Its been a great start to the year. I am not able to give you profit figures yet as its a little early, however I can confirm that we had another record year in 2011. In the last 5 years we have grown 630%. If we maintained that, we’d hit £100m in the next 5 years. We have our work cut for us if we want to keep up this momentum though as it is technically harder to increase percentage growth year on year whilst growing organically. Its the first thing analysts question, “how do you intend on maintaining this trajectory?” The simple answer is, you don’t, unless each year you increase every area in identical proportion to your turnover. Its very difficult to achieve this… Read the Rest »
It was the perfect New Years Eve. It was 1999. I was in Vermont in the US the home of the famous film, A White Christmas. As the clock struck midnight, I walked outside in the snow hand in hand with the new girl in my life. Its a beautiful place and at the start of the Millennium it was a landmark moment that I am able to look back at. We were not well-off, we had very little and if I am honest, I was barely keeping up with my mortgage repayments, but we had our health and dreams to make a better life. UKFast was only months old and we sat down in front of the log fire the next day and wrote out… Read the Rest »
When we set up UKFast I could have only dreamed of a day like today. I am a big dreamer, but this was not something I’d have ever been able to visualise. Sat here on the Necker Belle with my daughters Tegan and Poppy, my wife and business partner Gail, the girl who has stood by my side throughout all the tough times, waiting for my team to arrive. You might at first think that it is easy to get carried away and think we’ve made it, but to the contrary, this trip is intended to help design the vision for the future. There is also a little holidaying thrown in for good measure, but ultimately we have a job to do. The owners of… Read the Rest »
I have just returned from a business trip with my wife and business partner Gail. Its ironic that I have just been half way around the world to Fiji on a business summit, to realise that the answer is inside of me. I went to learn about business and the “next step.” Every year Gail and I go to the place where we spent our honey-moon. Rangalli Island in the Maldives. It is a 3 week break, the first 2 weeks as a family adventure with our 2 daughters, and the last week really having a focus on ourselves and the business. It is a time when we look at the skills we are going to need to bring into the business to continue to… Read the Rest »
Jim Collins recently sent me his latest book, How The Mighty Fall, which I have not managed to prise off my wife yet. If he’d written a British version of this book, it would have to feature BA. British Airways. How on earth has the greatest British brand fallen out of the skies to such depths of despair? I asked a couple of members of the BA staff, does BA stand for Bloody Awful, after the worst experience I have ever encountered of substandard behaviour by representatives of BA. I was checking in proudly to my first class seats at the BA counter in Manchester, when I met the second rudest woman I have ever had the misfortune to meet. We had telephoned the night… Read the Rest »
We ran one of our graduate recruiting days last week at UKFast and we started off by asking all the graduates to stand up, introduce themselves and tell us, who their most iconic person is and also tell us about something they have achieved which they consider momentous in their life. It is a good ice breaker and for those of us assessing the candidates, it starts to give you a snap shot of what is to come. A young lady stood up, and I don’t have her name to hand and she described her momentous achievement as creating a small shop on ebay and selling a variety of things. When she sat down, I immediately asked, “so why are you here?” At first I… Read the Rest »
This week on my annual holiday, I’ve been thinking about how difficult it once was to remain aware of the office whilst taking time off. Managers and directors often find it very difficult to leave the office even for a short while. Keeping your eye on the business whilst going on holiday has, in the past, posed many problems but every year it definitely gets easier. The fact that I am able to go away and leave the office for several weeks boils down to advanced technology and a quality company strategy. Looking at my mobile phone, I contemplate the ease in which I can contact anyone in the office at any time of the working day. We all work from home, on the train,… Read the Rest »
