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 organically as with growth comes cash flow difficulties and a plethora of challenges. Also in an economy such as ours, I believe its more prudent to follow common sense, build at the speed that you feel most comfortable at.

That being said, we are on a massive recruitment drive, although I am not sure where we are going to house everyone yet as we are bursting not just with energy on the 28th floor but at the seams too.

But under the skin of UKFast we are having fun and thats important. Breaking down our larger goals into a myriad of challenges for smaller teams to tackle is the new game. I would be kidding myself if I thought I can influence every team member as well as the direct line managers can, who work directly for and on behalf of their team mates. My job is to motivate the managers and trust they are able to pass on the message with passion and without dilution.

Its part of the process of learning to manage a much larger business. Its sad in a lot of respects as I have thoroughly enjoyed the responsibilities of leading from the front and battling with my mates who all of whom I’d swim the channel for and them in return, (with the possible exception of Rich, who’s not a great swimmer!) Over the last 12 years a great many of them have become close friends and I love being a part of their growth outside of work too as they settle down and start having kids. But its time for these friends of mine to wear my shoes and develop new skills of their own managing and developing their teams.

If I look at this pragmatically, there are similarities to the old days when there was just 20 or so of us. If you total up all our managers and team leaders we are in a similar place. The only difference is that unless I want to continue to slow down the growth of UKFast, I have to let nature take its course. I can’t be sat next to every person coaching them individually!

So have I officially stepped back? I have done so before at my peril and watched managers with pedigrees and so called proven track records steer us off course. On previous occasions I have had to step back in to pick up the pieces. Its costly when you get it wrong, you not only slow down growth, you also lose great people who get disheartened in the process.

Yet this time I am confident we have the right people in place and whilst I don’t think any of us are the finished article yet, their appetite makes them the right people for the job. I have spent a number of years preparing for  this and working tirelessly on the culture of the business ensuring I invest all my time and energy in the right people.

It comes at an interesting time to as my own family is growing too. My wife Gail gave birth to our newest baby last Friday at 2.26am. Not many people can work with their spouse yet we have had an incredible innings and I have enjoyed working with her and building this great organisation together. So in a funny way I know I have lost her too at this crucial time. Mind you don’t for a minute underestimate my wife. At ten minutes past midnight I was reminding Gail that I had a sales meeting starting in just over 7 hours. And whilst I was slightly late for the meeting and a little shell shocked and emotional on arrival, my wife too arrived at work carrying our baby less than 9 hours after giving birth. If you thought Thatcher was tough, you have no idea. Its this sort of commitment that makes UKFast special.

So whilst Gail is doing her mum stuff, you can rest assured, that I wont be allowed to and she will continue to motivate and inspire me and the troops from a different angle. But this time is going to different for her too.

After the birth of our first daughter, she lay on a play mat whilst Gail (with support from June and Paula) entered every transaction of every customer into our new accounting system we’d designed and built. It took months. The impact of second daughter followed a similar suit as the business had grown to new levels with new extraordinary challenges that require endless hours of commitment. So this time I can say with certainty Gail’s officially on maternity leave and I am going to see to it that she enjoys every moment.

Luckily we have been planning this for some time and we have put in place a team that whilst they cant replace Gail they support me and my managers to the highest levels.

So it is undoubtedly the birth of a new era, a very interesting one. Wish us luck!

Best of British

Lawrence

Latest arrival to the growing team at UKFast

No email, no internet, power cuts, sideways rain and no mobile phone access.

Brilliant!

Castell Cidwm is an inspiring place, a real hive of activity. This week we had various groups down doing different activities. A few of the directors were giving the UKFast Management Training Program a final polish, whilst I had the arduous task of taking a team of apprehensive colleagues through the hills above Beddgelert. I don’t need much of an excuse to get my walking boots on. I get a great deal more done in the peace and quiet of the mountains as opposed to being back in the office.

I have learnt that walking is a great place to discuss plans and get to know people. People seem less guarded, less preoccupied with portraying themselves in polished way in the countryside and by mixing fresh air and an increased heart rate, it also makes work more enjoyable.

Over the past 12 months I have been considering how to best manage UKFast as it continues to grow at a rapid pace. I have no formal business training apart from what I pick up from those around me and from the mistakes we make. With 125 staff and contracts of £14.5m already this year, it is a very different business than the one we started in 1999 in a tiny 2 man office on Fountain Street. But as it grows, do we have to run it differently?

This is a question I have been pondering over for some time. I think there is a way where we can maintain that small business feel.

UKFast covers a wide array of clients, SMB / SME and Enterprise and Government organisations. All these organisations require very different levels of care managing their solutions and after significant analysis, 2 very distinct groups emerged.

I remember reading Losing My Virginity and being intrigued why a businessman would chop his record company businesses in half when they reached 100 staff. It seemed alien to me at the time, as there were only 16 of us in UKFast when I read it. It was not something I gave too much thought to.

And so, after much deliberation and analysis, we made the decision to split the team into 2 new distinct groups with defined responsibilities. It was this new team that I invited down to Wales to walk with me whilst we discussed our futures. Being away from work gave the new team time to bond and digest the proposal and concentrate their energy on this new task in hand. I can confidently say I could not achieve the same result in an office environment. Even though our office is a great environment, sometimes you just have to swap the walls for heather.

The team left Castell Cidwm enthused and empowered with an exciting journey ahead.

The result is that now everyone benefits, both clients and the team alike.

Over our 11 years in business we have managed to win some amazing brands and like our other clients, we look after them and we support them through their growth.

It will come as no surprise that our bigger clients require more attention. They tend to have significantly more complex hosting requirements and as a result, they need extra help.

It is impossible to provide one member of staff for all of our thousands of clients across the whole UKFast client base, yet at the top level, we have clients now who get exactly that.

When I first heard the idea I assumed that the main benefit is that by keeping the businesses small it maintains or increases the energy in both parts.

Now this is true, but I underestimated some of the other benefits of the change too.

The main benefit is that instead of losing great people along the way, when top level jobs and management positions are already filled, it creates the perfect progression from Team leader to Manager, Manager to Director, from Director, to Director of a new division.

Each time someone is promoted, you create a gap to fill with enthusiastic team members.

And when you are considering bringing in new talent. Have you considered the ones under your nose?

A friend of mine told me “promote people to a level above they’d ordinarily expect. They will thank you for it and work significantly harder.” He gave me a couple of examples and mentioned a cleaner of one of his businesses, and how she went on to be the manager of the entire division.

It reminded me of some questions I was asked recently, one of them was, “What did you learn from your first job?”

I said, ‘the person brushing the floor, might be the one with the biggest drive and most potential.”

In short, I have learnt, never underestimate anyone as I was the person holding the brush.

It’s very easy to underestimate people. I know I have personally done it numerous times. It can be a scary prospect entrusting a position of responsibility to someone. It’s always a gamble. Yet it’s a bigger gamble when you bring someone else in.

Recently Sale Sharks lost their Commercial Director Nathan Bombrys. It’s common knowledge so I am not talking out of turn, it’s merely a good example. He’d been with the club a decade. He’d arrived at around the same time we got involved, shortly after the game turned professional.

He understood the club and the sponsors inside out. He was extraordinarily passionate about both the club and the owner. After about 3 or 4 changes to the CEO role, Nathan realised that the opening would never have his name on it. Consequently he decided to move on and instantly was snapped up by Scottish Rugby.

Over the last 10 years there is no supplier closer to Sale Sharks than UKFast. I worked alongside Nathan and helped him fill the stadium on numerous occasions. I knew that Nathan was undoubtedly the man for the job, I had first hand experience of this man’s talent. He was the right person, back when they gave the role to Niels de Vos and although I think Niels is a smashing guy, Nathan was the one pulling the strings. Not many people know that, but that is a fact.

A very clever Stamford professor, Jim Collins wrote that in almost every case of the businesses who achieve greatness for a sustained period of 15 years or more, the leaders were grown from within.

Yet it is hard to trust in talent you might already have. There is no right or wrong answer. There is just opinion and conjecture. Either way, whatever you do in business, it’s a gamble.

“I am disappointed,” I said, “but not surprised.”

Its the end of an era. “It is being made official in the morning and there is an embargo on the story until 10am tomorrow. Charlie Hodgson is resigning in the morning.”

I was leaving for Verbier in the morning, for a few days skiing and boarding with the family and friends from work. Charlie is someone who I’d consider one of the most underrated fly-halves in todays game. Underrated or not, you have to treat people nicely who work for you, and if you want incredible results my advice is you need to go overboard on the “lavishing praise” aspect of management.

The lavishing praise is something I learnt from Branson, and sitting here now in his home in the Swiss Alpes with friends I am reminded just how much he has helped me and UKFast in 2010.

The Lodge is a great place to reflect and the New Year is the best time to review and plan. I am here with a crowd from work and we wouldn’t be here if Branson hadn’t kindly offered up a few pearls of wisdom. It just goes to show you being nice pays off, as I am spending my hard earned money in one of his luxury properties spoiling my top performers at UKFast!

Team launch

So what did I learn and how are we different?

Well UKFast was a pretty good business going into 2010, but it wasn’t perfect and I was probably the biggest of a number of few weak links. I had no formal training to run a business of this size. With an anticipated turnover of between £17 and £20m this year, the business is very different from the one I set out on the journey with Gail back in 1999.

And although my heart and intentions have always been in the right place, I have been learning as I have been going along. Now this is not too big a problem when the business is small, however as the stakes get bigger, small mistakes can manifest themselves as much larger ones down the line. So it is essential errors of judgement are kept to a minimum. On the whole we have been lucky, but luck not something you want to solely rely on when everything you hold dear is at stake.

I needed help and fast. Ironically on this journey of development I have come to the realisation that as fast as I develop, I will always  need to learn more! This is to maintain the momentum that you create. Mohammed Ali said, “I run on the road, long before I dance under the lights.” This beautiful phrase is almost prophetic. There is so much you can read into this statement. You can image just how hard Mohammed Ali trained and how far he must have run to become the living legend we all now know and love. And what was his ultimate outcome? To be the greatest boxer? Or to change the world? Somehow I think the boxing was just a stepping stone for the latter and the momentum he created will live on long after his memories fade.

Tony Robbins sums up the importance of learning nicely with the phrase, “If you are not growing you are dying.” I can associate with this. The times in my life where everything slotted perfectly in place coincide with the times when I am consciously making an effort to develop. All the people I know who end up failing, simply stopped developing often riding on their past successes. They stop doing everything that got them to that place in the first place. The result, they get less lucky.

Going into 2010 was no different to previous years, I knew we had some work to do to maintain our spirit we’d worked hard to achieve since inception. Managing thousands of customers and hundreds of people required skills I simply didn’t have at that time. It was my first question I asked Richard B, “how do I maintain the spirit that we have had since inception whilst growing it beyond a hundred people?”

But the answer is not important and maybe something for another day, what is important is that I was asking questions and eager to learn other peoples opinions. You will find the answer to the most extraordinary problems if you set out on the journey to discover them.

And now, sat in the basement of The Lodge typing away, with the guys from work watching “The Hangover” which is swiftly becoming a cult film for our team in this cult venue, I enter 2011 really excited about the differences we are going to make to peoples businesses and their lives. I am even more excited about the differences we are able to make for the guys at work, all of them. I have learnt that my colleagues have the appetite to develop at a similar pace to me and they need rewarding just like I do too.

Enjoy the challenge

And reflecting on 2010, was it a good one? I certainly regard it as was one of those life changing years. One where I stepped up a gear and started listening, not just to the advice of great people around me, but also my gut too. Following your heart and fulfilling your dreams is where you are ultimately tested. Fundamentally isn’t this really what it’s all about anyway?

So if you are a dreamer like me, dream big and best of luck for 2011. I wish you every success. Go make those dreams a reality or come and join me on mine.

Lawrence

Good luck for 2011 from UKFast

I was about to start blogging about the fact that when you have a wife and children, suddenly you seem to become more successful. I first came accross this theory when Vernon Lord a then finance director at Granada jokingly commented that he disliked me, there is always a little truth in the jest. He said, “you have no wife, kids, loan repayments, school fees, ex-wives. You have nothing that ensures you have to perform.”

I reminded him that I’d never missed my target and that I was his most consistent performer. “That’s another reason, you have messed up my theory!” he said.

And actually, during the BBC Sports Personality Of The Year, I am reminded that my theory is completely inaccurate. Merely a coincidence. There are millions of unsuccessful parents as well as successful ones. I have the association of this,  just like Veron, because over the years I have seen people step up when they have children.

So yes, becoming a father or mother  is a driving force, but it doesn’t guarantee success and what about the individuals who are well on their way to success long before they settle down?

They announced the winner of the Life Time Achievers Award, David Beckham, he is a great example of someone who was inspired from an early age.

In fact Beckham optimizes real inspiration, and its something he has had since his childhood. Are the qualities you find in a David Beckham character the same ones required in someone who is successful in business? Absolutely. They are one and the same. However where sport has some great personalities, it concerns me that on the very same channel, we are spoon fed Sugar as the equivalent role model for the business world. Sorry Mr Sugar, I am sure you are a very nice man off camera and all aggressive finger wagging is just for TV, however you are no David Beckham. It does make me think we need better role models in business.

I remember hearing a comment from a senior official in the IOD (Institute of Directors) the year I was kindly awarded, Young Director of the Year, it was explained to me that the then Alan Sugar, (prior to his first title of Sir) was setting a very bad example in the manner he was conducting himself in the boardroom, saying “your fired.”

I have to agree on the basis that really you’d find yourself in an employment tribunal if you really behaved like that with your staff, so for young business people who are aspiring to be entrepreneurs, Sugar is not someone I’d recommend emulating. There are much greater leaders out there.

John Timpson being one of my favourites. Another man who is a massive fan of Timpson, is a friend and client James Kight of Printerland. He is a good example of one of those driven characters too, a Beckham of the online world.

Gail pointed out that 2 of Alan Sugar’s directors joked that neither had ever had a compliment in the 14 or so years they’d worked for him. I find this extraordinary and actually quiet intriguing. My real concern with Sugar is his lack of humility and if you have any doubt, look at the chair he uses in his boardroom. It is higher than all the others, almost throne like.

If you want to gain the respect of your team members, work along side them, yes direct, but do not “Lord” things over them.

And bending back to Beckham, it is lovely to see a grown man, a real celebrity genuinely humbled when picking up his well earned Lifetime achievers award.

And here is the difference, during his speech he talked about everyone elses hard work, he never mentioned his own commitment, not once. Great leaders take it on the chin and  blame themselves when things go wrong, but you can really spot the best leaders by their lack of appetite to take the glory. They reflect praise and credit others when they are complimented on their success. Beckham stands out as one of those greats, and his speech was a pleasure to watch.

Described by Sir Alex Ferguson as someone who hung back after training to carry on practicing, a joy to watch. You can only imagine the work he put in. He was 16 when he joined the men at Manchester United. If that is not praise enough, I thought HRH Prince William summed it up superbly, when he credited his “*skill, passion and dignity.”

Are these not the essential ingredients I am hunting down? Whatever walk of life you want to be successful in, I think this is as succinct as you can put it.

If there is one other thing that amplifies success and I know is true in my case, behind every successful man there’s a strong woman. Victoria Beckham may not be the most popular person in showbiz, but who can deny her strength of character. Victoria is a formidable woman and an exceptional business person in her own right. It is great to hear a modern day living legend like Beckham speak from the heart and credit his wife saying “she truly is an inspiration to me every single day.”

So maybe a wife is needed afterall?

Have a great Christmas and thank you for reading.

Back in 2011

Best wishes from everyone at UKFast

Lawrence

—————->

* “His contribution to football during his 18 years in the professional game has been exceptionable. As a player he has served loyally as England’s captain for many years, providing us fans with some of the most memorable moments of English football for a generation. During his career he has had highs and lows, but has always remained determined committing himself fully to his Country, his team mates, and to his fans when he is on the field to play. Most importantly, he is an example to young and inspiring footballers of all ages and stages of their career of how to play the game with skill, passion and dignity. Many congratulations David, a well deserved award” HRH Prince William

“Indeed it was a great pleasure to play with David Beckham, a great joy. He is a great footballer and I think even a better person.” Zinedine Zidane

I caught her eye. She smiled, but not the usual reflex smile, but one from someone who is making a concerted effort to put on a brave face.

Following me into my den, Rach put down my coffee and said, “she doesn’t want anyone to know, but she’s just split up with her boyfriend.”

Now telling you and the world at this point is probably a little inconsiderate at first thought, however, stood at the bar of the 1.30pm flight to Dubai with a few pals on a business trip, it was agreed that it was a good subject for a blog.

So 20,000 feet in the air, travelling at 875kmph, I feel pretty safe from Sarah’s backlash.

But it isn’t just Sarah and without going into names, there was a list of them. Five beautiful young ladies, all of whom are incredibly supportive, passionate, dynamic people, real assets to our business. So why has it all gone so horribly wrong? And has it?

Firstly, if you met these girls, you’d queue to get a date with them.  They are Bond Girls, real life intelligent and fun characters. Yet they are all suddenly wallflowers and Christmas is beckoning.

It’s a bit of a strange phenomenon but its happened enough now for me to question the element of coincidence and reoccurrence.

Here is the theory. UKFast is indeed an extraordinary place to work. It is a place where women and men are not equal. It is a place where we all have to work incredibly hard to keep up, especially us men. I have to be careful not to be discriminative against men here, because I truly believe that women are the better natural communicators.

In UKFast because of our equal opportunities attitude, girls start UKFast and with in 12 months they are young ladies, completely different in looks and attitude and poise. They are more confident, they have a better understanding of life than when they first arrived. Really they are different in nearly every way.

But they often arrive with boyfriends, and this is where the problem starts.

The UKFast induction starts with a week of training in Manchester in the boardroom, followed by 2 or 3 intense days down in North Wales at our Training Centre, Castell Cidwm in the Snowdonian mountain range at the foot of Snowdon.

It is as intense as you want to make it. If you want to push yourself beyond belief, you have the opportunity. Alternatively you can take more of a back seat role and choose a slower pace. Either way at the end of a few days, you will either want to leave with the notion “these guys are crazy!” or you are “IN” and in for keeps.

You never forget the first time you arrive at Castell Cidwm. With thirty 100 ft pines in the entrance, sitting proudly at the head of the most beautiful lake in Wales. New arrivals stare in disbelief. They have heard everyone talk of this magical place, but nothing really prepares you for actually witnessing one of nature’s most extraordinary places. It’s breathtaking.

Once these girls complete training they are thrown in the deep end. It’s not until a year or so later you look back and they just look completely different. I remember having a BBQ recently at the end of the summer, and seeing the girls with their boyfriends, the guys looked really young and out of place with them.

My observations pretty soon manifest themselves as real life issues and suddenly their relationships breakdown. If you are one of the boys who let go of these beautiful girls, you need help and I do not say this flippantly. I know these characters, I know where they are going on their journey. Where are you going? Where are on earth do you think you will end up without super strong women behind you? I’d love to meet the hybrid of perfect women they intend to replace them with. Maybe I am missing a trick. Maybe I am not working these girls hard enough.

Still each to his own. Some people choose the path of least resistance; some of us just love swimming upstream.

So just before switching off my phone whilst buckling into the flight on United Emirates giant new plane A380, I received a message from Sarah.

This is why I go to work, its not for money, its not for glory, its for moments like this, moments of magic. That’s not her message, her message read like this….

“Thank u so much for this morning. Really cheered me up. Thanks for caring. Have a great time in Dubai.”

With 5 of my top young professionals all dismayed at losing boyfriends, I’d invited them to my home for breakfast before my flight. Ben cooked pancakes with his homemade blueberry sauce. After breakfast the girls headed to the Marriot Spa , where Harriet laid on a few things to cheer them up and remind them just how beautiful they really are.

UKFast Girls on Tour (Trip back from Switzerland)

I had a busy day ahead. I had to be at the airport for 11ish. I had a 9.15am meeting with a marketing agency I own, so I’d planned a quick breakfast and group hug prior to start of their day. There is strength in numbers and together they are able to pull each other through and with me away, I knew they were in good hands.

A friend once told me, my job as a business man is to enrich peoples lives, so along with the £10 donated to the charity box in the airport, from the customs official who lost a bet that my glasses were triggering the bleeper, I managed to make a few people smile today, so I feel great.

It amazes me just how easy it is to forget these wonderful people who make our businesses what they are.  If you get an opportunity to give something back, don’t think about it, just do it. Have a party, the moment I got back from Dubai I was heading for Manchester City Centre for a surprise birthday party with a load of friends from UKFast. You can always find reasons to celebrate.

And when you come across someone in pain, lend a hand and just remember how tough it is.  We’ve all been there and we never know when it is our turn to face adversity.

Finally on the subject of UKFast Girl Power Day, Happy Birthday Mrs Jones.

Gail jones Commercial director @ UKFast, Birthday girl 33 today

LJ x

PS. By the way, I don’t want anyone teasing Neil for thinking the A380 was a road somewhere between here and Dubai!

C works closely with LJ, Gail and Rach, never a dull moment when she is around

“Well, I lost them when I mentioned we have trampolines in reception. The 3 man panel looked a little embarrassed.” Said Jonathan Bowers.   “Their eyeballs were bulging. One of the men plucked up the courage and asked, “why? Why would you do that?”

He had been answering questions after a presentation for an award we are finalists for. They asked him about motivation. Its a classic question, because very few people truly understand what motivates people. They assume it’s money. It is never money. Most people use fear,  but fear is short lived. Sustained success is never built on fear.

I often wonder why people ask questions when they are frightened to hear the answer. I believe they ask the question, hoping to find the person who will agree with their own strategy. They find an ally, and this cements their reasoning why they do something in a particular manner.

Just because others follow, does not make it right.

Jonathan explained that the improvements in the office environment directly translated to improvements to our profit.

Well this sort of statement is a “red rag to a bull(y).”

Yet it is true, I can show clearly that investment into the well being of a team, significantly increases output. Yet this scares so many people. Is it the word investment? Is it the word significant? What is it that scares people into not investing into people?

My first objection I get, is the money objection. I get this one all the time. “Why do you waste money on such nice facilities?” Ask this question to James Kight from Printerland. James and his partner Graeme run an amazing business. I am proud to have them as clients and friends.

They moved their business from a string of terraced buildings in a residential area of Manchester to a beautiful purpose built office block and look at the results. Awesome. I’d like anyone to challenge them on this subject. Yet they were brave enough to make this decision and their staff retention and general well being significantly improved. Their team undoubtedly work harder as a direct result.

And not all the investments need to cost money. You can invest energy. Like Jonathan and my fellow directors, all of whom have the boundless energy. I believe this is the single biggest contribution needed when building a successful team. Are you doing the basics right?

First you need to look at yourself.

What sort of leader are you? Do you have a style of leadership already or are you working towards a goal? Can you learn how to be a good leader?

These are great questions and if you can answer these honestly, they will give you the answers to all your questions. When things go wrong, can you blame yourself?

Now this doesn’t sit well with all leaders. It takes a very specific type of person to be a “Level 5 Leader,” (see Jim Collins – Good To Great & Built To Last). Apart from the fact that a level 5 leader has humility, when things go wrong, they take responsibility for everyones failings on their own shoulders. And when things go well, they impart all the glory on others in the team.

Without this basic function, you cannot lead successfully. The reason being is that eventually, people will want recognition for all their hard work. You can only push people so far.

This is why PAIN does not work as a long term strategy of motivating. Once you have inflicted significant pain and suffering on people, resentment kicks in. The only thing you can build on resentment is more pain. But watch out, the bigger the amount you inflict, the more is coming your way, 10 fold. Or 15 fold in the shape of the Sale Sharks rugby team

Here is a great example of a leader who is inflicting huge amounts of pain, day in day out; but without reward. Worse still when they do well, they still get berated. The result; they have nowhere to turn.

I would never normally talk outside of the “clubs walls” however as the relatively new coach Mike Brewer publicly humiliated his players last night after a huge amount of effort on the pitch, whilst talking to the press, I think it is only fair to speak up in the players defense. After-all, as the leader, surely he has to reflect on his own inadequacies too. If the team fails, he ultimately has failed.

It is also important to remember that even if the result is a disaster, it is unwise to deliver a collective bollocking. “Why, do they not deserve it?” you might ask, well, some might. And the problem with a collective bollocking is you are letting the real culprits off too easy and the ones that worked their socks off, quite rightly feel really aggrieved.

This is definitely the case last night and there was good in last nights performance. A great leader looks despair in the eyes when faced with adversity, they still manage to highlight the great tackles, the run up the wing by Hodgson, the perfect kicking and yet, come the final whistle, they enter a silent dressing room, knowing everyone is truly devastated. The only noise is from their big hearts and the sound of the changing room down the corridor. This is pain enough.

This is the time you sit in silence with your troops. Savour the prolonged agony. Then in a calming voice, tell them to remember this pain, reassure them, “This is the last time we feel this together.” Savour this moment, these bad times together are as important as the winning ones if you truly care about your team.

The problem with running a small team with an iron rod, as opposed to a balance of reward and discipline, is that at some point something gives. When the pressure mounts and it always does, you as the leader have nothing to hang on to.

This is when you need the strongest deputy to remind you when you have overstepped the mark. But if your deputy is too young or inexperienced or fearful too, you simply are out of control. There is a fine line with being a tyrant and a stern task master.

As a leader this is where you need strength. You need to stand tall and take it on the chin. You need to be the last to eat, the last out, the most sincere, you are the leader. You are allowed to be fearful, but you must never leave. When you are in pain, sometimes it is difficult to think of everyone elses needs, yet this is how great leaders are born.

If you flee the scene as Mike did, you create uncertainty and mixed with a touch of resentment, a new game is afoot. This is toughest of all problems to identify and deal with. Discord. Once you have discord you really are in trouble.

When building a team from scratch, you need to be aware of the values of the current set up when recruiting. If they don’t match you have to envisage what your team will look like when this persons values are transferred on to the current set up. This is the job of a visionary. This is NOT easy, and therefore this is why people make so many mistakes.

If you bring in someone with very different values, prepare yourself for a long arduous journey of solitude and pain. If it’s any consolation, to the boys who played last night, it is not your fault. You have the support of thousands of fans, and although I have the most expensive season ticket in the ground being the main sponsor, I am not their biggest fan. There are people on the terraces who have followed them all their lives, they have followed them through thick and thin. The good times and the bad. They have memories of their fathers and brothers standing shoulder to shoulder, sharing every emotion. They have never left their side.

Its important to remember, emotion is directly linked to performance. You chose the flavour of the emotion. That is your responsibility as a leader. You need to invest huge amounts of time learning how to understand emotions. This is a massive responsibility and you will live and die by your results.

So in my opinion whether you are a rugby coach, a business man, a father, this is applies to us all.  If you create negative emotion, face the negative consequences.

We even had Clem Curtis and the Foundations as the band and the entire squad of Sale Sharks players, girlfriends and wives came too. Clem celebrated his 69th birthday that day and still rocked the house like he did back in the 70′s.

This years annual party is even bigger. To celebrate an amazing first half of the year and for just being in business together, we are having UKFest. Yes that is UKFest and not a typo. It stands for UKFestival. We are throwing a weekend festival for friends and family of UKFast down in Wales on the Castell Cidwm estate, and if I can convince the farmer behind to borrow his field, we can squeeze in some extra tents and portaloos and invite even more guests.

But its not just parties and nights out. Your team mates need constant training, their environment needs to be just right. People are sensitive. Quite often, new starters bring with them associations of what businesses are really like. It’s their first hand experience from a previous job and they have the association firmly set in their mind that management equals pain and inconsistency and all businesses are the same.

Sometimes you can never break that association and people go through their lives really not enjoying their job.

We are currently in the process of kitting out our office with a huge amount of greenery. It is partly to celebrate the start of a brand new business venture with a friend of mine who has been in the world of trees and horticulture for 17 years with his lovely wife Clair. It’s also a great excuse for me to have fun and reinforce that by creating a fun environment.

So once you’ve created the Best Place To Work, what then?

I am a great believer in working with people to get them to be their happiest they can possibly be. But you know what, sometimes you just cant please everyone. If you have an individual who doesn’t quite get your core values and what you really stand for, they will probably work against you. Not necessarilly deliberately, but nevertheless, by them not “buying into” your culture and philosophies, they can cause a huge amount of damage. If that person is in a senior position, you have even more trouble.

I read a book called The Extra Mile that focusses on alignment and engagement. The 2 buzz words of corporate HR.

Objective number one is go get everyone aligned with your way of thinking, then get the most engaged people into positions of seniority (as long as they fit the mould) and then work towards getting every individual engaged.

Easier said than done and it is an ongoing quest when you have hundreds of staff. But it is possible. UKFast is living proof of it and although we are more a work in progress than the finished article, we are having fun learning about each other in the process.

The same book states clearly that if you have a manager or someone in a senior position who is either disengaged, or engaged but not aligned, you are in for a rocky ride, but there’s enough to discuss on that topic to warrant a dedicated blog.

I love puzzles. Getting your team right is the ultimate puzzle. It is like doing the rubiks cube in the dark!

So do people really understand the importance of alignment and engagement? I think not. It amazes me how many office environments I see or hear about that are simply not places I’d want to work. And working from an industrial unit is not an excuse either. I went to see James Timpson’s offices in Wythenshaw. Apart from the fact James was building a swimming pool off the staff canteen area, everything about his office was simply a “Wow!” And that being said, I don’t think you could find a managing director who places people and their well being higher on the agenda. James is a credit to British business and an example to other business men and women who want to build something extraordinary. He not only followed in his father’s footsteps, he strode on ahead and paved the way for a new era of “upside down management.”

And so after my FD at UKFast put it so succinctly. “We have colourful staff, but the office is a bit grey” I thought it time to take our “fun initiative” to a new level and start living some of our values! You can always do more, and if you ask yourself that question, can I do more at every stage, you will normally get better results.

So does it pay to invest in your staff? Absolutely! Invest in the workspace, training in every aspect of people and career development. I am just beginning to see the fruits of our labour, and it is worth while. It is difficult to quantify human emotion, we all understand monetary values, but when it comes to effort and passion, we don’t have a scale to measure it. As a result, I think it falls by the wayside in order of importance in 21st century business.

With regards to the office environment, when people ask “what is the rationale behind such a beautiful office?” I simply  say, “when I come to work I want to feel a million dollars. I want my team to feel te same.”

If you have any comments or ideas on how we can continue to develop at UKFast, I’d be very glad to hear from you.

I think it is Ken Blanchard who says “people never arrive in the same demotivated state as when they leave.” He blames the management, saying they deteriorate through poor leadership.

It happens at a time when 4 people return to the UKFast team, so out with the old, and in with the even older! The common theme being, “you don’t know what you have got until you haven’t got it anymore.” I am sure it is not the case for all of the people who leave UKFast. Businesses are always on the move. The direction and speed of all businesses differ. You have to find the one that suits you the most, the one that is going in the right direction and at the right speed and is full of like-minded people. You have to be realistic though, people join you for a certain duration, often mapped out as part of their career goals. Even the most motivated of people can leave if it is part of a wider career strategy.

So how do you keep staff?

Whether you are a seasoned entrepreneur, or one that is just starting out, I believe your business need an identity. You need Core Values. Now you can copy these from other businesses, yet a word of warning. It wont work. Many of our competitors have mysteriously adopted similar or identical core values and marketing initiatives, but unless they are genuine and come from within, you will not be able to live these values day in, day out. And when you attract people with similar values that you are professing to have, they will soon recognise a pretender and once you are found out, they leave. It also creates discord amongst your existing team who will voice cynicism, worse still you wont even know about this as it will be done behind closed doors.

You need to ask all your team for the words that they like to be associated with whilst at work. Words like Honest, Professional, Hard working, etc there are litterally hundreds of them to choose from. When we did this at UKFast we used a local PR agency with a good reputation to come in and do this. We felt it essential that we did not influence the process in any way.

The results were astounding. We quickly realised that every department chose the same 5 core values. He explained the rarity of such a discovery and professed “you may be on to something here!” This was back in 2003 / 2004. The prediction was right. Our core values were set, and although up to the time of the exercise we did not know what they were, ironically we were all living them. Is this an accident? I have to say yes, as I have had no formal training whatsoever to run a business and my steep leaning curve has come from getting stuck in and not being frightened of making mistakes. The irony of finding 6 departments within the business with identical values is probably down to our recruitment strategy. I think we simply employed people we felt we will all get on with. Our early strategy (although that’s a bit too posh a word for it) was people first, qualifications second. I look back with close to a decade of experience and on hindsight, it wasn’t such a bad HR strategy.

As an 11 year old business we still recruit on a very similar basis. I am not interested in CV’s or stories of someone being the best sales person in their last job. With the right attitude and values I believe I can turn anyone into an even better one. Qualifications can often be camouflage for some absolutely awful candidates.

This is why our training centre in Wales is so important to us; Castell Cidwm. If you can get through there and you are still smiling, you’ll fit in.

So how do you identify your own core values?

I’d recommend what we did at UKFast back in the early years and split up your business into teams, keep the departments together if you like and ask everyone to write down 10 values that they hold dear. I’d then encourage them to discuss them as a group and get them down to a maximum of 7. Once they have argued which ones they want. I’d make them re-do this until they come back with 4 or 5.

A business should not have too many values. It simply becomes to complicated to manage if it does. After all, you can only feel one emotion at a time. You cant feel happy and sad, frustrated and angry, bored and vexed. We are quite simple folk at the end of the day (especially us Welsh), so simplify the values as much as possible.

It is unlikely that you will get the same result we got back in 2003 and you definitely wont get the identical list of values we chose either. I have done this now with many businesses and I have never had the same result twice. What does this tell you? Never, Never copy someone else’s. By copying others, you do yourself and your business a disservice and furthermore you waste a great opportunity to unite a team.

Now that you have your core values in place and everyone is in agreement you need to invest in your staff. (Part 2)

hedge your desk

Greenest office in the UK! UKFast

So what is wrong?

I am someone who enjoys a challenge and I spend time observing behaviour. So England’s performance and particularly the reaction of Wayne Rooney interested me immediately. I remember meeting Coleen Rooney and her dad and brother whilst on holiday in the Caribbean at Sandy Lane. I didn’t spend much time with them, but enough to understand their values and the sort of people they are. Clearly hardworking, proud working-class Brits (if there is such a thing anymore.) It would be safe to say therefore that Wayne Rooney is no different, and from watching him play on occasions for Manchester United his hardworking roots show through.

So why are so many people blaming Rooney and the team for the poor performance. It seems fair, after all they are the ones who are on the pitch. We in our millions however vocal cannot influence the game from our armchairs.

For Rooney to be that vocal about his performance and react so negatively to the fans, it shows he clearly has nowhere else to turn. Somewhere, someone is calling the shots and I assume that is the manager and he has not got the buy in from his players.

The negative attitude from the team demonstrates they do not agree with something pretty important with the current England set up. Be it the formation, selection, the banning of the wives. Somewhere behind the scenes there is a clear undercurrent undermining the manager.

So how do you combat this situation and get the team back gelling?

It is a very difficult one to fix, especially during a competition. Clive Woodward a man who knows what it is like to create a team that lifted the Rugby World Cup referred to certain individuals as “energy zappers.” He identified these energy zapping people and removed them from the team and eventually the squad. He got a great deal of resistance too from the rugby community who couldn’t understand why he kept out great players.

In my opinion the England manager is making some pretty basic mistakes of leadership and management. He has set his stall out, banning the wives, picking the team and creating the formation and it looks very much like he has not got the buy-in from his team members.

It is one thing to ban the wives, which incidentally is a good idea. However if you do not  sit husbands and wives around a table and explain what and why you are doing something, all you are going to do is create an army of influential people ganging up and undermining from the sidelines, and as they are not allowed on the sidelines they are probably on the phone ranting after and before every training session and game.

What Capello should have done was sit the wives and girlfriends down with the players, explain the importance of this once in a lifetime opportunity and got their agreement that 100% focus and commitment is required. He should have treated it as a military campaign almost as if they were off to war. He should have encouraged zero communication from friends and family throughout the tournament. Imagine the power of the players and the feeling of camaraderie amongst the team if he’d done this. All the players feeling and sharing the emotions together, not being able to rely on anyone else but themselves. Instead, he has created a nightmare for the players who are trying to keep their wives happy from 60 miles away. Not the sort of focus you want your players consummed with.

In this sort of environment he has a group of WAGS furious with the whole set up and hell bent on undermining it at every level.

On the pitch this was evident that the players made a public show that they do not agree with the current set up.

Whatever he does at this point is going to be scrutinised by the players. So the fact that he has now made a few odd selections and left out good friends and players who they can rely on, means that they start to question the whole set up. Throw in a formation that they dislike and hey presto, you have Friday night’s performance down to a tee.

So how do you fix it?

That is a really good question. Firstly the manager needs to listen. He has a difficult task ahead. He will have a lot of ideas thrown at him. Some good, some bad. He cannot agree with them all, yet change is necessary. If he wants to save face then he is finished and the boys will be on the next flight home. If he is big enough and he can sit down and have a sensible discussion and allow the team to contribute, he has a chance.

Whatever he decides, he needs to get the buy in of every player. Each player needs to understand their roles with in the team selection.

But to get them to “get onside” at this stage is particularly difficult as many managers have failed in the past. The main problem here is that the professional football player is overpaid and underworked. He has an entourage of yes men following him and his friends and family and they are treated not like celebrities, but more like Gods.

How do you manage someone with a massive ego, it’s not easy. So how do you manage a squad full of massive egos. Why anyone would want to be a football manager I don’t know!

His only hope is to remind them that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. This is England! The problem is he is NOT English and if he tries to wave flag it may be more like a red rag to a british bulldog.

Deep down, all the players want to do is make their friends and families and the millions of well wishers proud. They have one chance. I have just seen Gerrard on the TV talking about a team talk they are all about to go to and his statement to the camera reinforces what I say here. He mentioned that Anelka was sent home for speaking his mind, then paused before adding, well there may be a few of us on the way home then.

I have come across situations like this from time to time in business. It is easy to make a change in the hope that this will solve a bigger problem you may have, only to find out it compounds the issue. Sometimes I feel that I may listen too much. but at least if I have made a mistake, I know somewhere someone will speak up and set me straight.

It’s a balancing act, keeping your team happy and getting the results. The 2 are closely linked. Damage one and you damage the other. Get the spirit right and you can achieve anything. It is a quest that I strive for and continue to analyse. It is the ultimate puzzle. If you leave it, it stagnates and if you tinker too much you distract it. It requires care and attention and also great people on board. And it is the great people that invariably end up running the team. A good manager should not have to do anything, just observe. Sadly I am not there yet, but I am getting closer.

The UKFast girls work incredibly hard. They are all super intelligent, fun characters with big personalities with the caring gene which means they make the perfect hostesses. You find the UKFast Girls at all the outside events, Twickenham, Sale Sharks, Silverstone Grand Prix and all corporate hospitality. They also fly with me on a great deal of my business travels and commitments.

I find it helps having fun people around. The girls help break the ice at events and play an invaluable role in so many areas of the businesses. They all double up in some capacity or other – be they a PA, sales person, account manager or even senior manager. By hanging around with the girls we develop strong relations with each other cementing a bond which is necessary when working under pressure.

I personally believe it is the toughest of all the jobs at UKFast. They are expected to always greet people with a big helpful smile, a task they do very naturally.

They have been a big hit at the premiership rugby this year, we have never had so much involvement directly with the players.

The photo here is of the girls thawing out after a morning skiing. They have all been involved with the 2010 UKFast Hosting Summit in Verbier’s prestigious venue, The Lodge.

After a heavy week discussing how to revolutionise our product offering, The UKFast Girls are due to be flown back to Manchester by Private Jet so they are fresh and ready for the Internet World, where they are hosting the UKFast stand at the hosting worlds biggest conference.

Why not come and say hello! If you are in London this week, Tues, Wednesday and Thursday, come and visit us there and meet the ultimate team that helps make UKFast one of the most unique businesses on the planet.

UKFast Girls on The UKFast Private Jet

If you go to the Virgin Limited Edition website we will see a whole host of amazing properties. They all have a similar style of layout with long sociable dining tables, comfy spacious chill-out lounges and bars where you can help yourself to just about any drink or cocktail you can dream up.

One of my favourites is The Lodge. It is particularly special to me as my early memories of the Alps always involve bus trips and cheap hotels. As I grew a little older I progressed to chalets, but invariably you get what you pay for. I am in a fortunate position to be able to experience The Lodge, at £80,000 to £90,000 per week, it is a place for the discerning skier who wants to really live it up in the mountains. It is the ultimate hideaway, with a beautiful style of bleached & distressed wood throughout the building. Down stairs there is a swimming pool and jacuzzi with a steam-room and gym. Although the gym is small, really with skiing all day (if you fancy it) and mountains to run up and down, even I seldom use it.

Another great point is the location. And even though it is only 250 yards from the bottom of the main lifts in the resort of Verbier, Switzerland, the team here drive you to and from the lift entrance.

Do you remember the queue at the ski rental shop? Here the guys from the ski shop bring the boots and skis to the Lodge for you to try on at your leisure. Nothing is too much trouble for the team of superstars that Branson and the managing director John have hand selected.

The food really is something else too! We are not the easiest people in the world to cater for. We are incredibly disciplined and my wife and I eat no dairy, wheat, and my wife takes it even further with zero citrus as well. Yet the chefs are all too accommodating. Cutting out wheat and dairy more or less rules anything scrumptious out of any meal. Not for these guys, Gerwyn the head chef and his crew design and make cakes you could not believe were possible, using blends of rice and tapioca flour and soya milk. The Michelin stars are evident the moment you put food to the palette.

The bedrooms are wonderful, all spacious and have great touches like funky ducks on the sides of the baths, and bath hats you feel compelled to take home for the kids. There is nothing quite like the Lodge. The jacuzzi, a cup of tea and a Bolivar cigar complete a good days skiing and prepare you for the evening of kicking back and enjoying a bottle from Richard’s wine cellar. That is something that is common to the Virgin Limited Edition properties. You really do feel you are in someones home, and with pictures of Richard Branson with his kids and wife and friends on the shelves, it simply makes it all the more special.

I know it is out of most peoples price bracket, however the touches that these guys lay on can be done by any operator. It’s just that people don’t overlay this layer of attention to detail. Things like:

• your names are written on your door in chalk
• the boot room has an elaborate system which dry and warm your boots so they are warm in the morning and again with areas named for your hats gloves and equipment.
• postcards with stamps already on them are in every room
• a cuddly toy dog with “let sleeping dog’s lie” to leave outside your room if you want a lie in
• great books you can pick up and put down everywhere, in every corner of the house

the list is really endless.

Hat’s off to Hannah and her fantastic team and best wishes to Hannah and Paul who are expecting their first little-one soon. We are thinking about you and we look forward to returning soon and catching up.

If you are thinking about having the ultimate mountain holiday skiing or even mountain-biking in the summer, this is the number one place on the planet for it. I use it for team building and training sessions too where I am able to take people outside of the office environment and get their undivided attention. It is a great place to work!

The Lodge, Main lounge

BBQ Lunch on the veranda

1. Cancel the Hosting Summit in Verbier

2. Wait for the news that we could take the private jet

3. Consider other options?

I am confident at this point as the pilot had been on to the powers that run the airspace and in-spite of the doom and gloom on the news, there was no reason in his mind why we would not be able to take off at 9am on Sunday morning. Little do I know!

It’s late Saturday afternoon in Manchester, a good friend James who runs the very successful business Printerland turned to me saying “you are not going to Verbier Loz, they are not going to open the airports.”

Thank God James said this. I might have waited if it wasn’t for this comment.

It was this one line that inspired me to change my mindset. I realised that everything hung in the balance of nature and the weather.

This was not a great situation to be in. James bet me £1 that I wouldn’t get there and that was it “game on.”

I picked up my mobile and rang my PA, “Rach, put everyone on full alert. I want everyones bags packed and around at our house in the next 90 minutes.”

Gail was already looking at options to get us across the Channel. The P&O website was inoperable, clearly a business who doesn’t host with UKFast! We found away via another site and we booked the ferry for 4am.

News was coming in from my PA of everyone’s whereabouts. It wasn’t looking good. 2 in a beer garden, one in Wales without transport, one getting ready for her grandfather’s birthday party. One gone walkabout and, one thankfully at home – Charlotte.

Charlotte started to help round up the troops. Meanwhile, I had another problem.I now had one car and 8 people. I rang my bro, Jonathan who is my communications director. He was in Sainsburys.

“…..well leave your trolley where it is, you are not going to need it.”

I had another driver, but I was still a car down. I then rang the marketing director Paul Harris. (Big Frank)

Paul and his lovely wife were getting ready to go out for a dinner party with friends.

It’s times like this, when you realise just how committed friends are.

“I’ll be there for you in half an hour” he said.

This was great news as Paul had just bought a Porsche Cayenne, which meant the vehicles for our RoadTrip were 2 very handsome black beasts.

The team was now complete, and with a bit of creativity we prized the boys from the beer garden and Wales and Rach even made her Grandfathers party; cut short admittedly, however I had done the calculations using the satnav, and I knew that as long as we left no later than 8.53pm we had a good chance of arriving at the early ferry, Dover.

James and Sue, his wife, were laughing at us, as this was going on in support of the madness required to change direction with little or no thought or regard for the consequences.

Grandma turned up, and with an emotional “goodbye” our 2 little daughters headed off a night early.

It was the best thing we could have done in hindsight and I owe James for bringing the realism home. Else we wouldn’t be sat here.

We made it to Dover and with 2 minutes to spare we boarded the early ferry at 1.55am.

The ferry was a far cry from the private jet and I remembered the times we did this as a kid. It was different from how I remembered it. Already tired, I couldn’t sleep. There was a great buzz amongst the team who had arrived at the house with lots of hugs kisses all ready for the adventure.

There was a massive sense of relief, as all of them had thought this great trip would inevitably be cancelled.

We headed from Calais across France, past Lake Geneva and into the Alps. The trip was exhausting and the hairpin bends were the only thing keeping Ross my co-pilot awake. The sheer fear of each bend approaching kept him on the edge of his seat.

This stage of the journey took us 8 hours, and with the exception of one flashing speed camera, and being pulled over by the French police for misunderstanding the speed limit, we had a great journey.

In fact, the French police made the  UKFast RoadTrip complete and after a couple of UKFast baseball cap souvenirs and a massively reduced fine, they ignored the 3 girls sleeping in the back seat. They escorted us to the cashpoint at the next service station, we shook hands and we were on our way again.

So as the rest of the world is grounded (apart from Richard Branson, who set off anyway from Necker yesterday in spite of the uncertainty of where he might land) we found there is always a way. But it does remind me the importance of friends, because none of this would have been possible with out the flexible grandparents, John and June, “Thank you.” To Paul’s family, especially Claire, the ultimate working mum, “Thank you”. To everyones parents, girl and boy friends, “Thanks, it is much appreciated.” Most of all, to my 2 little-ones who didn’t get a choice in the matter, “thank you T & P, I miss you lots!”

I remember as a smaller business we started to struggle to run events as the numbers were increasing and hotel bills and training fees were mounting.

In the end, we brought our own training centre, that’s how seriously we took it, even back then.

And now, a few years on, the difference between our tight knit culture and most businesses is evident, as soon as you walk through the door or pick up the phone.

That phrase “think outside the box!” is a telling one but how many business owners and managers are guilty of staying in their box to do all their thinking.

This week sees me heading off to Snowdon. There is a group of new recruits going through their paces at Castell Cidwm our dedicated team building training centre in Snowdonia National Park and I have decided to gate crash it.

Jonathan (my mad as a hatter Director of Communications) and I have arranged for an interview, on a ridge adjacent to the summit of Snowdon. To cap it all off I have agreed to stay the night camping on the ridge, which is currently covered in deep snow and prone to 90 mph winds.

Who am I to say NO!  I can see this getting me into trouble!

So why team building? Its expensive, you are taking people out of the business, its more often than not cold, it’s always wet, what do we gain?

We gain an insight to the individuals who participate.

We take them outside their comfort zone, and throughout the days as the pressure mounts you see people’s true colours. Who contributes with the washing up? Who gets up first? Who is fun? Who avoids work? All these answers are invaluable.

Quite often, people come down to Wales and they never make it back to work at UKFast. When someone does not have the necessary credentials we require for them to fit in, contribute and have a great time under pressure, they really wont enjoy the fast paced life ahead at UKFast.

I also believe we do some of our best thinking in the mountains. When you are away with colleagues, you are able to bond in a different way, especially if you genuinely want to get to know them. I think if you put on an event and only show up for the press photo or don’t show up at all, I think you will get the result you deserve. You have to passionately care about your team if you want them truly to develop.

On the flip side of the coin, I know plenty of businesses which do incredibly well with out the significant investment of team building. There is many an accountant who can put up a firm argument that the expense cannot be proved to transfer on to the bottom line. It’s sadly true. How do you quantify the benefit of a weekend away with colleagues?

All I can say is it seems to work for us at UKFast. We do put people high on the agenda and the results the team bring home for us are amazing. I am sure there are many ways we could make more money at UKFast but if they involve inhibiting the investment in people and dampening the culture, then no way!

Mind you saying that, I wonder if I will be saying the same tonight on the top of Snowdon, bedding down for the night. When you are having your cup of Coco spare a thought for me.

In fact if it wasn’t for a pretty horrendous experience when trying to register and host a domain called theGallery.com, we’d never have changed direction and set up a business in the hosting arena. And I suppose it was the “bad experience” which forged the direction we took to provide the very best in service right from the outset. It was this start which also gave us an understanding of exactly how a client feels when the hosting provider goes wrong or doesn’t listen.
If you are a client of UKFast and you ever have a problem, write to me or pick up the phone. I hate having matters left unresolved and I cannot settle when I know a clients server is down.

Although it is a decade ago, I remember choosing the name UKFast very carefully. The name needed to reflect exactly what we were about. UK, obviously for it’s location, Fast, because we hated slow service and slow connectivity, .net because we were a network and hosting related. Partly too because the .co.uk version had already been registered. It took us 3 years before we were able to acquire the UK TLD version of UKFast.

We must have trawled the who-is directory for 3 days trying every name possible. It was during the boom so the world and his dog were registering every derivative of every word. Design agencies were popping up everywhere linking colours to animal names. Blue Pig, Black Sheep etc. You can almost pin point a company and its date of origin from the style of the name.

So 10 years on what has changed? Well just about everything, in fact it is easier to highlight what has NOT changed. Neil Lathwood, then a teenager working in a computer shop, found by my wife on a search for someone who could network some machines I’d sold. He came in a for a days work experience and never left. He is now the IT director and one of the most well respected boffins in our industry. It is safe for me to say, I do not know a harder working man on the planet. His desire to continually learn and stretch boundaries is only matched by an identical skill inherent in my wife. Together we formed a solid senior management team and 10 years on we continue to disagree and challenge each other. We are considerably more beefed up now with Jonathan Bowers, communications director and Paul Harris, marketing director, yet we all still have to learn new skills every year to ensure we are capable of managing a continually changing business and horizon.

So what lies ahead in 2010. I am so excited by the challenge ahead this year. Even more so than usual. Last year saw UKFast able to compete with a bigger marketing budget. It is one of the challenges of funding a business privately and not borrowing form banks. We have seen many businesses fly past us on our journey, a lot now we have caught up, some we have overtaken, the others give me the challenge and the determination to continue to grow UKFast to be the best of the largest business to business hosting providers in the UK.

Last year we saw the benefit of the Castell Cidwm acquisition, a hotel at the foot of Snowdon in the National Park in Wales. It is an invaluable asset used for training and team building. It is a place where status is removed and replaced with rack-sack and compass, a place where team members can see their managers in as much pain as they experience themselves. We have run more than 40 trips touching more than 100 staff. Put simply it cements all the people who invest time and energy down there and lifts camaraderie when we are back in the office.

This coming year we are focussing on growing the business further and we have some exciting announcements expected in 2010. We are also exploring the opportunities of some potential acquisitions and some new services which will compliment our existing offering.

In the mean time, to everyone who has helped UKFast grow, people past and present, thank you for your ideas and contribution. To our amazing client base, thank you too. By having such a strong client base we are able to invest in infrastructure that ordinarily none of us would be able to afford singly. Thank you for having the foresight to choose UKFast and if you are not already a client I look forward to meeting you one day on our quest to speed up the Internet and improve the way we all do business online.

Happy Christmas.

Lawrence Jones

Bank managers, strategic advisors accountants, business consultants have all said to me at some point, all small businesses are about the “owner-operator” and take them away and they fail.

I have always hated this attitude and could never understand it. Until today and after sitting with fellow business people and for a change I was the MD of the biggest business there, I could see how they arrived at their theory.

We were discussing training. A subject I am passionate about and one I do not feel I am an expert at as I have so much more I want to learn. Nevertheless I have helped shape a training department at UKFast which seems to be pretty unique.

The general consensus from these owner operators was that you should outsource your training, do it once or twice a year at the most and do it externally.

This pretty much summed up peoples unanimous opinion.

When I explained my position, people were horrified. I explained that I agree with taking people away, and I am such a fan of this we bought a hotel in Wales to conduct intense training and team building programmes.

I seemed to strike a nerve and a few of the woman attacked my philosophy one saying “I wouldn’t want to work for your organisation if it were the last in the world” and another stated “you cant make people go up a mountain.”

I was amazed as Tony Fogett of a very successful web design business said  “none of may staff would ever do team building” as though it were an alien exercise. He laughed saying “we just go to the pub!”

I explained that this was a team building exercise too, the only difference was his involved alcohol and ours involved fresh air and adrenalin.

Ironically one of my team members who was a massive fan of our Snowdon trips (long before we bought the Castell Cidwm estate and Llyn Cwellyn) went to work for Code, Tony’s business. She had discussed with me coming back to UKFast however sadly this is against our company policy, she cited the team spirit as one of the best things about UKFast and one of the things she missed 

But the regular sessions in the pub obviously work for Tony as his business in my opinion is incredibly successful especially for the creative market place.

I realised though the vast difference in outlooks around the table seemed to be in direct relationship with the success of peoples businesses. 

The other business owners dismissed my theory as “inappropriate” as UKFast has over 100 employees. Even though our businesses were similar ages and Gail and I started UKFast with just the 2 of us and no staff!

The difference is simple and businesses who adopt this principal grow, businesses who don’t run the risk of failure when they grow.

‘If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” There is another great quotation from someone (I think Jim Collins of Stamford University) “people respect what you inpsect.”

Measuring training is imperative too. We test staff before and after their training sessions so we know how much they have learned, this enables us to measure the trainer’s performance.

We have a TV department, which films all our sessions. Each film is edited and placed in their personal dashboard where they can download them on to their company supplied ipods.

We include funny (not for public consumption) videos too of office parties, charity events and people tipping over in canoes at the training camp.

Two things are important to me. Alignment and engagement.

We start, believe it or not with engagement, hence the team building stuff where everyone gets to have fun, cry, break bread together and get what we call cyan coloured (UKFast) blood. The second is just as important and that is aligning everyone to the common message. Whatever department you are in at UKFast  you need to understand that excellence is the standard and nothing else is acceptable.

We were once described by a competitor who rang me up to complain about a member of my staff who had telephoned and emailed a customer of his, as a sales and marketing organisation. I think he meant it as a dig, however I was deeply complimented by this.

I have always felt we were weak in this area and therefore slow off the mark, however he and other competitors had begun to notice more activity in their sector from our team and from prospects talking about UKFast.

All this energy and passion came from training. The same training that enabled us to recruit 30 graduates in one day and have them up and running in less than 1 month.

I believe your best training is in house. You will already have champions in a variety of areas. Use the resources you have around you, have focus groups and share knowledge. You don’t have to spend huge sums of money with consultants. Often the best sessions are the simplest ones even impromptu.

A study from the writers of the book “the extra mile” cited training as the single biggest reason why people stay and leave organisations. Recognise this and act on it and I’ll see you out on the battlefield.

So why a sport sponsorship deal?

It was not an easy decision spending millions of pounds of a hard earned marketing budget in one go, with the recession still firmly gripping society however I felt it important to take the opportunity and be decisive. Its a 3 year deal and when an opportunity as large as this comes up, in my opinion you grab it with both hands.

It is also important to look beyond the economic downturn. The credit crunch will not last forever and it is important to stand by what you believe in. For those fans who go to all the home games, you will know that UKFast gets a mention every time Charlie Hodgson scores. A few seasons back, he injured himself and although we were offered a replacement player, we stuck with Charlie. He came back, stronger, fitter and in my opinion is one of the greatest fly-halves in today’s tough game.

So when McAfee wavered, I made sure we had a window where we were able to negotiate without interruption.

I have had a few chats with Brian Kennedy, and he is grateful for the support and for the fact that there are others in the Manchester and Northwest business community who understand and believe in what the Sharks are doing.

It is the work the Sharks do team building in schools and with kids which sealed it for us. It is so easy to disengage and get transfixed on your financial goals and loose site of what is really important. Gail and I put as much emphasis on hitting personal goals as we do the financial ones, and this had been born from a discussion a decade ago, when First Software were on the shirts “one day, we’ll be main sponsors.”

10 years on, the Sharks, UKFast partnership is more than a logo on a shirt. It gives us an opportunity to say thank you to Manchester and the surrounding community. It is the fun part of being an entrepreneur which enables us to do something as exiting as this.

Just cant wait for the season to start now!

My earliest memories of Dan, outside of boyhood, was his 2 man effort rowing in a race across the Atlantic. No surprise 15 years on he is still growing strong with the same ingredients that makes him successful and larger than life: Dedication to whatever he sets his mind on and absolute commitment.

It came as no shock when I heard Dan was taking on not one, but 4 events in less than 40 days in support of the Alzheimer’s Research Trust:

The King Sturge Property Triathlon at Dorney Lake
The British Etape, 193km cycling from Greenwich to Canterbury
The French Etape, 196km mountainous cycling
The full course London Triathlon.

Dan finished the 196kms challange crossing the line in 9 hours 49 minutes, which placed him somewhere in the top 2,000. He descibed his triumph as “an absolutely incredible day, full of mixed emotions, and an enormous sense of satisfaction at raising more cash for the Alzheimers Research Trust.”

So if you are looking for motivation

Xon and dreaming about improving your life or someone else’s, take a leaf out of Dan Innes’ book and get your running shoes on and start to push yourself today. It is not going to happen sitting on the couch!

If you want to find out more about the race or click here to see Dan finishing with a smile.

With rucksacks full of packed lunches, dog food for my two boxers (Indy and Lara) and plenty of water, we left the St.Kilda hotel, Llandudno in a convoy of cars after a full welsh breakfast. (Same as an English one funnily enough)

The were a few of the team nursing headaches from the night before and a couple still suffering from partying too hard at the awards ceremony on Thursday night where we won Best Business Host in the ISPA hosting awards in London.

So the weekend was part celebration, part team building, and with a few new additions to the team a great initiation to UKFast and the way interact. Every department was represented with almost 50% of the company involved.

So why do I think it is so important?

In a world where we set ourselves goals that are so far in the distance, it is important to have a series of smaller goals, to help you get in the habit of achieving them and get you used to succeeding. How many of us have said or heard the phrase, I want to retire by the time I’m ….? The problem with a goal like this is it is so far in the distance.

Part of the fun of goal setting is the achievement of hitting the target. Climbing Snowdon is a big enough achievement to make you feel good about yourself, yet it is also something you can achieve in a day, and also share with others.

If you have any doubt, try it. Take a day out and take a few friends or colleagues and go and share the experience. To hit the big goals you have to hit a series of smaller ones.

UKFast’s hosting team up Snowdon

In my opinion, a goal is not necessarily something you’ll hit every time. The purpose of the goal is to make you a better person during the challenge.