Corporate Vision December 2015

Asia’s Rising R&D Spend l Solving Disputes l How Leaders Can Build Trust l M&E Industry Shows Economic Confidence

www.corp-vis.com

How to Reach Music to Corporate Ears Industry shows confidence in economy despite issues

the Skies We speak to Founder and CEO Andy Khawaja about the secrets to the firm’s success and the exciting plans he has for the future of the business.

December 2015

Editor’s Note Welcome to the December issue of Corporate Vision Magazine.

For anyone whose New Year’s Resolution is to be the best in business Allied Wallet CEO Andy Khawaja provides invaluable advice on how to make it to the top.

As brand identity becomes increasingly vital across the corporate landscape we explore a new tool designed to support businesses in securing a recognisable identity.

R&D is a hot topic this issue, as we speak to Laurence Painell from IDBS about their work developing software products for the market. Alongside this we explore the growth in R&D across the Asian business landscape.

Despite challenges in the industry, music and entertainment CEOs have an increasingly positive outlook on the economy. We explore this exciting issue and examine other key issues around it.

A new whitepaper explores the future of content marketing and argues that the digitalisation of media means that this is the future for many businesses. We provide an overview of the paper and explore the exciting and potentially game changing issues it reports on.

Finally we take a look at how accelerated adoption of mobile technology across the Arab States will affect the global market.

We hope you enjoy this issue.

Contents 4 News

8 CEO Profile Tony Hughes, Huthwaite International

13 Industry Insight Accelerating Mobile Broadband and Smartphone Adoption across Arab States Brand New Thinking Whitepaper Predicts Future of Content Marketing Solving Disputes

23 Strategy How to Reach the Skies Asia Becomes the Top Region for Corporate R&D Spend How Leaders Can Build Trust Driving R&D Growth

35 SME Eyes front!

39 Money M&E Industry Shows Economic Confidence

43 60-Second Interview

News

Study Finds Merchants Lose Sales Due to Online Checkout Frictions The PYMNTS.com and BlueSnap Checkout Conversion Index benchmarks how well online merchants convert shoppers to buyers Twenty years after the launch of the commercial Internet, most merchants still fail to optimize the online checkout experience for the customers who visit their virtual storefronts. The result is that they stand to lose as much as 36 percent of sales due to the frictions that remain from discovery through checkout. This is only one piece of the online buying experience. Merchants could lose additional sales during payment processing.

These are the findings of the new Checkout Conversion Index (CCI), launched today by PYMNTS.com, in collaboration with BlueSnap, a leading provider of global, mobile checkout solutions. The PYMNTS. com Checkout Conversion Index is a quarterly report that benchmarks the performance of 650 merchants across 14 merchant categories against 46 attributes that define the optimal online shopping and checkout experience. The Index provides insight into what’s causing checkout conversion issues, as well as what merchants can do to overcome them.The first CCI Index score is a 62, which means that in terms of converting shoppers to buyers, the average eCommerce site is performing only slightly better than average.

“That’s not exactly great news for online retailers,” said Karen Webster, CEO of PYMNTS.com. “With online sales possibly hitting $105 billion this holiday season, this means that merchants are missing out on making nearly $38 billion more.”

Some of the interesting results The Checkout Conversion Index found include: • The best sites deliver results in a speedy 134 seconds – just over two minutes.

• Size doesn’t matter: the average Index ranking between small and large companies was relatively similar.

• 93% of the best sites provide trusted security logos when checking out to let their customers know that they care about their financial data and will safeguard it.

• The Automotive Parts & Accessories industry came in with the highest score of 91.

4 Corporate Vision December 2015

“We work with merchants daily and see this problem, firsthand,” remarks BlueSnap CEO Ralph Dangelmaier. “Worse yet, many merchants don’t even know that they have a problem – or the magnitude of it. That’s why we wanted to do something to shine a light on the problem so that we can raise awareness and, more importantly, help merchants overcome it.”

News

Data May Impact on Your Business Valuation in an Acquisition With the recent increase in M&A activity, Proven Legal Technologies, the corporate forensic investigation expert, is warning businesses about potential data liabilities and how large data libraries can impact a company’s valuation in an acquisition.

Due diligence is a process that allows the Buyer to assess post-deal value in any merger or acquisition but Proven Legal Technologies, the corporate forensic investigation and e-disclosure firm, today warns that businesses are failing to consider the liability posed by old data that has been retained by the Seller, and subsequent costs this could incur.

Companies from all industries are concerned about their data, with many storing decades worth of files on back-up tapes in case it is ever required for internal use. However, data archives are costly to store, and are a serious liability to any business should it become embroiled in litigation or a regulatory document request. Should an investigation take place, or an employee file a staff-subject request, all existing data may need to be combed meticulously, incurring great expense and draining company resources.

This continues to be the case even after a merger or acquisition, with data liabilities transferring to the new company.

For this reason, large libraries of data can, in some circumstances, decrease the value of the acquiree.

Targets of an acquisition should expect potential acquirers to demand full visibility of the data on file and what it contains. The acquirer must question what the data liabilities will look like including any archived material.

thereby avoid impacting their valuation. Any data that it deems to have a legitimate purpose may be kept for a specific reason after having been transferred to a live document management system, that makes retrieval and search of it more viable and cost effective.

Adrian Palmer, Managing Partner at Proven Legal Technologies, comments: “We are seeing an increase in the number of businesses who are falling foul to inefficient data management, resulting in inflated costs of searching historical data. It is rare for a due diligence list to contain data retention issues and this state of affairs continues at the acquirer’s peril. Although there is a general fear about discarding back up tapes, companies are in a much stronger position when data storage is managed efficiently, and there is less ‘baggage’ to carry.

“If in doubt, companies should bring in experts and take advice from General Counsel at the earliest stages, to identify issues and manage data storage, ensuring that companies are not negatively impacted by data liabilities or hinder their chances of being acquired.”

CEO Expectations for the US Economy Worsen For the Fourth Year in a Row, Regulation Cited as CEOs’ Top Cost Pressure For the third quarter in a row, CEOs expressed growing caution about the U.S. economy’s near-term prospects and indicated they are moderating their plans for capital investment over the next six months, according to the Business Roundtable fourth quarter 2015 CEO Economic Outlook Survey.

The Business Roundtable CEO Economic Outlook Index – a composite of CEO projections for sales and plans for capital spending and hiring over the next six months – declined 6.6 points, from 74.1 in the third quarter of 2015 to 67.5 in the fourth quarter.

This third consecutive quarterly decline brought the Index to its lowest level in three years.For the first six months of 2016, CEO expectations for sales decreased by 3.2 points and their plans for capital expenditures decreased by 16.7 points. Hiring plans were essentially unchanged from last quarter when they declined by nearly 8 points.

In their first estimate of real GDP growth for 2016, CEOs expect 2.4% growth.

“Lower expectations for sales and investment reflect CEOs’ ongoing caution about the near-term prospects for U.S. economic growth,” said Randall Stephenson, Chairman of Business Roundtable, and Chairman and CEO of AT&T Inc. “Congress and the Administration need to work together to continue to fund the government, expand trade, agree on a longterm transportation infrastructure investment plan, reauthorize the U.S. Export-Import Bank and renew expired tax provisions.”

Stephenson continued, “It makes no sense to allow tax policies, such as bonus depreciation and the R&D Tax Credit, to expire this year absent broader corporate tax reform.”

In response to a question posed annually in the fourth quarter, CEOs, once again, reported that regulation was the top cost pressure facing their businesses, followed by labor costs and health care costs. “If we want to see the U.S. economy and hiring really take off, Washington needs to adopt a smarter approach to regulation,” Stephenson added.

Proven Legal Technologies advises that companies should not be retaining data when it is no longer needed or has a legitimate purpose. Unnecessary data retention can be avoided by reasonable document deletion in accordance with standard business practices. The acquiree should assess its document retention policies and seek to destroy back up tapes that are unlikely to be referenced by the business and

December 2015 Corporate Vision 5

News

New Challenges for Telecoms M&A in Digital Markets The challenges facing telecom service providers seeking mergers and acquisitions in the converging digital market place is a key theme at this year’s TMT Finance World Congress in London.

A key theme at the upcoming TMT Finance World Congress will be the challenges telecom service providers are facing executing mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the converging digital marketplace.

Accenture is a leading global professional services company, providing a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations.

During a keynote speech at the December 1st event in London, Accenture executive Artur Meinzolt will talk about how these providers need to take a new approach to M&A.

Meinzolt’s keynote speech, titled ‘Telco M&A in Digitally Disruptive Markets,’ will be followed by the TMT Europe Leadership Panel chaired by Accenture and featuring industry leaders from Liberty Global, EE, Tele2 Group, and Zegona Communications. Panellists will discuss strategies for investment and growth.

More than 60 other speakers have been announced for the event, a gathering of senior telecom, media and tech executives, investment bankers, investors and advisers to assess the latest investment strategies and opportunities.

“Compared with most other industries, telecom companies have faced challenges creating value from M&A based on the total return to shareholders they have generated,” said Meinzolt, Accenture Strategy lead for M&A in the Communications, Media and Technology Industries. “The strategic rationale for M&A is strong as network operators’ margins and returns on invested capital continue to decline against digital content creators and aggregators. In response, we will see telco-operators evolve into multiple digital operator models to capture new opportunities such as the rapidly growing Internet of Things market.”

Key themes for this year’s conference also include: World Telecoms Investment: Unified Communications Consolidation; the return of Private Equity; Raising Finance for TMT; Infrastructure Sharing and Towers; Media and Content; Investing in Datacentres and Cloud; 4G Auctions: Internet of Things; Broadband Infrastructure and Investing in Innovation.

6 Corporate Vision December 2015

Other participating companies announced include Telekom Austria, Vimpelcom, Etisalat, Turk Telekom, Zegona Communications, Goldman Sachs, UBS, Citi, FTI Consulting, PwC, Linklaters, Societe Generale, Credit Agricole CIB, IFC, DNB, ING Bank, BNP Paribas, Providence, O3B Networks, Cetin, INWIT, Eurofiber, Six Degrees Group, Zayo, Colt, CityFibre Interoute, IHS Africa, Hardiman Telecoms, Gulf Investment Corporation (GIC), New Call Telecom, Next Generation Data, ABRY Partners and Griffon Capital.

The TMT Finance World Awards Dinner takes place after the conference at the Pullman Hotel to recognise outstanding investment and advisory activity in TMT globally. Awards presented for Telecom Deal of the Year Infrastructure, M&A and IPO, M&A Adviser, Growth Story, Financing Bank, Legal Adviser and Leadership.

News

New Digitising Pin for UK Payments myPINpad, a UK based technology company which enables multi-channel and multi-factor authentication via the Cardholder PIN, has announced a new partnership with VocaLink, the international payments provider, to bring their PIN based authentication solution to digital commerce applications.

VocaLink, a driving force in UK payment processing innovation and the chosen provider of three principal UK payment transaction services (BACS, Faster Payments Service and the LINK ATM Service) has recently completed successful proof of concept trials with myPINpad, leading to the execution of a five-year agreement.

Collaborative discussions have already been initiated with a number of the UK’s leading banks, acquirers and issuers, merchants and PSPs, focused on a number of authentication use cases helping to reduce fraud and offering new levels of security and ease of use.

This new partnership aims to provide innovative online and mobile payments, enhance consumer protection and improve the security of payment services. This is relevant to the revised Directive on Payment Services (PSD2) adopted earlier this month by the European Parliament.

myPINpad Executive Chairman and CEO, Philip King said: “VocaLink’s trust in the myPINpad solution is another milestone in our now established journey of becoming the most trusted authentication service for the secure entry of consumer credentials in mobile payments. Our partnership with VocaLink enables any UK mobile payments service to take advantage of this PIN digitisation service to open up new channels of business and, importantly, to satisfy objectives set by regulators.”

Sara Parker, Product Director, LINK ATM Services at VocaLink said: “Over many years we have worked with organisations to transform their financial supply chains, unlocking cash and giving banks the opportunity to develop compelling new business lines. The combination of myPINpad’s familiar authentication solution with VocaLink’s connectivity not only enables us to offer a broader range of transaction services, without significant change effort for banks, but will also help us to further empower the consumer.”

Feet Fall in Shops In Lead up to Christmas UK retail footfall continues to fall -2.7% yoy in the aftermath of black Friday weekend and cyber Monday UK retail destinations have continued to take a hit from online shoppers in the aftermath of the Black Friday weekend and Cyber Monday, reports retail footfall analysts Springboard.

Retail footfall across the UK over the past week [30th November – 6th December 2015] was down -2.7% YOY as shoppers continued to snap up online flash sales as opposed to heading in-store to make purchases.

The overall decline in footfall was driven by significant falls in high street and shopping centre activity, which recorded -4.2% and -3.4% YOY drops, respectively. While retail parks bucked the trend with a +2.0% YOY increase, retail park footfall rose considerably less when compared to the same week in 2014, when footfall increased by 3.7% YOY. Diane Wehrle, Marketing and Insights Director at Springboard: “The volume of activity in retail stores in the week following the Black Friday weekend has dipped further on the back of strong activity within the eCommerce space.

“While the last payday before Christmas has traditionally driven a spike in sales for bricks-and-mortar retailers, there is strong evidence that the spending patterns of consumers are changing. For the first time this year, The Black Friday long weekend was an online shopping experience for consumers, and it appears that click and collect opportunities have not generated the uplifts in footfall that some retailers may have hoped for.

“Leading into Christmas, we expect to see online shopping continue to make dents in footfall activity. However, as most last order dates for online Christmas shopping occur on the 18th and 19th of December, it is possible we will see that traditional spike in footfall on the 23rd December as consumers head in store for last minute Christmas buying.“

December 2015 Corporate Vision 7

CEO Profile

8 Corporate Vision December 2015

CEO Profile

Tony Hughes,

Huthwaite International This dynamic and dedicated CEO talks us through his company and its work.

Tell us about yourself and your role within the company I have been CEO and a principal shareholder of Huthwaite International and the Huthwaite Group of companies since 1998, and before that I was a Huthwaite trainer and account manager, having joined the company in 1990. I tend to get involved in most areas of the business – from knowing what’s going on inside many of our biggest client accounts to setting out where we should be heading in terms of product development, delivery mechanisms, markets, and international partnerships. But we’ve a great team of specialist management here in each of those areas, formulating the strategy and putting it into action.

Please can you outline for us exactly what your business does and give us a brief history Huthwaite International (www.huthwaite.co.uk) exists to help companies improve the way they sell, negotiate and communicate. We’re the organisation in which the original Huthwaite intellectual property for SPIN® Selling, SPIN® for Marketing, Account Strategy, Negotiation Skills, Verbal Behaviour Analysis etc., was born in the 1970s and has remained ours ever since.

It all begins with verbal behaviour and the starting point of most of our programmes is to get people to recognise that their own verbal behavioural style is getting in the way of their effectiveness. We start by making people aware of their current behavioural styles. In the first and biggest area, selling, we usually find that there’s an over-reliance on push-style, with salespeople asking too few questions, or too many of the wrong kind of questions, and then trying to impose ready-made solutions that don’t match the customer’s real needs (because they haven’t discovered what they really are). Most people don’t do this naturally, and even after all the thousands of people who have done SPIN® Selling over the decades, every new generation of sales people seems to need to learn it for itself. We also look at behaviours for other parts of the sales process – when and how to talk about the capability of your products, how to deal with objections or the presence of competitors, how to navigate your way around the buying decision-makers, and how to make sure you leave the meetings with meaningful commitments of some kind.

People who use these skills really well can actually gain competitive advantage even during the sales stage, and create value for the prospect or buyer by helping them to develop their own thinking: turning it into an opportunity to explore with them a bunch of

strategic issues about their business, their approach to their market and what they need to get there. That’s true consultative selling. A good test is to think, after such a sales call, “Would the customer have paid us for the experience they just had in that meeting?” In the new world of financial services and asset management sales, of course, that’s a real question.

In the negotiation area, again it’s all about the behaviours. There are lots of persistent myths about negotiation, and we have dispelled a number of them. Our original observational research, for example, showed that describing feelings in real time in a negotiation is a helpful behaviour; that counter proposing in the bargaining phase is unhelpful; that certain well-used phrases like “I’m making you a very fair offer” are useless. There are many more examples of where we turned received wisdom on its head through research.

We use the success profiles we have developed to train people who negotiate professionally or occasionally, to do so more successfully, by immersive, collaborative events with full-length simulation. We back this up by online support of all kinds.

Alongside trainers and coaches working on these behavioural skills with delegates, we find the best ways to make new ways of selling and negotiation actually stick – consultancy with bid teams, interactions with senior management, integration of our sales process tools and models with their models (and CRMs for example) etc.

Companies trust us to deliver measurable results through our research, consultancy, training delivery, project management and tools for sustainability. The company provides innovative skills training and advice for progressive individuals and organisations in sectors such as IT, financial services, healthcare, telecoms, manufacturing, legal and professional services. We’ve a client list of thousands of companies worldwide and train some 14,000 people each year. Our international model is to sell and deliver throughout the world via a mixture of national branch offices, licensees, associates and agents – depending on local market norms.

We remain a proudly independent and managerially stable organisation and holder of many product trademarks (for example SPIN®) in over 50 countries.

We’ve a permanent staff of 60 based at our UK HQ, with others spread around the world.

What kind of challenges are the training and coaching

December 2015 Corporate Vision 9

industry currently facing? Could you tell us more about the business strategy currently in place at Huthwaite International? How do you plan to further develop the company in the near future?

The biggest challenge for anyone in a business like ours is to establish and maintain the solid trust of the clients and the wider market. We are constantly working to solidify that trust in three key areas.

1. Clients can trust our content. It is reliable and evidential, based on the largest and most widely respected bedrock of original observational research there is into the verbal behavioural models for persuasive sales interactions, successful negotiations and good interpersonal communications. We continue to carry out research into these areas and refresh our content.

2. Clients can trust the quality of our delivery and implementation. Because we operate globally, and have done for years, we can manage big, global behaviour change projects involving lots of moving parts with relative ease and consistency. Not only do we have consistently high scores for the quality of what goes on inside the training room, but we put each company and individual through a sustainable learning journey involving the elements that best suit them: e-learning, virtual delivery, classroom delivery, digital reinforcement, online process tools and personal coaching.

3. Clients can measure the behaviour change and business outcomes we help them to achieve, and so track their return on investment. Because behavioural analysis is at the heart of what we do, we have tools that any organisation can apply to see the behaviour change by individuals, groups, departments etc, and match that up to hard financial measures. Our recent work with Urgo Medical has produced a published study showing not only a behavioural revolution but a 40% revenue uplift in under two years, that the UK MD attributes to our intervention.

So our challenge is to go on meeting those expectations in a world where some conceptions are changing. For example, maybe there are changed perceptions of the way people buy and how people should therefore interact with them – perceptions that are not always accurate. Our core training IP depends on sellers’ personal skills in being persuasive around what we call the Buying Cycle. It might be true that buyers now have more knowledge about supply options earlier in that cycle than a few years ago (and digital has a lot to do with that). But none of that changes the fact that at critical points, salespeople will

CEO Profile

10 Corporate Vision December 2015

CEO Profile

have to be consultative, will need to form functioning professional relationships and must be able to obtain acceptable negotiation outcomes. Our challenge – at which we’re succeeding, by the way – is to convince people that these skills are as indispensable now as they ever were.

who are good at building value in their client interactions in a consistent way, and who negotiate professionally, tend to be most successful. Our job, and our opportunity, is to fill as much of that gap as we can, to make more of those organisations successful – which will be good for us.

How do you respond to competition?

When we first started out, we pretty much pioneered the whole area of research based behaviour change for disciplines such as sales and negotiation – so the field was a pretty clear one. Over the years other companies have come along without such a bedrock of research, or maybe with research into different areas of sales expertise (as they see it). So there are more players out there developing skills and processes for those areas than there used to be, but none of them have the experience or knowledge of how to develop the verbal behavioural skills that people need to back up whatever insight they might have. And an even smaller number can implement global, multilingual, multimedia change projects for companies with perhaps thousands of delegates in a year as we do. I’m happy to say, that’s a realisation many clients have too!

Where do you see the company heading in the next five to ten years?

I spoke earlier about our belief that there are very few companies – maybe only one – that can meet a number of complex needs for complex clients. Some players in this market have unchallenged IP in a specific area. Some have great project management strengths. Some have a wide range of inter-related offerings. Some have global reach through local delivery.

But very few can claim to do all of those things as a matter of course. We’ve striven to make that ground our own in recent years and in the long term, for many years into the future I’d like to think that would be a permanent state – but to do it takes constant attention to each and every one of those elements. We need to ensure the quality of our international organisation; we need to find ever improved approaches to instructional design; we need to pay attention to understanding our clients’ businesses wherever they come from and whatever they do; we need to keep our own account management and delivery processes streamlined and effective. I think in five to ten years our international business will expand, and I’ve no doubt we’ll develop new insights into the way the new generations of people sell and communicate with one another.

At the other end of the market, some competition comes from one-man-bands who’ve developed programmes based on their first-hand experience.

Sometimes they bring interesting insights, but we don’t see it as a systematic route to behaviour change across whole organisations. We’ve come across many imitators over the years too – as suppliers and sometimes among companies’ internal training resources. If those imitators are infringing our IP, which we’ve spent years developing, we take a pretty dim view!

What opportunities are there for potential growth?

We see three principal opportunities for potential growth.

First, internationally – we’ve always been strong there (and have won two Queen’s Awards for International Trade) with a network of international capability. We see opportunities in Asia, but also closer to home, where we’ve seen strong growth and are hiring more people in some of the countries where Huthwaite International has operated for many years, but is now really establishing our key brands.

Secondly, digital content. Or should I say, a learning journey that encompasses what the traditional training room offers, together with all the digital tools for preparing, reinforcing and embedding that learning and behaviour change. We were early to market with things like e-learning and virtual learning and we are continuing to build all kinds of ways for people to access and use our resources whether that’s in a traditional face-to-face environment, technology enabled coaching, or something self-administered like an app.

We always try to adapt the means we use to build our clients’ capabilities according to the technologies (or absence of them) that will get the best results. And as we do that, we’re careful to ensure the new media are available in the languages in which our clients around the world need to use them.

Thirdly, simple market penetration. We know that there are many companies out there, very big ones, who simply don’t have a systematic behavioural approach to the way they sell or negotiate. We also know, because of research we’ve done, that the companies

December 2015 Corporate Vision 11

About Huthwaite International Huthwaite International is best known as the creator of SPIN® Selling – helping salespeople in all countries and most languages to improve their performance.

Companies worldwide trust UK-based Huthwaite International, as a leading behavioural change consultancy and owner of the SPIN® trademark in over 50 countries, to deliver measurable results through its research-based models.

The company provides innovative skills training and advice for progressive individuals and organisations in sectors such as IT, financial services, healthcare, telecoms, manufacturing, legal and professional services. It has a client list of thousands of companies worldwide and trains some 14,000 people each year.

Besides the SPIN® Suite, Huthwaite International offers training and reinforcement based on its own original research models in negotiation skills, communication skills, customer service skills. Established in 1974, Huthwaite is headquartered in Wentworth, South Yorkshire and handles international projects through its national offices or associated companies throughout Europe, USA, South Africa and Asia Pacific. The company has won two Queen’s Awards in 1999 and 2008 for International trade. www.huthwaite.co.uk @Huthwaite_Intl info@huthwaite.co.uk +44 (0)1709 710081

• • • • • • •

Industry Insight 14. Accelerating Mobile Broadband and Smartphone Adoption across Arab States 16. Brand New Thinking 18. Whitepaper Predicts Future of Content Marketing 20. Solving Disputes

Industry Insight

14 Corporate Vision December 2015

Industry Insight

Accelerating Mobile Broadband and Smartphone Adoption across Arab States Mobile operators investing in networks, jobs and innovation throughout the Arab States according to new study.

Mobile broadband networks will support more than two-thirds of all mobile connections across the Arab States of the Middle East and North Africa by 2020, according to a new GSMA study published at the GSMA Mobile 360 Series – Middle East conference being held in Dubai this week. The new study, ‘The Mobile Economy – Arab States 2015’, finds that there will be 350 million 3G/4G mobile broadband connections in the Arab States by 2020, accounting for 69% of the region’s total connections by 2020, up from just 34% at the end of 2014. This rapid migration to higher-speed mobile networks is being driven by operator investments in 3G and 4G networks and rising smartphone adoption. The number of smartphones connections in the region is forecast to almost triple between 2014 and 2020, reaching 327 million.

“The mobile landscape in the Arab States varies considerably in terms of market maturity, ranging from the fast-developing North African markets to the highly advanced Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, but the entire region is benefiting from the shift to mobile broadband networks and devices triggered by rising mobile operator investment,” said Alex Sinclair, Acting Director General and Chief Technology Officer at the GSMA. “We encourage governments in the region to adopt policies that will further accelerate mobile broadband adoption, for example by releasing more internationally harmonised spectrum; introducing incentives that encourage the deployment of infrastructure in remote and economically challenging areas; and revising taxation and regulatory policies that can negatively impact uptake of innovative new mobile services.”Over the last four years, mobile operators across the Arab States have spent more than US$40 billion on capital investments, or approximately 18% of total revenue. Investments have focused on improving network coverage, increasing network capacity, and deploying 3G/4G mobile broadband networks.

According to the report, 3G networks are now live in every country in the region except one, while there are 23 live 4G networks in ten countries in the region and 4G launches planned in a further eight markets.

A Diverse Mobile Landscape The Arab States encompasses 18 markets across the Middle East and North Africa. The number of unique mobile subscribers in the Arab States as a whole reached 199 million at the end of 2014, equivalent to 54% of the region’s population. However, the levels of market maturity vary considerably across the region in line with economic development; the Arab States are home to three countries – Bahrain, Kuwait and the UAE – that have penetration rates above 75%, but also four (Palestine, Sudan, Syria and Yemen) where fewer than half the population has a mobile subscription.

It is forecast that the number of unique mobile subscribers in the Arab States will reach 233 million by 2020, representing 57% of the expected population by this point. However, subscriber growth will be slower than the global average over this period and subscriber penetration will fall behind the 59% global figure expected by 2020. This can be attributed to several factors: the declining growth potential in already highly penetrated markets; the challenge of growing penetration in the lower income and rural-based groups in less developed markets; and the unstable political and economic conditions that currently exist in several regional markets.

Mobile Industry Delivering Economic Growth, Employment and Public Funding In 2014 the mobile industry in the Arab States made a total contribution of US$115 billion to the regional economy in value-added terms, equivalent to around 4 per cent of the region’s total GDP. It is forecast that

December 2015 Corporate Vision 15

this contribution will grow to U$160 billion by 2020, equivalent to 4.5% of projected regional GDP by this point.

The mobile industry is also a key source of jobs and public funding in the region. It is calculated that the industry directly and indirectly supported 1.3 million jobs across the Arab States in 2014, a figure expected to surpass 1.5 million by 2020. The mobile ecosystem also made a total tax contribution to the public finances of the region’s governments of US$12.6 billion in 2014, excluding regulatory fees and spectrum auction payments. It is forecast that this contribution to public funding will rise to US$14.3 billion by 2020.

“The mobile industry has a pivotal role to play in addressing social and developmental challenges in the Arab States, challenges that are becoming increasingly acute in those regional markets that are seeing high unemployment levels, a youthful population, and ongoing social and political instability,” added Sinclair.

“In many of the region’s emerging markets, mobile is connecting unconnected populations by providing essential access to the internet where there are no other alternatives and enabling mobile-powered solutions in essential areas such as banking, healthcare and education. Meanwhile, in developed markets, mobile operators are launching advanced services in sectors such as digital commerce, digital identity, digital security and the Internet of Things.”

Industry Insight

16 Corporate Vision December 2015

Industry Insight

Brand New Thinking Brand Learning challenges businesses to think differently about growth with their global Growth Drivers study

A focus on the motivation and capabilities of employees to deliver an integrated experience for customers is key to driving growth in business, according to a landmark Growth Drivers Study, launched by Brand Learning.

61% for other companies). Leadership was another key difference with 81% of respondents having customer-centred leadership at the highest level (versus 55%). Additionally 76% of Growth Driver Businesses have a clear capability strategy (versus 46%).

Brand Learning is a customer-centred global capability development consultancy, based in New York, London and Singapore. It was founded 15 years ago in July 2000 with a passion to lift the capabilities of people and organisations to drive growth by creating better value for their customers.

The study also reveals that at the heart of successful Growth Driver businesses are energised and involved employees fuelled by leaders who roll their sleeves up to drive momentum behind change. The research reveals that these leaders are mindful of the new demands placed on them and are stepping ahead of the competition by investing in strengthening their own personal growth.

The global study is based on surveying over 900 business leaders across 42 countries, as well as in-depth interviews with 70 CEOs and senior executives across companies including Diageo, Unilever, PepsiCo, BT, Microsoft, Dyson and Pernod Ricard.

According to the research, the most critical growth focuses for organisations today are the happiness of customers (69% of respondents placed this factor in their top 3 growth priorities) and the talent and effectiveness of their employees (64%). These two factors outrank profit, which is ranked third at 53%.

Growth Drivers, identified as companies with a sustained record of at least 6% annual growth over the past 3 years, confidence in their ability to meet their future growth goals and admired as growth drivers by business leaders globally - do things very differently to the competition. The study reveals the ‘Growth Code’ powering fast-growing organisations: a constant tuning of their capabilities to create a growth-ready organisation energised by involved employees and fuelled by momentum-driving leadership.

Alexandre Ricard, CEO of Pernod Ricard, believes that in this new era traditional organisations are no longer viable. He explains: “I do not believe in geographical boundaries. I no longer believe in hierarchy boundaries. I don’t believe in functional boundaries and silos.”

Growth Driver organisations are focused on far more than the pursuit of profit and recognise that business success alone is not a motivating enough reason for employees to champion change. According to the research, employees increasingly want to be involved in something bigger than hitting the treadmill of quarterly results and are instead looking for a deeper ‘growth purpose’.

In fact, purpose was one of the key differentiators of successful Growth Driver businesses - with 87% having a clear company, team or brand purpose (versus

Growth Driving Leaders are dedicated to strengthening the capabilities of their business and their own leadership skills. Almost half (49%) of business leaders at high growth companies dedicate two or more days per month on personal learning, training and capability development compared with only 27% of those that aren’t Growth Drivers.

Mhairi McEwan, group CEO and a co-founder of Brand Learning, says: “The Growth Drivers Study sets a challenge for companies to embrace a new model for growth. Leaders embracing this change agenda not only relentlessly focus on their customers’ needs, but also successfully engage, inspire and truly involve their employees in delivering an integrated customer experience across the organisation - with new ‘silo-busting’ capabilities and ways of working.”

Niall FitzGerald, chairman of Brand Learning and chair of the Growth Drivers Advisory panel, previously CEO and chairman of Unilever, and chairman of Reuters, commented: “True Growth Drivers understand that it is the leaders’ behaviour not their rhetoric that matters. You won’t grow a business consistently unless people trust you. Embracing this growth agenda demands moving beyond lip-service leadership. It requires a shift in focus from generating short-term profit to creating a common purpose around growth which connects with individual employees and society.”

The Growth Drivers Study unveiled a huge appetite for driving agile growth amongst business leaders: -68% want their company to be quick, responsive and experimental -63% want their company to empower them more However, it also revealed a gap in perception between CEO and C-suite respondents and mid-level managers. While 71% of CEOs and C-suite leaders think their companies are agile today, only 45% of VP/directors and 53% of managers agree.

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Doing things differently, rather than talking about transformational change, seems to be the key growth challenge facing global organisations today. Across the board, respondents reported ‘transformation fatigue’.

The number one most overused term people are tired of hearing about is ‘Transformation’ with almost a quarter (24%) tiring of the buzzword. The research also unveiled ‘Millennial Malaise’ with almost 16% bored by the endless use of the term.

The research surveyed 900 global business leaders with quantitative analysis of 919 international executives in 42 countries. It comprised 17% CEOs, 12% C-suite, 29% VP/director level and 36% managers.

By sector the respondents included 23% FMCG, 12% healthcare and pharmaceutical, 8% financial services and 8% retail and ecommerce. The automotive, business to business, consultancy/agency, media & entertainment, professional services, technology, telecoms, energy & utilities and travel & leisure sectors were also represented.

The Growth Drivers study was guided by a high profile advisory panel of respected business leaders chaired

by Niall FitzGerald, KBE, chairman of Brand Learning, including: Sir Roger Carr, chairman, BAE Systems, ex-president CBI, formerly at Centrica and Cadbury; Patrick Cescau, chairman Intercontinental Hotels Group; R Gopalakrishnan, non-executive director, Tata Sons; Ross McEwan, CEO, RBS; Gavin Patterson, CEO, BT; Alexandre Ricard, CEO, Pernod Ricard; Matt Shattock, chairman & CEO, Beam Suntory; Max Conze, CEO, Dyson; Syl Saller, CMO Diageo; Kerris Bright, CMO, Virgin Media; Doug Baillie, chief HR officer, Unilever; Jack Haber, VP Global Advertising and Digital, Colgate; Simon Lowden, SVP, Chief Marketing Officer, Pepsi Beverages North America, Susan Taylor Martin, managing director, Thomson Reuters Legal, UK & Ireland; Amanda MacKenzie, executive advisor, Project Everyone; Patrick Holmes, VP commercial strategy and marketing excellence, Pfizer; Kevin Lai, executive director, Singapore Economic Development Board; Vineet Mehra, president global marketing services, Johnson & Johnson; Russ Shaw, founder, Tech London Advocates; Andria Vidler, CEO, Centaur Media Plc; Sarah Ellis, head of corporate responsibility and sustainability, J Sainsbury plc; James Sproule, head of policy, Institute of Directors; Hugh Burkitt, CEO, The Marketing Society; Sherilyn Shackell, founder CEO, The Marketing Academy, Jonathan Spector, president and chief executive officer, The Conference Board and Chris Babayode, managing director, EMEA, Mobile Marketing Association.

Industry Insight

18 Corporate Vision December 2015

Industry Insight

Whitepaper Predicts Future of Content Marketing 365 Connect, a leading provider of award-winning marketing, leasing, and resident technology platforms for the multifamily housing industry, has announced the release of its latest white paper on the utilization of content marketing in the multifamily housing industry.

The white paper, Content Marketing - The Next Generation Marketing Platform for Apartment Communities, brings into focus alternative marketing methods that are emerging across a wide range of verticals, including multifamily housing communities. “Content marketing is an innovative marketing concept that involves the creation and sharing of relevant information that is focused on communicating effectively with customers and prospects,” said 365 Connect Founder and CEO, Kerry W. Kirby.

“The idea is to create content that will educate your target audience and allow apartment communities to stand out among their competitors.”

365 Connect’s white paper reveals in-depth research related to the structuring and distribution of content as a relevant source of information for the surrounding community.

“As content marketing is inherently local in nature, and nothing is more local than where you live, the white paper establishes the endless benefits of content marketing for apartment communities to engage both prospects and residents,” stated Kirby.

Today’s consumer prefers to get information about a company from content rather than through advertising, the white paper articulates. However, time spent with digital media on mobile has almost doubled in the past year, making the distribution channels as important as the content created.

“With today’s consumers making traditional marketing methods irrelevant, content marketing has emerged as the new strategy for creating inbound traffic and leads, which are being used by marketing experts worldwide,” expressed Kirby. According to the Content Marketing Institute, 90% of marketing firms utilize content marketing to increase lead flow.

“As we continue to look at innovative methods to drive prospect traffic, engage residents, and reduce

December 2015 Corporate Vision 19

marketing spend, content marketing has emerged as a method to touch multiple distribution channels that remain relevant throughout the entire resident lifecycle,” explained Kirby. “ Through focusing on our methodology of community advocacy, we have seen that hyper-local content creates high quality SEO, online authority, and establishes a strong media presence.”

The white paper analyses data points of user behaviour, distribution channels, and search engine benefits.

The research clearly establishes that apartment communities adopting a consistent content marketing strategy, can cross market to both future and existing residents. The analysis highlights the endless benefits of content marketing: it places an apartment community in a better position to be found online, motivates the reader to connect with the community, while enhancing branding efforts.

“For years, our company has been creating content marketing for our clients, which saves a considerable amount of time and money by connecting prospects and existing residents with where they live.

Our platform integrates community blogs with social media and is optimized for mobile distribution. We have a considerable amount of performance data we wanted to bring to focus and are thrilled that this white paper provides the necessary information to the industry as to how critical content marketing is to an apartment community’s success,” Kirby commented.

The assemblage and publication of this white paper demonstrates 365 Connect’s commitment to deliver educational information to the multifamily industry.

365 Connect is proud to release this industry-wide white paper, establishing that content marketing is the next frontier for cross marketing to both future and existing residents.

Industry Insight

20 Corporate Vision December 2015

Industry Insight

Solving Disputes New consumer protection legislation is aimed at helping all consumers to settle their disputes directly. Solicitor Geoff Simpson-Scott of Simpson Millar (a trading style of Simpson Millar) explains how this affects businesses.

The Issue The Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Regulations 2015 became law on 9th July 2015. They are intended to make it easier for consumers to resolve their disputes with businesses without needing legal advice. This is part of the wider ongoing attempts by Parliament to reduce the expense of bringing cases to court. If proceedings do need to be started, then the increase in court fees as of April 2015 makes it a much higher burden for most people to bear. It places the burden on businesses to assist in this process.

Key Changes Businesses are now required to have access to an accredited and independent person (called the ‘ADR provider’) who will act as a go between with your client if and when they are dissatisfied with your company’s service or product. You can find the current approved list of these providers for your business sector on the Trading Standards website. Any pre-existing mediation facility you have access to currently will need to eventually become accredited or risk becoming obsolete.

These changes extends to all business with a consumer aspect to them. Business to business work is not covered except, however if any part of your company is consumer-facing. Although this service is intended to be free, it is possible that a fee can be charged to your company by the provider of the ADR services.

Public sector bodies are not included unless they are charging the consumer directly for the services they are providing. Generally speaking, property transactions are also excluded because contracts relating to the sale of land are not contracts for the sale of goods or services. Thus, tenancy agreements or freehold and leasehold purchases are excluded. That said, if part of your business is providing maintenance or other services on behalf of the landlord, then this does fall within these provisions.

From 1st October 2015, all businesses must be in a position to provide the details of the certified ADR provider to their customers along with confirmation as to whether they intend to use them. If your business does not want to use the certified provider for your sector, then your customers can still report the matter to them.

From January 2016, the European Commission will create an online platform to allow consumers and businesses from different countries to try to resolve their disputes. If your company trades within the EU, you need to adapt your systems for this. Further details are to be published later this year and the intention is to offer an online translation function together with assistance from advisors in each country.

Some of the Issues What the new rules do not do is to force businesses to engage in the resolution process. If they refuse to do so, there is no way to force them. This means that litigation would then be the only way forward. However, refusing to engage in the process may cost you and your business.

The intention of the new rules is to use market forces to highlight those businesses that do not willingly engage in this type of ADR in the hope that customers will choose to deal with those businesses that do.

Unfortunately, the resolution process can take a significant amount of time to complete. It can only start after your customer has tried to resolve their dispute through your company’s internal complaint resolution process. The business is only required to notify the mediator after it is satisfied that its internal process has failed. Accordingly, you ought to re-evaluate your customer-facing operations to minimise complaints occurring and your internal complaints process in order to minimise the chances of it failing to resolve any complaints that do arise. Once you do notify the ADR provider, the process starts immediately.

December 2015 Corporate Vision 21

However, both sides then have 12 months to send their supporting evidence to the certified provider without using lawyers. During this period, the ADR provider must accept the case; afterwards there is no obligation to do so. If both parties agree to the process, then the ADR provider must confirm it is accepting the case within 3 weeks.

The ADR provider is then obliged to inform both parties of its decision within 90 calendar days. However, this does not run from the date the case was accepted. Instead, it runs from the date the ADR provider is satisfied that it has received all of the evidence. This can include expert evidence and the timescale can be extended in complex cases. Accordingly, this built in flexibility (and uncertainty) means that the investigation could take far longer than 90 days.

In cases where this puts the consumer at risk of missing their statutory time limit for commencing court proceedings, the new rules do allow limitation to be extended to 2 months after the conclusion. This does not leave much time to take legal advice if needed.

Whether court action is permitted after the resolution process has ended depends on the terms of the agreement made before it starts. It may be that the consumer has lost their right to sue by trying to negotiate. There may be little time to prepare the evidence before limitation expires It remains to be seen whether the availability and quality of the ADR providers is sufficiently good to keep up with the wide-ranging demands to be expected from improving access to ADR. You may realise too late that this was not the best option for your company if the ADR process is drawn out or otherwise fails to resolve the dispute.

Strategy 24. How to Reach the Skies 28. Asia Becomes the Top Region for Corporate R&D Spend 30. How Leaders Can Build Trust 32. Driving R&D Growth 34. Driving R&D Growth

Strategy

24 Corporate Vision December 2015

Strategy

How to Reach the Skies Despite global economic issues Allied Wallet, the international e-commerce and online payment provider, continues to grow.

We speak to Founder and CEO Andy Khawaja about the secrets to the firm’s success and the exciting plans he has for the future of the business.

As we approach the end of 2015 Andy reflects that this has been a successful year for Allied Wallet. The firm’s revenue is up 400% and Andy has some exciting plans in place moving into the New Year.

So what is the secret behind the firm’s success?

According to Andy, it is the firm’s dedication to their customers and rapid embracement of change.

“In order to ensure that clients receive a top quality service which meets their individual needs, we build a customer checkout form for each merchant client and customer tools for them to execute transactions. Other businesses in our market don’t do that, they don’t customise their products, they just provide one tool for every customer. At Allied Wallet we provide custom tools for no extra charge.

“The good thing about Allied Wallet is the way it works. In business you always have to move quickly, to anticipate a client’s needs and adapt to them. Allied Wallet is not a gateway product, it is an API platform, meaning merchants can integrate it into any API network. Whereas if you want to connect to a bank or a processor you often have to integrate and then connect to it, which can be time consuming. Also other providers don’t always have an opening, it may be six months before a client can get an opening to integrate their system.

“With Allied Wallet clients can connect almost instantly, and we are also connected with a wide range of the biggest shopping carts in the world including redSHOP and Magento. That is ideal for clients because they don’t have to change their shopping cart software when they move to Allied Wallet. If we have a brand new website which wants to join us then they do not have to integrate about 10-20 shopping carts, which could take them up to a year and a half, instead we can offer them these shopping carts immediately, so they can have the offers from all of these shopping carts available to them in just one day.”

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Here Andy refers to Allied Wallet’s policy of setting up client accounts in just 24 hours, a window which he is looking to reduce to just 12 hours in the future, despite the necessity of fraud prevention and credit checks, which Andy states are made quicker through the firm’s use of technology.

“We employ robotic, built in tools which take care of all of the credit and fraud checks, from AML to KYC. I would estimate that we can underwrite a vast number of merchants in a short amount of time, which means that they can get their accounts quicker and do business quicker.”

Technology is not the only tool Allied Wallet has under its belt, with the firm also boasting a strong collaborative network of international banks and financial institutions, which ensures that the company is able to offer clients a truly global service.

“By partnering with banks and financial service providers across the globe we are able to avoid charging our clients currency transfer fees. We try to offer the money like for like so that they don’t lose any money on their international transactions. In that respect we are better than many banks, which is why we are a leader in this market.

“Our work with banks around the world enables us to offer almost every currency in the world like for like. We connect and work with banks who help us to supply these currencies without transfer fees.”

It is because of Allied Wallet’s dedication to supporting their clients and offering them so many free services that, as Andy proudly states, the firm has not lost a customer in over 10 years. Andy outlines the factors he believes are instrumental in retaining clients, which include diversifying the firm’s product portfolio.

“We constantly add more products to our range, so every quarter we add more capabilities, which is ideal for the client and means that they do not have to

Strategy

26 Corporate Vision December 2015

Strategy

move to another firm. Our customer support is also vital to ensuring that clients remain with the firm, as is the low timeframe we offer for transactions and our around the clock support and service. Also we accept every currency in the world, which is increasingly important in the global marketplace.

“Also, don’t invest too much at the start. Start slowly and build it up. Don’t put all your money in at once.

Test your product and see if clients like it, then invest heavily, or else you may lose money. It’s great to build a company up from the bottom to the top but you have to be sensible about it.”

“Our system never has any downtime, so clients can use it all day and night. Even if the power goes out in one system, in a matter of milli-seconds we will re-route to another system where there is power to ensure that our clients have a constant service which they can rely on.

So what’s next for Allied Wallet? The firm has recently engaged BofA Merrill Lynch as their financial advisor, with a view to exploring potential strategic opportunities, including a private placement or an initial public offering in 2016.

“All of these factors add value to our service and provide our customers with more business, leaving them with no reason to leave. Because we grow with our clients they will never outgrow us. I am very proud of how far our merchants have come, and each year our merchants see approximately 25-30% growth in their businesses, which I would like to think is partly due to our service.

In addition, Andy was excited to discuss his latest project, a new online super store which could revolutionise the way customers shop online.

“In the second quarter of 2016 we are looking to launch a new virtual shopping mall which will be a cross between Amazon, Ebay and Ali Baba. It will have a front end which is similar to Ali Baba with the back engine appearing as a cross between Ebay and Amazon.”

“Our job is to make our clients bigger and better than ever before, because the more they grow, the more money we make. Because we grow with our clients and gain capabilities to support them constantly they never have any reason to leave our business, which is why Allied Wallet has never lost a customer.”

The new service will offer exciting opportunities for online shoppers, including the ability to use visual search tools, as well as a unique method of payment, with merchants bidding to provide the customer with a product for the lowest price.

For anyone looking to emulate Andy’s success in the corporate landscape, Andy offers some inspiring advice on how to get to the top and stay there.

Andy’s final comment was a further word of advice for anyone whose New Year’s Resolution is to succeed in business.

“My advice to anyone looking to make it big in business would be to see what’s out there. Do your research in the market and see what consumers need and build something new and exciting from that.

Build a product or service which clients can adopt to quickly, which they can get used to fast and that will be hard to give up. It’s important to get the customer to like the product.

“The final thing I will say is this: Follow your dreams.

The sky’s the limit and you will be surprised how far you can go. When I look back on my life and see how far I have come I am always amazed.”

December 2015 Corporate Vision 27

Strategy

28 Corporate Vision December 2015

Strategy

Asia Becomes the Top Region for Corporate R&D Spend Europe Falls Behind and North America Remains Consistent according to the 2015 Global Innovation 1000 Study from Strategy&, PwC’s Strategy Consulting Business.

Asia has become the top destination for corporate R&D spend in 2015, accounting for 35% of total in-region R&D, including both domestic and imported R&D. This places Asia ahead of North America and Europe, who dropped to third, in a complete reversal from 2007 when Europe was the previous leader. This is according to the newly released 2015 Global Innovation 1000 Study, from Strategy &, PwC’s strategy consulting business, which uniquely examined the R&D footprint of 207 of the world’s largest corporate R&D spenders.

R&D by 46% between 2007 and 2015. Additionally, while Germany’s domestic R&D has increased 48%, imported R%D has fallen 7% and exported R&D has increased 76% between 2007 and 2015.

Robust growth in China and India drove Asia’s growth, recording increases of 79% and 116%, between 2007 and 2015, in imported spend, respectively, as more R&D moves into these regions mainly from the US. Results find that China in particular has become the most popular destination, with 71% of R&D professional survey respondents indicating that the most important reason for moving R&D to China is proximity to high-growth markets. They state other benefits of moving R&D functions to China include: “proximity to key manufacturing sites,” “proximity to key suppliers,” and “lower development costs.”

Additionally, according to this year’s results the US remains the largest spender of in-country corporate R&D, with in-country (domestic & imported) R&D spend at $145bn in 2015, up 34% since 2007. Imported R&D spend to the US, mostly coming from Europe, in 2015 is $53bn, up 23% from 2007. Exported R&D spend in 2015 is $121bn, up 51% from 2007, predominantly going to Asia where previously in 2007 it was going to Europe. Despite these figures, the US lead over other countries is narrowing – in 2007, relative corporate R&D in China was 23% of the US total, while in 2015 it now amounts to 38% of the US total.

“Asia taking the lead as the top destination for corporate R&D is not surprising when you look at where companies are spending their R&D dollars to support their revenue growth goals – a prime indicator of how R&D is trending globally – and how much of R&D is headed to the Asia region,” says Barry Jaruzelski, a US firm principal with Strategy& as well as the study’s creator and lead-author.

“While the US lead may be tapering, it still remains the biggest global market and despite the high cost of labor, it offers a more agile and sophisticated workforce. As such, companies look at the US as a desirable market with a capable workforce, an innovative culture and a more flexible business environment that cultivates top talent, all of which are conducive to R&D functions. The US also has accessibility to strategic markets, which is desirable to foreign companies when exporting their R&D functions, with Silicon Valley a particularly powerful draw,” comments Barry Jaruzelski.

The study finds that Europe’s fall to the third largest region for corporate R&D spend is a result of low growth in domestic and imported R&D, coupled with a substantial rise in exported R&D – particularly from France and Germany. Comparatively, Europe’s domestic R&D spend growth has risen just 2% between 2007 and 2015, compared to gains of 40% in North America and 60% in Asia. At the same time, European countries have increased their R&D allocation to highcost offshore countries in North America and Asia, but not to nearshore Western Europe. In particular, France has decreased domestic R&D by 20%, has decreased imported R&D by 21% and has increased exported

“Europe went from being the largest region for the execution of corporate R&D to the third behind Asia and North America – it’s the hollowing out of Europe,” comments Barry Jaruzelski. “The high growth of exported R&D to other countries, particularly from France and Germany, are huge factors in this reversal.”

As globalization increasingly becomes the norm (94% of firms conduct R&D beyond just their home country), companies are reaping the benefits of conducting R&D outside of their home country. Companies with more global R&D footprints now perform as well or better than companies with a narrow footprint, the study finds, suggesting that there are material advantages to exporting R&D and that multinationals are able to coordinate successfully across many global sites.

December 2015 Corporate Vision 29

Additionally, companies seem to derive benefits from a diverse global footprint as survey respondents say access to technical talent (71%), being close to customers (68%) and gaining insight into local market needs (64%) are important attributes in choosing where to conduct R&D. In addition, Strategy&’s annual analysis of the world’s 1000 largest R&D spenders found: • R&D has returned to its long-term growth trend post-financial crisis: In 2015, R&D spend by the Global Innovation 1000 has increased 5.1% to $680 billion, the largest year-over-year increase within the last three years, moving it back to a long-term average growth rate post the financial crisis, with a 10-year CAGR of 5.4%.

• Industry Breakdown: The three largest industries for R&D Spend in 2015 are computing and electronics (C&E), healthcare and auto. In particular, healthcare is on track to pass C&E as the largest industry by R&D spend by 2019. Meanwhile, the software & Internet industry has the highest growth rate of all the industries between 2014 and 2015 (27%), pushing it past the industrials sector to become the fourth largest industry by R&D spend in 2015. “It is not surprising that the software & Internet industry surpassed the industrials sector as the fourth largest spender of R&D. However, it is a noteworthy milestone, marking how software, the new economy, is trading places with industrials, the older economy,” says Barry Jaruzelski.

• Top 20 R&D Spenders: Within the Top 20 R&D spenders of 2015, the top three companies have remained fairly consistent over the years – Volkswagen, Samsung, Intel. For the first time Apple has joined the Top 20 R&D spenders 0f 2015 list at #18.

•Top three Most Innovative companies in the world for 2015: Global innovation professionals have ranked Apple, Google, and Tesla as the three most innovative companies in the world, with Tesla jumping to third place from fifth in 2014.

Strategy

30 Corporate Vision December 2015

Strategy

How Leaders Can Build Trust It may sound like a cliché, but without trust you have nothing. If your employees don’t trust you, you will never know what’s really going on and if your employees don’t trust each other, you’ll be left with ”lone wolves” who don’t share or collaborate more than they have to.

This will of course ultimately have a negative knock-on effect on the teams, stakeholders, customers, other teams and business partners. Besides, more and more organisations as well as their stakeholders want and expect increased transparency and openness in their relationships. When trust is low, there’ll be very little openness. That ripple effect starts with you and your team.

In a recent situation that we observed, a team member expressed frustration as she felt her team members were dismissive about the importance of her work. This disinterest was a result of the team members not knowing each other, rather than them being intentionally dismissive. Not realizing this, she felt angry, defensive and helpless, which made things even worse. Subsequently she didn’t want to work with them and started to avoid them, further impacting communication and team spirit.

Ultimately this affected one of their clients, who didn’t get a promised report on time, because communication had broken down between the colleagues. The client complained about the breech of contract this entailed and a penalty clause kicked in which meant the client didn’t have to pay.

So yes, lack of trust can impact the bottom line too.

A big part of your job as a leader is, as we’re sure you would agree, to build trust, earn trust and show trust.

The best place to start is with yourself – you are a role model, people will do what you do, not what you say.

Let’s look at some practical ways of creating trust.

Some of these solutions may seem pretty simple, but don’t be fooled, their simplicity means they are often overlooked. We somehow seem to think that we need to make things complicated for them to be effective – and this is just not true.

This is how you can do it: Take the first step Talk to your team members. Share something about

yourself, let them see more of you than just the ”work person”. Be genuine; talk about what makes you tick, share something personal.

Get team members talking Get your team members talking, so they can get to know each other. Until they know something about each other, there will be no real understanding or connection and hence very little trust. People rarely trust strangers – and you definitely don’t want your team to be strangers.

Make it easy for people to talk to each other: have short, regular huddles, calls or maybe even lunch together where you just enjoy each other’s company, rather than ”talking shop”.

Invest in relationships Invest in relationships within the team, take time to get to know each other. This is critical, not a ”nice to have ”, it is a crucial business strategy. Unless you are already doing it, go ahead and start believing that relationship building with your own team is PART of the job, something that will help your team do better. Then you are less at risk of seeing it as a time consuming ”must”. It is simply a part of the job, and rewarding when done. After all, you probably spend a lot of time investing in relationships with customers, clients or other stakeholders, so why wouldn’t you use that mindset with your own team.

Show how important it is with relationships in business. Every team and every individual need to build relationships with other people: internally and externally. When you encourage relationship building within the team first, you show how important relationships are for a successful business.

Be explicit Explain why it is important to know each other, explain why you need to carve out time for it. You need to be explicit about what you are doing and why so the team knows why it is important. This may seem obvious to some but it won’t be to all.

December 2015 Corporate Vision 31

Keep promises This might seem pretty obvious - only commit to doing something when you know you will do it – and when you make a commitment or promise, keep it.

BEHAVIOURS MATTER With all of this, it’s not just about WHAT you do, but HOW you do it – behaviours matter.

We’ve found that well-intentioned actions backed up by constructive and genuine behaviours can work wonders when it comes to trust and teamwork. Here are some examples (behaviours in capital letters): • To talk about yourself, you need to SHOW COURAGE by doing it properly, letting your guard down a bit. This shows others that it’s OK to share.

• If you want others to talk, you need to really LISTEN and SHOW INTEREST. This makes others feel important.

• If trust is low in the organisation as a whole and people are not used to being open and trusting, USE your SOCIAL AWARENESS to see where you can start; to figure out what would be an acceptable start when it comes to talking about yourself or encouraging others to. This creates a safe environment in that particular situation, which can be gradually built on.

Being open and sharing helps in getting to know each other better. With increased openness come greater trust. Disclosure breeds disclosure – and it can start with you. How much Trust are you creating today?

Mandy Flint and Elisabet Vinberg Hearn are the authors of new book ”Leading Teams – 10 Challenges; 10 Solutions” published by the FT Books. Building trust is one of the 10 Challenges they explore in more detail in the book – for more details go to www.leadingteamsbook.com

Strategy

Driving R&D Growth

32 Corporate Vision December 2015

Strategy

We speak to Laurence Painell, VP Product Management & Marketing at IDBS about this growing and dynamic market.

Tell us a bit about the company and your products.

IDBS is a British software company founded in 1989.

We’ve since gone on to become a leading provider of software for research and development (R&D) organisations – helping them securely capture, manage, share and exploit structured and unstructured data.

The company is still privately held, with offices across Europe, Asia and the US, employing over 250 staff and serving over 50,000 researchers in 25 countries – including over 75% of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies. The company was founded by Neil Kipling, who remains our CEO today.

We have two product families: ActivityBase, used for screening and ‘high throughput’ testing, and E-WorkBook – our main product platform which we’ve focused a lot of effort on. The foundation of E-WorkBook is the electronic laboratory notebook (ELN), which scientists use to document research and procedures undertaken in the lab – something that has historically been paper-based, inconsistent and unreliable as an audit trail. We’ve also added more complex functionality to E-WorkBook over time, such as data analysis, and the ability to capture all of the context around experiment data. There are a whole range of other things happening within E-WorkBook, through integrating E-WorkBook with other third-party lab technologies via our various APIs. What do you believe are the main strategies which have helped you transform from a small start up to an international company?

We are still driven by the same goal as when the company was founded in 1989: to provide software that really matters, and to help organisations discover and deliver products that transform the lives of people worldwide.

We’ve been ahead of the curve, in many respects.

From the start we’ve been building software that links data to data, data to people, and people to people.

This has become steadily more important in the research and development (R&D) space, so timing has been on our side.

Partnerships have also been important, and have helped foster our growth. This is based on accepting that we simply cannot do everything or build everything – there are broad commonalities in R&D across sectors, but we need external help to be the very best in different scientific domains. We’ve ramped this up recently, announcing two significant new partnerships this year with ChemAxon and ACD/ Labs. We also understand that our customers need to integrate this software with other technology in their labs – so again, forming win-win partnerships has been key.

How does your product compare to others in the R&D software market?

E-WorkBook has been the market leader in terms of management of a company’s intellectual property and critical information – and we’re now focusing on expanding this beyond the traditional corporate boundaries, by enabling the same capabilities across the firewall and into other organisations. This will allow customers to tap into the even greater opportunities afforded through working with other organisations.

Our ultimate aim is to create a true, integrated backbone for R&D – our products are designed to complement each stage of the R&D lifecycle by allowing organisations to capture, manage and search critical data. Both of our platforms (E-WorkBook and ActivityBase) have had a long history of being tightly integrated with other tools and systems to ensure the robust and seamless flow of data, which means important decisions are based on the right information.

How are market forces reshaping the way R&D-driven organisations operate?

On a fundamental level, R&D is changing. We’ve seen a number of trends and developments come to fruition in the past few years, taking the laboratory from a paper-based working environment to an increasingly automated, technology-supported, cost-conscious operation. Across the board, R&D organisations are under significant pressure to cut costs, bring products to market more quickly and ramp up innovation.

Straddling these developments, we’re seeing a fundamental change of approach: R&D is becoming a collaborative endeavour. In pharmaceuticals, for instance, the larger incumbents are becoming more like intellectual property hubs – managing IP and outsourcing much of the lab work to smaller, nimble research organisations. Announcements of new partnerships between like-minded industry players are coming thick and fast – and we’re also seeing industry team up with academia. Even internal research projects are becoming more collaborative. The days of a dozen medicinal chemists sitting in one room, making project decisions, are gone – these projects now involve cross-discipline teams with scientists from different functions all taking part.

Of course, this new R&D environment is having a knock-on effect in the way our software is used and the approaches we take with product development to help facilitate this new way of working.

How are technological developments impacting on the way scientists use IDBS’s products?

While the lab environment is changing, the world around it is changing even faster. In fact, it’s likely that the ‘lab of the future’ will be rooted in the consumer technology of today – this is having a huge impact on

December 2015 Corporate Vision 33

the way scientists use technology, including our own, in the lab.

A new generation of scientists are entering R&D, and they will increasingly want to connect with projects in more ways than just a laptop or desktop computer. As I mentioned earlier, R&D is also becoming a far more collaborative process – and technology providers will have to respond. We can expect to see more ‘social’ features, for example – like commenting on others’ work and sharing ideas. In some cases we have scientists already demanding informatics and data systems to be accessible on a range of touch-screen and mobile devices, from tablets and phablets through to projection in fume hoods and even on safety glasses.

How are you adapting your products to keep up with technological advances?

This is a particularly important point for us at the moment. We’ve recently brought a new CTO – Peter Murray – on board, to help us bring a modern approach to the way we deliver R&D software. We are blending our deep domain expertise with an agile, start-up mentality, bringing our products to market faster and embedding a real culture of empowerment in the company.

We’re also now placing User Experience (UX) at the heart of our product development, matching up those demanding and shifting expectations our users have, with the way we develop our software. Our last product launch (bringing out a revamped version of E-WorkBook), was an important milestone in that sense. UX was key in its development, factoring in this evolution in the way customers want to use the product – but, equally, recognising the tipping point where adding more features begins to detract from the tool’s ease of use.

What does the future look like, both for your firm and the industry as a whole?

For a company that works in the R&D space, it’s an exciting time. As R&D is supported more and more by technology, the volume of research data being produced now is huge – and growing exponentially.

Securely storing, managing and leveraging all this data as a source of knowledge will be crucial.

We’re also expanding our presence in the US and Europe, building strong local relationships with customers and supporting even more researchers as they strive towards their next Eureka moment – be it curing a major disease, or perhaps a new approach that innovates food manufacturing and changes the way we live. It’s an exciting time for us as we continue to expand into our main focus areas of food, energy and health – the future’s bright for R&D.

SME 36. Eyes front!

SME

36 Corporate Vision December 2015

SME

Eyes front!

By Richard Goold, partner, Moorhouse

Arguably the most significant change to come in the aftermath of the financial crisis is the emergence of the so-called ‘challenger banks’, which have capitalised very effectively on a variety of factors driving wholesale transformation of the retail banking industry.

First amongst these is dissatisfaction amongst consumers and SMEs with the products and services on offer from more established players. This predated the crisis, but the banks held all the cards so there was no impetus for them to change. In the wake of the crisis, dissatisfaction turned to disillusionment and outright distrust in the wake of a series of scandals that rocked retail banking. So toxic has been the fallout from these events that all those present have been tarred with the same brush in the public’s perception.

Performance results from challenger banks are simply staggering: Aldermore recently announced an expectation-beating doubling of profit in the first half of the year. Metro Bank grew 118 per cent in 2014, and plans to float on the stock market in early 2016.

Shawbrook, Virgin Money and One Savings Bank all claim similar success, and the UK’s first digital bank, Atom Bank, the self-styled ‘Uber of online banking’, is sure to make waves too. History would suggest it takes years and years to accomplish what these challengers have in so short a period, and yet we’re only likely to see only more of same in a critically disrupted market that is far from saturated. So how have they done it?

Certainly, their very newness meant they escaped being tarnished by the crisis, but it’s more than that: they have listened carefully and quickly developed products and services in direct response to customers who have long been screaming out for change.

The new banks have built themselves around their customers from the ground up, instead of trying to shoehorn them into unsuitable existing banking services. They’ve been able to do this so effectively because retail-banking customers are hardly a minority: everyone’s a customer, including the founders and leaders of the challengers who have presumably felt first-hand their customers’ pain. The upshot is that they are very much in tune with what people need: they don’t have to second-guess because they too were once

the disaffected. They are the parents of children who struggle with university fees; they are entrepreneurs who once struggled to find funding.

Consider the sort of profile that makes up a challenger bank founder: they’re not Generation Y/millennials, they’re experienced business people re-inventing the banking experience, putting their metaphorical arms around their customers – and doing a good job of it too, if their financial success is anything to go by.

Unlike pre-crisis banks, challengers don’t need to keep looking over their shoulders to see what spectre from their pasts will next become a regulatory fine.

Instead, they can keep both eyes facing front. It means they’re able to adapt more quickly and more efficiently to further disruptions – peer-to-peer lending, crowd sourcing, Apple Pay and others. Finally, they are not hampered by the legacy technology infrastructures that burden more established players. It makes them far more agile in their ability to build more new products and services.

With a 100 per cent focus on the future, the new breed can manage and mitigate the risks associated with demographics that, for example, may have only two to three years’ track record of a single employer when it comes to mortgaging decisions. Again, that’s no longer a minority customer base: times and lifestyles have changed. People tend to move jobs more frequently; they come out of university with large debts and can’t expect to walk into a well-paid job, yet still want to get on the property ladder. Only challenger banks can provide for their needs.

So how much of a threat are they to their traditional counterparts? Clearly they’re disrupting the market in a major way, and are serving as a catalyst for change and growth in a legacy market that is otherwise contracting. It’s been refreshing to see such dynamism in a sector that has felt too many to be stagnant, at least with respect to innovation, for years.

Does this mean that traditional retail banking is dead?

Absolutely not, however, the (understandable) desire of established banks to buckle down and ride out the storm could cost them dearly. Those that survive

December 2015 Corporate Vision 37

will need to be agile, innovative, and able to manage a wide portfolio of products and services around different customer risk profiles. People may well begin to bank with multiple providers in the future, and the discussions around account number portability means they may soon be switching banks as easily as they do utility providers. How long before we see Compare the Market for retail banking?

In the short term at least, challenger banks are unlikely to be able to take on investment banking, or handle the requirements of large corporate accounts – they simply do not have the capital and other resources – but is this all big banks will be satisfied with?

They can’t risk letting themselves be backed into that corner: they must face up to the new, customer-centric reality, which will require business transformation on an epic scale. Will they attempt the acquisition route; attempt to buy the knowledge and goodwill the upstarts have generated? Would that even work? Or would the disruptors themselves see this as a betrayal of their founding principals? More importantly, would customers feel that way?

The short answer is that no-one knows: anything could happen. And that’s what makes the sector so exciting right now.

Money 40. M&E Industry Shows Economic Confidence

Money

40 Corporate Vision December 2015

Money

M&E Industry Shows Economic Confidence Media and entertainment executives show record confidence in global economy even while industry challenges persist

Despite the usual industry challenges and downside risks, the media and entertainment (M&E) industry has a high level of confidence in the global economy, according to a recent survey of senior executives from global M&E companies conducted by EY for the 13th Global Capital Confidence Barometer.

from 49% last year), 24% saying it will remain stable and 3% saying that it will decline. When asked if they expect to actively pursue acquisitions in the next 12 months, 59% responded favorably, which is more than double from two years ago when only 25% indicated they were going to actively pursue acquisitions.

When asked their perspective on the state of the global economy, 81% of executives said it is improving, up from 52% one year ago. Executives surveyed maintained an overall positive attitude, indicating an improving level of confidence in corporate earnings (64%), short-term market stability (83%), credit availability (77%) and equity valuations (56%).

While the number of M&E companies expecting to pursue an acquisition in the next 12 months is the highest it has been in two years, only 44% of respondents are optimistic about the likelihood of closing acquisitions. This is possibly a result of the perceived valuation differential between sellers and buyers increasing in the past six months.

John Harrison, Global Media & Entertainment, Transaction Advisory Services Leader at EY, says: “Media and entertainment executives are more confident about the global economy and key market indicators than 12 months ago. However, short-term headwinds, such as foreign currency volatility and earnings pressure from digital transformation are tempering enthusiasm. As the industry learns to better harness digital adoption and fully exploit the multiplatform distribution environment, companies are becoming more confident about expanding their offerings and making strategic acquisitions that will improve their competitive advantage.”

Target deal sizes are moving higher, with 22% of respondents indicating that their largest planned acquisition size in the next 12 months will be greater than US$250m. While a majority of acquisitions are expected in the US$250m or less area, the trend since last year is toward more substantial deal sizes.

When assessing economic risks to their businesses, executives indicated increased volatility in currencies to be the greatest, (36%), followed by slowing growth in key emerging markets (23%), the economic and political situation in the Eurozone (20%), increased global and regional political instability (14%) and timing and pace of interest rate rises in the US (7%).

Executives surveyed overwhelmingly expect the global mergers and acquisitions market to remain strong in the year ahead, with 73% indicating it will improve (up

Confidence in corporate earnings is more measured, possibly a result of foreign currency volatility as well as structural challenges facing the M&E industry from digital transformation.

Other key findings of the report include: • Digital continues to have the greatest impact on M&E companies’ core business and acquisition strategies.

• Foreign exchange volatility is causing concern as a lot of costs are US-dominated and revenue is increasingly international.

• Structural challenges related to digital adoption persist, which, along with foreign exchange fluctuations, is having a near-term impact on corporate earnings.

• Respondents are most likely to invest in China, the US, the UK, India and Australia.

December 2015 Corporate Vision 41

• 58% of executives said that their company’s focus during the next 12 months will be cost reduction and operational efficiency, followed by growth at 28% and maintaining stability, 14%.

• Strategic divestment and other potential portfolio actions are moving higher on the boardroom agenda as media and entertainment companies seek to optimize capital allocation to thrive within a fast-changing world The report is a survey of senior executives from large M&E companies around the world that gauges corporate confidence in the economy, identifies boardroom trends and provides insight into companies’ capital agenda.

OC&C STRATEGY CONSULTANTS WINS DOUBLE AT AI M&A AWARDS 2015 OC&C are delighted to have been recognised for our work in Acquisition International’s (AI) 4th annual M&A awards where we were awarded the titles of Best for Traditional Media Acquisitions and Best for Business Unit Strategy for our work in the Technology, Digital and Media spaces.

Last year our UK team advised buyers and sellers on over 30 transactions in the corporate and PE sectors, delivering “stellar results and second to none client service”.

Who are OC&C? Founded in 1987, OC&C Strategy Consultants operate around the world to bring clear thinking to the most complex issues facing ambitious management.

Our TMT team covers all areas of TMT strategy globally with 27 strategy Partners across our international firm. Our M&A Practice covers all our sectors where we guide clients throughout the transaction process, from target search and screen through commercial strategic due diligence to business planning, post merger integration and profit / performance improvement.

For more information please email contact@occstrategy.com

www.occstrategy.com

60 Seconds 44. HindeSite Ltd 45. JVP Group 46. Simplisys Ltd

60 Second Interview

Tell us what your business does.

We are a recruitment consultancy who specialise in head hunting (executive search) for various clients in the corporate and public sector. Initially we started out in the IT sector however over the years we have grown with our clients and broadened our expertise into many different industry sectors.

Who are your clients?

We have a diverse range of clients from 0il & Energy, Fashion, Footwear, IT, Telecoms, Financial and many more. We work with reputable companies in the UK and Europe. Gaining a full understanding of the business and its functionality is primary to our success.

What business people do you most admire and why?

There are so many to name; however, Sheryl Sandberg is someone I personally find interesting and like to ready about. Someone who is proud to celebrate being an intelligent woman in business is such an inspiration to me.

Richard Branson, obviously another inspirational person who has maintained his beliefs and managed to become the main face of a brand. When people think of the company ‘Virgin’ the first person they think of is Richard Branson That’s clever marketing on his behalf!

What makes your company unique?

There are a vast number of Recruitment companies now so standing out from the crowd is a challenge, and our first rate personable service has been a winning formula. We treat both client and candidate with equal respect and appreciate the business they are putting our way.

What’s your biggest challenge facing you at present?

There are so many talented candidates out there, I would love to find them all a job but it is a tough market and there just aren’t enough roles available at present.

What’s the overall aim for your business?

To continue growing the business whilst ensuring the company ethos remains in place. People are our business therefore employees need to have the same principles, values, and gratitude that I do, and respect in business is something everyone should have.

Sometimes the larger a company gets, all values are lost and the service becomes somewhat sloppy. I have a strict respect policy and that must echo throughout the entire company as we grow.

What’s your company’s biggest challenge?

Recruitment is competitive and there are some very good consultancies out there. Being competitive without losing our principles is the biggest challenge.

Employees don’t have to have the same personality, they just need to share the same values.

44 Corporate Vision December 2015

Name: Jane Hinde Company: HindeSite Ltd Email: Jane@hindesite.co.uk Web Address: www.hindesite.co.uk Address: Ocean House, The Ring, Bracknell. Berkshire. RG12 1AX Telephone: +44(0)1344 388020

60 Second Interview

What does your business do?

JVP supports employers across the UK with tailored and comprehensive online recruitment advertising solutions.

Who are your clients?

Our clients range from SMEs to blue chip organisations including Boots Hearingcare, Funtech and Clogau Gold to name a few.

What makes you unique?

JVP stands out significantly from both direct (recruitment advertising companies) and indirect (recruitment agencies, job centre, and job sites) competitors in the recruitment industry, not only due to our unique service offering and high quality customer experience, but just as importantly because of the internal culture. At our core everyone in the JVP team is valued by the company and wants to deliver the best possible service to clients, to enable them to achieve their business goals. It’s refreshing to have a motivated and dedicated team who are involved in the business at every level.

What’s your biggest challenge facing you at present?

Employers are so used to traditional recruitment methods, it’s been a challenge communicating to employers that there is an alternative cost effective method that truly gets results. The recent launch of our fresh new brand identity has had a significant impact on overcoming that challenge.

What’s the aim for your business?

Our aim is to increase our client base and therefore market share by focusing on large key accounts with UK employers, whilst ensuring that our service standards remain at the highest levels, and in turn continuing to generate repeat business and referrals.

What business person do you most admire and why?

Alan Sugar. We have a similar work ethic, very transparent and ambitious.

Name: Cath Harrison Company: JVP Group Email: cath@JVPGroup.co.uk Web Address: www.JVPGroup.co.uk Address: Bodelwyddan Business Centre, Abergele Rd, Bodelwyddan, LL18 5SX. Telephone: 0844 967 4467

December 2015 Corporate Vision 45

60 Second Interview

Simplisys Ltd What does your business do?

Service Management is our business… we enable our customers to deliver first class service to their employees and or customers. In the modern world customer service is king, managing customer experience when contacting the business is key to customer satisfaction. Many companies have no process in place to ensure positive engagement which is an issue for many businesses large and small. We have developed a class leading, easy to use service desk software application that is “Simply Smart” by design and delivers knowledge to the front line operative based on the information provided by the caller which drives up the number of calls closed at first contact.

Please tell us about your clients.

We deal with many companies large and small however our bread and butter is SMEs’ (Small to Medium Sized Enterprises). Mid-sized organisations like NHS Trusts, Local Authorities, Government Departments, Housing Associations, larger Charities and large Manufacturing companies are typical customers. Examples are Dairygold, Sue Ryder Care, Alliance Homes.

What makes your firm unique?

Our software is “Simply Smart”, intelligent by design, Configuration not Customisation is our USP. We have successfully combined flexible Workflows, Business automation and Management Information Reports as standard , which is simple to set up and configure using drag and drop, point and click and Boolean logic negating long training courses at considerable expense that our larger competitors like to promote.

Moreover we practise what we preach and provide class leading customer support. In short if you want “Best Value” give us a ring.

What’s your company’s biggest challenge?

Our biggest challenge is keeping tabs on emerging technologies especially potential disruptive technologies. Small companies thrive because big companies struggle to deliver good customer service.

What’s the biggest challenge facing you at present?

My biggest challenge is to recruit resellers (agents) in other countries… any help you can give will be much appreciated.

Name: Peter Lench Company: Simplisys Ltd Email: peter.lench@simplisys.co.uk Web Address: www.simplisys.co.uk Address: 15 Middle Bridge Business Park, Bristol Road, Portishead, Bristol, BS20 6PN Telephone: +44 (0)1275 240500

Looking to the future, what’s the aim for your business?

To become a big business and retain our Customer CARE principles.

46 Corporate Vision December 2015

What business or business person do you most admire and why?

I think Google is a great business, it has proven to be sustainable and scalable however I think my favourite business person is Richard Branson or should I say Richard Virgin after all he is the brand.