MASTERCLASS:IF IT AIN'T broke don't fix it is often the smug catchphrase of companies who have been doing the same thing for years. But it can also be a big excuse for laziness as companies caught in the same old time warp have found out to their cost in Ireland in recent years.
The world as we know it has changed and taken a landslide of corporate casualties with it. Those surviving and prospering in the new order are companies that have consistently pushed the boundaries instead of harking back to the “good old days” or allowing themselves to become paralysed by the economic downturn.
At first glance it might be difficult to see how something as “ordinary” as a waste management business pushes the boundaries. But the founder of City Bin, Gene Browne, runs his business with an innovative zeal that covers everything from the business model, processes and management practices to customer service.
He is constantly looking for new ways of doing things and has been rewarded by a steadily growing business that has expanded beyond its headquarters in Galway to service the Dublin market and other parts of the country.
Browne, an engineer by profession with a passionate interest in business excellence, wanted to see how modern business tools could be put to work in a traditional business. “We’re a very focused company and by choice only collect waste with no vertical integration into processing or landfill as is the norm,” he says. “We benchmark ourselves against best practice in the services sector at large, for example airlines and hotels, where changes tend to happen first before trickling down to other industries. We do not see ourselves as being in the waste business. We’re in the service business,” he says.
Developing his management team is a key priority for Browne. Each week the team attends a three-hour in-house training session on different topics. The company built its own software platform to support its operation because Browne says the off-the-shelf software available is written by programmers not by people who know about waste. In what is surely an unusual practice for a waste company, City Bin employs four software engineers full time. Having developed their own platform the engineers are now working on a waste management software product that the company intends to take to the international market.
The company has also taken the unusual step of diversifying into oil delivery. Browne says there is natural synergy in the move because the company had a domestic customer base of 23,000 households.
“We already have a relationship with these customers and trucks and depots and people answering the phone so the infrastructure was there. We haven’t spent a penny advertising this service. We simply approached existing customers. . . . It’s really important when recruiting team members to choose people with innovative qualities. We deliberately build this requirement into our selection process.”
For many companies struggling to cope day-to-day taking time out to be creative and to think about the future is not a priority. Creativity in business also sounds a bit woolly and many CEOs simply do not know how it applies to them. Many assume it has to be a mind-blowing Eureka moment whereas innovation is usually an incremental process.
“My advice is start somewhere, anywhere, and allow the momentum to build. It’s a process of continuous improvement,” says Pádraig Berry, director of Dublin-based Mespil Private Equity which has investments in healthcare, education and energy. Prior to this Berry ran the Irish investment interests of Irish-American businessman Chuck Feeney for 10 years.
“At its simplest looking forward is about asking, how can we do what we do faster, cheaper, better or in a way that suits our customers more? Pull out the white board and start writing down possible answers,” Berry adds. “At the core is finding a better way of doing what the customer wants. The default position for most companies, especially in a recession, is where they feel comfortable. It takes courage to break that mindset. To help I’d encourage managers to get out there, talk to people, go on courses, do whatever it takes to absorb the can-do energy of other people. . . ”
For those interested in an intense way of shaking up the grey matter, Enterprise Ireland runs an intensive year-long executive training programme that includes a stint at Stanford University in the US. “You spend a year with 32 other CEOs so it’s a pretty challenging and intense environment but one that expands your mind and forces you to think differently,” says Robert O’Donnell co-founder of Advanced Innovations, a global supply chain networking company set up in 2003.
O’Donnell runs a company now well on its way to a turnover of $100 million (€78.9 million). “Strange as it sounds we had to reinvent ourselves in the middle of the Celtic Tiger. Companies around us were absolutely flying but we were struggling to make payroll because our market had changed fundamentally as more and more business was transferred to Asia,” says O’Donnell.
“We still have an Irish base but all of our customers are now outside Ireland. When you’re focused on the Irish market that’s all you see. In reality the Irish market is tiny and if that’s the extent of your horizon it’s very limited.
“We are in a global market and on the course the finest Stanford has to offer showed us how global businesses operate and compete and taught us how to implement their strategies in our own businesses. In a recession there is a tendency to go on the defensive and to yearn for yesterday. My advice would be to step to the left of that thinking and tell yourself, ‘I am going to change this. How can I excel at what I do?’ “Had we stuck with our original view of ourselves we would still be a struggling business turning over a few million.”
Getting the mix right to be a world leader in farmfeed
IN THE GLOBAL world of livestock rearing, getting the feed mix just right is crucial to ensure both the animals’ good health and a viable commercial return. Carlow-based feeding technology company Keenan is leading the world in advanced feed mixer wagons and its latest product is an “intelligent” wagon designed to produce accurately mixed rations time after time.
What’s leading edge about the new machine is that it comes with cloud-based technology that allows rations to be modified remotely. This is creating a big stir in world farming circles. Apart from making life easier for farmers, Keenan’s new mixer wagon will also improve their margins as it offers fuel savings and improving feed efficiency.
What is interesting about Keenan is that the company has been around for over 30 years. It has prevailed through recessions and world crises in agriculture and its current managing director, Jim Greene, puts much of this down to the vision of executive chairman, Gerard Keenan, who is relentless in driving the company forward.
Keenan’s father Dick set up the company and was a progressive thinker with a passion for farming.
“Gerard has always been open to new ideas, to doing things better and to building a strong team of people who are willing to learn and to challenge,” Greene says. “He believes that what we do is important to the sustainability of farming and food production worldwide. To keep us on our toes we regularly engage with experts at the top of their game in our field and have a scientific advisory board of leading scientists in agriculture and feed from the US, Europe, Australia. But our own people are equally crucial and as a company we are committed to building capability for the long term. TQM is deeply embedded across the organisation and we encourage people to share their ideas and vision.”
Keenan employs 170 people at its base in Borris and 80 abroad. Some 90 per cent of its sales are to export markets and the company has over 25,000 customers in 40 countries and a turnover of around €50 million.
The company has a dedicated manager in charge of innovation but Greene says the whole management team plays a part. “It is how we think as a company,” he says. “We are not interested in copying or repeating things. Our goal is to differentiate through innovation. This is not just in relation to product or technology. It goes across the board into customer service, manufacturing and finance. We want to be world leaders and are building something that will endure for the long haul. Yes, there is pain involved in this kind of journey and not everyone will last the trip.”
