October 10, 2016

Get to know Luke Williams, CEO of Ignata, Investor & Chairman of Start Up Loans

With over 15 years of investing in and managing recruitment and professional services businesses, Luke shares his experiences and insights, both as a business owner as well as his advice as an investor. 

What are your key responsibilities as a business owner?

As a business owner there are lots of responsibilities. The three that I believe to be the most important are:

Duty of care to the staff – That means creating an environment that is both exciting and interesting but also allows people to grow professionally.

Shareholders – I have to help run the business for the benefit of other shareholders, as well as my own.

Customers – We only exist because of the customers so I focus a lot on our customers, are they satisfied, what can we do better so we are constantly improving the way that we service them.

What are the top three mistakes you’ve made that have produced the top three lessons learned?

1. When growing a business it is extremely easy to do too much too quickly. Whether it be trying to grow the business too aggressively, hiring too many people at once or generally just biting off a bit more than you can chew. Someone once said to me it’s a marathon not a sprint; so constantly being aware of being ambitious but not doing too much at once. You’ll get a better outcome of you take it as a marathon.

2. Everyone is guilty of not taking enough time with their people. We tend to forget, especially those of us that sit at the top of the tree that everyone else is turning up to work for your business. In return you need to look after them, treat them differently and take care of them.

3. Not being clear enough about where you want the business to go – I think about it constantly, however it is easy to forget that others don’t and that they need to know. Otherwise you have the situation where people know what they have to do at work but not why. If you aren’t clear in the businesses direction people will go somewhere else where there is transparency and communication.

What is the most important piece of advice you’ve ever been given and by whom and why?

The best piece of advice I’ve been given is from a friend of mine, she is a FTSE 100 CEO. A few years ago she said to me there are two paths to success. Firstly, never leave an email unanswered in your inbox to stay on top of it. Ensure they are cleared by the end of the day. The second thing she emphasised was the importance of the people in the key positions around her. By ensuring she has superstars doing those key jobs and creating time to interact with them, you achieve your business’ goals. The point being, you can’t possibly touch everyone all the time, so you need a way of doing it. Super good people, hire super good people – that’s the advice she gave me a long time ago and it’s very sound advice.

What has been your proudest moment?

I try and keep a mentality of the best is yet to come, so I don’t really have one! It’s a bit like ‘painting the forth bridge’ there is never really a moment where you can sit back and go ‘Ah I’ve got to the end of the journey’… I feel like it is all part of the journey. Not a very exciting answer!

Who is a person that you considered as a role model early in your life? How and why does this person impact your life?

My father became an entrepreneur by accident and it is the  person he went into business with who had an impact on my life. He was someone with had no academic qualifications at all, yet when he looked at a spreadsheet he would just spot where things were wrong or where there were opportunities. He was very charismatic and inspirational. I went to work in this business during the school holidays and actually learnt a lot from just being around him. I accepted the fact that I didn’t have the same, pure spark that he had, which is this total inner self believe that allows you to drive, drive, and drive some more!

Do you have a mentor? If so, what traits do you seek in a mentor and why?

I have lots of mentors, none of which are formal but a group of people with whom I will often seek advice from rather than just one person. They all hold or have had experience in different positions and so offer varied advice. Sometimes I go to them not just specific issues but to run an idea past or get feedback. The network I keep has definitely helped me get to where I am today. There is a danger of becoming a bit insular and by coming into it cold, they are more objective, bringing their own experience to the table.

What makes your business different?

It is difficult to differentiate yourself in any of these markets, there are well over 20,000 recruitment companies in the UK. To be truly different is quite tricky. There are two things that make us stand out. One is our ability to buy and bring businesses together. Although we have a single business it is made up of different brands who maintain some of their DNA in terms of how they go to market. For example, the guys who deal with the finance professionals look and feel very different to the guys here who deal with retail professionals. We are a big, single company but there is no homogeneity of the people, all the different and separate DNAs under one hat is a bit unusual.

The other is that we aim to serve and target the middle market. We’re a big company servicing the middle market which is currently fertile ground. Is it unique? Probably not, but we are definitely differentiated and embody a different story we can take to companies.

What 3 personality traits do you have that have helped make you successful today?

1. I am very personable! This is incredibly important in a people business.
2. I am comfortable with accountability and decision making. There are lots of people who aspire to be top dog but aren’t comfortable with the key decisions and the responsibility that comes with that.
3. You definitely have your good days and bad days. You just need to roll with it.

You’re on the board for several companies, do you have any advice for business owners wanting to impress the board of directors?

Transparency and honesty is the ONLY thing that works. Generally speaking, entrepreneurs are naturally great sales people, it’s in their DNA. They find themselves in constant sales mode. In my view, the boardroom is one of those environments that should feel protected and is focused around honesty. It is a place where an entrepreneur can ask for help.

If the board is right you should feel free to seek advice and feel like you can ask for help. On the boards that I sit on, I try to create and build the right environment and long-term relationship with the entrepreneur. You’ll make more progress with the business this way. It’s quite a lonely job being an entrepreneur and it’s good to have that support network.

As an investor in several companies what are the three key things you look for in a company?

1. Great people – In general, my entire philosophy is about backing great people and buying into the quality of people.
2. Growth –You have to demonstrate that the company is already growing or has the ability to grow and if I as an investor get involved the company will either continue to grow or start growing. Different – Unique is rarely possible, however it needs something different, something that differentiates from the crowd and be very clear about how to articulate that.

What are the key things you look for in the founder of the company you are considering investing in?

1. Benefit for the entrepreneur. It doesn’t work for me if the entrepreneur doesn’t have an upside by working with us.
2. The ability to share accountability and responsibility. If I’m investing in your business, we both need to share the risk and the reward!
3. Passion! They need to fundamentally believe in what they are doing but, and this is the flip point of the same, you have to get the sense that they are prepared to learn and take on advice. Not because my view is better, but we all have to be teachable and have the ability to learn, accepting there are other ways of doing things. Yes there is a need for passion but not blind passion. There are lots of ‘would be’ entrepreneurs that if they just ‘tweaked’ their business they might have been successful. You want someone to respect you and your judgement. There will be moments when you have opposing views of course, but you both need to be mature adults about reaching a conclusion.

What do you do if you can’t agree on strategy with an entrepreneur you’re co-investor with?

I don’t go looking for conflict, I like working with pragmatic and professional people. It is less about storming off. As an investor and entrepreneur it is a symbiotic relationship, it needs to be unified, especially in people businesses, which I invest in. I will back down as an opportunity to say I fundamentally disagree with you, but we’ll go your way. If it turns out that that’s a great success, then I can say I’ve backed you to do it. If it goes wrong, I have the opportunity to explain why I think they should listen. I am desperately keen not to fall out if possible.

You’re Chairman of Start-Up Loans Company – do you have any advice for entrepreneurs applying for a loan?

You need to be realistic in what you want to do. We provide over 1000 loans a month. The successful applicants have a solid business plan and are amenable to help. We have pre business advisors who’ll help them do that. We get a real mix of entrepreneurs, but some of them are more about having a lifestyle businesses and be able to have control themselves. It is probably only a third of people that we provide loans to that want to build a substantive business and ultimately want to make money and leave a legacy. Start-Up Loans really changes people’s lives. It often gives them the opportunity to have a sustainable lifestyle and provide a service locally that wasn’t there before. At scale, we’ve done just over £250 million of lending so far, average loan size 7k, it is amazing what you achieve and is having a positive impact on the economy and the local economy.

What are the pros and cons to working for a government backed company? For example, is there more red tape, reporting…?

It is set up differently. From creation it was set up as a private company limited by guarantee. The government isn’t the shareholder but it is the single funder. There is a slight difference, which means it has been set up with a private sector ethos in terms of the way we control ourselves, for example, we don’t need to fall under government procurement guidelines. Consequently, it feels and behaves more like a privately held social enterprise. We don’t pay the same to people as they would be receiving in banks, people are there because they believe in the social mission but with a professional high quality environment to work in and provide services to our customer base. We are very conscious that is tax payer’s money so we are super careful about how it gets spent. We’ve been very efficient and effective and I believe it is because we run like a private company but have a social mission. It has proved to be a good mix and I suspect we’ll see other government incentives set up this way because it works really well!

Through your work with Start-Up, there are some inspiring stories? Do they have anything in common?

There are a lot of brilliant stories and the thing that’s cool is we have these days where we have entrepreneurs together to tell their story and they are all phenomenal. Their background, why their doing this, knockbacks they’ve had is truly inspiring. EVERY single story is different but in most cases you walk away thinking a) I love their passion and b) they’ve managed to make this happen given their personal circumstances before. Best part of 50% of loan recipients were not working beforehand, so either they are adults out of work or coming out of education. The interesting thing is that the success rate of those previously unemployed is identical to the success rate of people who were employed – which is not necessarily and totally unexpected. There is no distinction, entrepreneurship can be for everyone if you have the passion, belief and the right support.

You’ve held a few senior positions. What are your tips on gaining credibility quickly?

You have to know your stuff. People will only take you seriously of you are knowledgeable and I think you need to be calm, which is a good quality to have as a member of senior team.

Do you think Brexit and the inevitably triggering of Article 50 will affect the recruitment industry in a positive or negative way, and how can company’s best prepare for this?

The reality is that the recruitment industry is closely tied to the economy – it is highly likely that the triggering of A50 will create change in the economy and will impact on recruitment. However after there is an initial doom and gloom, the more I think about it, yes it will create turbulence but it will also create opportunities to gain market share, use the relationships built with customers to come out the other side and be in better shape than your competitors. For example in legal, there is no doubt that there is going to be a need for lawyers! Bizarrely when the economy slows, the demand for lawyers slows, in this case we may see a significant boom of lawyers coming into the system, for example, people coming to the UK to meet the demand. I do worry about it at a macroeconomic level but am also aware and positive that it will create pockets of opportunities and that’s what we’ll need to be smart about.

Working in the recruitment industry is often seen as ‘work hard play hard’ culture. How do you incentivise your work force and create that balance in your firm?

It can be a perennial problem. It is a money driven, commission culture. As we speak, the boys upstairs are preparing to go to Ibiza this afternoon as a reward for hitting their targets which weren’t easy! It was a big incentive and they worked incredibly hard to get there.  It is a big expense for the company but the returns for high performance is strong. We as a business make money from their good performance, therefore we reward them.

Saying that there is a change in dynamic. Millennials is something we’re thinking about and how to make this attractive to them as they are a lot less money orientated and much more focused on their personal development and relationships in the workplace.  We are only part way through this, such as the technology we provide, however, we aren’t there yet. People will now base their decision not to join you over whether you provide a Blackberry or an i-phone 7! It is important to think about who you’re going to attract and why they’re going to stay with you.

If there was one book you could recommend for business owners, what would it be?

‘Black Box Thinking’ by Matthew Syed. It follows a philosophy of achieving the exceptional by continuously focusing on marginal gains… lots of things 1% better rather than revolution in one area. This fits with business really well and for businesses that are performing well it lays out a way of thinking about how to achieve more.

Quick fire!

Life motto: Try everything

Favourite rugby team? Harlequins!

Favourite subject at school? Economics

Marmite – love or hate? Love it!

Masterchef or Come dine with me? Masterchef of course.