Practicus introduced Ben to First Utility as Interim Operations Director. This was shortly after its attempt to reach a mass residential audience by launching a tariff on the online switching sites (e.g. uSwitch) failed and had to be withdrawn.
Launching into the mass residential market was important for First Utility. The aim was to position the business as a challenger brand to the Big 6 energy companies and after 3 years of investment, the business was yet to generate a profit.
Ben joined a Board comprised of professional international investors focussed on building business value with one eye firmly on the exit opportunities. Unsurprisingly, it was a fast-paced entrepreneurial environment.
Ben built trust and credibility by realigning the business to the task, building new systems and processes, and successfully relaunching the tariff. His target was to acquire an additional 20,000 new energy customers within six months. To put that in perspective, the company only had 7,500 customers at the time. He was also charged with building the infrastructure to rollout SMART meters nationally in order to offer all customers the benefits of an 'actual usage' monthly bill. "Within weeks, Ben had relaunched the SMART tariff and put the building blocks in place to ensure First Utility's success."
Ben relaunched the tariff on the online switching sites just 6 weeks after his introduction by Practicus in August 2009. He ensured First Utility’s infrastructure was in place and, by Christmas, had achieved more than 40,000 new registrations - double the original target.
This more than tripled revenue to £60m in 2010, taking the Business EBITDA positive for the first time, enabling it to be refinanced in August last year at a 70% premium (with a Merchant Bank taking a 10% stake).
One of the keys to unlocking the growth so quickly was that Ben persuaded the founders to launch a “smarter” estimated energy product nationally, which remains very popular. This bought him the time he needed to build the national meter fit capability. Ben then rolled out the Smart Metering offering across the UK in October 2010.
Having built substantial trust with investors, Ben was given freedom to operate and address challenges right across the business, nurturing and positioning it for massive growth over the next 3-5 years.
"They pretty much gave me my head," says Ben. "It's one of the benefits of being professional and having delivered outcomes that far exceeded their expectations."
As is so often the way with fast paced change, there was a significant turnover of staff, especially at a senior level. Last year, Ben rebuilt and restructured much of the organisation and led a huge investment in recruitment, retention, team building and employee engagement activities. Ben is passionate about employee engagement at all levels and inverting the traditional pyramid, seeing the role of a manager as setting the right conditions in which their staff and teams can do their best work. "Tripled revenue to £60m, taking the business EBITDA positive for the first time!"
In 2010, Ben also set the tone for the organisation, driving (and facilitating) the development of the new core purpose for the organisation - “Smarter Services for Life” - this has been adopted by the Board, the Executive and the organisation as a whole. It now forms a core part of the sales and marketing strategy of First Utility. Another key activity included working closely with regulators to resolve queries and issues more quickly.
Over two years, Ben’s role evolved to the point where he was leading the business as de facto Managing Director - freeing the CEO (and coFounder) to focus on his other commitments.
At the end of last year, First Utility was ready to enter its next stage-preparation for an IPO. With the business transformed, Ben worked with all departmental heads to develop their individual business plans for 2011 and transfer knowledge. "Ben is passionate about employee engagement."He then managed his exit to further pursue his passion: leading the turnaround and transformation of underperforming and early stage businesses.
