Articles

There’s a school of thought that runs along the lines of – when the economy picks up, some of the alternative funding methods that have flowered in the wake of the recession, will cease to be the flavour of the month that they seem to be right now. The theory being that if interest rates increase, the benefits to be gained from greasing the wheel of the supply chain by paying early at a discount, will be outweighed by the benefits of keeping the money in the bank. Undoubtedly that will be the case for some organisations, just as now there are many who are yet to be convinced by the merits of being able to use supply chain finance or dynamic discounting even in today’s market. Sometimes in business old habits die hard.

Timpson - a name we’re all familiar with – their unobtrusive maroon signs part of the fabric of our high streets and travel experiences. Seems inevitable – a solid family business, a constant in a time of rapid change. Sounds dramatic – but when you look around and see gaps where Blockbusters, Woolworths and HMV used to be – being an established business is no longer a guarantee of unshakable foundations.

So looks can be deceiving, and success was by no means a certainty for Timpson, as John Timpson CBE explained. In fact, neither is natural progression to CEO, just because your father’s the Chairman. All boards and organisations contain different and sometimes conflicting personality types and one day in 1973 John Timpson’s father, Anthony found himself ousted by his uncle in a board room coup. John stayed with the firm and ten years later successfully led a management buyout.

With the growth of cheaper mass produced shoes, the shoe retail side of the business seemed to be in terminal decline – something which John recognised and he sold that side of the business for £15m, deciding instead to take advantage of the loss of traditional ironmongers from the high street to grow the key cutting business alongside shoe repairs. Something which is so ubiquitous now, it almost seems like an obvious fit – shoe repairs and key cutting – of course!

Q: So Taulia’s a relative newcomer, but has been around for four years now – what’s the journey been like so far?

A: Awesome! The great thing about starting Taulia was that the whole experience was a lot easier for us than it is for a lot of other start-ups because we already knew the space, and because we were four friends that knew each other well - and on top of that – we understood the pain points and were confident we could provide the solution. The last four years have been a great roller coaster to be on – and the driving force for it all is passion. We really believe that we have a product which works, and I think that comes across in everything we do. Ultimately, we’re passionate about fixing the inefficiency in the financial supply chain and the antiquated way businesses interact.  So how do I feel about the journey? Super happy!

Q: Sounds great, is there anything – looking back – that you’d change about it?

A: Well, perhaps we made a few poor hires early on, and hired for the wrong reasons, but since then we’ve learned to see through the fluff and find the truly valuable players who bring not only skills and expertise to the company, but also fit with our culture and spirit. Also, we’ve been pretty US focussed over the last 3 1/2 years, and perhaps we should have pushed harder into Europe six months ago…but, we’re on top of that now and are in the process of setting up a London office. In fact, we’re just recruiting a new Managing Director for the UK and I’m hoping that person will be in place at some point towards the end of the summer.

An invoice landed on my desk this week, and as I read the covering letter (Yes, really..) explaining that this was the second time they’d sent it and asking if I could pay it straight away, I viewed the £1.25 total with a mixture of amusement and irritation. Add to that the fact that it had already been paid, meaning that someone had to then pick up the phone – the situation offered up a microcosm of what can easily be an everyday occurrence in so many accounts payable departments. Issuing and dealing with an invoice where the amount being billed is significantly less than the processing costs is plain ridiculous – and is something which corporate P-Card schemes were developed to overcome.