3 Great Businesses You Can Learn From

November 25, 2007

I like to keep a careful eye on other businesses. Not only can you learn from their mistakes, you can also take what they’re doing well and apply their ideas to your own business. And here’s 3 great businesses to keep an eye on:

Multisolutions

Who Are they? A Liverpool based IT company.

What I like about them: a) They don’t give up - they almost went bankrupt, but managed to turn the business round again, and one of the Directors, Ian Denny shared the experience with others in Phoenix from the Ashes.

b) They offer remote IT support - I’ve tried it and the service is excellent - even on a weekend.

c) They dare to be different - Most IT companies come across as boring, and a bit geek like, but not Multisolutions. They have a special traffic light system and each month their customers use the system to rate their service. If they don’t receive 100% excellent scores each month, one of the Directors has to pay a forfeit, which they video and broadcast on their blog.

Scenic Blue

Who are they? A UK based garden design and construction company.

What I like about them: a) They can make your garden look like this.

b) Their Expansion Plans: Recently they were taken over by Marshalls plc and they have massive expansion plans. They currently have 18 franchisees, and recently they recruited Ron Hutton, to help them increase their UK coverage. Ron intends to recruit 27 franchisees in his first year with the company. And whilst his plans seem ambitious, he has an excellent track record in the franchise industry and I know that if he says he can expand the company this quickly - he will.

c) They Use Feedback to Improve: As you probably already know, one of the best ways to improve a business is to ask your customers what you’re doing right and what you could be doing better. Ron has spent hours speaking to existing franchisees to discover what Scenic Blue are doing right, and how they can improve and this will definitely pay off in the long run.

Virgin Atlantic

Who are they? The UK’s best airline, providing flights to many cities in the USA and the Caribbean.

What I like about them: a) Unlike many other big companies, they haven’t become complacent and they’re constantly improving their service. And they actually make flying fun, with their award winning entertainment system. Plus, they recently opened a new terminal in Heathrow Airport, a new lounge in JFK and upgraded their Premium Economy seats. And they’re even planning trips to space for 2009.

b) Their frequent flyer program: They reward their customers with a brilliant frequent flyer program. In virtually no time at all, I was able to save enough points for a one way Upper Class ticket from New York. And one man has even racked up enough frequent flyer miles for a trip to space.

c) They dare to be different: Some of Richard Branson’s publicity stunts are legendary. And Virgin Atlantic’s advertising campaigns are like nothing you’ve ever seen from an ordinary airline. Click here to check out this hilarious video they brought out to promote their Upper Class flat beds.

Do you have a favourite company that we can learn a lot from? Please tell us about it in the comments section.

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Comments

3 Responses to “3 Great Businesses You Can Learn From”

Ian on November 25th, 2007 8:37 pm

I don’t really like the product or what they stand for, but I do admire the way MacDonalds can replicate a speedy service wherever you see it.

I do like seeing efficient and well-run companies. Systems are essential, as is blending it with good, friendly service. It’s not easy to achieve, but I do like companies who get there.

By the way, thanks for the very kind comments! We’re doing really well right now and the systems are driving those improvements.

I know I’m in IT and it can come across as biased, but I strongly advocate investing in software and systems. A good investment which may appear expensive, can often be a fraction of the salary of a person to do the same.

And if it’s done well it will gel the entire business process together so that everyone is using it to do their job faster.

The system we’ve just had written for us is beginning to mean we can cope with expansion without taking more supporting personnel on. Instead, we need just add fee-earning staff as we need them.

And we have also outsourced call answering using the same system - so we get very accurate figures on the number if incidents we are dealing with.

Before, incidents often bypassed the system, but because entry onto the system is now via the internet by the oursourced company, we are getting very accurate figures. It is allowing us to focus more on the actual delivery and less on the supporting admin.

And as the cliche goes, better measurement, better management. Because we can see exact figures now, it helps us plan the business better.
cathlawson on November 26th, 2007 7:17 am

Ian - systems are great. And you would think McDonalds would be foolproof, but I stopped going in one local branch a long time ago because the service was really slow.

And I don’t know if you saw my post on TGI Friday’s in Glasgow, but the service was dreadful in comparison to the ones in America.

But a system that is well managed makes life easier and it’s great that you’re doing all this.

We also use an internet based system and it is much easier. You can even log in from another country and update it. Now, if we could use one of those outsourced telephone places like you are using and give them access to our system it would be perfect. I will ask them. I’m just waiting to see how you go for a few weeks first.
Ian on November 26th, 2007 7:27 am

Well I think the telephone service has been great. I have had a couple of teething issues, but mainly because the Internet system we use was being updated (by us!) at the time so it went slow for a few minutes.

Apart from that, it’s given us a flexibility we never before had.

Will keep you posted.