The Goldilocks principle

Over the past year, my business, Earl Kendrick Associates, has undergone a lot of changes. Some team members have left for pastures new, and others have come in to replace them, or more often to take on different roles that meet the changing needs of the business and our clients. And with relatively new offices in Manchester and Brighton growing our business in the north and southrespectively, we’ve had to devote senior staff to managing our geographical expansion as well as growing the business in London.

I believe we’re now stronger than ever, but the experience of the past year has caused me to reflect on the challenges of growing a business like ours. In particular, and at risk of sounding like a 1990s politician, I think we’ve successfully navigated those challenges by going back to basics.

“Growth is good. New business is always welcome; however those are not the basics I have in mind. Instead, I’m thinking of the underlying philosophy I’ve always tried to bring to bear on Earl Kendrick, and that is the idea that, while surveying depends on technical knowledge and expertise about buildings, it is first and foremost a people business.”

It’s always tempting to let opportunities dictate the pace of growth, recruiting suitably qualified staff as required to take on new work. Even the most qualified and talented new team members will, by definition, lack a key element of what our clients value about Earl Kendrick: A first-hand, working knowledge of their buildings and their needs. To put it another way, we put a lot of time and effort into developing a relationship with each of our clients, and relationships are not scalable in the same way as technical services.

That means we have to take care to ensure we’re not taking on new business at the expense of giving due attention to our existing clients. And at the same time, we have to ensure new clients receive the same personal attention as our older ones, especially as they often come to us through personal recommendations. Ours is a people business all the way down!

I know plenty of property managers and other clients who get frustrated that smaller firms of surveyors are slow to respond because they’re overstretched. The downside with larger firms, though, is that tend to have a high turnover of staff. Whilst a larger firm may allow for quicker responses, it also means clients sometimes have to reinvent the wheel each time because they’re dealing with a different surveyor.

What I’ve found is that the Goldilocks solution is not so much about the size of a firm as its character and composition. I’ve made a real effort, particularly over the past year, to consolidate our senior team and ensure all our projects are led by a director. We know clients appreciate having a single point of contact and preferably a senior surveyor, so we go out of our way to provide them with just that. At the same time, though, we’ve rotated the team to give individuals more responsibility and to ensure everyone gets used to working with different senior members. That’s especially important because several younger members of the team are achieving chartered status and have potential to become senior team members in the future.

One final lesson I’ve learned about growing a people-based business is that even when people move on, the relationship does not and should not have to end there. Major consultancy firms like Deloitte and McKinsey have long operated ‘alumni’ networks on the model of universities, to encourage former employees to keep in touch and reach out to one another with opportunities or requests for help. We’ve also had countless referrals and recommendations from former team members who know just where to come for help with the full range of surveying services and expertise.

So I’m excited about the future at Earl Kendrick, which is very much built on the philosophy I’ve held to since the start. It’s not always been easy to remain true to that philosophy in practice, as the pressures of a growing business push you in many directions at once. In the past year it is clearer than ever to me that a focus on people and relationships is the key to success. Even as some of the names and faces around you change, it pays to remember they all have unique needs and talents, and that investing in relationships is investing in the future.

Julian Davies MRICS is the founder and Managing Director of Earl Kendrick Associates