There is something of a rock star status attached to being a ‘disruptive’ start-up founder.
With the start-up sector spawning pre-pubescent millionaires and boy-next-door billionaires, being the top dog behind the company name and logo can feel like a very big deal.
A relentless pursuit of success mixed with large doses of adrenalin and anxiety can create a pretty heady cocktail for new entrepreneurs, so what happens when two of them team up to start a business? How do they keep their disruptive streaks from derailing their business plans?
When entrepreneurs Lee Biggins and Brian Wakem teamed up to launch online recruitment CV-Library currently one of the UK’s largest independent job boards, their contrasting styles could have resulted in a very different outcome for the business.
Biggins had shown entrepreneurial flair at the age of 11, when he launched a successful car washing business, while Wakem had shown technical prowess as an early adopter of web development technology, building a website dedicated to the maintenance and tuning of his favourite car, a
Harmonious disruption
Whilst they never came to blows, early on they had disagreements on some key issues, such as the look of their website.
Biggins recalls: “Brian wanted to use the colours and elements of his Renault website for CV-Library, which we didn’t agree on; Brian wasn’t as strong at design as he was at development! However we didn’t have too many arguments over the 12 years we were together, the reason being that we completely respected each other’s skills and strengths.”
Wakem agrees. “Lee wasn’t keen on some of my design ideas if I recall, and I remember thinking that Lee’s ideas for marketing the brand were not always ‘traditional’, but we were able to discuss these challenges and move forward, knowing that time spent sweating the small stuff meant progress on more important projects was being hampered,” he says.
Their biggest challenge was creating a point of differentiation for CV-Library, so their early efforts were focused on transforming the brand from just a CV Database to a fully-fledged job board. The economic recession was also a massive challenge, and cutting customer support staff, as other job boards had done, was not a solution for a business that wanted to compete on service.
“Because of the speed at which CV-Library grew, we tended to agree on all business strategies and growth plans. It wasn’t broken, even in the toughest times, so there was no need to rock the boat and try and fix it, says Biggins.
The key to a smooth start-up, says Wakem, is to agree a solid plan at the outset and stick to it as far as possible.
“That way any potential conflicts can be overcome by referring back to the plan and discussing why the plan might need to be altered in some way. Having a different skillset from your partner helps, as you will both learn to respect each other’s skills and strengths,” he says.
To Have And To Hold...And To Disrupt
The situation gets even trickier when the disruptive business partners also happen to be married, as in the case of dentists David and Rashmi Hickey, whose approach to marketing their private dental practice Southport Road Dental has shaken up perceptions of what has always been a very traditional profession in the UK.
Their unconventional strategy has helped them double practice turnover in just four years, but both partners had to rock the boat to get there.
When they took on their practice in 2010, they engaged the services of a marketing company that was pushing the boundaries, focusing on niche patient sectors; in the Hickeys’ case, targeting nervous patients, with the powerful marketing concept of painfree dentistry. They also extended practice hours into evenings and weekends and made themselves available for emergencies 24/7.
“It was radical, it shook things up, but it was necessary in order for us to grow the business,” says David.
The trouble was, Rashmi initially hated the idea.
She says: “When David outlined what we’d be doing, I wasn’t happy, especially with the idea of being available round the clock. This wasn’t how I’d envisaged running a family practice.”
But she delivered a few surprises of her own. When their marketing team urged them to hire an implementation manager, the search for the right candidate via conventional job ads and job boards, proved fruitless.
While buying a coffee machine for the practice, the sales assistant who served them struck Rashmi as being exactly who they needed, and she offered her the job on the spot. Within a day, she had accepted.
“It was a snap decision, definitely not something I agreed with at the time, but it proved to be the right one, and Claire, who we hired, couldn’t have been more ideal for the role,” said David.
Somehow, they make their unique individual disruptive styles work.
The key lies in sharing common goals, and agreeing on your five and ten-year plans for your business, otherwise it would be very difficult to discuss and agree on any 'disruptive techniques', says David Hickey.
“Always going back to where you want to be will lead to more cohesion in discussions. One partner will always be more risk averse, so understanding each other's personality type makes it easier to understand the suggestions they propose,” he says.
The rules around harmonious disruption in business are clear, but above all else, says Cameron Chell CEO of Calgary-based Business Instincts Group, founding partners have to be candid.
He says: “It is an incredibly difficult skill to master, and it takes courage to speak openly and honestly with a partner about what isn’t working. The natural tendency is to try and keep the ship steady and not risk damaging relationships, or the start-up itself, through confrontation.
“In truth, trying to spare someone’s feelings can be equally as damaging to a business as letting bad work continue. You need to be tactful and decent, but tiptoeing around issues instead of tackling them head-on can be extremely destructive.”
