Improving on Symmetry
Article Date: Apr 13 2006
Simon Kearsley is managing director of Symmetry, a financial software developer based in Bristol. In the 1990s he led a management buyout of the operation from IT giant Oracle and after a tough first few months establishing the business in its own right, things are finally clicking into place.
The importance of ownership
Taking ownership is important in other ways, too. We had one guy who worked for us as a systems administrator, but who decided he wanted to become a software developer. He came in one day, told us what he wanted to do and explained that he was willing to part-fund the necessary training himself. We would have been absolutely mad to say no to someone that committed.
It’s good to talk
Even in a relatively small company you still sometimes find that different departments don’t communicate as much as they should, so we arrange for everyone to meet up socially at least once a month. The aim is for people to talk to those in other departments.
The effect of this is something you only really notice when you’re not arranging these get-togethers, as the atmosphere in the office becomes more fractious and departmental barriers start to form. When staff go for a beer together it helps them remember that they actually quite like each other!
Watch, don’t just listen
There can be a big difference between what people set out to achieve and what they actually achieve, so it’s important to watch how their actions differ from their intentions.
For instance, we had some issues regarding employee behaviour that needed to be addressed, so I spoke to quite a senior colleague, who was very capable, and between us we discussed various conversations he needed to have with several members of staff. A few weeks later I realised that things hadn’t progressed beyond our initial meeting. You do need to make sure that people actually do what they’ve said they will, especially when it comes to decisions made at meetings.
Never underestimate the importance of branding
Not long after we completed the buyout, we had to fight hard to bring the product up to scratch technically and we had a lot of unhappy customers. We worked hard on fixing those aspects and spent five or six years getting the product and services aspects of the business sorted. About 18 months ago, we got to a position where we could start to expand and we decided to re-brand, mostly on the product side, by revisiting our initial aims and refocusing the message around that.
It’s had a fantastic effect. Obviously we knew that it would help get the message across to customers, but what came as a surprise was that it really gave our own people a focus internally. All of a sudden, everyone just got what we were trying to achieve.
Extra resources aren’t always the answer
One other thing we’ve discovered through our own experiences is that throwing extra resources at a problem doesn’t automatically make things better. Working smarter and being inventive can sometimes be a better solution, as we discovered earlier this year. We found ourselves with a serious backlog on our hands, mainly resulting from a member of staff who was off sick for a long time. As we couldn’t justify hiring anyone else to catch up on the outstanding work, we asked the team involved what they thought we should do and they came up with a more efficient way of working, which was something we’d never have been able to come up with ourselves. They cleared the backlog within two weeks, so I’m now a firm believer in involving employees in situations that concern them and encouraging them to suggest their own solutions. After all, they know their own jobs inside out and understand the problems they encounter better than you ever will.
