Adrian Powell – interview with the IOD director of the year (South East)

Adrian Powell is Managing Director of Active Facilities Management. One of the leading specialist office design and relocation companies in the Thames Valley. Adrian was recently awarded the coveted title ‘Director of the Year (South East)’ by the Institute of Directors and highly commended in the National category. Adrian has overseen a period of growth to be envied by any small business. I catch Adrian on another hectic day in his office on the outskirts of Reading, having just returned from a company trip to Nice to celebrate smashing profit and revenue targets for last financial year, we talk about taking a leap, building a strategy and being crowned IOD director of the year.

1. You grew your business over 30 fold in the first 10 years – well done. Is this what you set out to achieve or has your plan been fluid?

When I joined in 2007, the plan was always to grow the business. We felt that by continually focussing on quality customer service and relationships that we could achieve that. Back then we were doing a bit of move management and office moves, we’’re now offering workplace analysis, design and fit out, moves, IT services, small works projects and more. The breadth of service has grown through building great relationships based on trust.

I can definitely look back on a significant opportunity that we took. I remember a client who was being repeatedly let down by their then interiors company on a smaller project. We offered to and then completed a redecoration and it paved the way for a 1200 seater call-centre refurb. That was the moment it changed…

We’re always looking at how we can add value, cross selling / upselling / building on relationships – looking at extra services and how we can continually be involved in the workplace. That ‘can do’ attitude is now part of the company’s DNA.

2. What got you motivated to make perform such a turnaround to the business?

I came on board to join Colin and help grow the business. It was very much a ‘give it a go’ opportunity, at the time I was a director at MJF with a good job. However, I wanted to move my career forwards and always dreamt of running my own business. Colin and I were chatting en route to a meeting together when he told me he was looking to grow his businesses. We discussed basic terms and we agreed to give it 3/6 months. The motivation was to grow a sustainable business and we’ve never looked back.

3. Some of the areas in which you operate are those where it is potentially tough to engage and motivate your employees (for example moves/construction). How do you do it?

It’s inherent in the industry to have a ‘them and us’ approach between the office and the site staff and if you’re not careful it can become a real issue. We place a lot of emphasis on improving the company culture, focussed very much on employee one to ones, recognising staff, engaging them at company meetings. We make sure that we share information with them and celebrate success.
We have a Director of fun organising events, go-carting, paintballing, trips abroad.

And we want to make people feel proud to work for us and feel like they’re part of something special. All our staff get invited to client events which gives them a real opportunity to be recognised. We’re in a positive place and people are genuinely bought in to that.

4. What’s the biggest challenge you face in the business and how do you think you’ll overcome it?

Recruitment! When you have such exacting standards and we’ve set our own bar so high, it is increasingly difficult to find the right people but we have some great methods in place for finding and retaining great people. Cashflow will always be a challenge so long as we’re in the business of running one-off ad hoc projects. We have a few initiatives to get ourselves further up the food chain including the introduction of services to maintain some contracted revenue.

5. It seems that we move from one period of uncertainty to another these days, yet in these times there are great businesses like yours outperforming many. How do you plan for fast growth in such volatile conditions?

We started our growth spell in 2007 and had 3 years of recession through which we grew exponentially. We learned pretty quickly that you need to be able to adapt and recognise opportunity. We’re still a small business, so when anyone asks me about ‘Brexit’ or ‘Downturn’ I just look at what untapped opportunity exists within our own business and I’m pretty confident we’ll ride the next storm. We like change in our business – after all change IS our business. Our 2020 vision is to be a £10m business. Constantly improving our systems, operations, efficiencies and getting great teams on board will help us get there, probably sooner.

6. You’ve been voted director of the year by the IOD – congratulations, what are the key ingredients in being recognised as a great company director?

It was a very proud moment to bring that back to the office and celebrate with our team. I think the key ingredients are hard work, leadership by example, focus on excellent customer services, maintaining relationships, creating a great team with a desire to win, passion, commitment. Always remain positive. I also like to get out and about and help shape the industry and be a game-changer. I don’t know whether it helped me win, but it certainly helps with our culture that we like giving back a bit, we do a lot for Launchpad in Reading – collecting in buckets in the Local shopping centre, in the lead up to Christmas. We do a sponsored sleep out for them too.

7. If you could share one nugget of insight into building a successful business in a competitive market place, what would it be?

Team is everything – you have to have the right people who want to be there and be part of it and buy into your vision. To provide and exceed clients’ expectations, without boundaries. Remain passionate and build a team that reflects your passion and commitment.

8. And finally – what does success mean to you?

Success is being in more of a position to do things I couldn’t do – provide opportunities. But also getting up every morning feeling happy and excited and regularly punching above your weight. I love it when a client tells me our team had done a great job.

ActiveFM design, build and furnish great places to work.