Founder of the global brand King of Shaves
He's also the 'godfather' of the EDP’s Future50 – the East Anglian entrepreneur who launched our project last year with a message for businesses to look to 'zig while competitors zag'. One year on, Will's challenge for the Future50 2010 is to embrace constant change.
The world has gone from boom to bust in just two years. But are we really so surprised? Deep down, I think we all knew what was too good to be true. As we enter a new 'age of austerity', it's a good time to think on what is going to be important in the coming economic cycle, and how you can thrive, while others simply survive.
Companies that will succeed in the coming years are going to be masters of adaptation, masters of change. Chameleon corporations. Thinking that what was working two years ago will continue to work in the future is a sure-fire recipe for disaster. The only constant is change. And people do not like change one little bit. Change puts you out of your comfort zone. Change is disconcerting. Things may change for the worse, as well as the better.
But 'embracing change as a constant' is something I've practiced at King of Shaves for more than seventeen years, and it is what kept my brand, my business current, cutting edge and in demand. We're constantly changing our products - for the better. We're always curious about what changes are coming in our competitive space - what new patents are being filed by competitors, and how this might change consumers’ perception of our product. There is a huge amount of change going on in the new #socmed social media channels of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. If you don't know what #socmed means, trust me, your top competitors will.
When you're embracing change, it's important the team around you learn to embrace it too.
While you, as the CEO or founder of a business, may be comfortable with constantly evolving and adapting your business, products and services - the team around you may not be. Not everyone is, or wants to be, an entrepreneur or momentum creator. It’s key that you explain to your team why you might appear to be in a constant 'state of flux' but actually, you're keeping your business vibrant, exciting and new. One way to do this is to change the way you structure your business - 'top down' is so 'down and out' these days - what with crowd-sourcing, digital dialogue with the consumer and inspiration being found in so many different ways.
At King of Shaves, my corporate structure is based around that of a wheel spinning on a central axle. As CEO, I'm the axle - strong, resilient, keeping the wheel true as it bounces over and around obstacles put in front of it. My 'wheel' - my team - is divided into quarters, and these divisions can work for any business. There's a Brannovation segment, a Smarketing segment, a Props segment and a Purdos segment. What? I hear you say. Why? Well, like the Compare the Meerkats ad, 'It's Simples'! Brannovation stands for Brand Innovation. Keeping our products current, our brand exciting and innovation flowing. We can't rest on our laurels of launching our Azor razor in 2008 and it being the UK's 3rd best selling system razor handle in 2010. Now, I want it to be the number 1 in 2012. How will we achieve this? By combining Brannovation with Smarketing.
Smarketing? What am I on about? Well, I don't have a sales & marketing director or a sales director AND a marketing director. I have a Smarketing director. He's a smart sales & marketing director. Creative. Not reliant on cash - he knows cash is often the enemy of creativity. He gets the importance of 'new', 'different', and 'better'. But there's more. As good as the brand is, and as cleverly as its smarketed, you need to know you can make and sell it at a compelling profit margin.
After all, this is a business you are in. So, I have a lady who's my Director of Props - Production & Operations. After all, although sales are the lifeblood of any company, you've got to have a product to sell! And, finally, there's the Purdos segment. Finance. Pounds, Euros, Dollars is where Purdos came from. Brannovation + Props + Smarketing + Purdos = success.
My wheel is constantly turning - moving onwards and upwards, and as I'm at the centre of the wheel, I'm in touch with the wheel when the terrain it's rolling over changes from smooth to rough. We have huge competitors with enormous marketing and R&D budgets who people think we cannot compete with.
But we can, we do - and so can you…
…keep rolling.
#socmed is twitter 'shorthand' for social media. Prefixing it with a # (hash tag) allows people who are interested in following social media or #socmed to easily group it. Twitter is essentially a news or knowledge 'alert' channel, best managed via a software product like tweetdeck - a twitter management console. If you want to follow me on twitter, I'm at twitter.com/KingofShaves and my official hash tag is #BeAKing
