Corporate Vision June 2015

Income Drawdown Surges Following Pension Reforms l Andy Murray Teams Up With Seedrs

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Operating Globally According to pricewaterhousecoopers Managing Partner, Kevin Ellis, one of the key challenges in running an international business is to operate globally.

The New Empathiser A new CEB report highlights that if businesses are to improve customer loyalty, they need a customer services team that displays the new business empathy.

Phil Beckett, Partner at Proven Legal Technologies, discusses the allegations of corruption and bribery in connection with Fifa, the international governing body of football. He also explains how careful monitoring could avoid suspicious monetary transactions going unnoticed in the future.

June 2015

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Editor’s Note Welcome to the June edition of Corporate Vision.

We start off this issue with tennis champion, Andy Murray, who has teamed up with leading equity crowdfunding platform, Seedrs. He will provide advice to the firm with respect to businesses working in thehealth, sport and wearable technology space.

We feature a number of CEO profiles in this issue, enabling us to get to know the faces behind some very successful companies. Some of these include Adam Twidell from Private Fly, Mark Evans for Confluence and Dawn Engelbrecht from Sherpa Kids.

We are introduced to the business era of new empathy. A new report by member-based advisory company CEB highlights that if businesses are to improve customer loyalty, they need a customer services team who displays the new business empathy, taking control and getting things done.

As tax legislation gets more complex, and politicians scramble to block alleged loopholes, mainly of their own making, businesses are increasingly looking to simplify their tax affairs. We hear from Laurence Field, head of corporate tax at Crowe Clark Whitehill about how to keep tax simple.

Finally we learn about effective cash flow management from Brian Whitford, Head of Marketing for Bartercard UK, about some useful advice for SMEs. We hope you enjoy this issue. See you next month!

Contents 4 News

14 CEO Profiles Adam Twidell Michael Bruce Mark Evans Farzana Baduel Dawn Engelbrecht

22 Strategy A New CEB Report Highlights the New Empathiser The Story of Inn Styles First ÂŁ150k and How it Could Help You Virtualising 3D graphic applications is the future for design businesses

28 Industry Insight can connections work for you? And if so what is the value it can bring to your start-up?

Operating Gloablly is a Challenege in a Less Global World Why it Pays to Invest in the Art of Call Answering

33 Money Banks Must Monitor Carefully Does the Price Action of Bunds Signal an End to Ultra Low Rates 38 SME Promoting Impact Investment We hear about the growth movements for Drive Medical Limited.

As tax legislation gets more complex, businesses are increasingly looking to simplify their tax affairs.

Effective Cash Flow Management for SME’s

News

Promoting Impact Investment Ontario’s partnership with the network of angel organizations (nao-ontario)

Ontario, Canada has a business environment that is designed for global success. With direct access to US$17 trillion North American market, a multicultural workforce and streamlined regulations, it acts as a powerful hub for international trade and investment.

Impact investment is integral to Ontario, with over 10,000 social ventures that employ about 160,000 people. The province is home to SVX, the first social impact investing platform of its kind in North America.

“Initiatives like the Impact Angel Alliance will help Ontario-based companies like ChipCare to accelerate our growth, and allow more people around the world to access affordable, life-saving HIV treatment,” explains James Fraser, CEO, ChipCare. “We are grateful to our investors who are committed to building a profitable Canadian diagnostics company, while helping to make a real difference in patient care globally.”

It was recently announced that Ontario would be working in partnership with the Network of Angel Organizations (NAO-Ontario) to launch the Impact Angel Alliance, encouraging investors to put their money into promising high-growth social ventures in Ontario.

“We want to encourage investors to target businesses that focus on achieving more than just profits, by placing their money into businesses that also positively contribute to social or environmental benefits in Ontario,” explains Brad Duguid, Minister of Economic Development, Employment and Infrastructure. “Angel investors can help social enterprises grow and succeed, and through our partnership with the Network of Angel Organizations and the Impact Angel Alliance, we are making it easier for social ventures and angel investors to connect, contribute, and make our society a better place to live.”

The Impact Angel Alliance will work with the Network of Angel Organizations (NAO-Ontario) as a force to raise awareness of social ventures among established angel investor groups. They will also work to diversify the membership of angel groups, helping to introduce more women, visible minorities and new immigrants. Additionally, the Alliance will research emerging trends, challenges and opportunities for impact investment saving time, reducing risk and attracting greater opportunities.

“Like any other start-ups, impact ventures need financing to grow,” comments Sean Holt, Executive Director, Impact Angel Alliance. “The number of angel investors making impact investments is growing, and we want to make it grow even more. With the support from the government and partnership with NAO-Ontario, we’re confident that we can achieve that goal and help to transition impacting investing to greater mainstream awareness and adoption.”

The launch of the Impact Angel Alliance should have a significant impact on social enterprise in Ontario.

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News

Government Guidance Sanlam have recently carried out some research into the government’s pension guidance service, pensions wise, which shows that over 55s shun free government pensions advice service, despite admitting their savings for retirement will not be enough.

Despite the ability to access free guidance via the government’s Pension Wise Service, more than a third (37%) of people said they would conduct their own online and telephone research and 17% said they would seek advice from their families. The research surveyed 2,000 people over the age of 55 from across the UK. The reluctance to embrace Pension Wise is at odds with how over 55s feel overall about the pension reforms. When asked if they support the changes allowing more freedom to take their pension as cash, nearly half (49%) agreed. But the readiness to embrace the reforms without seeking advice could leave many at risk particularly as one in three (34%) over 55s have acknowledged they will exhaust their savings during their retirement.

research revealed that consumers want regular, steady income more than they want flexibility of income. Yet when it comes to their actual behaviour, those already in income drawdown take larger blocks of income, infrequently suggesting flexibility dominates. Dr Paul Cox, from the University of Birmingham, warned that about a third of consumers age 55+ with pensions either don’t know or can’t decide how they would prefer to consume their retirement savings or have yet to give it any thought.

Only 19% of over 55s are against the new pension legislation, with a third (32%) still undecided on whether the reforms will be beneficial for savers. Therefore Sanlam’s findings indicate that over 55s need more time and guidance in order to understand the new options for retirement income. Of those surveyed, nearly one in three (29%) said they didn’t know if they would either withdraw their pension or manage the money themselves, keep the money invested or buy an annuity.

Alex Morley, CEO of Sanlam Wealth Planning, said: “The confusion and uncertainty displayed by consumers impacted by the pension reforms exposes the risk that many over 55s could begin making significant changes to their lifetime savings without any form of professional advice or guidance. As the cost of living goes up and people are living longer, we could end up with a large amount of people exhausting their private pensions and having to rely on the Government to support them in their later years. Much more needs to be done to demonstrate to consumers the impact of the new pension legislation and the benefits of seeking advice before making any big financial decisions. A good financial planner will look at a person’s investment strategy over the long term, with the right level of protection in mind.”

Data collated by the University of Birmingham on behalf of Sanlam found a discrepancy in what consumers say and the actions they take when it comes to their retirement income; highlighting a need to design retirement solutions that allow both flexibility of income and taking a steady, regular income. This

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News

Income Drawdown Surges Following Pension Reforms Following the new pension legislation coming into force, the impact of the reforms is already Reshaping the income drawdown market. Selectapension, the pension and investment software provider, has saw a 57% surge in the number of drawdown cases being analysed by advisers In the first week following the pension freedoms.

The data indicates that pension freedoms have also sparked a trend for a broader spectrum of consumers to investigate Drawdown as their preferred retirement income route. Selectapension has seen an increasing number of Advisers reviewing Drawdown as an option for clients with smaller pension pots.

Longer-term, the data also suggests that this trend is not just a knee-jerk reaction to the pension reforms by consumers. Selectapension has witnessed a surge in demand from Advisers to have a demonstration of the technology provider’s Flexible Retirement Optimiser tool, from their dedicated Customer Service Team. The increase in take-up illustrates that Advisers are keen to embrace the latest Drawdown tools, ready for any client questions.

Andy McCabe, Managing Director at Selectapension commented: “From our six years of experience in the Drawdown market, we have been expecting that more consumers would tune into the benefits of Drawdown, and the pension reforms have created a catalyst for this.

“It is clear that the retirement market is changing for good. Advisers need to use this as an opportunity

to demonstrate the value they can add to a client’s long-term investment. At Selectapension, we support the Adviser community by adding the latest retirement products to our system as soon as they are on the market. We have also linked with Assureweb to provide live Annuity quotations, so the analysis of clients’ income options in retirement can all be done in one place at the same time. This enables Advisers to deal with the additional client requests about this retirement income option.”

Chris Wilson, Group Risk and Governance Manager, CAERUS Financial Ltd SAID “The new pension freedom rules give clients more flexibility in how they draw their pension benefits than ever before. Advisers need to be equipped to help clients make important financial decisions and the Flexible Retirement Optimiser offers the functionality to review different scenarios, including accurate annuity quotes, via a tool which many of our firms are already familiar with having used other modules within the range”.

Peter Bradshaw, National Accounts Director at Selectapension comments: “The pension reforms are dramatically re-shaping the retirement market. These reforms have acted as a catalyst in the Income Draw-

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down arena as seen from our latest research, which found a 57% surge in the number of Drawdown cases analysed by Advisers in the first week following the pensions freedoms.

This is a great opportunity for Advisers to demonstrate the value they can add to a client’s long-term planning. At Selectapension, we support Financial Advice firms by ensuring the latest retirement products are added to our system as soon as they are launched on to the market. We have also linked with Assureweb to provide live Annuity quotations, so the analysis of clients’ income options in retirement can all be done in one place at the same time. This enables Advisers to consider blending income options.

Looking ahead, the pension freedoms represent an opportunity for Advisers’ to manage the challenge of investing for their clients’ future. Consumers need financial advice when planning for their retirement, so by using the latest software, Advisers are able to show clients the value of professional, paid-for advice, so they can understand the options and risks associated with living too long or dying too soon, as retirement is a journey, not just an event.”

News

Avaloq Announces Expansion of Edinburgh R&D Centre The avaloq group confirms its ambition for a stronger presence in scotland at an official opening event to mark the expansion of its research and development centre in edinburgh.

The investment in the facility will provide Avaloq with the potential to more than double its workforce in Scotland. The Avaloq group is an international provider of software and services for wealth management, universal and retail banking whose customers, including Coutts and Canaccord in the UK, manage assets worth more than £1.5 trillion.

The announcement of Avaloq’s continued commitment to its Edinburgh centre follows the launch of a partnership between the City of Edinburgh Council, Scottish Financial Enterprise and Innovate Finance, with the ambition of supporting financial technology innovation in both Edinburgh and London.

and strong ambassadorial and consular communities.

This all contributes to helping to attract companies of this high calibre to base themselves in the capital city.”

Chris Zwicker concludes, “The financial industry has undergone rapid change in recent years and shows no signs of settling down. Innovation is essential to ensure the industry continues to serve the future

Representatives of these organisations are set to attend the launch event at Avaloq’s Edinburgh R&D centre on Wednesday 27 May to discuss the importance of investment in the Scottish financial technology arena. Avaloq will also outline its decision to expand the hi-tech development facility and lead a panel discussion on the past, present and future of financial technology innovation in Edinburgh.

Chris Zwicker, managing director of Avaloq Innovation, says, “The launch is an important milestone in the evolution of Avaloq‘s R&D centre in Edinburgh. Since being founded in 2011, the centre has made rapid progress towards establishing itself as an equal to our mature development facilities in Zurich. This next stage of expansion is a clear testament to the importance Avaloq places on Edinburgh as a key asset in its strong growth ambitions.

“When we originally set out our plans to build an R&D centre to complement our development teams in Zurich, we knew we needed a location that was at the heart of the financial industry while also being a hub for current and upcoming talent in the technology field. Edinburgh was the ideal choice and our success has completely validated this decision, which is why we are continuing to invest in the Scottish capital.”

Cllr Frank Ross, Convener of the Economy Committee, the City of Edinburgh Council, says, “I am very encouraged to hear of Avaloq’s plans for future expansion. This is further evidence that Edinburgh’s financial technology sector is thriving and internationally renowned. All well as being known for excellent quality of life, heritage and culture, Edinburgh has high ranking universities that excel in international research and development, thriving property markets

June 2015 Corporate Vision 7

needs and demands of the customer, market and regulatory landscape. From our base in central Edinburgh, we have been able to deliver industry-leading banking solutions to support our sales and implementation teams in London and around the world. We see the growth of talent within our Edinburgh R&D centre as being essential to fuelling continued innovation within the financial services industry.”

News

Andy Murray Teams Up With Leading Equity Crowdfunding Platform, Seedrs Investing in startups through crowdfunding in a unique first for a public figure

Tennis champion Andy Murray has announced that he has entered a long term partnership arrangement with Seedrs, the London based equity crowdfunding platform.

was working with people I trusted and who fully understood the huge responsibility of handling people’s money. I’m looking forward to working with Seedrs and the entrepreneurs of tomorrow.”

The arrangement will see Andy joining the Seedrs Advisory Board to provide advice to the firm with respect to businesses working in the health, sport and wearable technology spaces. Andy will not be offering advice to individual investors or recommending specific campaigns.

Matt Gentry, who runs Andy’s management company, 77, added: “Andy is a keen investor, with his own management agency alongside a property portfolio, which includes a hotel. Crowdfunding is a space we’ve been looking at for a while, to complement his business interests, and he’s excited about being able to help startup businesses and entrepreneurs in the UK. Andy’s been lucky enough to have support from sponsors throughout his career, not only helping to aid him and his team financially, but also adding valuable mentoring in many cases. For him the opportunity to give something back to help to up and coming business men and women was very appealing.”

He will also be investing regularly in startups and other early-stage businesses through Seedrs and helping Seedrs to grow its brand in the UK and internationally.

Equity crowdfunding is revolutionising the way startups and other early-stage businesses are being funded. It involves the raising of funds by obtaining many small investments from a large number of people through online platforms.

This form of business fundraising is proving increasingly popular, and it allows businesses not only to obtain the capital they need but also to build a community of supportive investors who can help them grow.

The equity crowdfunding market is growing quickly.

Since its launch in July 2012, Seedrs has reported 15% month-on-month growth, and within the next few years it expects to be funding hundred of millions of pounds into thousands of businesses each year.

This partnership represents the first time a major public figure has teamed up with an equity crowdfunding platform in this way, and it heralds a significant milestone in the development of the equity crowdfunding industry.

Andy Murray shared his perspective: “I’ve always been interested in investment, and being able to get involved in an innovative way to help support British startups really appealed to me. Equally as important

Jeff Lynn, CEO and co-founder of Seedrs, celebrated the announcement as follows: “Andy Murray is the perfect partner for Seedrs as we drive our growth to the next level. In many ways, he represents the exact combination of qualities that entrepreneurs need to be successful: determination, focus, integrity and skill. We are particularly looking forward to working with him as a member of our Advisory Board: we believe he can bring a different perspective into certain aspects of the early-stage business community in the health, sport and wearable technology spaces, and we look forward to his input and support.”

Lord Young of Graffham, the Prime Minister’s former Enterprise Adviser and a long time champion of equity crowdfunding, said this about the announcement: “Both modern tennis and equity crowdfunding have their origins in Britain, and Andy Murray and Seedrs are world-leaders in their respective fields. It is wonderful to see the two coming together in this unique partnership, and I believe the outcome of it will be to see more great British businesses raising the capital they need, and more investors having the chance to be part of those businesses.”

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News

June 2015 Corporate Vision 9

News

Recruitment Giant Cordant Group Acquires Staffgroup Cordant group plc, the top 10 uk recruitment giant and parent company of cordant recruitment, has scored a strategically significant coup by acquiring staffgroup, a sizeable international recruitment firm turning over some £52.2 Million and employing 120 staff, for an undisclosed sum.

Staffgroup will become part of Cordant Recruitment’s Professional Staffing division, headed up by Managing Director Sid Barnes. Staffgroup will retain its name and own brand identity and its Managing Directors will join the Professional Staffing executive board.

Founded in 2003, Staffgroup specialises in recruitment in technology, finance, engineering and energy.

It has offices in eight countries in Europe and the USA. The company is headed up by joint Managing Directors, Mark Znowski and Paul Flynn and has been enjoying exponential growth – increasing turnover in the last year alone by 40 per cent. The deal will bring major strategic benefits to both companies.

It will enable Cordant to establish a mainstream presence for recruitment in the IT industry and also give its existing brands, in areas such as procurement engineering, banking and finance and executive search a gateway to new international markets through Staffgroup’s locations.

Paul Flynn believes “Staffgroup will benefit from the financial backing and clout of Cordant Group, giving it significant new investment and resources to accelerate its growth plans.” Mark Znowski adds “Both companies have committed to increasing their headcount significantly as part of the deal.”

Sid Barnes, Managing Director of Professional Staffing, Cordant Recruitment, says: “When I joined Cordant at the start of the year, one of my major ambitions for Professional Staffing was to establish a significant and mainstream presence within the IT and technology sector in the UK, Europe and the U.S. Today’s deal gives us a platform to do that.”

“I’ve known Mark and Paul for over 17 years and watched with admiration as they have grown their business into a truly impressive operation. We have often talked about working together and when I joined Cordant, it became apparent that there was an immediate fit operationally and strategically, but also in terms of the personalities, the people and the culture. I am

extremely excited about the opportunity that this deal offers and we will be making a further announcement soon about another significant development which adds even more to our portfolio of services.”

Steven Kirkpatrick, CEO of Cordant Recruitment, comments: “We have made no bones about the fact that we want to be the number one recruiter in our specialisms both here in the UK and internationally, as well as the go to destination for talented recruitment professionals. This is a significant step to realising our ambitions and securing another significant foothold on the international recruitment stage.”

Professional Staffing is one of four divisions within Cordant Recruitment and focuses on recruiting professionally qualified employees, ranging from High-Level Executives to technical experts across the full project lifecycle. It encompass several of Cordant’s specialist consultancies including Cordant Technical & Engineering, Cordant Dynamic (Microsoft stack and Analytical recruitment), Cordant Procurement (recruiting within the procurement sector), Grosvenor Boston (compliance & risk specialism) and Grays Executive Search (a search and selection consultancy for board level and senior executives).

Archer commented: “Becoming part of the Cordant Group will enable the Staffgroup team to accelerate their expansion plans. The acquisition gives Cordant a strategic foothold in the IT and energy sectors and demonstrates that there is a clear appetite from UK corporates to acquire good quality businesses with strong management teams in the UK market.”

Law firm, Gateley, acted on behalf of Cordant on the acquisition. The team was headed up by corporate partner, Charles Glaskie, alongside corporate solicitor, Leigh Whittaker, senior associate in the banking team, James Benson, and trainee solicitor, Catherine Donnelly.

Charles said: “Cordant is a long-standing client of Gateley and we’re delighted to have completed another acquisition of a recruitment business on its behalf.”

Deloitte Corporate Finance advised Cordant Group on the acquisition, led by partner Katie Folwell-Davies and supported by Sohail Ahmad, Robert Murray and Negar Afsarzadeh. Katie has advised the family owned business on eight previous transactions and looks forward to continuing to support the group going forward.

Folwell-Davies commented: “The acquisition of Staffgroup is a landmark and platform transaction for Cordant Group and I look forward to working with the enlarged team over the coming months.”

A team at mid-market advisory firm Clearwater Corporate Finance, led by partner Marcus Archer, with the support of Natasha Price and Stephen Nemeth advised Staffgroup on the deal. Marcus

10 Corporate Vision June 2015

Sid Barnes, Managing Director of Professional Staffing, Cordant Recruitment

News

Nomis 4.6 Enhances Active Market Signal Response Banks can take rapid action in competitive markets as rates rise Nomis Solutions have announced the release of Nomis 4.6, the latest version of their feature-rich price optimization suite, which enables banks to utilize actionable insight to react more quickly in today’s dynamic financial services market.

Additional features in Nomis 4.6 include: •

• The 4.6 release follows a period of significant investment into performance and scalability that enables customers to respond swiftly to business opportunities and challenges. Insight gained from the recent Nomis Forum emphasized the increasing pressure banks are under to win and protect market share, grow responsibly, and react quickly. Nomis 4.6 further enables this by equipping banks with the ability to optimize the drivers of profitability and volume across their portfolios at speed and with increased granularity, therefore pricing more effectively, all vital capabilities banks need to master.

For Nomis, the focus is solely on understanding and addressing banking profitability challenges in industry-specific price optimization software. This release adds significant customer value in highly competitive or rising rate environments where speed is essential.

•

A new capability called Active Recalibration™ that dynamically adjusts models, enabling up-todate and market-informed decisions.

A new reporting suite that quickly surfaces actionable insights.

Enhanced optimization and Efficient Frontier mechanics that reveal key trade-offs to help make strategic decisions quickly.

Nomis also made significant strides in further enhancing their Lending solutions in this release. Below are some of the highlights: • •

•

The incorporation of Home Equity loans to round out their widely deployed Home Equity solution.

The integration of third party data from their solution partner, Icon, into their auto finance solution to understand real-time market movement.

Enhanced optimization mechanics for Auto Finance, including user-specific optimization constraints personalizing a user’s solution experience.

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Nomis Solutions CEO, Frank Rohde, says of the release, “With rising rates in the U.S., Eastern Europe, and parts of Asia Pacific, the leading economies of the global economic recovery, the question still looms: How do banks tackle the challenge of protecting market share from challengers and benefitting from raising interest rates while satisfying more customer segments? Those who are ready for this challenge will be the winners.

Our solution allows banks to use data science to decide what action to take in a wide range of market scenarios, only one of which is a rising market. In an often-convoluted landscape of approaches to solving price optimization, the Nomis 4.6 Price Optimization Suite offers a simple and integrated software-based approach for incorporating segment, economic, and regulatory variables into pricing decisions based on cutting-edge science and deep understanding of banking economics. Our philosophy has always been to educate the market and provide solutions that make robust price optimization a quickly deployable solution for any bank investing in competitive advantage. Nomis 4.6 makes these capabilities even more accessible for banks seeking to achieve rapid and entirely quantifiable bottom line results.”

News

Law But No Order!

Employees are making critical business decisions, but lack the ‘legal iq’ Employees of major global businesses are hiding critical decisions from their Legal teams, due to a lack of understanding about the impacts of their actions. From 2011-13, compliance failures relating to data privacy alone cost businesses on average $2.1 million. And, unless action is taken, this figure is only set to grow according to member-based advisory company CEB. In a recent survey across thousands of publicly-listed companies, CEB found that 59% of employees make decisions without being aware of the potential legal repercussions, while nearly 75% of employees feel that it is simply too much effort to consult their Legal teams. Rather, employees prefer to ‘phone a friend’ – asking a peer for advice.

The problem: Employees don’t have the ‘Legal IQ’ necessary to gauge when legal advice should be sought. So, activities remain hidden away from the Legal team, until it is too late.

Even at the Executive level, a worrying 45% admitted a lack of understanding about the legal impacts of their everyday decisions. Outside of the boardroom, this figure was even higher: 60% of middle managers weren’t aware of the legal sensitivities around critical decisions.

Many of CEB’s member companies have made effective changes in order to boost legal understanding across their staff. A renowned household brand, has delivered real-time legal support to employees through a mobile app – enabling them to consult their phones to gauge the risks involved in daily decisions.

Aaron Kotok, practice leader at CEB, said, “The cost of compliance failures is clearly enormous. Many repercussions could be avoided if employees simply sat down with their Legal teams or were given the tools to better anticipate legal risks and make smarter legally-sensitive business decisions.

To establish ‘Legal IQ’ across the business, CEB recommends the following: •

• Employees must understand all of the legal sensitivities around their everyday decisions. And, it’s the responsibility of a Legal team to put a framework in place that improves the ‘Legal IQ’ of an organisation, so employees at every level can manage their decisions judiciously”.

•

Improve your Legal department’s insight into the business: Clients are 39% more likely to be satisfied with the outcomes of their decisions Make issue resolution easy: Clients who agree that their Legal departments enable easy issue resolution are 45% more likely to use Legal again Foster legal acumen : Improving clients’ legal acumen means clients are 43% more likely to use Legal in the future

Things Are Looking Up Uk’s most successful fintech startup transfers over £500m every month through its Peer-to-peer platform TransferWise, the international money transfer platform, has today announced that its users are transferring more than £500m across the globe every month. This equates to more than £22m of customer money being saved which would have otherwise been lost in hidden bank FX fees.

“We transfer tens of millions of customer money everyday and we have approximately two per cent UK market share of the international money transfer business. This figure is only going to grow as people become fed up with the traditional banking sector and look for fairer alternatives like TransferWise”.

TransferWise is one of Europe’s leading financial services tech startups and the company behind the #stophiddenfees campaign aimed at championing transparency in FX fees when customers send money abroad.

Earlier this year the company received $58m in a series C funding round led by US venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. The capital is being used to grow the money transfer platform into new international markets. It recently launched new routes into Morocco, Pakistan, Brazil and Nigeria.

Commenting on the figures Taavet Hinrikus, co-founder of TransferWise said: “Exceeding the £500m a month milestone is important as it shows a fundamental shift in people’s awareness of how banks, brokers and others take advantage of customers by hiding the real cost of international transactions.

About TransferWise TransferWise is the international money transfer platform based on peer-to peer technology. Launched in 2011, it is one of the UK’s most successful fintech startups having raised $91m in funding from investors such as Andreessen Horowitz, Sir Richard Branson,

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Peter Thiel and Max Levchin, the co-founders of PayPal. Co-founded by Taavet Hinrikus and Kristo Käärmann, the company was created out of frustration with the high fees charged by banks on international money transfer. TransferWise uses the mid-market rate without the hidden mark-up fees - making it up to 10 times cheaper to send money abroad compared to using a bank.

Over £500 million is transferred across the globe every month using the TransferWise platform, saving customers more than £22 million every month. TransferWise is working to make the world a tiny bit better by helping to make the financial system fair.

News

New Service Restores London’s Ancient Local Market Tradition Farmdrop.Co.Uk restores the city’s historic link with fresh local produce by delivering direct from local growers and makers to the doorstep.

From the 1600s, London’s Covent Garden in the heart of WC2 was a thriving produce market, with fresh vegetables occupying the space now devoted to souvenir shops and boutiques. Since then, population pressures, redevelopment and industrialisation of the food chain have removed the garden heart from London. Supermarkets and multiples now account for around 98 percent of food shopping, with farm shops representing less than one percent.

Now a new business is reversing this trend. London consumers now have access to a virtual market that sources 75 percent of its produce inside the M25, delivers some food from field to doorstep on the same day and pays farmers and producers 70-80 percent on the retail price of their produce. Fresh vegetables, fruit, cheeses, meat, fish, bread and eggs are sourced from suppliers, the lion’s share of which are within the distance that London’s produce suppliers would have been centuries ago.

Farmdrop.co.uk is rapidly bringing field-fresh produce to the doorsteps of London homes, restoring the days of the City’s streets filled with the sounds of street traders. Asparagus, wild garlic, globe artichokes and rhubarb fresh from local fields are amongst the hundreds of local foods available for delivery.

Farmdrop.co.uk operates hubs in London to which suppliers deliver four days a week. Most of that produce is shipped out to homes and other collection points throughout London on the same day via electric vans that create lower emissions than horses and carts. The business plans to expand to other cities and towns, with two additional cities earmarked for launch in the next 18 months. All suppliers will be local to those cities in line with the Farmdrop ethos.

Ben Patten added: “What we’re doing is redefining freshness – and taking the idea back to its local roots.

Central London’s historic markets were any amazing source of local fresh produce and we’re using new technology and logistics to bring our nutritional history back to life.”

Suppliers to Farmdrop.co.uk include Calabaza, a farm inside the M25 and 7 miles as the crow flies from Trafalgar Square. A new and even closer farm based underground at Clapham North, Growing Underground, will also supply to Farmdrop.co.uk when it starts trading this summer. Already 37 suppliers are operating using the Farmdrop network and new businesses are joining all the time.

Ben Patten, who runs Farmdrop.co.uk, said: “In London the City’s streets have names like Poultry, Cornhill, Old Fish Street, Bread Street, Honey Lane and Milk Street because that’s what they were originally for. Cheapside in its market heyday was home to four hundred produce stalls. What we’re essentially doing is recreating ancient produce market trading for London by using 21st century planning tools and e-commerce technology.”

He added: “Historically Londoners benefitted for easy access to fresh produce – and ironically we’ve lost that due to ‘progress’. Markets have been priced out of the City’s central areas, with the exception of one or two places, and that means that most of us are reliant on the supermarket food chain. This also means that we’re very short of genuinely fresh produce in London.”

“The supermarket marketing line seduces into an idea of freshness that really doesn’t bear scrutiny. Socalled ‘fresh juice’ often travels in tankers from South America and the ‘juicy bits’ in orange juice often come from a different country altogether. Similarly, ‘fresh fish’ is mostly frozen on the trawler and defrosted before it appears on supermarket displays.”

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One supplier to Farmdrop.co.uk said: “What I love about this venture is that it supports farmers in a way that supermarkets don’t. We tried the supermarket route and found that they were brutal negotiators, paying us often way below 50% of the retail price. As a business that really cares about the quality of the food that we produce and invests in making it the best we found that the supermarket ethos worked against us.”

Farmdrop.co.uk is seeking to support independent farms and food producers that are financially (and environmentally) sustainable. Many suppliers are winners of Soil Association awards.

Other suppliers include Purton House Organics, Old Spike Roastery, Farmdrop’s coffee supplier, a social enterprise providing jobs for homeless people in London; a local honey supplier, Bread Ahead, a local business renowned for its sour dough; Pig & Hay, makers of the best sausage rolls and Scotch eggs in London, and a Hackney-based jam and chutney producer.

CEO Profile

Adam Twidell Adam twidell is the ceo and co-founder of privatefly.Com, the booking platform for private jet flights. Privatefly compares live pricing and availability for over 7,000 accredited aircraft worldwide via bespoke and unique technology. Privatefly is a disruptive business model in the traditional, charter broking sector. In may 2014, adam was named by aviation week as one of the top 10 leaders of european business aviation, the judges calling him an ‘internet pioneer’.

Adam began his career in the Royal Air Force, serving 10 years as a pilot, including time spent on active service with the UK’s Special Forces. He then joined private jet market-leaders NetJets, during a time of European expansion for their fractional ownership fleet. He spent three years as a captain on the Citation XL, and seeing the business aviation industry at close hand.

Leaving NetJets for more entrepreneurial climbs, he spotted an opportunity at RAF Northolt in London for a private jet hub, and launched a bid for this MOD contract. Realising the reluctance of the MOD to offer such a high profile contract to a startup company, Adam took his venture to London City Airport where he led a joint and subsequently successful bid.

From this experience, Adam was able to see the industry from all perspectives - pilot, passenger, airport, handling agent – and recognised the major inefficiencies in the fragmented private jet charter market (40% of aircraft were flying empty, repositioning for their next flight).

Today PrivateFly operates a very different business model to the traditional broker and is growing rapidly, doubling its turnover and bookings each year, for the last two years. It still offers an expert 24-hour team, but with significantly enhanced efficiency via technology: Transparent, better and faster pricing for the customer; an improved marketing channel for aircraft; and a scalable lean business model.

Since its launch in 2008, the business has grown rapidly in a recession and now operates internationally, via web and app platforms, and in multiple languages - alongside its VIP flight team. PrivateFly also operates B2B, distributing its services through corporate and luxury partners including Addison Lee; lastminute.com; Ten Lifestyle, and Manchester Airports Group.

Speaking to customers, aircraft operators and airports, he saw the opportunity for a disruptive, technology-driven model. He was told by many that ‘no-one will book a private jet online’, which succeeded in fuelling his ambition.

His concept was to unify the highly-fragmented charter industry in one network, linking private jet customers directly to available aircraft and integrated with the industry supply chain. The economic conditions were to PrivateFly’s advantage: A new customer was emerging - more cost-conscious and tech-savvy.

Following wider travel industry patterns, PrivateFly set out to offer greater accessibility, speed and transparency.

14 Corporate Vision June 2015

PrivateFly continues to strive for greater efficiencies and innovations in its sector. Recent developments include increased integration with global aircraft operators’ own scheduling software, giving instant live availability and pricing – with response times as fast as 45 minutes from enquiry to airborne.

Adam is passionate about bringing continued efficiency to the private aviation industry. Alongside PrivateFly, he continues to work on high-profile consultancy projects within the aviation sector and is a Council member of BACA (Baltic Air Charter Association), which represents the interests of the global private aviation charter industry. He remains a passionate and active pilot and flies the Citation XLS+.

Adam Twidell, CEO and Co-founder of PrivateFly.com

June 2015 Corporate Vision 15

CEO Profile

Michael Bruce Michael bruce is the ceo of purplebricks.Com, a hybrid estate agency combining a 24/7 online platform with local property experts across the uk. Purplebricks.Com aims to shake up the Traditional estate agency model by drastically undercutting charges and providing a more Transparent service.

Purplebricks.com is disrupting the traditional estate agency model by providing the full services of a traditional estate agent, but without the sky-high fees that come with maintaining a high street presence.

Michael Bruce and his brother Kenny, Birmingham businessmen with over 40 combined years in the property industry, launched Purplebricks in April 2014. While Purplebricks has a central 24/7 online platform, its Local Property Experts are based in towns across the UK, providing specific expertise tailored to the areas they know best. Their recent launch in the capital sees Purplebricks operating nationally and offering their service to the entire country, using the model that has proven so successful so far. Their approach is clearly working: in less than a year of operating, Purplebricks has saved customers £10 million in estate agency fees and sold over 2,000 properties, 98% of which have sold for the asking price or more.

Purplebricks’ USP is the combination of a revolutionary eZie platform that enables things to happen instantly 24 hours a day, coupled with having Local Property Experts on the ground. These experts work exclusively for Purplebricks but are not constrained to a high street office. Customers can tell very quickly whether you have a caring culture and ethos.

Purplebricks spent two and a half years in advance of launch talking to thousands of people about what they really want from the process of selling, buying or letting a property.

Purplebricks has received significant investment from a number of noteworthy business leaders to develop and grow the business. Neil Woodford, founder of Woodford Investment Management, invested £7m in August 2014 and ex-Capita Chief Executive Paul Pindar has also contributed heavily, alongside DN Capital, the global venture capital firm.

In his previous role, Michael Bruce led a leading independent “traditional” estate agency, and was constantly looking at ways in which they could add real value for their customers. High street estate agencies were not fully embracing the internet and technology because to do so would have a dramatic impact on the very foundation of their businesses, resulting in a substantial reduction in fees and no need for high street premises that are rarely if ever visited these days. Making the process more convenient, transparent, cost effective and controlled less tightly by the estate agent would break the model. Michael and his brother therefore founded Purplebricks.com with the aim of being at the forefront of a change in direction – one that is in the best interests of the customer and not in the best interests of a commission, and where the experience is positive and stress free.

Customers can book a free valuation, provided by a highly experienced Local Property Expert, which includes a comprehensive written description, floor plans, professional photographs and a listing on all major property websites including Rightmove, Zoopla and Prime Location. Customers also have

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access to the unique Purplebricks online platform that will provide them with complete visibility at every stage of their property sale, allowing them to receive real time feedback and to safely and securely communicate with potential buyers through the system. It is the 24/7 availability of Purplebricks’ services which is upturning the traditional way people buy and sell property.

With any new disruptive business, it is always difficult to earn trust quickly. Purplebricks has had to demonstrate to people that they get a better service and benefit from a huge cost reduction at the same time. However, Purplebricks now has many hundred 5 star reviews on Trustpilot and their properties move from ‘For Sale’ to ‘Sold’ twice as quickly as any online agent. The company has had to build this trust month by month and now there a number of areas where Purplebricks is the number one of all estate agents (both online and traditional).

Purplebricks was named number one the recent Startups 100 list, fighting off tough competition to be crowned as the ‘Ultimate Winner of the top 100 new companies set for big things this year’, after demonstrating exactly why proptech (property technology) is one of the top business opportunities of 2015.

Michael Bruce, CEO of Purplebricks.com June 2015 Corporate Vision 17

CEO Profile

Mark Evans Confluence is a data management and software company whose heritage lies in us mutual funds.

The firm started out providing technology to automate the calculation and distribution of nav prices for us mutual funds. Over time, the confluence platform has grown to encompass financial reporting, expense management, regulatory reporting etc. And has built a significant presence in europe, following the wave of financial regulation coming from the european union.

Mark Evans is President, Chairman and CEO of Confluence, which he founded in 1991 with a vision of revolutionizing asset management through technology innovation and data management automation. Driven by Mark’s vision, in 1994 Confluence released Unity® Performance (formerly FundStation®), a product which today automates complex performance reporting for more than 80 percent of the leading global investment managers. Under his leadership, Confluence has grown to be recognized as a global leader in fund administration automation.

Today, seven of the top 10 global service providers license Confluence products and eight of the top 10 global asset managers have business processes automated through Confluence.

The company’s products comprise the asset management industry’s only unified platform for global fund administration automation and, with its headquarters in Pittsburgh, PA, Confluence also operates offices in Brussels, Dublin, London, Ho Chi Minh City, Luxembourg and San Francisco.

Based on his extensive expertise, Mark gives here his insight on the investment servicing industry’s relationship with regulatory requirements: “Ten years ago, I switched banks. I took all of my deposits out, filled out the necessary forms and ended the relationship because I couldn’t download my data to Quicken. I’m quite sure my bank was thinking, “Who would switch? We have nice branches!” But they never got ahead of my needs. The investment servicing industry faces the same threat, and it’s missing a mighty opportunity to remedy it: Regulation.

In waiting to act until it’s forced to act, and in viewing regulations as a burden rather than a prompt for innovation, the industry has become so caught up in what regulators ask for that it’s forgotten what regulations are for – and for whom.

The regulator is not the client. The investor is the client. But somewhere along the way, the investor got cut out of the conversation.

Regulators step in because the industry hasn’t stepped up. Demand for actionable, timely data is growing, and the middle- and back-office professionals in the investment servicing world will have to do more to instill trust in this $1 trillion industry. Right now, they do just enough and gripe about it.

But the places where investors feel safe putting their money in the future will be those that embrace the seemingly insatiable need for data and knowledge. As a whole, the industry isn’t there yet: When investors see the Dow going up but don’t have the resources and data to track their own investments against it, and they then feel – mistakenly or not – that they’re not achieving the same performance, that’s a giant fail.

Regulators demand timely data because investors need it – and aren’t getting it. Regulators demand actionable reporting because investors need it – and aren’t getting it.

Regulators demand frequent communication because investors need it – and aren’t getting it. Maybe it’s the industry that isn’t “getting it.”

Increased regulation is a wake-up call that the investment industry is not innovating, not responding to client needs, and not staying ahead. Reacting isn’t full client service; and going forward, it won’t be enough to retain market share. We’re already reaching the point where people say, “You know, this isn’t OK anymore. I need to be able to see what my retirement account has in it right now, and it has to be integrated with my other assets, and that information can’t be spread all over hell’s half-acre.” And once that happens, you’re either in position, or you’re out.

It’s time we wagged our own tails and looked at rules and regulations as prompts to create advantage or differentiation in the way we provide information – and to go even farther by anticipating the investor needs that will drive future regulations.

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In five years, if you can’t explain what your investor is going to want or need, then you’re not going to be in a position to respond and to service that need. You’re not going to be able to create meaningful differentiation.

And that investor is going to bother with the forms, the signatures and the time commitment to take their investment to someone who can.”

CEO Profile

Farzana Baduel Farzana baduel is founder and managing director of curzon pr, a london-based strategic public relations and digital communications agency working across arts, culture, food and drink and business and policy in growth markets.

Farzana has nurtured Curzon PR, driving it forward as a leading media agency, representing clients ranging from international government projects, to Amira, a major corporation listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Her vision of going global was achieved when the New York office of Curzon PR was established in December 2014, with plans underway to open the Middle-East office in Dubai, in May 2015.

international publications. She is also Editor-at- Large for Epicurean Life and has provided expert commentary for BBC, Al Jazeera, Director Magazine and Management Today. Speaking engagements include King’s College London.

Baduel is also a firm supporter of charity, and currently serves on the board of CARE, Pakistan’s largest educational NGO. As a passionate advocate

Clients have included arts and culture initiatives for Russia as well as the Ukrainian and Azerbaijani governments. Other projects include the launch of the Friends of Barisan Nasional UK with Malaysian Prime Minister Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib, Imran Khan and the PTI political party as well as the Securing Asia inaugural Homeland Security and Counter Terror Summit at Westminster. Personal profiling projects have included top surgeon Mohammad Jawad, the subject of the Oscar-winning documentary Saving Face.

From 2006 to date, Baduel served as Vice Chair of Conservative Business Relations, while high profile speaking engagements have included the Conservative Women’s Organisation at the House of Commons. She is also an advisor for the Friends of Barisan Nasional UK, Malaysia’s ruling political party.

Prior to establishing Curzon, Baduel was Advisor to the London Development Agency and Enterprise Insight on enterprise issues and was involved in fundraising for the Conservative party, both for Boris Johnson’s mayoral campaign and for fundraisers with Baroness Thatcher and the Rt. Hon William Hague. She also served as a member of the Committee for the Federation of Small Businesses as well as sitting on the committee of the Institute of Directors. Baduel was previously Vice President of Club 24, an initiative that supports female parliamentary prospective candidates.

Contributing to publications including The Guardian and Business Today, Baduel writes on thought leadership, soft power initiatives and country branding for

June 2015 Corporate Vision 19

for diversity in the media, Baduel has talso eamed up with initiatives such as Creative Access, which aims to fill the disparity of ethnic minorities in the creative industries. As a result of this and her other achievements, she won Media Professional of the Year at the 2014 Asian Media Awards, and is currently shortlisted for The Asian Women of Achievement Awards 2015.

CEO Profile

Dawn Engelbrecht Dawn engelbrecht, ceo skids new zealand and co-director sherpa kids international

In 2006, entrepreneur Dawn Engelbrecht made the leap from franchisee of a company that provides structured out-of-school care for primary school aged children in New Zealand to co-owner of the business.

Dawn and another franchisee, Bev Parsons, bought Safe Kids in Daily Supervision (sKids) which was founded in 1996 and was operating in 19 locations across New Zealand.

Under Dawn’s leadership, the company has since expanded into more than 120 New Zealand primary schools and is supported by more than 60 franchisees.

It continues to operate under the sKids brand in New Zealand, with Dawn in the role of CEO. However, when Dawn and business partner Vicki Prout decided to expand the concept beyond New Zealand, sKids became part of their new company Sherpa Kids.

Founded in 2011, Sherpa Kids is an international franchisor that runs before and after school clubs and holidays activities in schools and other community facilities.

Sherpa Kids has around 100 franchises worldwide and looks after about 5,400 primary school-aged children every day. It offers a variety of activities including arts and crafts, music and drama, sport and games, cooking and technology.

an ambitious international expansion plan, which has seen an explosion of new partners in locations including Australia, Ireland and South Africa.

This year, Dawn has been focussing particularly on helping Sherpa Kids to expand its services across the UK, where evidence shows that many working parents struggle to find good quality, affordable childcare.

For example, the Government’s ‘More Affordable Childcare Report’ published in July 2013, says only half of parents can find suitable term-time childcare to fit with their working hours, yet nearly two-thirds of parents of school-age children need before or after school or holiday care in order to combine family and work.

These findings are backed up by a report from the Family and Childcare Trust entitled ‘Out of School, Out of Mind’, and published in 2014. It claims there are ‘virtual childcare deserts’ in significant parts of the country and large variations in price.

Since its UK expansion began this year, Sherpa Kids has launched clubs at two north London schools and appointed new franchisees in Essex and Berkshire. It has also been awarded a contract to run after-school clubs at the University of Cambridge Primary School – which is due to open in September and will be the first primary-level university training school in England, delivering teaching, teacher-training and educational research.

Many of the activities are based on specific themes, such as the circus, recycling, sporting events and space, and they are tailored to fit in with the individual requirements of schools and their curriculums.

More than 80 themes have been prepared, equating to more than two and half years of fun and educationally engaging activities.

By using a franchise model, Sherpa Kids not only benefits from the local knowledge of the provider, it also contributes to the economic and employment prospects of local communities since all decision-making is done at local level by franchise owners and franchisees are encouraged to source products locally. The franchisees also determine pricing, opening hours and programme structure to meet local needs.

As co-Director of Sherpa Kids, Dawn has been instrumental in helping the company to implement

20 Corporate Vision June 2015

Sherpa Kids, which is actively seeking franchisees across the UK and offering Regional Master Franchises in the north, south, east and west of England and the Midlands, has also been accredited by the British Franchise Association (bfa) - the voice of ethical franchising in the UK. Dawn’s motivation and professionalism have positioned her as an award-winning business owner: She was voted 2012 HER Businesswoman of the Year – Most Sustainable Business and was also a Finalist in the prestigious Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2012. Dawn is currently a serving board member on the New Zealand Franchise Council (FANZ).

Dawn is a qualified accountant, and before she moved into the out-of-school-hours care market, she owned a consultancy, specialising in working with a chain of franchised restaurants in South Africa as well as a variety of SMEs.

Dawn Engelbrecht, CEO sKids New Zealand and Co-Director, Sherpa Kids International

June 2015 Corporate Vision 21

Strategy 23 The New Empathiser Business has entered the era of new empathy.

24 The Story of Inn Style’s First £150k and How it Could Help You Chris Waters is co-founder of Inn Style, the slick online booking system for accommodation owners. Chris shares how he and his co-founders successfully navigated first round external funding.

26 Virtualisation Virtualising 3D graphic applications is the future for design businesses

Strategy: The New Empathiser

The New Empathiser Business has entered the era of new empathy. A new report by member-based advisory company ceb highlights that if businesses are to improve customer loyalty, they need a customer services team who displays the new business empathy, taking control and getting things done.

Gone are the days of endless apologies from a customer service representative who lays their efforts on empathising and providing a good customer experience, over actually fixing your problem. Nobody wants personal relationships with representatives of their mobile phone provider or bank today – they just want service that requires as little time and effort from them as possible.

3) Tell them what to do - Be honest about what the job actually entails, not that it’s just a great opportunity, to make sure the right people apply

In the age of information overload customers want simple instructions and someone who will take charge and fix their problem.

Lara Ponomareff, practice leader at CEB, explains: “Anybody in a customer-facing business should sit up and take notice, customers today are increasingly overwhelmed by the amount of information available to them across multiple channels. This has dramatically changed the concept of what customers want out of service interactions today. The problem is companies aren’t following suit with this change.

84% of customers today simply don’t want the social niceties out of their customer service interactions, they want someone who can simplify the process to quickly guide them to a solution. Enter the new empathiser. The greatest empathy of all is about getting the customer to a solution – and doing so quickly and efficiently.”

“A customer service rep with a ruthless focus on simplification and unapologetic confidence in getting the job done will always win. It isn’t just about saying sorry, it’s about solving the problem. For example, if my flight is cancelled and delays my travel plans, I just need you to tell me what you’re going to do to get me another ticket for the next flight so I can get back to what’s important!”

CEB puts forward a number of recruiting recommendations to make sure your business is hitting the mark, and thereby increasing the likelihood of making high quality sales by 53%, when it comes to hiring customer service representatives: 1) Focus on personality - Look for the strong willed and single minded, not only customer service experience

Lara Ponomareff, Practiceleader at CEB

2) Look for an authoritative persona - Don’t be swayed by Mr nice guy, they won’t always be able to just get the job done

June 2015 Corporate Vision 23

Strategy: The Story of Our First £150k

The Story of Our First £150k and How It Could Help You Chris Waters is co-founder of Inn style, the slick online booking system for accommodation owners. Chris shares how he and his co-founders successfully navigated first round external funding.

Everyone at Inn Style is thrilled to announce that they have completed their first round of external fundraising. We celebrate with them as they have successfully raised £150k to help grow Inn Style into what they believe can be the best booking system on the market.

They’ll understand your methods and madness.

They’ll see your short game, and tell you your long game before you’ve had a chance to explain it. Most importantly, they’ll put their money where their mouth is without asking for another three year forecast.

Here’s what they have learned from the whole experience:

We were (and are) incredibly fortunate to have Mark Aldridge, CEO of Better Capital, and Henry Catchpole, CEO of InformDirect.co.uk as our lead investors. They did all the above and more. We are incredibly grateful for their unwavering belief in Inn Style.

Raising money is exhausting If there’s any part of you thinking that raising money for your startup is a joyous matrimony of your product genius and an investor’s bag of cash, you need a large glass of liquid reality.

In your search for a financial suitor, you’ll meet a whole host of tyre-kickers and risk-averse pretenders. Do your best to spot them quickly; time is of the essence.

Most importantly, avoid the doubting flirters. These are the people who have made a lot of money in a very different way to the plans you’ve made. They will flirt with you, tell you that they’re considering putting some money into your business, but ultimately tell you that you’re wrong.

Don’t hang around hoping that you can convince them otherwise. This makes them feel loved and you doubt yourself. Part ways quickly, and let them invest in something else.

Your lead investors will never doubt you Once you meet the people who will lead your investment round, you’ll forget about all the terrible meetings that have come and gone. You’ll have an instant connection; an espresso-fuelled epiphany, perhaps.

Not all crowdfunding is equal As Jon Moulton points out, not all crowdfunding gives you the warm glow of choosing Silicon Valley’s next big thing. And so if pre-emption rights and classes of shares are alien to you, it’s time to do a bit of reading.

Alternatively, speak to SyndicateRoom – with whom we raised over £100,000 in just eleven days. The SyndicateRoom model is a blissfully simple one: investors on their platform can choose to follow our lead investors (see above) with the same share class at the same price per share.

The quality of investors SyndicateRoom has brought to Inn Style has been remarkable. We’ve had phone calls and emails from people who are thrilled to be joining us on our journey, and that positivity is priceless in creating a sense of momentum.

We also had the pleasure of spending the evening with Hermann Hauser, one of SyndicateRoom’s most notable supporters. An invaluable experience, and one we’ve blogged about before.

24 Corporate Vision June 2015

Strategy: The Story of Our First £150k The money is only useful if you do something with it One thing is certain: You will be asked what you’re going to do with the money you raise.

Chris Waters, Co-Founder of Inn Style https://www.innstyle.co.uk/

So open Excel and work it out. Yes, we all know that a plan is just a guess in disguise. But having no plan whatsoever is just as dumb as sticking to one religiously.

Work out what will make you profitable; do the sums on how much cash you’re going to burn doing it, and then see if you can get to that magical place quicker for less.

Don’t stress too much about product strategy, your early customers will dictate this for you. As long as you have the sense to listen to them, and then implement the smart solution (hint: it’s probably not a faster horse), you’re going to build a very sticky relationship with them. And that’s what investors love to hear.

Get your non-executive ducks in a row If you’re taking other people’s money, then you need to grow up and show some responsibility. Your investors won’t (or at least shouldn’t) expect weekly updates of your progress, but you need to make sure you’re accountable for your actions.

One thing to consider is bringing in a non-executive director. A good one will ask serious questions about the bigger picture – your finance, risk management, legal documents.

This stuff isn’t as fun as product strategy and marketing, but it’s important, don’t think it’s somehow optional because you’re a cool tech startup with some venture capital. Inn Style is in safe hands in this respect, and we’re thrilled to call Charles part of the team.

Confidence is just preparation in action You may be able to raise your money remotely, over email and Skype. But more than likely, you’ll be meeting people and asking for their money. This is proper whites of the eyes stuff. You’ll be asked some very serious questions, and you need have to some water tight answers.

Make sure you’ve got those answers in a business plan. Make sure all the answers fit together. And make sure you can reel them off without too many “erms”.

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”Abraham Lincoln Asking yourself serious questions about customer acquisition, pricing strategies and productive capacity may even force you to consider whether you were right in the first place. And that’s okay. Make a decision; redraft the forecasts. Do what you need to do to go forward with confidence.

Questioning yourself is okay. You are a startup. Every day you will come across a fork in the road.

Embrace the forks. Make smart decisions quickly.

And now go make some money for yourself and your investors.

June 2015 Corporate Vision 25

Strategy: Virtualisation

Virtualisation Virtualising 3d graphic applications is the future for design businesses

Virtual CAD computing is gaining popularity for the powerful benefits that it offers businesses, from increased data security to IT cost control to improved support for a mobile workforce. The Citrix virtualisation solution with HDX 3D Pro graphics acceleration technology is not only delivering an excellent user experience, but also benefits that do not come standard on a traditional desktop computer. One of the keys to any successful business is its ability to minimise costs, while maximising its performance and productivity.

One of the keys to any successful business is its ability to minimise costs and waste while maximising its performance and productivity. This can be applied to all areas of its activities from its employees, production process to its management of resources.

Virtualisation enables organisations to centralise resources, to reduce operating and management costs, to empower and enable employees to work and collaborate more productively while retaining the robust security and control that IT and business demands.

Centralising applications dramatically reduces IT management costs. In a virtualised solution all applications are managed as a single instance as opposed to the distributed workstation environment where patches and upgrades have to be done at a local level. This provides additional benefits for version control and new user or application deployment particularly in organisations with multiple locations and distributed users.

In addition to centralising the applications all data is also centralised and virtualised. The effect of this is to ensure that no data ever leaves the security of the server(s) or Data Centre, all that is securely communicated to the remote device are key strokes, pixel changes and mouse movements. This completely removes the security risk and IP protection issues traditionally associated with having distributed data and the complication of version control when collaborating.

Private Cloud solutions allow organisations to facilitate mobile work styles for all remote users, improving productivity while retaining the necessary levels of security. This applies not only to home and site workers but also provides support for hot desking and Bring

Your Own device policies (BYO). As all the processing takes place at the central server, the end point device becomes of little or no consequence, a simple client (Citrix Receiver) is downloaded to the device to allow access, this is completely device and Operating System (OS) independent.

An organisations ability to rapidly respond to change is also hugely enhanced with the ability to provision and deploy new users, groups or projects teams almost instantly by the central IT department. This also conversely applies to the reduction of users or project teams where the redeployment of server resources is far easier than the lengthy process of workstation re-provisioning and redeployment, especially for distributed or cross geo sites.

Developments within the AEC industries have seen a huge growth in Building Information Modelling (BIM) and with it a requirement for higher specified and higher cost workstations. With virtualised solutions the removal of processing from the end point device means workstations no longer need to be upgraded to meet the increased resource needs (Revit for example) instead the existing workstation can be sweated far longer and replaced with a low cost thin client upon future failure. This improvement in the utilisation of resources results in organisations seeing both a reduction in the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and measurable improvements in their Return on Investment (ROI).

Global technology leaders in 3D application deployment and CAD virtualisation solutions provider.

Providing support for this technology directly to both Autodesk customers and Channel Partners globally.

Since 2003, IMSCAD has been at the forefront of the development of Citrix versions of Autodesk software, providing success to various organisations. IMSCAD is a specialist resource company for Autodesk users and partners. Their key business activity is the delivery and support of CAD applications virtualised on the Citrix platform. The company’s aim is to maintain a position as the global technology leader in 3D application deployment and to become the de facto support partner for enterprise clients when adopting CAD virtualisation solutions. One can closely notice that the Citrix landscape is changing dramatically and

26 Corporate Vision June 2015

the vendors are not able to brush up their knowledge on the constantly evolving products. This is where we take the lead as we make it a point to technically train ourselves constantly with the evolving landscape.

The company has been working closely with Citrix, supplying, testing services for patches, fixes, and beta versions with a variety of 3D applications. All IMSCAD’s deployments are made using Citrix Xen products, as they know it is not possible to successfully deploy CAD applications without utilising Citrix products for desktop/application virtualization.

IMSCAD have also assisted Autodesk with the original trials of AutoCAD and Revit, prior to the release of the Citrix Ready Architectural Engineering Construction (AEC) products.

While the original focus of IMSCAD is on the virtualsation of Autodesk software, it has subsequently led them to working with a host of Independent Software Vendor’s in the AEC, Product Design, Manufacturing, Civil Infrastructure, and Natural Resources industries.

The services IMSCAD specialises range from consulting, project management, installation, optimization, hosting, user support, troubleshooting, performance and scale-ability testing.

One of IMSCAD’s clients, Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF) and Associates, a pre-eminent architecture firm was facing a challenge of IT hardware and its integration with graphics-demanding design technology software. They were also in dilemma for integrating Autodesk design technology software, and deployment requirements in contrast to virtualising the firm’s office software. For their immense knowledge in the field of Citirix and experience in delivering CAD applications in a virtual environment, the firm engaged IMSCAD for the project. They collaborated in scoping, installing, and configuring Autodesk Building Design Suite 2013, Adobe Creative Suite 5.5, Rhino, then implementing a successful remote access virtualisation project that works for KPF with all their CAD applications.

Strategy: Virtualisation

Adam Jull, Founder and CEO of imscadglobal.com

June 2015 Corporate Vision 27

Industry Insight 29 Connections The theme of this year’s Global Entrepreneurship Week was connections, but can connections work for you? And if so what is the value it can bring to your start-up?

30 Operating Globally Operating gloablly is a challenge in a less global world

32 Why it Pays to Invest in the Art of Call Answering As the UK’s most trusted call answering service alldayPA understands what customers are looking for when they pick up the phone. Its research into telephone customer service standards found many UK businesses sadly lacking.

Industry Insight: Connections

Connections The theme of this years global entrepreneurship week was connections, but can connections work for you? And if so what is the value it can bring to your start-up?

On the Thursday of GEW, a standing room only event was held at the House of Lords. It was a joint effort between Young Brits and YBI and was a shining example of the advantages that networking and connections can bring when done in the right way.

The event focused on the international dimension, it pulled together young entrepreneurs from the UK who have recently attended major summits that have been run across the globe by the G20 Young Entrepreneurs Alliance and the European Confederation of Young Entrepreneurs as well as over 100 attendees and even the Prime Ministers Enterprise Advisor, Lord Young, asked to attend!

The key question that was asked, was can attendance at international summits for entrepreneurs really add value to your business. Tomasz Letniowski, Founder of Traductio, (attended G20 YEA Summit, Australia 2014), had this to say, “attending these summits offer unparalleled opportunity to network with influential business leaders from all over the world. However it is important to remember that once the connections are made you must look at how you maintain them.” Amy Barker, Founder of Monks & Co, (attended European Confederation Summit Greece 2014), went on to say, “being included in these international events have provided our business with incomparable networking opportunities with some inspirational established businesses. Networking with such advanced entrepreneurs aspire us to push further in our own enterprise and have provided contacts which have helped develop our business strategy’s further.” Nathaniel Peat, Founder of Gennex, (attended G20 YEA Summit, Canada 2010), summed it up well by giving a practical example of the benefit, “these types of summit have assisted the international development of my company directly, meeting like minded people, learning best practices, getting a contact database and establishing business relationships. As a result my company has now expanded into Africa the Caribbean and is operating with partners in Asia, Europe and soon the USA.”

toring, access to finance, coordinated support and access to market also came up during the sessions and it was extremely positive hear panellists and audience members mentioning the Start Up Loans scheme that is helping startups get access to finance and the IoDs Young Director Forum that is doing a lot of work around mentoring and support.

a true role model for Europe and the World. I was delighted to be involved in discussing the various ways international cooperation of Young Entrepreneurs can help them and their ventures take off, including the amazing opportunities that are possible for all young entrepreneurs if the UK and Europe and continue to work and grow together.“

Finally, at a time of political sensitivity around Europe, it was extremely positive to have at the event a strong presence from the European entrepreneurship scene and to hear their insights/ thoughts on the UK and Europe. This was best summed up by Dimitris Tsigos, who is not only the President of the European Confederation of Young Entrepreneurs but is also founder of a tech start up in Athens, Greece and has also recently launched his business in the UK. Dimitris had this to say, “The UK represents an amazing success story of governmental policies for promoting high growth and innovative entrepreneurship, being

It was a real pleasure to be involved in such a successful event, one where there was a tangible buzz in the air, and one where the networking went on until the early hours! But let me finish with the words of another one of the great entrepreneurs who kindly took part. Daniel Rajkumar, Founder of Rebuilding Society, (attended G20 YEA Summit, Russia 2013), “participation by members of the House of Lords along with a strong European contingent shows formidable government support for global entrepreneurship. May the inspiration motivate us all to do more & long may these positive initiatives continue.”

Alex Mitchell, Director, Young Brits and blogger at http://mynameisalex.co.uk/

A few other boarder topics came up a number of time during discussions, and one was superbly articulated by Manuel Pinuela, CTO, Drayson Technologies, (attended G20 YEA Summit, Australia 2014), “It was great to hear across the panel that having the ability and the resilience to take risks and tolerate failure is becoming an important and recurring point to improve the entrepreneurship culture around the world.” Perhaps unsurprisingly the theme of men-

June 2015 Corporate Vision 29

Industry Insight: Operating Gloablly

Operating Globally Operating globally is a challenge in a less global world

One of the key challenges in running an international business is to operate globally in a world that is becoming less global than it has been in previous years – at least this is the view of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Managing Partner Kevin Ellis.

While speaking to an audience of business and financial students at London School of Business and Finance’s (LSBF) inaugural Great Minds Live series, he said the idea of a globalised world has gone backwards, presenting a challenge for businesses.

“There are big challenges for all global organisations in a world that is less global than before. We see things like sanctions [in a number of countries] and we need to operate in these countries. There isn’t one global law,” he said. “We are seeing [globalisation] go backwards with terrorism and unrest and, for businesses, that is a challenge.”

Reflecting on the dynamics of business, Mr Ellis said that failing is an essential part of how the global market works. “History has shown that if things don’t fail, you don’t have a proper market. In a world that is so volatile now and the gambles you have to take, things are going to fail. Our job is that we have got to make sure people understand the facts, and that it is a consequence of advancement as well as business going wrong.”

A chartered accountant by trade, Mr Ellis said that, despite the automation of certain functions, global businesses still have a lot to benefit from

Having worked for PwC since 1984, Mr Ellis has specialised in providing turnaround and restructuring services for underperforming businesses in the public and private sectors. He said that one of the most important things for long term success is to cultivate relationships “in the real world” and to ensure the business’s reputation is well managed.

According to him, one of the most effective ways to ensure this is by establishing better internal processes that are aligned with that goal. He suggested that businesses needed to start at recruitment, checking CVs and references, and encouraging a culture that allows people to call out bad behaviour.

One of the ways PwC achieves this is by working with education providers in the UK and internationally; as well as a large apprentice scheme for school leavers, the firm currently has programmes for international graduates to train in the UK. The company has also invested to ensure higher levels of diversity across the board. “Diversity is critical and increases innovation. You have to widen the gate, not lower the bar,” Mr Ellis said.

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integrated reporting and auditing. “A lot of focus is on efficient use of business resources. 75% of CEOs say their business is dependent on long term reporting,” he said.

Mr Ellis was the first guest of the inaugural LSBF Great Minds Live, a series of events aimed at bringing students, business and political leaders together to debate current issues related to economy, employment, business and finance. “The event was very informative and it was great to meet a senior manager from PwC,” said LSBF ACCA student Astrid Lewis. “I really enjoy the Great Minds Series,” she added.

Industry Insight: Operating Gloablly

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Managing Partner, Kevin Ellis

June 2015 Corporate Vision 31

Industry Insight: Why it Pays to Invest in the Art of Call Answering

Why It Pays to Invest in the Art of Call Answering As the uk’s most trusted call answering service alldaypa understands what customers are looking for when they pick up the phone. Its research into telephone customer service standards found many uk businesses sadly lacking.

An overreliance on technology means, in an effort to increase efficiencies and reduce costs, businesses are losing the art of having direct conversations with customers.

Automated call answering is the biggest bugbear.

Companies that rely heavily on such technology are playing a dangerous game.

Reuben Singh, chief executive officer at alldayPA, explains the risks involved in failing to speak to your customers.

It’s not surprising investment in customer service often sees revenue increase. At alldayPA, we believe that the voice on the end of the phone has a huge influence on your reputation and sales.

Our recent Every Call Counts Report into customer perceptions of business call handling, which questioned 1,000 members of the public, found over half (55%) take custom away from companies relying heavily on automated call answering and voicemails, instead of providing a human voice on the end of the phone.

An even greater percentage (71%) avoid companies where they can’t speak directly to a member of staff over the phone when shopping around.

Having an informed and courteous voice on the end of a call, available at all times and capable of dealing with basic enquiries quickly and effectively, is therefore imperative in keeping customers happy and securing new sales.

The reasons why customers choose to pick up the phone show even more evidently the value of human contact. Phone calls are most likely to be used (70% of people surveyed) when customers have a problem or want to make a complaint.

Clearly, if the majority of customers who call a business are angry or have a pressing problem then the call handling needs to be second-to-none.

This is where many companies are getting their call answering badly wrong.

Over three quarters of customers reported that they had been frustrated by businesses refusing to apologise when things had gone wrong with a product or service. And just under half (47%) being told that

problems were probably their fault when they tried to make what they consider to be legitimate complaints.

Holiday companies seem to be worst at dealing with customer complaints, with 31% of people saying they had experienced operators refusing to apologise, accept responsibility or help with problems, closely followed by utility providers, banks (21%) and delivery companies (20%).

Understandably companies don’t want to accept blame for something that isn’t their fault, but it’s important to strike the right balance so that customers feel that you are listening and doing your best to help them.

before making a major purchase and 59% call for aftersales information, such as confirming deliveries or changing orders.

In many cases customers are happy to use online shopping or information services, but on occasions when that’s not enough, you need to ensure staff are available.

Failure to comply will lose business, with 55% willing to go elsewhere if companies failed to offer a satisfactory level of service over the phone.

For some businesses this issue is more acute than for others.

For example: Acknowledge - Regardless of who is at fault -the company or its customer- an acknowledgement of a bad experience should always be made.

Our study reveals people expect the highest standards of call answering from professional services (such as accountants or lawyers), followed by financial services (banks and insurance companies).

Apologise – this doesn’t mean that your accepting faulting, but rather you’re acknowledging that your customer is unhappy.

Even in sectors seeing huge growth in online sales channels, people still expect to be able to use the phone when they believe it’s necessary. In the holiday and travel industries for example, 60% of customers still want to know they can speak directly to someone when the need arises.

Listen – listen to what the customer has to say, with as few interruptions as possible. If it is necessary to get clarification whilst the customer is speaking, explain to them that you’re just trying to ensure you have all the facts and that you’re not trying to prevent them from making their point.

Focus on the positive – what you can do, rather than what you can’t. Telling someone “that’s not my job” will only frustrate an upset a customer further.”

As well as dealing with complaints, effective call answering can help land sales and prevent post=sale problems.

When a customer picks up the telephone instead of sending you an email or writing a letter, it’s because they want to cut through the formalities and get straight to the heart of the matter. If you don’t allow this, you make customers feel they are unimportant.

Expecting them to navigate call menus, endure voicemail and grit their teeth through hold music, with simply undermine their faith in your company.

This can clearly affect sales as over 50% of the public regularly call companies to check details

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It’s abundantly clear even in our digital age; the telephone still has an important role to play in connecting you with your customers.

Every time you answer the phone – or indeed don’t answer the phone – your customers will judge you.

If they don’t like what they hear, they won’t be your customers for much longer.

Reuben Singh is chief executive officer at alldayPA, the UK’s most trusted call answering service. For more information, please visit www.alldayPA.com.

Money 34 Banks Must Monitor Carefully Phil Beckett, partner at Proven Legal Technologies, the corporate forensic investigation and e-disclosure firm, discusses the allegations of corruption and bribery in connection with Fifa.

36 Does the Price Action of Bunds Signal an End to Ultra Low Rates?

The latest views from Nikko Asset Management’s Andre Severino, Head of Global Fixed Income.

Money: Banks Must Monitor Carefully

Banks Must Monitor Carefully Phil beckett, partner at proven legal technologies, the corporate forensic investigation and E-disclosure firm, discusses the allegations of corruption and bribery in connection with fifa, the international governing body of football, and how careful monitoring could avoid suspicious Monetary transactions going unnoticed in future.

The corruption scandal recently revealed in connection with Fifa has triggered a high-profile investigation, resulting in several officials being convicted of fraud and bribery, throwing the future of the organisation into peril. British banks have also been caught up in the Fifa investigation, and are in the midst of pouring over transfers and illicit payments to find out where and when the illegitimate transactions took place.

All financial institutions have a responsibility to report any suspicious activity to authorities and must monitor carefully for ‘red flags’ at all times, but payments made in connection with the Fifa scandal seem to have passed under the radar. This should prompt banks to look at how this oversight occurred, and how financial institutions can do more in the future to detect and prevent such offences.

Timing is everything Now that the Fifa investigations are underway, the banks involved are facing some significant hurdles when it comes to reviewing and analysing the relevant transactions. The length of time that the Fifa corruption has allegedly been going on means that financial institutions have over 20 years of data to search through. Although patterns of illicit behaviour are always easier to identify with hindsight, changes in regulation over the past two decades means that any misconduct may not have triggered alarm bells or been picked up on several years ago. This makes data and evidence in the Fifa trial extremely hard to locate, especially given the changes and split-offs that banks have experienced within the time-frame.

lowed up, this hasn’t always been the case, so banks may struggle to match up the pieces as a result.

A lesson to be learnt Now that more stringent guidelines are in place, banks are more aware of fraudulent activity and how to monitor for it. For example, organisations are obliged to report patterns of doubtful behaviour in line with anti-money laundering regulations, and face significant fines if they do not comply.

To avoid penalties and increase the likelihood of stopping corruption in its tracks, banks need to be more alert to warning signs and have rigorous monitoring strategies in place. This includes watching for unusual names of companies or individuals sending or receiving large sums of money. In addition, the date and times of transactions in relation to other activity should also be scrutinised.

Unusual patterns can usually be identified by comparing activity against the ‘norm’, which can be done easily through technological evaluation systems. Even if institutions can only access information from one side of the operation, contact between certain senders and receivers can still be monitored for, and banks should take responsibility in following up any red flags.

The monetary transactions that took place in relation to Fifa will have extended beyond banks to other

Another difficulty is that individual banks typically only see one side of a transaction. For example, a bank may see a large outgoing transaction, but not know the relationship between the payer/payee, or what happens to the money beyond that point. The bank that receives an incoming transaction is equally handicapped, but is in a stronger position to detect what happens to the money next, whether large sums of money are split up suspiciously or moved to curiously named accounts. Whilst recent changes in regulation should mean that any suspicious movements are fol-

34 Corporate Vision June 2015

financial organisations such as consultancies, advisors and forex traders. These institutions are likely to have access to more than just numbers, and often have visibility of email communications, phone calls and other forms of discussion around money exchange.

These organisations should also monitor carefully for unusual requests, code names or patterns in contact, as they are also responsible for prohibiting fraudulent activity.

Best foot forward The large number of financial institutions caught up in the Fifa scandal means that many will undergo significant probing. As such, banks that are not already sifting through past transactions should get the house in order before investigatory bodies such as the DOJ and the Swiss Authorities come knocking.

For those that are not directly involved, this large-scale scandal should act as a warning to all banks, wider financial institutions, and businesses of all sizes, to tighten up security across the board, and implement strict measures to monitor for any wrongdoing. Any organisation with visibility of additional communications should carefully analyse this for context that may shed light on suspicious activity. Doing so will allow firms to detect attempted misconduct much earlier on, allowing rapid action to take place, and thus significantly reduce the likelihood of scandals developing.

Money: Banks Must Monitor Carefully

Phil Beckett, Partner at Proven Legal Technologies

June 2015 Corporate Vision 35

Money: Ultra Low Rates

Does the Price Action of Bonds Signal an End to Ultra Low Rates?

We hear from andre severino, head of fixed income for us and europe 03 june, 2015

In May, a German sovereign bond selloff took markets by surprise, with 10 year bund yields rising from record near-zero lows since the beginning of ECB quantitative easing (QE) in March, to pre-QE highs.

The sharp rise in bond yields is understood to have been exacerbated by a lack of liquidity and investor positioning, however it has also called into question the future of QE, and whether the 1.1 trillion EUR programme will be enacted in full. We take a look at some of the drivers behind the recent price action in bonds, whether it is the start of a new trend and question if the pricing action could signal prospective changes to the ECB QE programme or an end to ultra-low rates in the Eurozone.

Firstly, it is worth noting that the sell-off was part of a global phenomenon, however the 10 year benchmark bond underperformed almost every other developed market, except France. The sell-off was predated by a 5 year German bund auction that failed to attract sufficient bids, which was likely a significant catalyst.

The bond selloff coincided with better than expected inflation data, as the German CPI printed +0.5%y/y in April and remained stable over the month. Broadly, Eurozone inflation in April also rose from a trough of -0.6%y/y in January to 0.0% in April as oil price deflation moderated. Eurozone real GDP also improved in the first quarter, expanding +1.0%y/y, in line with expectations, as the region starts to show gradual signs of a pickup in economic activity. Thus, the spike in bond yields may partially be due to an improving Eurozone outlook, suggesting that markets may doubt the ECB’s commitment to implement the QE programme in full as inflation begins to show signs of acceleration, thereby potentially bringing forward the attainment of the ECB’s goal for QE to stabilise inflation around the target of 2%y/y.

Rising bond yields also corresponded with a recovery in oil prices. As a net importer of oil, Germany (and the entire Eurozone) experienced very low inflation expectations and even the threat of deflation earlier this year, but the rise in oil prices clearly diminished this risk.

Although fundamentals clearly had an impact, the spike in bond yields has also been magnified by seasonal low liquidity in the cash market and by market positioning. For example, Eurex bond futures saw an increase in outstanding contracts, reaching levels not seen since the European crisis in 2011, becoming the favoured instrument to hedge long duration exposure, at the same time as a sharp decline in bund cash and futures markets’ liquidity, which according to J P Morgan1, was lower than levels seen around the October “flash crash.” Moreover, since the beginning of the selloff, brokers argue that “trend-following positions” in German bunds have likely been liquidated and the sharp move is also impacting other Eurozone bond markets and other markets such as the FX market.

ECB communication following the selloff argued that it is not concerned with the bond price action itself, but with the speed and volatility of the moves. ECB board member Benoit Coeure argued that the bond price action “recreates two-way risk” and could reflect a reassessment of scepticism on the economic impact of QE. Coeure stated that the ECB interpreted the rapidity of the price move as symptomatic of low liquidity, and subsequently announced ECB intention to adjust the pace of QE purchases. For example,

36 Corporate Vision June 2015

the ECB is expected to front load purchases in the summer months (May - June) to compensate for seasonal low liquidity over the summer and can back load purchases in the months following, if necessary.

The pace of QE purchases is, therefore, now changeable, which is unique amongst major central bank QE programmes. For example the July 60BN EUR of purchases is likely problematic from a demand and supply perspective due to large bond redemptions and coupon repayments. Coeure also announced that official policy rates will not be cut further, however he stressed that the negative ECB deposit rate (-0.2%) complements QE by increasing the velocity of reserves and accelerates portfolio rebalancing efforts.

The recent announcement of adjusting QE purchases on a seasonal basis over the summer has fuelled some market speculation as to whether the ECB is in fact acting out of disappointment on the current impact of QE, given the sudden and rapid spike in bond yields to pre-QE highs. However, prior to the announcement to increase the QE purchases over the summer months, ECB President Draghi reiterated the institution’s commitment to QE in full, regardless of price moves. He also noted that although the QE programme asset purchases will have a substan-

Money: Ultra Low Rates

Andre Severino, Head of Fixed Income for US and Europe

tial effect on asset prices and economic confidence, the primary concern is that there is an equivalent effect on investment, consumption and inflation. With that intention, he reaffirmed that “we will implement in full our purchase program as announced and, in any case, until we see a sustained adjustment in the path of inflation.”

We do not expect the recent steepening of the bond yield curve to be the beginning of a sustained new trend.

Firstly, 5yr5yr forward inflation data, a common measure used by central banks to consider a market’s future inflation expectations, is still rising in the US and declining in the Eurozone, which supports a flatter bond curve.

June 2015 Corporate Vision 37

SME 39 Promoting Impact Investment

Impact investment is integral to Ontario, with over 10,000 social ventures that employ about 160,000 people.

40 Driving Forward We hear about the growth for Drive Medical Limited

42 Keeping Tax Simple

As tax legislation gets more complex, and politicians clamber over each other to block alleged loopholes, mainly of their own making, businesses are increasingly looking to simplify their tax affairs.

44 Effective Cash Flow Management for SME’s

We hear from Brian Whitford, Head of Marketing for Bartercard UK about some advice for SME’s.

38 Corporate Vision June 2015

SME: Promoting Impact Investment

Promoting Impact Investment Ontario, canada has a business environment that is designed for global success. With direct Access to us$17 trillion north american market, a multicultural workforce and streamlined Regulations, it acts as a powerful hub for international trade and investment.

Impact investment is integral to Ontario, with over 10,000 social ventures that employ about 160,000 people. The province is home to SVX, the first social impact investing platform of its kind in North America.

It was recently announced that Ontario would be working in partnership with the Network of Angel Organizations (NAO-Ontario) to launch the Impact Angel Alliance, encouraging investors to put their money into promising high-growth social ventures in Ontario.

“We want to encourage investors to target businesses that focus on achieving more than just profits, by placing their money into businesses that also positively contribute to social or environmental benefits in Ontario,” explains Brad Duguid, Minister of Economic Development, Employment and Infrastructure.

“Angel investors can help social enterprises grow and succeed, and through our partnership with the Network of Angel Organizations and the Impact Angel Alliance, we are making it easier for social ventures and angel investors to connect, contribute, and make our society a better place to live.”

The Impact Angel Alliance will work with the Network of Angel Organizations (NAO-Ontario) as a force to raise awareness of social ventures among established angel investor groups. They will also work to diversify the membership of angel groups, helping to introduce more women, visible minorities and new immigrants. Additionally, the Alliance will research emerging trends, challenges and opportunities for impact investment saving time, reducing risk and attracting greater opportunities.

June 2015 Corporate Vision 39

“Like any other start-ups, impact ventures need financing to grow,” comments Sean Holt, Executive Director, Impact Angel Alliance. “The number of angel investors making impact investments is growing, and we want to make it grow even more. With the support from the government and partnership with NAO-Ontario, we’re confident that we can achieve that goal and help to transition impacting investing to greater mainstream awareness and adoption.”

The launch of the Impact Angel Alliance should have a significant impact on social enterprise in Ontario.

“Initiatives like the Impact Angel Alliance will help Ontario-based companies like ChipCare to accelerate our growth, and allow more people around the world to access affordable, life-saving HIV treatment,” explains James Fraser, CEO, ChipCare. “We are grateful to our investors who are committed to building a profitable Canadian diagnostics company, while helping to make a real difference in patient care globally.”

SME: Driving Forward

Driving Forward We hear about the growth movements for drive medical limited.

Drive Medical Limited, a leading manufacturer and distributor of durable mobility equipment in Europe, has experienced significant growth following the acquisition of two companies.

The Elland-based business recently acquired Specialist Orthotic Services Limited (SOS) and Parkhouse Healthcare, more than doubling staff numbers from 210 in 2014 to 430 in 2015. Sales have also been boosted from £46.6 million to £69.3 million, an increase of a third.

SOS is an innovative manufacturer and distributor of specialised seating and mobility products. Parkhouse Healthcare is a leading supplier of specialist pressure area care equipment, hospital and community beds, and service and maintenance provisions. The acquisitions will bring new product additions and innovations to Drive Medical Limited’s product portfolio.

Richard McGleenan, managing director at Drive Medical Limited, commented, “We are really pleased with the growth that the recent acquisitions have brought to the company, and we are proud to welcome all of the new staff members to the Drive Medical team.”

Drive Medical Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Drive Medical, one of the fastest growing major manufacturers and distributors of durable medical and mobility equipment in the home healthcare, medical/surgical and rehabilitation markets throughout the world.

About Drive Medical Drive Medical manufactures a complete line of durable medical equipment including mobility products, beds, bariatric products, wheelchairs, sleep surfaces and pressure prevention products, respiratory equipment, self-assist products, power operated wheelchairs, rehabilitation products, patient room equipment, personal care products and electrotherapy devices. Currently, the Company has corporate offices and distribution facilities in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, Romania, Australia, China and Taiwan. The Company markets its products to customers located throughout the United States, Europe, Canada, Mexico, South America, Latin America, the Middle East, Australasia, and Asia. Drive Medical is one of the fastest growing major manufacturers and distributors of durable medical equipment.

Richard McGleenan, managing director at Drive Medical, on the left, with Stephen Owens, owner of Parkhouse Healthcare, on the right, the latest of Drive Medical’s acquisitions

40 Corporate Vision June 2015

SME: Driving Forward

June 2015 Corporate Vision 41

SME: Keeping Tax Simple

Keeping Tax Simple, Declutter Your Business As tax legislation gets more complex, and politicians clamber over each other to block alleged loopholes, mainly of their own making, businesses are increasingly looking to simplify their Tax affairs.

The burden of dealing with HMRC, self-assessment returns, filing information electronically, meeting reporting deadlines, as well as keeping good records means the administrative challenge for businesses can be considerable.

Unnecessarily complex structures and transactions only add to the difficulties and can create uncertainty.

6. Could it be too good to be true?

“Unless you thrive on stress or really want to ‘stick it’ to HMRC, stay away from tax schemes. They might seem to work now, but they can easily unravel in a few years’ time. Review whether there is anything that feels aggressive that’s been done in the past. It might not be too late to unpick the position.”

Laurence Field, head of corporate tax at national audit, tax and advisory firm, Crowe Clark Whitehill, provides a list of straightforward ideas to declutter your business, make your life easier and help you get on with making profits.

1. Review your structure “In the last four years, anti-avoidance legislation has made complex and contrived structures obsolete. Do more complex groups really need all those subsidiaries? For example, some companies should be asking, why is there a partnership in the structure? Go on a spring clean and work out what you really need, get rid of the rest.”

2. Understand what the shareholders want “For many businesses, shareholders want Entrepreneurs’ Relief on exit, but has the company worked out if they will qualify? If not, check. If you’ve checked and don’t qualify, see if you can do something about it.

The investors will be pleased.”

3. Sort out your incentives “Many companies have a mixture of cash bonus, approved and unapproved option schemes, all with different tax treatments and reporting requirements. Do you really need them all? Are they still fit for purpose?

Can you consolidate them? At the very least, timetable what needs to be reported and when.”

4. Understand the consequences in advance “Know how you are going to report unusual transactions and costs before you start them. It saves time later on and helps you classify them correctly in the accounting system to make reporting easier.”

5. Don’t bury your head in the sand “If you think you’ve got a tax problem deal with it now.

The situation rarely becomes better through waiting.

Trying to work around a problem complicates the key job of running a business.”

42 Corporate Vision June 2015

7. All tax planning isn’t bad “Of course you should be trying to run the business in a tax efficient manner. There is no point in paying more than you need. By decluttering your business you can focus more easily on working out where you pay your taxes and why. If you don’t like the answer, you can do something about it.”

SME: Keeping Tax Simple

Laurence Field, head of corporate tax at Crowe Clark Whitehill

June 2015 Corporate Vision 43

SME: Effective Cash Flow Managemnt For SME’s

Brian Whitford, Head of Marketing for Bartercard UK

44 Corporate Vision June 2015

SME: Effective Cash Flow Management For SME’s

Effective Cash Flow Management For SMEs For many businesses, cash is king. Managing the time between your customers paying their invoices to the time you have to pay your suppliers and employees poses a difficult dilemma, and often the answer is effective cash flow management. For smes, this may mean delaying outlays of cash as long as possible but it needn’t be. We hear from brian whitford, head of marketing for bartercard uk about some advice for sme’s.

What is cash flow?

Cash flow is the movement of funds in and out of the business and may be in two states – positive or negative. Positive cash flow is when cash coming into the business is of greater value than the cash leaving your business, whereas negative cash flow is when the outflow of cash is greater than the incoming. The latter can be bad news for business. One of the many direct impacts of poor cash flow is that businesses are forced to cut back on activities, such as advertising, marketing and training, which may help grow the business. However, there are steps and ways to help resolve the situation and generate more income without having to cut key business activities or expenses.

Achieving a positive cash flow can require hard work.

Businesses need to closely monitor and manage cash flow to effectively control outgoing and incoming cash.

Achieving effective cash flow management is the first key step and makes good business sense regardless of the economic conditions. During uncertain economic times or when consumer and business confidence is fluctuating, it becomes more important than ever.

This means that SMEs must manage their cash flow effectively and ensure they stay within their means.

Unfortunately, doing this in practice isn’t as simple as deciding to reduce spending.

Instead, it’s essential that businesses very carefully consider the areas in which they can make savings, as well as the areas where they can’t, those areas where they get sufficient return on investment that reduce spending would damage the profitability of the business. In this scenario, businesses might identify that their outgoings have become too great even if they implement all possible savings. It is in these situations that there is a strong business case for finding other ways to pay for goods and services, such as business-to-business bartering.

Managing your cash flow For businesses of any size, the main cash management goal will include increasing and accelerating money coming into the business and decreasing and decelerating the amount leaving. This can mean complicated agreements with both debtors and cred-

June 2015 Corporate Vision 45

itors. For example, increasing the speed of cash in by reducing trade terms you offer debtors and slowing down the speed money goes out by asking for longer terms for your creditors.

The speed money comes in can of course be increased by billing promptly and asking for deposits, and decreased by securing lower monthly repayments on long-term debts.

Protect your cash reserves Business-to-business bartering is particularly important for businesses unable to make these savings. In the case of a business-to-business trade exchange, this means owing goods or services to other members of the trading network. For instance, a hairdresser could pay an accountant who is also a member of the trade exchange in trade pounds instead of cash. If the accountant charges £300 for the work carried out, the hairdresser owes haircuts to that value within the network, while the accountant can spend that amount with other members.

This offers a clear benefit over bartering in its earliest form because the two parties don’t need to require each other’s services for a deal to take place. More important than the advantages over the earliest forms of bartering, however, are the advantages over paying in cash.

If, for instance, the hairdresser rarely has an appointment during weekday afternoons, bartering offers a chance to book customers in during this time and earn trade currency that can be used to cover costs, without losing out on cash-paying clients, who may only visit during the evenings or weekends.

In the cash world, excess inventory might be disposed of through discounting or just written off, bartering also allows the full retail value to be charged in trade currency. It’s clear that difficult economic circumstances can force businesses to find ways to preserve cash, there’s always a firm business case for looking at how to manage cash flow and therefore boost profitability.

What:

We partner with high technology companies to assist in developing intellectual property assets, formulating and executing strategic plans for achieving maximal value for our clients. Our clients have achieved over $1.6 Billion (USD) in market value, either through financing rounds, merger and acquisition, licensing or litigation awards. To achieve this success, we combine professional and technical skills with level-headed business principles and experience. Or practice is devoted to supporting our client’s intellectual property asset development, commercialization and, when necessary, enforcement.

Planning:

The focal point of an intellectual property plan is to secure maximum value for intellectual property assets. This is achieved by first defining the business objectives to be achieved.

Strategy:

Once the IP plan has been identified, a management team, including business, technology and legal expertise, reviews the business objectives, considers the congruence between the plan and the objectives, then pressure tests the plan against identified opportunities to challenge that the intellectual property assets will achieve those objectives. Being dynamic, the plan will be consistently and constantly assessed, revised, and reassessed as new objectives are identified, new opportunities are presented or new challenges arise.

A coherent IP strategy will include IP landscaping to identify and analyze existing IP rights and players in the relevant technology space. The white space opportunities will be identified and an evaluation of the coherence between the IP plan and the white space analysis will be completed. In addition, IP forecasting may be undertaken to predict, based upon a third party’s prior IP behavior, what are the likely IP protection pathways a third party will be pursuing with their IP portfolio. Additionally, licensing and collaborative research and development opportunities may be undertaken, “blue sky” evaluation for next generation products and/or superseding technology and opportunities for developing IP in those areas, freedom-to-operate issues relevant to the pre-commercial products under development to minimize the risk of material liability in litigation should be undertaken and processes for dynamic and real time IP tracking within the technology space, may be implemented.

Who:

Members of the firm have scientific training and regularly work across a spectrum of technologies including pharmaceuticals, medical devices, biotechnology, therapeutics, diagnostics, nanotechnology, organic and inorganic chemistry, biochemistry, materials science, agricultural chemicals, plant breeding, environmental protection systems, semiconductor processing, industrial and medical lasers, computer hardware and software, digital and analog electrical systems, water purification systems, evaporative cooling systems, skin care products, clothing, motor vehicle assemblies and systems, and general mechanical and electrical technologies.

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We combine professional and technical skills with level-headed business principles and experience.

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Address: 1480 Techny Road Northbrook, Illinois 60062 Tel: 847-770-6000 Fax: 847-770-6006

info@RosenbaumIP.com www.rosenbaumip.com