Name: Alec McPhedran
Experience: Former head of learning and talent
development at Channel 4. Now coaches businesses in leadership, strategy
and management through his own company, Skills Channel TV. Has worked
with the Sears Group, the FT and Railtrack.
Website: www.skillschannel.tv
Where next? It can often be a big question for a small business –
especially one that’s grown up as fast as Midlands manufacturer
Thermasolutions. The company has been producing specialist energy-saving
“night blinds” for supermarket chiller cabinets and has seen demand
soar over the past five years.
Now, as the company embarks on further expansion, lead director Ken
Patel recognises the need to step back and re-evaluate. “We’re good at
what we do,” he says, “but we need some guidance for progressing the
company.” To help him with this, business strategy coach Alec McPhedran
of Skills Channel TV visited his Northampton factory for an afternoon of
advice, with a particular focus on people management and organisational
structure.
The background
Thermasolutions makes manually operated and motorised fabric blinds,
often in bespoke designs. Its client list includes Tesco, Marks &
Spencer, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Iceland and Asda, who can save up to 20
per cent on their refrigeration bills. Since the company started in
2006, the number of blinds it produces has soared from 250 to 6,500 per
week, and its turnover from £500,000 to a projected £3.2 million for the
past financial year.
According to Ken, this growth has come about largely through having a
quality product, spotting marketing opportunities and listening to
clients’ individual needs. It’s also a case of being in the right place
at the right time, as companies come under pressure to save money and to
comply with energy regulations. “There are times when you ask yourself,
‘Is everything going too fast? Can we cope with it?’” he says. “But
then you do cope, and you get hungry for the next challenge.”
Thermasolutions has already taken on a distributor in Turkey and last
year fulfilled its biggest-ever order, worth £1.5 million, for
Australia. Ken and director Bob Spencer, who attended their first
international trade fair this spring, are now looking to Mexico,
Argentina and Canada for new business, and have hopes for imminent sales
from the US.
Closer to home, they’ve just purchased the industrial unit next door –
picking up the keys only days before Alec’s visit – which doubles their
factory floor space. The aim, once it’s up and running, is to be able
to produce up to 10,000 blinds a week. “If there’s one thing we would do
differently if we could start all over again, it’s choose bigger
premises,” says Ken. “When we first saw our 3,000 square-foot unit, we
thought, ‘Wow, fantastic!’ But within three months, we’d already run out
of space and had to put in a mezzanine level.”
The structure
The company consists of four directors and seven full-time employees
(plus temporary staff when big orders are going through). At the heart
of this small team are Ken – who takes the lead on finance and business
development, and who works largely from his home in Wisbech in
Cambridgeshire – and his right-hand man, Bob, who is the technical
expert and is based at the Northampton premises. Alongside them are
their other halves, who also have shares in the business. Ken’s wife
Mina deals with accounts, while Bob’s wife Tracy manages the stock
control and production targets.
The couples have known each other for years as friends, and make a
point of never talking shop when they meet socially. Alec wonders if
they have ever thought about the potential for conflict in this
arrangement further down the line. “I’ve seen it happen as businesses
start to make more money,” he says, pointing out that organisations can
crumble if personal relationships break down.
Ken – who has an entrepreneurial streak and also runs a separate
company, Chiller Blinds, that makes similar PVC blinds for supermarket
cabinets, turning over £3 million per year – says this isn’t something
he’s felt the need to consider, as he and Bob go way back. They’re both
veterans of the industry, he explains, and have worked together on other
projects without any problems.
In fact, he adds, they depend on each other. Bob relies on him to
take the lead on the business side of things and to talk to clients,
while he relies on Bob (whose father was the first to manufacture night
blinds in the UK in the 1970s) to deal with any technical issues. “We’ve
always respected each other for the different skills we bring,” he
says.
With such a clear division of labour, which has obviously contributed
to their success so far, Alec advises that they should make a big
effort to preserve this as much as they can.
A people plan?
From what he’s heard so far, Alec observes that it sounds like the
directors know where they each stand and where they want to take the
company in terms of profits. But have they thought about the people side
of growth? “For many businesses at your stage,” he says, “it becomes
more critical to look at the personnel strategy, too.”
Yes, answers Ken – in their heads, but not on paper. “When we’ve
bought the equipment we need for next door and gone into full production
there, we’ll have to look at making some promotions and taking on maybe
two or three more members of staff. We’ll probably create some more
offices, too, for accounts, stock control and a manager to oversee the
day-to-day running of the unit.”
But, he acknowledges, they are hesitant to make plans that are any
more concrete than that until a new contract is signed and they’ve got a
guarantee of an increase in revenue.
Alec urges them to be bold in their planning – to devise a ‘road map’
so they’re ready in advance for the new business when it happens,
rather than having to cope with the unexpected as they go along.
“I know you operate well and can manage an increase in sales,” he
says. “And you’ve told me that you’re ambitious for your turnover. So be
confident. Think about two years from now. What is your exact turnover
target? What is your margin? Who are the people you have in position?
You need to be able to act quickly when the new sales come in.”
Share the knowledge
Preparation is key where staff skills are concerned, says Alec,
especially in a small specialist organisation where the leaders are so
experienced and so hands-on.
“Current research shows good business isn’t just about hiring people
for their technical and professional skills. There’s also a need for
staff – from at least team-leader level upwards – to be multiskilled in
certain areas and to have some commercial awareness and understanding.
So that they realise, to give a simple example, the value of turning the
lights off to save costs. A really fluid business of your size is one
where the people are fluid within it.”
Alec is concerned that if either Ken or Bob, both of whom are in
their fifties, wants to retire or needs to be absent for a long period
for any reason, there isn’t anyone who can step in to take over the
reins. They may have trained their staff, some of whom have worked for
them for nearly 25 years, to multi-task around the factory floor, and
looked after them with nice gestures like bonuses and bacon butties –
but have they shown any of them the senior ropes?
“It’s difficult,” says Ken, “because Bob and I are so experienced at
what we do, and because we’re both so committed. We like to give a
quality service, which means that we’ll sometimes travel miles to visit a
client to troubleshoot a problem, even if that problem takes only half
an hour to solve. That said, Bob has spent a lot of time recently on our
website, and on the marketing for the trade fair. If we’d had someone
skilled enough to do some of that for us, it certainly would have made
his job a lot easier.”
This, emphasises Alec, is exactly why they need to start thinking now
about delegating, with coaching in mind, to some of their managers when
it’s appropriate. “What you’re not doing,” he says, “is sharing now for
the future. You have some incredible knowledge, which is a precious
asset, and it would be a shame to think that some of your staff might
not be interested in finding out about it.”
And, he warns, there’s another area of people development that
business leaders can miss. “You’re a business that has grown because of
your client relationships. As you continue to grow, more of your staff
will be involved in speaking to your clients. You need to be confident
that they are skilled enough to do this, and to represent the values
that important to you and your business success.”
The big picture
Overall, Alec would like to see Ken and Bob take more time to assess
the company’s big picture. “I’m not asking you to have board meetings
every day,” he says, “just to step back, without having to have your
sleeves rolled up, to think about the future – even if you do this just
one day a month, or one day every couple of months.”
In Alec’s view, Ken and Bob clearly have a good business, but they
should think about working out some medium-term objectives, whether on
paper or not, and make some succession plans. It wouldn’t hurt, he adds,
to look at other organisations, and to talk to other business leaders,
who have been through similar growth.
Alec’s advice doesn’t fall on deaf ears. “We’ve had to learn how to
do things very quickly,” says Ken. “But Alec has given us good advice
today, to help us take Thermasolutions to the next stage. Bob and I need
to start delegating. Certain tasks we will always do ourselves but we
need to find areas in which we can stand back. It’s going to be hard,
but it will mean progress, and it’s important to make our staff feel
even more part of the team, and part of our growth.”
Alec Mcphedran’s Strategy Tips
- Share knowledge now for the future
- Delegate by coaching rather than telling
- Be confident in planning ahead
- Make time to view the big picture
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