to know everybody through our personal contacts and networking.”
The right work culture was important too. “We are a growing dynamic business, we pay well, but we don’t offer the frills like some companies. We do provide an interesting, challenging and secure position in an environment in which they are empowered and can do a good job. Our staff turnover is very low.
“I have built staffing from 22 to 135 and am in touch with every one of those players in our team. I won’t draw an organisational structure chart. The second an employee asks if they are more senior than another colleague, you’ve got it all wrong.”
West: “In some ways, particularly in IT, you need to keep refreshing the talent base. You get imagination and creativity from young
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West: “We like to think we have an idea of where we are going, but often our future can be opportunity driven. Either way, it’s important that you nurture that business growth opportunity in the right direction, and get the right talent and resources to support it. If we had stayed where we were five years ago, we would have been out of business now.”
Heynen: “It’s easy to spend a lot of time focused on defining the best strategy; it can become all-consuming. Although it’s good to have a strategy, your success actually depends upon how you execute it. Have you got the right resources? Is the management team properly qualified? Can it lead? Are you genuinely empowering your staff? Is the company culture right?"
Rogers mentioned that growth itself could endanger a company’s success. Issues vary at different stages of the business life-cycle and good companies need leaders and management teams flexible enough to handle those changes.
Execution of planning was key. “A poor strategy well executed is much better than a good strategy poorly executed. It’s relatively easy to establish strategy and appropriate KPIs, it’s the operational execution of those aspects that show the real strength of successful businesses.”
is more consensual, engendering greater involvement and staff empowerment. “There is a mantra: If you want to go quickly, do it yourself; if you want to go far, do it together.”
Phillips claimed Internet access to knowledge was a key driver of this change. “Directors used to gain knowledge from their studies and experience and pass it on to their staff; now knowledge is out there online for everyone. Whether it’s good or bad knowledge, people are now finding it out for themselves.”
Stressing the vital need for accurate and good quality knowledge Gibson admitted, “Everyone is an amateur online lawyer nowadays.”
Phillips added that customers were now smarter too, thanks to the Internet, often using it for research and comparison when involved in contract negotiations.
Rogers: “Businesses should not underestimate the power of the Internet.”
Generating ideas for growth . . .
Steer wasn’t a fan of the staff suggestion box process, but JCA had recently introduced monthly boardroom briefings by middle managers “about activities and challenges in their world, and what we can do as a board to remove obstacles to their progress.” Everyone gets more informed and involved with the business, he explained, enabling better company decisions.
David Phillips
Steer agreed. “Strategy needs to be executed well from 1-10. Too many businesses get to 5,6 or 7 then get distracted and fail to execute the final bit from 8-10 where all the value is.”
Do we still lead from the front?
Rogers suggested the leadership role has gradually changed.
It used to be much more directional, telling staff what to do. Now it
Heynen supported staff involvement and empowerment. “Our sales guys love the fact they can pick up the phone and have a chat with the chairman or the MD about the business. And often, the chairman or the MD will go out in the field and bring back ideas to the boardroom.”
Commercialising ideas from the floor up happened in TSL said Phillips because project work involved extensive work onsite with clients and other contractors. “We are constantly modifying our system designs based on experience in the field. We also
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – DECEMBER 12/JANUARY 13
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