The chief executive of Daisy Communications, a telecoms firm, won two prizes
in last year’s Entrepreneur Challenge: a £5m interest-free bank loan and a
masterclass in business from Sir Philip Green, the billionaire retail
tycoon.
After his first day of mentoring from Green, Matthew Riley had no doubt which
prize was more valuable. “Yesterday was worth more than the loan, without a
doubt,” he said. “You just couldn’t buy it, could you?”
Green, too, was impressed with Riley. “I think he’s a sharp fella, got the key
ingredient – common sense – and he gets things quickly,” he said. “He asks
the right sort of questions. Good observer, I thought. And he’s interested
to learn, which I like.”
Mentor and student have had regular phone calls and meetings since the founder
of Lancashire-based Daisy was crowned national winner of the Sunday Times
Bank of Scotland £25m Entrepreneur Challenge last year. But Riley’s first
full day at Arcadia’s London headquarters – where Green oversees some of
Britain’s biggest retail names, including Topshop, BHS and Burton – was
still an eye-opener.
“It was fascinating to experience a day in the life of someone like Sir Philip
Green and great to meet so many people in the business,” said Riley. “Until
I spent the day with him, I didn’t realise the diversification he has within
his business. Even though it’s retail, it’s in so many different areas of
retail and he has so many different brands.”
Riley added: “The first thing to hit me is that he has surrounded himself with
fantastic people. While Philip is the face of Arcadia, there are certainly a
hell of a lot of people behind it who are exceptionally talented. He’s also
brought a lot of people through the business and it has reinforced what we
are doing because we have a similar belief in trying to promote from within.”
At the time of judging the Entrepreneur Challenge finalists, Green praised
“the true entrepreneurial spirit” at Daisy and how this telecoms provider to
the business community “displayed fleet of foot and a real insight into
their market’s dynamics”.
Since then Riley has invested Bank of Scotland Corporate’s £5m loan – “I spent
that in about six weeks” – in two corporate acquisitions and has completed
two more in the past few weeks. That’s a total of 16 corporate deals in
Daisy’s seven-year history. According to Riley, his company is on target to
hit a turnover of £250m in the next 18 months and become Britain’s main
alternative to BT in the business communications market.
Green knows a thing or two about acquisitions and how businesses need to be
bedded in before they can be properly judged, which is why he is careful not
to overpraise Riley’s acquisitions record just yet.
“I would say it’s too early. The company’s size has changed radically in the
last quarter. You need to see how he manages the bigger picture,” said
Green. “It will be interesting to see his response to that. I’d want to see
another three months of a bigger business under his management to see how it
works. But he’s a good lad. I like him.”
Riley said: “He has looked at what we do on acquisitions and we are following
the same business principles – keep it simple, do the things you know and
understand and make sure you execute the plan. And that’s what it’s all
about, really. It’s making sure you have followed through on what you have
decided to do.”
He added: “The thing that really impressed me was his reporting lines and his
amazing management information. He has numbers at his fingertips. He was
getting the morning’s sales figures at 12.15pm and that’s for every store.”
For his part, Green is arranging for Arcadia’s finance team to look over
Daisy’s reporting systems and key performance indicators. “It’s just so I
can give him some sensible advice,” said Green. “He’s in a sales-driven
business where there are a few monsters and a few minnows, if you like, in
that pond. And I think he’s just trying to understand how to swim in that
pond and not get eaten up. I have to make sure I understand the KPIs [key
performance indicators] to make sure he is swimming in the correct
direction.”
Green is committed to giving three more full days of his time to Riley during
the course of the year. “Basically, I am interested in looking at other
things, how other markets work,” he said. “I think it’s important if you can
help in the big picture. It’s nice to be able to impart some advice if you
can spend a little time. It’s almost like a combination of therapy and a
hobby – it’s interesting.”
Mentor and student will be on the phone every other week, too, which is no bad
thing for Daisy because Riley has no intention of resting on his laurels.
“We have some chunky acquisitions we are going to look at with Bank of
Scotland Corporate and with Philip’s help, too,” he said, unfazed by the
economic uncertainty. “It’s a good thing in some ways that there is a
downturn because it means that as people tighten their belts they might look
at their business communications, realise they are paying BT too much and
come to Daisy, which is a natural alternative to BT. That’s where we want to
be – No 2 in the market for smaller businesses.”
Riley’s ambitions to grow Daisy resonate with some of his observations at
Arcadia – its “can do” approach to business. “One of the things I noted was
that they have a meeting and they get things done rather than having a
meeting about having another meeting, which can happen in large corporates,”
he said.
“I’d like to think we are developing a long relationship,” said Riley. “I
think Philip enjoys talking about his business. A lot of people in that
position enjoy sharing some of their knowledge and I think Philip feels it’s
part of what he needs to do as an entrepreneur. But he just does it
naturally – he’s that sort of guy.”
