42 roundtable: TVBMA ... continued from previous page
to achieve their success. This might have been because the businesses were young and small without much collateral for loans, but he also pondered whether such businesses could have been more ambitious and sourced funding for growth. “Maybe if they had taken a bit more risk, borrowed some money and invested at an earlier stage, they could have been even more successful?”
Adams revealed that PHABRIX had funding offers and “… could have invested in growth earlier, but we wanted to establish our management team, company structure and culture first, so that our growth would be manageable.” Presenting a measured and well-managed corporate approach was also important for recruitment reasons, she added.
Christopher Pratt
award-winning businesses without very careful strategic planning and a strong management structure around the vision of ‘what we are, what we want to be, and how we are going to get there.’ While there may be a temptation to deviate from that vision, even though it may take the company quickly forward, it is always important to retain awareness that things might go backwards.”
The importance of brands and marketing
Alan Poole
Retail Marketing had not sought funding either, Richmond confirmed. “Within SMEs it often comes down to what the owner-manager wants out of life. Had we borrowed, I know that developing our culture would not have been the first driver of our business. We would have been worrying about paying back the loan.”
RBS banker Barnes pointed out that quite sensibly, if they can, businesses establish their working capital to be self funding and work within that, rather than take out a loan. However, funding for growth – “the desire to grow more quickly than can be achieved organically” – was largely a matter of corporate ambition gauged against risk appetite.
Funding could be gained through private ‘angel’ investors, private equity finance or the sale of shares to employees, but that meant sharing ownership and often less management control. “Those who want to grow, but retain control, should go to the banks. There are plenty who could do, and it’s a frustration that more don’t.”
He admitted that awareness of the risk factor had been higher in recent years and fewer businesses had been willing to take on potential risks that they didn’t have to. “All I can say is that banks will always support good management teams, and we won’t take on the risk ourselves if we don’t have confidence in the growth plan.”
Yadegari: “Companies don’t become successful
www.businessmag.co.uk
While creating awareness of the ScentAir UK brand was necessary in a new and immature market, Pratt explained that making sure customers fully understood the concept of using scent in their business environment was probably the most important factor in his B2B business. Visiting and making contact with clients and potential customers was a key activity. “Over the past few years we have managed to educate the market on the importance of scent marketing. There has now been a significant shift from ‘why scent?’ to one of ‘which scent reflects our brand and how do we deliver it effectively within our property or business’. I visit or make personal contact with all of our customers throughout the year to ensure we remain true to our excellent service levels, and to have immediate and direct feedback from our clients. And yes, it is about reasserting that as the brand we are proudly professional, and bring an affordable, quality service, and we at ScentAir passionately care about what we do for customers and how we do it. Adding scent into a business is now seen as ‘must have’ not a ‘nice to have’ component of their customer experience.”
With a wry grin Grundon’s Kevin Brewer accepted the joke that his brand was ‘rubbish’ but pointed out how strongly people nowadays associated Grundon with recycling and waste management activities – a sign of the successful marketing of the brand. Changes in the industry over the past seven years had encouraged Grundon to research and re-evaluate its customer relationships, he explained. “The danger is that you go on thinking that you know what customers want without actually asking them. Basically, we have moved from a product supply business to one that is service-led. Today, we have aligned our own values behind the brand and have communicated that to the market, so
when our salesman knocks on the customer’s door, that door is already ajar. It’s about truly understanding and delivering what customers are looking for.”
“And at the right prices,” added Doyle, who also noted the importance of CSR activities of companies within their wider communities nowadays. “Businesses who don’t have expertise in-house can go to companies like Grundon and get advice on how to handle waste management activities better.”
Future challenges … and bowler hats
Finding suitable recruits was high on the Roundtable agenda of future concerns.
Adams revealed that entering the TVMBA Best Company to Work For category was partly a move to assist PHABRIX recruitment . . . and winning it had made a noticeable beneficial difference. “We need to keep up with technology change, stay ahead of the market, and to do that we need to get recruits who want to work for us. Getting good people to move jobs can be tricky.”
She also feared increased university fees would reduce the number of potential graduate engineers in the future, a problem for industry sectors already short of such skills. “We need to boost the education offering to get more engineers coming through.”
Warren Richmond
Lane agreed, highlighting the increasing importance of apprenticeship schemes in helping to achieve that aim. “The problem is how do you get people to take up an apprenticeship in the first place? How do you encourage people to take up science and technology studies?” He suggested studies should be more related to the tangible products that such knowledge and skills can produce. “The Government needs to do more to bring young people through on that route.”
Poole said finding talent in general was the main stumbling block to progress highlighted by a number of TVBMA businesses interviewed – not the finding of funding to grow, as many people believed. “Recruiting, retaining, developing and motivating the right people were the key challenges they mentioned.”
Lane commented on the current irony of an improving business environment without
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – FEBRUARY 2014
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