AIMING HIGH

Earlier this year, FluidOne, a leading cyber security, IT and cloud services provider, acquired Sheffield-based IT services specialists Highlander UK. Once the dust had settled on the deal, Phil Turner spoke to Highlander’s MD Steve Brown to discuss how it all came about and how he found the process from a business-owner’s perspective.

Could you give us a bit of a background to the acquisition?

We had an approach from someone around four years ago, who came up to Highlander, had a meeting with myself and Rob, who was a major shareholder and the Chief Exec back then, and they decided they didn’t want to pursue their interest because we weren’t doing enough of a certain type of technology, amongst some other bits.

However, one of the people that came up for that meeting I got on well with. We kept in touch via LinkedIn and built up a friendly relationship. He was later in London, talking to a director he knew who was working as a director at an IT company. This person said they were looking for businesses to purchase, ideally outside London to build a regional network, and the gentleman that I’d met mentioned us.

It certainly shows the benefit of networking!

Funny, isn’t it? You get people paying agents to do that sort of work, but our buyers came from a chat out of the blue with someone I met and got on with.

I got a phone call from this chap use something called Net Promoter Score (NPS); so, their NPS for a traditional telecoms business, which is usually really low (a lot of them are in minus numbers and some are lucky to get 10 or 15), they’ve got 80-plus on their NPS. They saw that our NPS was up around the same numbers as well, which is world-class service from both of us. So they were interested in how we did that, how we motivated the people, why so many people at Highlander have stayed here for 10-20 years, why, when they came into the office, it felt like a great atmosphere and people were really friendly. The numbers stacked up, but they were really impressed with people systems, processes and everything else. who asked what was happening with Highlander, and I told him we weren’t for sale. However, I did add that if it was the right business and exit for Rob, it potentially could be.

How did it grow from there?

I told Rob and said we’d have a chat with them first. So, I spoke to this guy, who passed me on to their mergers and acquisitions at Fluid One. We started the conversations and then almost a year to the date, we were sold to Fluid One. They believe in a business model of people buying local, using local services, knowledge and engineers. So, rather than have one big IT business based in one place with 500 staff, there should be one regionally that is the centre of excellence, which is us, but then there are branches around the country that are slightly smaller than us but will service local areas, doing exactly what Highlander do: getting involved in the local colleges, universities, charities and Chamber of Commerce.

Was that the main thing that appealed to this company about purchasing Highlander?

That and the cultures matched. They also liked us because they

Part of their remit for growth was that if they buy Highlander, we’ve got customers that we didn’t do much in terms of high-end cybersecurity or connectivity. But now we can do that properly. They’ve also got a good client base of really high-quality clients that aren’t buying IT or IT services, s we can get an introduction into them and sell to them IT services. So whilst we’re still growing organically, it’s allowed us to have these bolt-ons into as well. So, I think from that point of view, the stars aligned if you like on we’re a nice business, a good fit, a lively office environment.

How did you deal with telling the staff?

We’ve had approaches before and it’s really unsettling. If you tell people early doors that someone’s sniffing around, it can turn heads and raise some suspicion. It is hard work. So I kept it to myself for as long as I could. Now, I’m a really open and honest person, and I tell the guys just about everything, but I didn’t want them getting their heads turned and it affecting their work. And then as soon as I knew it was close, probably two months before completion, I said, “Right. You need to meet these people. You need to be happy with them as well. They’d like to meet you.” Then we had meetings, talking about job roles and the business and everything else. They came away from the meetings buzzing and then I realised the problem I’d got on my hands then was if we don’t sell, they were all going to be upset. We’d grown organically and nicely for a long time, but some people had hit a bit of a glass ceiling here, others wanted to get into new technologies quicker. This has opened up a lot of doors now. Their culture is very similar to ours. And I said to every member of staff that I could look them in the eye and say we sold to to the best company we’d met, with the best values that we respect. They invest in people, trading, systems. I’ve invested in the new company and I wouldn’t have done that if I wasn’t confident.

How have things changed personally for you since the deal, and what advice would you give to someone contemplating a sale of their business?

Having a boss for the first time in 15 years was obviously going to be different, so all of a sudden, there were daft things that start concerning you before the deal. What if I want to go on holiday? What if we need to buy something? What autonomy do I have? So pre-deal it’s important to get clarity and make sure that’s all right. making sure you know, less on the holidays but more on what autonomy I have here to do things so making sure that’s right. Then it’s almost a case of referencing and checking the people that you’re going to be working with. You know, have they done a good job before? Speak to other people in the industry who’ve worked with them. But ultimately, it is a leap of faith because you a relinquishing control. So, it’s making sure you spend all the time previous to make sure you think they’re the right fit.

What about after the sale?

I think after the sale, it’s doing everything to try and make the integration smooth and for it to not impact other people. I’ve been working to setting up those processes. It’s a bit like marrying someone you’ve never lived with: there’s going to be some adjustment. But I’ve been doing this for 22 years, and every year we’ve changed or done something different, and we’ve grown or developed every year. I think this takeover has given me a bit of a kick up the backside and taken me out of my comfort zone a bit. You learn something new every day. There are new things we can do, new businesses to sell to and lots more to go out and work on. We’re part of a bigger group now.

With regards to now having to report to someone in terms of how successful you are. Is that now more stressful?

Yeah, that is more stressful. We still cared about our results before, obviously, but if we had a dip or two, it didn’t matter too much.

Whereas if we have a dip or two now, if I was my boss, I’d be trying to find out what’s going on. For the first few weeks post-deal, I was driving into work feeling a bit stressed, wondering if a curveball was coming our way. But, thankfully, it’s all been okay and actually a bit inspirational to be honest. www.highlanderuk.con

Do you feel the purchase has helped to revitalise you?

So, from my point of view, I think I’ve got my spark back and it was it’s interesting that some of the staff that have worked with me for 16-17 years have said they were really happy with me pre-deal pre-deal. But they now realise post-deal that I might have been a little bit bored and just going through the motions at times. And now it’s exciting that this new stuff has come to the table and is happening.

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