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Introduction
The man I decided to interview is the very successful
entrepreneur Mr. Tom Morrisroe. Tom made his fortune in the Tech sector, a
sector which is an integral part of our everyday lives. Could we imagine, even
contemplate living our lives without a mobile phone? I’m told when our parents
were kids a “mobile” was something you hung over a babies cot, even as recent
as 2000, only 14 years ago if you
mentioned the words “social media” people would wonder about you, no U-tube,
Facebook etc etc.
Yet today if our parents mislay their mobile we all have to
search for it, the importance of leaving the house early to allow for the road
works at the school becomes secondary.
My interview with Tom took place at his home and ran in a
questions and answers type format. I should add he was quite impressed with
some of my questions.
My goal in this project was to find out where it all started
and how Mr. Morrisroe built his company from 3 founding members in 2006 to one
that employs 250 + today.
SB : Tell me
about your background
Education – TM: After completing
the Leaving Cert I attended University in Limerick where he did Mechanical
Engineering.
Your 1st Job – TM: My first job was working on the family farm
Did you travel abroad during summer
holidays as a student – TM: Yes I travelled in France and Germany ?
Other jobs – TM: As part of my college
degree I did a work placement in a pharmaceutical company - Travenol for 9
months. This company would have been one of the earliest US ventures in Ireland
and a big employer in the West of Ireland.
SB: Did you find it was an advantage
when you started out in business?
TM: 3RD
Level is an advantage in getting your first job. If you have a degree in
something it is a bit easier for you to get a job and start at a different
level and it gives you training in how to learn things. Now it doesn’t mean you
will not be successful in business if you don’t go to college. If you have the
capability you can be just as successful, like Richard Branson is very
successful.
SB : Tell me
about your Current Business
TM: The current
business I am involved in is The Now Factory. We provide technology (software
and Hardware) to telecommunications companies to help them better manage their
business. So our customers would be the likes of Vodafone, T-Mobile &
Orange.
SB: How long are you in your current
business? TM:
The current business which is not my 1st business started in 2006.
SB : What were the first steps you took
to set up the business?
TM: The 1st steps or to look
at it in another way the most fundamental thing is you need people, key people,
because with the right people you can figure out how to build something and
after that its about engagement with the Customer to understand what the need
is. Our Customers need was how could they most add value to their business. We worked
with customers and developed the technology that could add that value to their
business.
SB : How did you fund it initially? TM:
In my case this was not my 1st business and in the very very initial
stages I would have funded the business, but in setting up you have different
options, you can fund it yourself but often you run out of money quite quickly,
you can get supports from other people, Friends, Venture Capitalist – normally
they won’t get involved at the very early stage as they want to see you have
the capability or a customer base before they will back you, high risk capital.
SB: Were there any major challenges at
the start?
TM: I guess the major challenge was
to get the right people on board. Getting enough needs from a particular market
would be a challenge, in my experience you are best off to do a few things no
just one thing.
SB: How did you overcome these
challenges? TM: Your
first idea is not necessarily going to be good enough to succeed, you need to talk
to a no. of different potential customers to figure out a no. of different
needs and start working on a few of those needs.
SB: Did you receive assistance from any
of the Govt agencies, Entreprise Ireland, The IDA etc TM: IDA work with foreign companies attracting them into Ireland so
I didn’t have any involvement with them. Yes I worked with Enterprise Ireland,
training advice and funding in the early stages and as you get a big bigger
they provide funding for R&D, they can be very useful, they can also be
difficult sometimes, they are a government agency and as such they like you to
fill in lots of forms.
SB: Did your business ever win any
Awards ? TM:
Yes we did, awards are important for business. When a business is small it
doesn’t matter so much as everyone is so motivated in driving the business
forward but as the business grows to a couple of hundred company then its nice
for employees to have something to be proud of. Its like winning a game, you
are in competition against other companies in your sector. We would have won
Irish Software Business of the year, Exporters Business of the year, Entrepreneur
of the Year. For employee motivation there is nothing better than going up
against your peers and winning.
SB: Do you have employees? If so how
many ? TM :
In this particular company I have about 250 employees or so, it would be classed
as a medium sized business
SB: What are the keys to managing
people in your business? TM:
If you look at a business in its most fundamental terms you must have a need in
the market, a capability to deliver, so if something has to be made you need machines
or know how, and the 3rd thing you need is people, motivated people.
A really important part of business is how you motivate people, who you hire
and that sort of thing.
SB: How do you keep a positive
atmosphere? TM:
When a business is small it’s easy, you hand pick the people and you will tend
to hire people who fit closely with the type of person you are and the other
people around you are. A small start-up business is highly motivating competing
against the world, if you are not motivated by this, they’ll never be
motivated, so it’s actually quite easy. So how do you maintain this as a
company grows to hundreds of people, that’s the challenge. Then what you need
to do is look at the culture of the business, you create the culture, so when
people join a business they look to see that others around then do, people copy
what they see. So even if you hire
someone that is highly productive and you put them in an unproductive
environment, he looks around and sees the people here generally don’t do things
he will copy that behaviour. When he sees people are not productive he copies
their behaviour and he becomes unproductive. The reverse is also true.
SB: How do you
make sure you get the most from your staff ? TM:
This is a very complicated area you must have rewards for those who follow good
behaviour and have punishments for those who display bad behaviour. You must
deliberately manage it by defining what behaviours are acceptable and
unacceptable by using mechanisms and awards. When you do this it must be in an inclusive
way, so it’s not about the management saying this is the way it’s going to be,
its about the company and all of the people in the company saying this is the
way we want to be, as a team and when other people join the company they see
how people behave and the adapt to that, you don’t have to train them, they
just look at you and see how you behave, if you work hard and late they will
work hard and late, if you take a 2 hour lunch break thay will take a 2 hour
lunch break.
SB: What do you
look for when hiring staff? TM:
2 things, No.1 can they do the job and 2. Do they fit the culture that you want.
For example in a shop scenario, staff need to be friendly, so there will be
certain qualities above and beyond academic capability. Nearly all the people
I’ve hired I’ve interviewed myself as it is my company. As google grew into
tens of thousands of employees the founders still interviewed the people.
SB: How do you
come up with prices for you products/services? TM:
If you are selling a commodity there is a price that people will pay, for
example you may decide to produce a High end bread but no one will pay €10 for
a loaf of bread. On the other hand if you do something new that no one has done
before well then you have a more difficult challenge. The issue now is how do
you value it. The value could be it saves time or money and you need to be able
to put a price on this. So if it save them time you might calculate it save
them say an hour every day. If saving an
hour every day is worth €100 to the business, then you might charge €50 so you
share the saving with the company. If you’re stuck in a mature market the
market sets the price and you need to be more efficient than everybody else.
SB: Do you outsource any part of your
business? TM:
When you are very small, you will outsource certain things, for example you
could not afford your own accountant so you’ll outsource accounts. As you get
bigger you might outsource when you experience a sudden spike in demand, you
might outsource some of the development. In our business you want to keep your
knowledge in house, all of your valve is in people’s brains so we tend not to
outsource much.
SB: Have you had any bad experiences in
outsourcing?
TM: I have had bad experiences is
everything but I have also had good experiences.
SB: Do you set
short term/long-term goals? TM:
Yes we do. Every business is like a team it needs goals, like when you go out
to play rugby, you’re goal is to win. It might seem ridiculous but if no one
knew that the goal is to win, the rugby team wouldn’t last very long. Having a
clear goal is very important.
SB: How often do you review your short
term goals? TM:
In a business short term is a year, with constant review every month, to make
sure you are on track.
SB: Have you had
to adapt to change in your business ? (Opportunities or Threats) TM:
Every month the business is adapted to opportunity and threats. Especially in
technology you must constantly review what you are doing or you will be way off
track. Unfortunately sitting down and implementing a plan without constant
reviewing does not work, our business is much more dynamic than that.
SB: What skills and characteristics do
you think make a successful entrepreneur? TM:
One of the most important thing is you must be risk adverse. So if you are
concerned about risk it’s very hard to do it. You must be able to take a risk.
Young people are much more able to do this, as when you are older you have a
mortgage to pay and kids to send to school. Younger is better, if you start out
with nothing the worse you can do is have nothing at the end. So to summarise
you must be risk adverse, work hard and be focused. Brains does not replace hard
work, if you are risk adverse, work hard and are focused most people will
succeed, that’s the way I would see it.
SB: Did the recession impact your
business? TM: Not
really as we only sell overseas
SB: The
government are taking a lot of credit for the improvement in the Irish Economy,
do you agree with this? TM:
Partly, the government did not have any choice, they borrowed lots of money
from other people and were told how to do it and that’s the way they did it.
SB: Foreign Heads
of State talk a lot about the competitive advantage Ireland enjoys with its low
corporate tax rates. How important do you think these are in attracting
businesses to Ireland ? TM:
Really important, not the only thing - alot of companies come here because of
it, although we are not the only country that does that. Irelands’ tax system
is less hidden than others and therefore takes a lot more flack.
SB: Do you think
immigration over the last 5 years will have lasting negative effects on
employment in Ireland particularly outside the main urban centres? TM:
Not really as people often come back with new skills and that can be positive
as well as negative. I don’t think it will all be negative.
SB:
How has technology impacted on your business? TM:
Technology is my business and how it impacts is it gives new opportunities. The
brilliant thing about technology is it keeps changing meaning there is new
opportunities for everyone year after year.
SB: How do you
market your business? Do you use social media? TM:
The business would have LinkedIn accounts and twitter accounts. There is
someone who works full time in the business and on optimisation where you
appear higher on a google search.
SB: If you were
Taoiseach, what policies or changes would you introduce to help small
businesses grow ? TM:
The main problem with a small business is lack of credit. You need Working
Capital. Often someone needs to pay for things before they are sold. If you are
a shopkeeper you buy all the goods but it could be a week or a month before you
sell enough stock to recover your money. In bigger businesses it could be
longer. If it was a car it could be 6 months. Often business don’t have enough
money to keep their business going. If I were Taoiseach I would push more money
out through the banks. The banks don’t have much money and they are holding
onto whatever they have. I would have insisted they did more.
SB: Does running a business consume a
lot of time? TM:
Yes it does. If you want to set up a business, its not 5 days a week 8 hours a
day.
SB: Do you find it stressful? TM:
Its very stressful but also a lot of fun.
SB: How do you cope with stress? TM:
Holidays often work as a stress reliever,
SB: Do you find it difficult to stop
thinking about the business? TM:
You really have to enjoy what you are doing otherwise you could not do it
SB:
Can you take holidays? TM:
Yes, without them you would burn out
SB: Do you have a motto? TM:
No
SB: Do you think networking is
important? TM:
Networking is hugely important
SB: Are you part
of a network group? TM:
I would always be talking to overseas clients. I would have networks within the
country also with people who own their own businesses, they don’t necessarily
help your business but they help you a lot.
SB: How does networking help your
business? TM:
You can see from networks that someone else has had the same problem, and they
have found a way to solve it.
SB: Any final words of advice to a
budding entrepreneur? TM:
I’ve already said it, Hard Work, Hard Work, Hard work
Conclusion
Some time ago Tom could see that phone technology and the
internet were converging. His company created the technology to make this
happen and now this technology is the most widely used all over the world. In Toms opinion it’s not so much the idea,
but what’s the need in the market, hence the creation of the Now Factory. He
listened to the customer’s needs and developed technologies that met those
needs.
This was not Toms first business, and having interviewed him
I would be very surprised if its his last, I don’t see him retiring any time
soon.
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