Cooking up a winning recipe
Date published: 13th November 2001
Forget fancy graphics and cutting-edge technology, what you really want from the internet is tangible business benefits, says Jeff Hume of e-business consultancy A Recipe For Success. He tells Kate McNally from the East Anglian Daily Times how the company is living up to its challenging name.
When you call your company A Recipe For Success, you need to be reasonably confident you can deliver.
With their respective backgrounds in e-commerce technology and e-business best practice, co-founders and directors Tonya Hills and Jeff Hume were confident. They believed they could bring significant benefits to small and medium size businesses by introducing them to the possibilities of the internet.
Their self-confidence wasn't misplaced. Almost three years after ditching the relative safety of big corporate life for the roller-coaster ride of self-employment, the company's track record speaks for itself.
It has won 25 business awards (including national awards beating national institutions such as British Gas and Companies House). It was included in the top innovators Vision 100 list last year and has already been shortlisted for the 2001 list. Global internet networking giant Cisco has posted a case study about the company on its website as an example of best practice for small businesses using e-business. And four of A Recipe For Success's own clients have been selected for a total of 10 case studies in the Confederation of British Industry's best practice guide to e-business.
Winning awards is important to A Recipe For Success. Not for the vainglory, but certainly for the glory - in the sense of praise and honour. Compiling case studies of their work and putting them forward for public scrutiny in the guise of awards was a deliberate promotional strategy from the start, says Jeff.
"When we started the business back in February 1999, there were a lot of people creating cheap websites. Our aim was to create high quality websites for small businesses, but we were entering a crowded market, so we needed to concentrate on building a reputation. We deliberately picked non-'techie' projects that would be interesting stories for media coverage, that would win competitions and that people could relate to," explains Jeff.
Their first client, Land Rover specialist Mansfield Motors, fitted the bill perfectly.
It was a small garage in Manningtree selling bolt-on parts for Land Rovers, predominantly in the local area. The business was in a rut and looking for ways to move forward. Tonya and Jeff, themselves Land Rover owners, saw the opportunity to expand the business into the global market by selling over the internet. Turnover tripled.
"It was a compelling story," says Jeff. "Land Rovers are very much a British symbol, but also have an international flavour because wherever you go in the world you'll find one. So it encompassed the concept of a small British business with an international dimension. Three years on, we are still getting publicity from Mansfield Motors - the company is still held up as a model of best practice and continues to out-perform competitors because it was first to the market." (Just last week the company featured in The Sunday Times e-commerce supplement.)
Delivering business benefits is what A Recipe for Success is all about, and what Tonya and Jeff believe sets them apart from many others in the burgeoning e-business industry.
The company doesn't design fancy websites that look impressive but deliver minimal functionality - what Jeff calls "brochureware" websites. Nor does it produce all singing and dancing technically amazing websites with cutting edge applications that their clients don't need and wouldn't know how to use if they did.
"Our whole purpose is to help our clients make money from their investment in the internet. We focus on what they really need to help their business succeed, then we apply the right design and technical input to achieve that," says Jeff.
"Why put in features that clients don't need?". Take Microsoft Windows. How many functions of Windows do people actually use? And if you could just have the three features you use regularly, could you get it for £10 rather than £500?" As the e-business industry matures, the plethora of small website designers that sprung up in the early days of the web will find it harder and harder to survive, predicts Jeff. The internet is entering the next phase, he says, and that phase is "interactive. Brochureware sites have had their day. He believes there will be more consolidation in the sector, with many graphic-led internet companies subsumed into their technology-led counterparts. A Recipe For Success plans to grow its consultancy portfolio, which is now 50/50 small business and larger corporations, including BT, TXU Energi and Ipswich Borough Council in the locality. The company employs 15 full and part-time staff: four work from the offices in Felaw Maltings, the rest work remotely. The business is totally "networked" - there are no paper files - so the company walks the walk when it comes to e-business best practice. The words "best practice" come up several times during the interview. The concept is clearly very important to Jeff, and it is by constantly striving to incorporate best practice that he believes A Recipe For Success stays ahead of the game. He talks to business schools, universities, leading players in the industry, and looks at what has worked well both in their own client work and what others are doing. As well as drawing this into the consultancy side of their work, Jeff and Tonya and their team have used it to develop an e-commerce toolkit incorporating key modules for successful e-business. "It's about trying to distil the essence of all that best practice and encapsulating it into a product so people don't have to think through from first principles each time," explains Jeff. Called e-KIS (e-commerce - keep it simple), the software includes a public website, an extranet shared site, and an intranet private site with functionality for content management, data capture, email marketing, knowledge management, quality management and on-line surveys. "What we've done matches the needs of small businesses. It's easy-to-use, affordable and flexible. We've been getting all the right noises from the right people, now we need to push it out there," says Jeff. The DTI provided funding for the development of e-KIS and is likely to supply more funds to help speed up its roll out to market. (A few venture capitalists are also willing to hear more.) As well as interest from small business, Jeff anticipates a good uptake from local authorities, which have been given a stiff mandate from central government to get 'networked'. Ipswich Borough Homes is already using part of the e-KIS toolkit to improve communications with residents and improve internal working practices. (See left/right) A Recipe For Success will use e-KIS for its own consultancy work, but is also seeking to establish a separate product company and sell the toolkit both directly and through a network of distributors. The timing is right, says Jeff, because e-KIS can help companies make the transition from a static brochureware website to an interactive website that generates and saves money. "There is a big shift now towards interactive - it's part of the government's agenda. There are 1.7 million businesses currently with brochureware websites that will be looking to make the transition. If we can capture just 1% of that marketplace, it would be worth £3-5million." There is also potential to license e-KIS to corporations like BTignite, AOL and Virgin Busnet - a speculative possibility that Jeff calls the "retire early and go to the beach" scenario. For the moment, however, making do with the attractive Waterfront location in Ipswich, the company's Year 3 plans for 'Growth and Diversification' are progressing nicely, despite the economic slump and post September 11th caution which may prevent it reaching the topside of its £500,000 to £1million turnover target. Jeff says he understands why people are more cautious, but he thinks it's misplaced. "E-commerce delivers fundamental benefits to a business. It allows substantial reduction in costs, it allows companies to reach markets they couldn't do any other way economically, and it allows them to serve their customers better. "These benefits don't go away just because the dotcom and telecom bubble burst and because of uncertainty in America. Often they become more signficant. We have clients who say their investment in e-commerce kept them going through the recent foot and mouth crisis for example." So, e-business is a recipe for success in good times and bad. Meanwhile, the best practice case studies are piling up, and e-KIS is puckering its lips ready for action. Whatever the targets for Year 4, Jeff, Tonya and their team are not about to stop delivering now.
When you call your company A Recipe For Success, you need to be reasonably confident you can deliver.
With their respective backgrounds in e-commerce technology and e-business best practice, co-founders and directors Tonya Hills and Jeff Hume were confident. They believed they could bring significant benefits to small and medium size businesses by introducing them to the possibilities of the internet.
Their self-confidence wasn't misplaced. Almost three years after ditching the relative safety of big corporate life for the roller-coaster ride of self-employment, the company's track record speaks for itself.
It has won 25 business awards (including national awards beating national institutions such as British Gas and Companies House). It was included in the top innovators Vision 100 list last year and has already been shortlisted for the 2001 list. Global internet networking giant Cisco has posted a case study about the company on its website as an example of best practice for small businesses using e-business. And four of A Recipe For Success's own clients have been selected for a total of 10 case studies in the Confederation of British Industry's best practice guide to e-business.
Winning awards is important to A Recipe For Success. Not for the vainglory, but certainly for the glory - in the sense of praise and honour. Compiling case studies of their work and putting them forward for public scrutiny in the guise of awards was a deliberate promotional strategy from the start, says Jeff.
"When we started the business back in February 1999, there were a lot of people creating cheap websites. Our aim was to create high quality websites for small businesses, but we were entering a crowded market, so we needed to concentrate on building a reputation. We deliberately picked non-'techie' projects that would be interesting stories for media coverage, that would win competitions and that people could relate to," explains Jeff.
Their first client, Land Rover specialist Mansfield Motors, fitted the bill perfectly.
It was a small garage in Manningtree selling bolt-on parts for Land Rovers, predominantly in the local area. The business was in a rut and looking for ways to move forward. Tonya and Jeff, themselves Land Rover owners, saw the opportunity to expand the business into the global market by selling over the internet. Turnover tripled.
"It was a compelling story," says Jeff. "Land Rovers are very much a British symbol, but also have an international flavour because wherever you go in the world you'll find one. So it encompassed the concept of a small British business with an international dimension. Three years on, we are still getting publicity from Mansfield Motors - the company is still held up as a model of best practice and continues to out-perform competitors because it was first to the market." (Just last week the company featured in The Sunday Times e-commerce supplement.)
Delivering business benefits is what A Recipe for Success is all about, and what Tonya and Jeff believe sets them apart from many others in the burgeoning e-business industry.
The company doesn't design fancy websites that look impressive but deliver minimal functionality - what Jeff calls "brochureware" websites. Nor does it produce all singing and dancing technically amazing websites with cutting edge applications that their clients don't need and wouldn't know how to use if they did.
"Our whole purpose is to help our clients make money from their investment in the internet. We focus on what they really need to help their business succeed, then we apply the right design and technical input to achieve that," says Jeff.
"Why put in features that clients don't need?". Take Microsoft Windows. How many functions of Windows do people actually use? And if you could just have the three features you use regularly, could you get it for £10 rather than £500?" As the e-business industry matures, the plethora of small website designers that sprung up in the early days of the web will find it harder and harder to survive, predicts Jeff. The internet is entering the next phase, he says, and that phase is "interactive. Brochureware sites have had their day. He believes there will be more consolidation in the sector, with many graphic-led internet companies subsumed into their technology-led counterparts. A Recipe For Success plans to grow its consultancy portfolio, which is now 50/50 small business and larger corporations, including BT, TXU Energi and Ipswich Borough Council in the locality. The company employs 15 full and part-time staff: four work from the offices in Felaw Maltings, the rest work remotely. The business is totally "networked" - there are no paper files - so the company walks the walk when it comes to e-business best practice. The words "best practice" come up several times during the interview. The concept is clearly very important to Jeff, and it is by constantly striving to incorporate best practice that he believes A Recipe For Success stays ahead of the game. He talks to business schools, universities, leading players in the industry, and looks at what has worked well both in their own client work and what others are doing. As well as drawing this into the consultancy side of their work, Jeff and Tonya and their team have used it to develop an e-commerce toolkit incorporating key modules for successful e-business. "It's about trying to distil the essence of all that best practice and encapsulating it into a product so people don't have to think through from first principles each time," explains Jeff. Called e-KIS (e-commerce - keep it simple), the software includes a public website, an extranet shared site, and an intranet private site with functionality for content management, data capture, email marketing, knowledge management, quality management and on-line surveys. "What we've done matches the needs of small businesses. It's easy-to-use, affordable and flexible. We've been getting all the right noises from the right people, now we need to push it out there," says Jeff. The DTI provided funding for the development of e-KIS and is likely to supply more funds to help speed up its roll out to market. (A few venture capitalists are also willing to hear more.) As well as interest from small business, Jeff anticipates a good uptake from local authorities, which have been given a stiff mandate from central government to get 'networked'. Ipswich Borough Homes is already using part of the e-KIS toolkit to improve communications with residents and improve internal working practices. (See left/right) A Recipe For Success will use e-KIS for its own consultancy work, but is also seeking to establish a separate product company and sell the toolkit both directly and through a network of distributors. The timing is right, says Jeff, because e-KIS can help companies make the transition from a static brochureware website to an interactive website that generates and saves money. "There is a big shift now towards interactive - it's part of the government's agenda. There are 1.7 million businesses currently with brochureware websites that will be looking to make the transition. If we can capture just 1% of that marketplace, it would be worth £3-5million." There is also potential to license e-KIS to corporations like BTignite, AOL and Virgin Busnet - a speculative possibility that Jeff calls the "retire early and go to the beach" scenario. For the moment, however, making do with the attractive Waterfront location in Ipswich, the company's Year 3 plans for 'Growth and Diversification' are progressing nicely, despite the economic slump and post September 11th caution which may prevent it reaching the topside of its £500,000 to £1million turnover target. Jeff says he understands why people are more cautious, but he thinks it's misplaced. "E-commerce delivers fundamental benefits to a business. It allows substantial reduction in costs, it allows companies to reach markets they couldn't do any other way economically, and it allows them to serve their customers better. "These benefits don't go away just because the dotcom and telecom bubble burst and because of uncertainty in America. Often they become more signficant. We have clients who say their investment in e-commerce kept them going through the recent foot and mouth crisis for example." So, e-business is a recipe for success in good times and bad. Meanwhile, the best practice case studies are piling up, and e-KIS is puckering its lips ready for action. Whatever the targets for Year 4, Jeff, Tonya and their team are not about to stop delivering now.
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