CEO Today Magazine September 2019 Edition

www.ceotodaymagazine.com BASE QUANTUM 55 was on and there was little alternative but to set up my own firm. I needed to see if I could turn my outlandish ideas into a business. In what ways have you driven Base Quantum in its expansion? I think the key to our recent success has been our lack of ‘drive’ for expansion. Our motto is “better not bigger” which means that our focus is towards leveraging our expertise and skills. This doesn’t mean that we are small-minded - far from it - but we are confident that if we are constantly looking at being better, expansion will follow – and it does. We are a people business, so the products that we sell are encapsulated in the expertise and skills of the people we employ. A key to our business is to challenge our staff to aspire, and to support them to gain new knowledge and skills which we can then use to expand what we do. Over 90% of our current staff have either already achieved or are working towards some form of additional qualification, so this is a key part of our growth strategy. We focus on more than profit. We view it as a form of “commercial altruism” – we are here to make money, but whilst other organisations make decisions based on maximising short term profits, we value the opportunities to grow the skills and expertise in our people for long-term success. Have you seen the growth you anticipated? I think so. In the first few years we forewent growth for creating a solid foundation. Then in the next four or five years, the growth was phenomenal. Last year, we decided, again, to forego growth and to concentrate on reinvigorating the culture, creating a structure for the future, and driving a collective ethos into the business. I feel like the first 5 years happened to us, rather than because we intended it to happen that way. We only had to grasp the great opportunities that came our way. We now have our destiny in our own hands; we have a choice about where we go and what we do, and with that choice comes a responsibility to do good things for the right reasons – and to make money. What are the greatest challenges you have encountered? The great thing about running a small business is that every challenge is a badge of honour. The greatest challenge was making the decision to start out. Thereafter, I can look back over the last 7 years and track the progress of the business by the problems that we have encountered, by the traps we have fallen into and, ultimately, by the obstacles we have had to overcome. Every time we grow, we are presented with new challenges to overcome and something new to be proud of. I think the greatest challenge going forward is to keep growing whilst we protect what we have built. When you start out, it is OK to experiment, and if you fail, you just dust yourself off and start again. However, I feel a responsibility to the team now-we must keep growing to reward everybody’s efforts; but we can’t be gung-ho and let it fall apart. Do you feel like you can ever fully relax? I don’t think you should be able to fully relax when you have your own business. It is one of those things that comes with the job title. The growth and development of the business requires us to challenge our boundaries. I’ve always run the business around three essential aspects of “Get Work”, “Do Work” and “Get Paid”; if it is going too well then it means that we are being too cautious; so there is always something to worry about, even if it is only that it is all going too well. What are your aspirations for the future? My biggest aspiration for the business is to shift it from being “mine” to “ours”. I chose the name “Base” because it is so difficult to break the ties of eponymous organisations with founders, and I have never wanted to be that founder who stood in the way of progress. We have some fantastic people within the company and harnessing that range of expertise into something that we can all share in is hugely important to creating the legacy that I think we all deserve. CONTACT Duncan Hughes-Phillips Founder & CEO Base Quantum Ltd. www.base-quantum.co.uk “I have never wanted to be that founder who stood in the way of progress.“