Inside information on running a business
Nov 3 2008 by Iain Laing, The Journal
Entrepreneurs Fiona Raglan and Andrew Fisk meet and ask each other five questions about running a business in the North East.
FIONA ASKS ANDREW
Fiona: How did you ‘break’ into the Public Sector market, and how did you approach tendering in the early stage of your business and what do you do differently now?
Andrew: “Tagish was established in the mid-90s with its primary role being to harness the benefits of web-based systems for the public sector. The market was very different at the beginning, as not many other companies were competing in this area. The website market has since grown into a highly competitive one with a vast number of companies providing variable quality solutions. Tagish has maintained its position as a high quality and trusted service provider in this market and thus has a great deal of repeat business. We have also grown a database called The Essential List on our website over the years, and people in the public sector use that as their contacts bible. So because of that, the Tagish brand is well known in the right circles, which is vital even if you are going through the open tendering process.
“There is a continuing issue in public sector procurement that you often have to be a big company to win contracts. This can be a big barrier for small firms. We work on the basis that we ensure that people who will be buying our products and services get to know us and understand how we work. We aim to be known as being the ‘best’ not the ‘biggest’. Price is not always the winning factor.”
Fiona: “Finding great staff is another area, how do you find them? Head hunt? Use graduates? And along with this, do you find you have good staff retention? We can often see our great people go off to London, do you experience this? And if so how do you deal with it?”
Andrew: “Finding good people is a common struggle, so the majority of our recruitment is by personal recommendation. We have customers and staff across the UK which makes it harder to manage them for sure, but does allow us to recruit from a wider pool of people, and often we recruit ex-practitioners in the areas in which we provide systems, who have the knowledge and contacts so vital to our industry. However, we are literally based in the green fields outside Alnwick, and employ our software developers and back office team there. The IT industry always sees people move to London, but our location is often a real pull for many people who see the lifestyle benefits of living and working in beautiful Alnwick.”
Fiona: “Are you still involved in the day to day running of your business? And if not, how did you find your replacement? And what is your key focus now?”
Andrew: “I lead the culture of the company and make sure it is a place where people want to work and enjoy working. Yes I am still involved on projects, so the challenge is balancing the day to day work with strategic focus. I have brought a number of people in to assist in the development of the company and to ensure that we have the structures in place to grow.
“I enjoy delivering IT solutions and I’m not the greatest administrator, so I try to play to my strengths and let others play to theirs. This is where the partnership between Sharon, my wife, and I works really well. I try to concentrate on the technology delivery along with new products and services as this is what I am good at, and because people look at me as an expert, they want ideas.”
Fiona: “Do you feel that being based in Alnwick is a positive or negative for your company’s offering? Do you feel it has held you back in any way?”
Andrew: “There are great benefits – the environment, a nice office, being away from the city centre and commuting. There are, however, some major limitations on high technology companies being based in rural locations. High bandwidth internet access costs are much higher than urban locations and the reliability of service is not always as good. Rural internet speed is slow, so we have to pay extra for the level of service that we need in our industry. Otherwise it is an ideal location.”
Fiona: “What makes you stand out from your competitors? And do you use this?”
Andrew: “We are primarily different in how we deliver rather than what we deliver nowadays. We make sure that our IT solutions meet customers’ needs and provide useful benefits to them. In the IT world, excellent products can be copied very easily. Unusually, we believe it is not concentrating on the bells and whistles of the technology that matters, it’s how we work with the customers along the journey that really counts.
“We are small enough to get very close to our customers, and we use that by getting our consultants to talk to customers at an early stage. We encourage our existing customers to talk to our new customers, about the system and what it has done for them in real terms, peer to peer. These real testimonials from existing customers are a great winner for us.”
ANDREW ASKS FIONA
Andrew: “How do you go about keeping the personal motivation and enthusiasm to continue to drive forward the business?”
Fiona: “I just still love it. This is because we’ve got an amazing group of exciting clients. We work in a fast moving environment, for example our work with the London media world. We recently delivered a project on the public perceptions of the BBC i-player service which was very exciting, so we are lucky doing that type of work. Equally with our work with North East local authorities, we get excited by showing them the benefits of the latest technologies, and the impact our research can have here in the region. We are doing some groundbreaking work into alcohol intake in the region, which will bring about change in our communities. Plus I am still very involved, on a day to day basis, always client facing, which motivates me.”
Andrew: “What tools and techniques do you use to ensure the continued motivation of staff within the business?”
Fiona: “We went through Investors in People and started a monthly recognition award, just £100 or a second prize of some bottles of wine. Everyone gets to vote for their colleagues and anyone except the five directors can win it. I always make sure I am there to give it out, and read out their workmates’ comments. We also try to promote or diversify within the company. I know who is shining and who is interested in what, so we can ensure their career path follows their interests and talents. Also we offer flexible hours, which is especially important being based in Hexham.”
Andrew: “What is the greatest obstacle that you have had to overcome in developing the company and how have you overcome it?”
Fiona: “Employing the wrong people. In the early days when budgets were tight, we looked for lower salaried roles, as we felt we couldn’t afford more senior people. This was not the right approach, as our delivery to clients suffered.
“We changed our approach and invested in PhD and masters graduates at a more senior level which turned our business around. It is worth paying a bit more for the right person, right from the start.”
Andrew: “How has technology changed the market research business since the company was established in 1997 and what impact do you feel that technology will have on the future of market research?”
Fiona: “Technology continues to play a huge role in market research, especially in providing interesting methods of engagement such as SMS texting which is critical in researching the youth market.
“We have an in-house R&D team that develops our online toolbox of Flash tools. We use GPS to transmit data by speed, location, direction and time, and overlay it on Ordnance Survey maps, which is a great research kit for tracking human movement and trends, or we engage people using our X Ray Spex. These measure how the participant engages visual impact, such as watching an advertisement.
“But we still do qualitative focus groups and quantitative field research, the traditional methods are just as important.”
Andrew: “How have you achieved the success you have with a Northumber- land company competing against major national competitors, many of whom are well known brands?”
Fiona: “Our success has been in building great relationships, alongside delivering on time and budget. Marketing is also key to us, we communicate with customers all the time with mailers, emails, and newsletters which we often produce in-house, and they get great feedback.”
Head to Head is run in conjunction with The Entrepreneurs’ Forum – a membership organisation that brings together business owners at all stages of their journey to share experiences, knowledge and support.
For more details, go to www.entrepreneursforum.net
Andrew Fisk runs Alnwick-based technology firm Tagish with his wife Sharon and they employ 22 people. They bought the company in an MBO three years ago, and have since grown it from the UK’s original website development firm for the public sector to a growing specialist case management provider for the fields of customer feedback and anti-social behaviour reporting.
Fiona Raglan is a market research expert who runs a 32-strong company Dipsticks in Hexham, which also includes the successful spin-off brands, ‘Other lines of enquiry’ which specialises in the London media industry, and Public Knowledge, which provides research techniques to the North East public sector bodies. She moved her firm from Allendale to Hexham.
