Growth, at any Cost?
Picture the scene — a team meeting at a successful creative agency. In the space just shy of a decade and a half, the company had grown from two founders in a small office to a global concern with 16 staff and a stellar list of clients. On fire.
Ideas are flowing around a new campaign, but then, from nowhere, the sound of something that would trigger a fundamental shift in the business cuts through the creative buzz":
Hrrrrmm. Brrrrrrhhhhhhhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrh….
Pffffffffffffffffff….BEEP.
So what was the noise?
A blood pressure monitor, fitted to a member of staff who'd reported to their GP with signs of stress. A blood pressure monitor.
Devastated to learn what their colleague was experiencing, one of the founders dug deeper. Pressure from clients had grown so much that team members were being contacted out-of-hours on their personal phones, demanding instant updates and changes. Whenever they called.
And why? Because the clients themselves were under pressure from their own higher-ups. And those higher-ups? Under pressure from shareholders.
Layers upon layers of stress, pervasive right through the chain.
"Then, I realised: ignore the non-exec director and the FD...growth is an irrelevance compared to the wellbeing of the team.”
Drawing Pictures in the Corner
Moments like this are few and far between, but they make us stop and reassess what's important in our professional, and our personal, lives.
We rarely question the perceived wisdom that, as businesses, we have to grow. We have to play our role in producing GVA, in creating jobs, and of course, in generating tax receipts. We've been conditioned to think that unless we're stressed and therefore finding more aspects of our work unpleasant than pleasant, that we're not contributing to the economy in the way that we should.
Because, we're told, growth equals success.
Which, frankly, is nuts.
Gazing over at a busy studio stacked full of creatives — each with mouths to feed and rent to pay — another creative agency founder once told me, "I only ever wanted to sit in the corner and draw pictures….and now look."
Ironically, creativity was the very thing that had been pushed into the corner; replacing it was the need to manage the sales pipeline, staff development, and work quality required to deliver growth.
So what if 'just as we are' is 'just fine’?
And what if our growth ambitions lie somewhere else - in making the world a better place, or developing the talent and skills of those around us?
Hey, and precisely when did 'lifestyle business' become a derogatory term?
Guilty Pleasures
Trying to understand attitudes to growth amongst my contemporaries, without overtly saying "so tell me what you think about growth," I've spent the last couple of months tuned in to conversations about business through this particular lens.
What's been most telling is just how many company owners express feelings of guilt when they say they're immensely enjoying working on a new area of business; launching a podcast, developing a videogame, etc. That somehow it's wrong to derive fulfilment from work that feels like, dare we say it, fun? That's it's kinda naughty to genuinely love what you're doing?
It's a negative way of thinking that's become ingrained in our collective psyche: if you listen out, you'll probably hear yourself doing it, too. But if guilt stops us from truly enjoying the work we do, how will we know when a growth path threatens to steer us away from the way we felt when we started?
Speaking to companies that have deliberately chosen to 'stay small', those decisions seem to have made them better able to weather the Covid storm.
In part, simple economics tells you that a financial hit is easier to absorb with a lower headcount: just ask the Arcadia Group's administrators. But a smaller company can be more nimble in its response, adapting to changing demands within the marketplace it operates in; rather than culling entire teams that can no longer function as a result of recent events.
Staying small gives owners another enviable advantage: choice. Not driven by the relentless wheels of growth, the option of whether to take a particular project becomes a question of fit, rather than absolute necessity.
Release the Pressure
Growth is a given within a modern economy: the promise of a better future for our loved ones and our society is predicated on it. But as we find ourselves recovering from a year that ripped up the rulebook, it feels that now is the time to re-assess our very definition of growth.
Until recently, to grow a business meant to start at a destination, to win more clients or customers, to build more revenue, to recruit more staff. Which requires more clients or customers, more revenue, more staff. Rinse, repeat.
As the pressure to grow builds, the pressure placed on the very essence of the business grows, too. If we're not responding to emails and calls outside of 'office hours', how the hell can we stay on top? And, as with the creative agency in our introduction, that pressure ultimately has to release itself somewhere.
We need to think differently. The events we’ve faced recently have given us all a taste of working life quite unlike what we've seen before; indeed more balanced between 'work' and 'life'. If they have any form of alternative, few will want to go back to a relentless day-in, day-out grind.
To start, fundamentally question what growth means to you. Understand yourself and your business - what's the ultimate goal?
Are you building a valuable proposition with a view to an exit? That's fine, but what can you do to bring your team with you?
Is the objective global domination, a nice holiday every year, or ongoing creative fulfilment in your work?
A staff of 200, or something more 'compact and bijoux'? If a company of one, or a team of two, is sustainable and 'works' - why change it?
It's a question of what exactly we're looking to grow, as individuals and as business owners; to grow financial profits at the cost of our collective wellbeing, or to grow the time we have for the things we truly enjoy?
Because that’s a choice none of us should feel guilty about making.
Local, Global…and a lot less Metro: rethinking place and work post 2020
I don't think any of us miss the commute. I certainly don't.
Squeezing yourself into a cramped tube/tram/train/bus at peak time, avoiding eye contact while flipping between the headlines, your Slack feed, and Instagram: it's not a particularly inspiring way to spend two hours of your day.
The pandemic has been devastating at practically every conceivable level, but it has given us a chance to re-evaluate the relationship between 'place' and 'work'.
Without a doubt, had society found itself in this situation ten years ago, it wouldn't have been possible to pull the office shutter down then continue 'business as usual' without significant operational disruption. Collaborative production tools and video calls were still in their infancy back then. Technology, as it often is, has been a saviour.
For those fortunate enough to work from home, many have become quite comfortable with the flexibility this provides. Company leaders who might have previously thought 'working from home' was a euphemism for 'watching Loose Women while still in your PJs', have had no option but to place trust in their staff. Hard for some, for sure.
Overnight, and after many years of slow adoption, video calls became 'the next best thing' to meeting people in the real world. And though we've all had our Professor Robert Kelly moment - where kids or pets hijack a call at a critical point in the discussion - few of us that can ignore the transformative effect this will have on our notion of the work ‘place'.
Distance disappears: opportunity appears
The 'place' we work has changed, for sure, whether that's temporary, permanent - or, more likely - somewhere in-between. But I'd argue that the significant shift in nimble businesses right now is in thinking about how the 'places' we work with are also up for grabs.
Pre-pandemic, the idea of sitting at home in Manchester, working on a project with a client based in NYC and a senior team in the Balearics, wouldn't have felt quite as natural as it does now. But carefully scheduled Google Meets and shared documents make the whole thing as seamless as working with a client in the next postcode area, perhaps more so.
Whilst writing this, I had a call with an old friend. Pre-pandemic they were offered a high-profile role with a great new agency. The catch: relocation from the North West of the UK to London was a pre-requisite. A no-go, understandably. But as lockdown eased, the same agency got back in touch, and offered them the job, with no requirement to up-sticks.
Geography is no longer a barrier to opportunities and markets. Connectivity, plus the disappearance of distance, mean the right skills and knowledge for a project can be called upon from anywhere in the world. We're working locally, but our opportunities have become global.
We might not be able to network locally for some time. Can you imagine trying to build a new commercial connection with someone in the real world right now? The already awkward 'first hand-shake' becomes a transmission hotspot, and you're going to have to quarantine new business cards for 48 hours before taking them out of your wallet. And small talk at two metres? Not going to work, is it?
But, right now is the exact time to reconnect with people you've not spoken to for a while. There's no geographical barrier, and no need to play ping-pong with meeting dates and venues; conversations can happen in an instant. With new discussions come new ideas, new opportunities. Locked down, and working mainly from their homes, there's a degree of catharsis to be gained, too.
Are we bored, in the city?
So what of the city? The growth of online shopping had already ravaged demand for retail space, how will things look in our city centres as other employers down-size their physical footprint?
There's little doubt that people need places to come together (safely), but companies will have to make a judgement on the ongoing viability of larger offices now that Covid has demonstrated the efficiencies of working from anywhere. Smarter spaces will be required, places that facilitate the best in collaboration, rather than merely offering a different location to connect to the cloud from. It's a chance for developers, interior designers, and indeed, employers to re-define the 'work' place to give staff a compelling reason to visit.
Understandably, we are already seeing a decline in trade from ancillary services that support our experience of working in city centres. It's telling that office favourite Pret A Manger is laying off a third of its workforce, and trialling localised 'dark' kitchens that'll allow them to go direct to workers wherever they feel peckish for a Posh Cheddar & Pickle. Bars, cafes and restaurants in our cities fared less well than their suburban counterparts under the government-backed Eat Out to Help Out scheme.
In love with local again
It's difficult to be positive in the midst of our current situation, but we're increasingly falling in love with 'local' again, and that's got to be good.
Our community high streets have taken a beating over the last 20 years, with out-of-town stores depleting retail footfall, and bland casual dining chain restaurants forcing out independent eateries. As we're spending more time at home, we'll invest more of our time and cash in the places that surround us. Workspace providers might also seize the moment, offering localised smart spaces for people to come together and collaborate.
So where are we heading?
Now we’ve had a taste of home-working, and had time to re-connect with our local community, few of us are willing to go back to full-time work bound in an office. We’ve reclaimed that time stuck in the commute, and spent it living ‘more’. We’ve realised that we can actually be productive at home, staying local, whilst connecting globally. As we adjust to these changes, we’ll generate greater revenues from international opportunities, whilst spending more with businesses on our doorstep.
Could we see a return to having thriving local economies, neglected for so long in the relentless pursuit for the growth of our city centres? Time will tell…
The value of external perspective
OUTSIDE-IN. THE VALUE OF EXTERNAL PERSPECTIVE.
As businesses living through the digital revolution, we find ourselves bombarded with the mantra that we need to be innovators. To dream ever bigger. To make waves where once there were ripples.
With each Big Shiny Technology movement that arrives — big data, voice assistants, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and whatever tomorrow will bring — our guilt at failing to keep ahead is compounded. We’re sat on our own great new concepts and ideas that we never get the chance to bring to market…more guilt, more pressure.
But we’re in the business of being busy in our businesses, so the opportunities to sit back, take stock, and get some clarity around new directions, are few and far between. We have the deep desire to make changes, yet we’re inevitably hamstrung by the realities of deadlines, cashflow, and securing that next client.
We understand. We’ve all been there.
However if we’re open to the fundamental concept that not all great ideas will come directly from within a business, we can see that fusing internal know-how with the experience and the untethered perspective of external players can unleash new thinking, tackle difficult challenges and bring new products to market.
PULLING IDEAS FROM OUT OF THE WALL
Take the humble cash machine. Prior to the late 1960’s, anyone looking to withdraw their hard-earned cash from their current account had to visit a branch during somewhat limited opening hours.
Frustrated that he’d got to his branch too late one Saturday afternoon, engineer John Shepherd-Barron apparently sought solace in a nice warm bath. Whilst thinking through the problem from his own technical perspective, Shepherd-Barron experienced his very own ‘eureka moment’.
“What if getting my hands on my earnings was as easy as getting a chocolate bar from a vending machine?”
That’s all it took. He set to work on a prototype, and pitched it to Barclays. The rest — of course — is history.
The banks couldn’t see the problem, just as long as customers were queuing up to deposit and withdraw cash, the status quo worked just fine for them. But it took just one outsider’s different perspective to create the ATM, and transform banking forever.
YESTERDAY IS THE ENEMY OF TOMORROW
One of the biggest barriers to progress is the innate resistance to change so regularly found in organisations.
You’ll recognise “…but we’ve always done it like this” as the common battle cry of the most steadfast change resistors, those folk that have a habit of perpetuating corporate inertia in companies regardless of size. Cultures breed. Challenging that kind of thinking is hard.
Bringing in expertise from outside of the company — with no emotional attachment to old ways of working and learned behaviours — allows for a cleaner view on the challenges they face, and new opportunities perhaps not visible to those closest to the business.
It’s obvious really, but if we work with others that have their own experiences in running businesses (those that have ‘been there and done that’), new perspectives will lead to change. And having validation from experts outside of the company makes it easier to overcome any naysayers that might otherwise put up a fight.
EXPERIENCE, OF COURSE. EMPATHY, FOR SURE. AND HONESTY… YES PLEASE… MAKE IT BRUTAL.
Being removed from the day-to-day operation of a company, an outsider is in that unique position to ask “Why the hell are you doing it like that?” without putting anyone’s nose out of joint. Indeed, simply asking those difficult questions about processes forces an issue to the forefront, from which both parties can work through solutions.
One small insight could make a simple, but significant change: we recall a discussion about a company trying to manage staff holidays through a series of static spreadsheets, taking up far too much effort and consternation. “It’s a nightmare”, said the exec. “But there’s an app for that?”, the reply. Pleasant dreams soon returned.
Equally, perspective from those removed from a situation, can present even greater shifts in thinking:
What can we do with all of this knowledge sat in our employees heads? Why can’t we get our teams working more collaboratively? If our market is diminishing, how can we pivot to new opportunities? Is our business model robust for the future?
Pertinent questions — now more than even as we adapt to the pandemic — but inherently difficult to tackle without tapping into partners that can bring the outside in.
WE GET IT
Look, we know change is hard.
But it’s even harder if you try to go it alone: you can’t fix the engine whilst also driving the bus.
Once you take the decision to get support from the wider business world, finding the right partners and then having absolute clarity over how the relationship will work, is key.
The right partners: people buy people, simple. Maybe there are four companies offering the same services you’re looking for. That’s great, but which of those can you genuinely envisage working with? And which of those would you be able to look in the eye and have an honest conversation with when difficulties arise?
Collaboration: methodology in the madness. Every company has a methodology of choice to steer its working processes, so when you bring two parties together — each with their own — there’s potential for an almighty clash. As you start the relationship, it’s essential that neither party imposes its framework over the other. Take the chance to create a new methodology the works for everyone, that’s collaborative but has the structure and the depth required to ensure results are delivered.
Communication: shouldn’t need to be said. It’s critical, but so often not fully considered. Define where the lines of communication should be; who owns the project on either side, which other stakeholders should be involved in decisions, how frequent should updates be? Open and regular discussion keeps projects on track, and ensures that both parties have total clarity on what needs to happen, but silence kills relationships. End of.
So stop. Take a breath. Think about the changes you’re longing to make. Then turn to face them. With the right external perspective. You might be surprised what can be achieved.