Building business on character ethic | Kevin Byrne | TEDxNoviSad

What are the foundations of a successful business? Kevin Byrne shares lessons from his own experience, explaining the importance of vision and values. He would always start with the end in mind, nurturing people instead of growing business.

After a huge storm in the UK in the late '90s, Kevin Byrne started a company Checkatrade to help people avoid cowboy builders. He built his company from scratch and today, he is one of the leading entrepreneurs in the UK, and one of the bearers of the Olympic torch in London 2012.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

Thank you.

Has anybody heard of a lemming
and what a lemming is?

Well if you don't know I'll tell you.

A lemming is a little furry rodent
that basically jumps off cliffs,

into the water and drowns.

And they don't just do this by the ones
or twos, they do it by the thousands.

It's almost as if a senior lemming,
the head lemming decides,

"Hey guys, let's go for a swim!"

So, they all go,
"Yeah! Let's go for a swim!"

So, they all run to the cliff
and they all jump off

and it's like,
"Right, now, everyone swim!"

And they go, "Swim?"
(Gurgling)

And they all drown.

And society today is very much the same.

If you are going to a school,
you might find a head lemming

which decides that they will take drugs,
and then a whole bunch of other kids

will come behind and go along
with that head lemming.

Or they might be lucky,
there might be one young individual,

that says "no" to drugs,

and a whole bunch
of other kids come behind.

And that's the direction
that those people go in.

And today we will find
that the business culture

has changed a tremendous amount

over the last five, 10,
particularly 15 years.

And what I want to talk about today
is ethical business.

If you go back to the literature
that we've been reading

over the last hundred
to 150 years of the success

of what's made businesses
really work well,

it's always been based on character.

It's been based on things like integrity,

service, loyalty,
gentleness, understanding.

But it seems that over the last
five, 10, 15 years

it's been replaced, what slowly crept in.

And it's the personality ethic is where -

It seems like websites today,

their aim really is to manipulate you,

lubricate the wheels of a system

which would extract as much out of you,

as it possibly can.

So, what I want to suggest today,

is that the success of the world
is based on character.

But over the last 10 years,
it's like this personality has crept in.

Where there is no character,
and it's all about lubrication.

And with that, could that
be a contribution

to what's happened in the world today?

I think it probably has.

There's problems all over the world
with finances, etc.

So, I believe then
it was a character ethic.

Today it's slowly being replaced
by the personality ethic.

I want to quickly introduce
my company to you.

It started 14 years ago when a tornado
went throw my hometown in Selsey.

I had no money, no business experience
and I had a very limited education,

but I saw many tradesmen
come down from all over the UK

to rip homeowners off.

There were cowboy trades coming down
and they were basically overcharging

or even stealing money off consumers.

And I looked at the time
at the guilds and the federations,

I looked at what local government
was doing

and the central government was doing,

and I couldn't see
an answer to this problem

where tradesmen
were doing a really poor job.

So I set out almost from day one,
I want to make a difference.

I want to bring something
to the UK which is of real value.

I didn't set out thinking, wow,
I want to build something

that is going to make me
a tremendous amount of money.

If you build something which is worth
and something the consumer

or business needs,
and they're interacting with it,

and it's got that whole world
"worth" around it,

your money will automatically flow.

I've never had one single business meeting
around my board table

with my senior managers, saying,

"How can we extract
more money out of people?"

That's never happened.

It's always been,

"How can I build more worth
into what we are doing for other people,

how can we make more of a difference
in what we are doing?"

But today I'll stand here,
and I am not being proud or big-headed,

but we are turning
over a 160,000 Euros a week.

And it hasn't even been
designed to do that,

it's been designed to work
on the character ethic

and to make a difference.

Begin with the end in mind.

So what does that mean?

I don't think many people today
really know where they are going.

They really haven't got a plan
for their personal life,

for their social life,
their business life, their family life.

They really don't know
where they are going.

And I just want you to imagine
something for a moment

that you are at a funeral,
and it's very quiet, very somber,

and there's a resounding atmosphere
of love and appreciation

for the person that's died
and there's going to be four speakers

and they are all going to be speaking
about the person that's died.

And then you suddenly realised
that it's actually you that's died.

And it's your funeral.

What would you want someone

from your immediate family
to say about you?

What would you want

from someone from your extented family
to say about you?

What about someone from your work?

And what about
someone from a social group,

your friendships or something?

What would you really want them to say?

If you were to take the time -
unfortunately few of you will do this,

that's my experience -
but if you were to take the time,

and to meditate on those things,

you'll actually touch
some really core important values,

and I bet money will hardly come into it.

Money would be a by-product,
oh, I really wanted to help this person,

I want people to remember me
for achieving this and this,

helping these people,

and of course money
is that vehicle to make that happen.

But begin with the end in mind,

know what your final destination
is going to be.

They say sticks and stones
would never break my bones

but names will never hurt.

And my parents used to say to me,
"Oh, you shouldn't care what people

say about you, or think about you".

I actually very much disagree with that.

I actually believe
that what people think about me,

and what people say about me,

is really, really important,
because it's my reputation,

and because that's a real
core value of mine,

that's what I aim at all the time.

I would never do something to you
that I wouldn't want done to myself.

So what's your working frame?

What's your end goal in life?
Your end goal in your business?

Begin with the end in mind.
Take that time to find out.

Also, when you've ouind that framework,

you can build some expectation
around your life.

When you know what you want to achieve,

when you've got that framework
and you are looking forward,

you can start to build expectations,

and expectations are key.

Without expectations, you just
bounce along the bottom of life.

Expectations are like a magnet

that will pull you towards something
you believe is going to happen

whether it be good or whether it be bad.

If you have got this expectation,

this job role or this business
that I am involved in now

is probably not going to be
very successful.

How are you going to act towards that?

But if you've got an expectation like,
"Hey, I am going to start this business,

I am going to be incredibly successful,

and I've got this framework
which I am going to work with

within my values,
and these are my goals ..."

and if you feed upon that,
it is like a magnet

that just pulls you
towards those expectations.

But very often
you can have those expectations

and then the pressures of life
come upon you.

And the pressures of the cash flow,
and the problems with staff

and the problems with the market
and the problems with marketing

come around you

and those expectations
can start to [unclear].

But hunger is the key.

Let me just read you something quickly.

"Fish are biting.

And after catching a 70 cm pike,

the local man raised the fish from -
you know, for a photograph -

and the fish lurched forward
and grabbed his nose with its mouth."

It grabbed onto to it so tightly,
that the fisherman had to be taken

to the local doctor's, where a surgeon
actually surgically removed the fish.

If you want something so badly,
do you know what?

The chances are, you won't let it go.
And do you know what?

The chances are
you'll probably end up getting it.

Hunger is the key.

But you have to feed that hunger.

For me one of the biggest words in my life
is significance and recognition.

Those are my drivers,
that's what I work towards in my life.

And, how do I feed that hunger?

For me, I imagine being before my Queen,

"Arise, Sir Kev."

I want to be knighted,
I want to be recognised

as the man that's ended
the rogue trade problem in the UK.

That's my driver. That's my goal.
That's what feeds me.

I picture that happening in my life.

Not just once a month, but I meditate it,

I meditate upon it, and I physically
see myself in front of my Queen

being knighted
for my services to the country.

But make sure, that you are doing it
for the right reasons.

Make sure that it's not just for profit.

Make sure that you're looking
at the character ethic.

People in their enviroment.

This is the key I just wanted
to slip in at the end,

because it's so important
when you're growing a business.

One of these types of meetings
many years ago,

there was a Questions and Answers
and someone said,

"Kev, how have you grown
such a big business"?

And I've said, "Uhm, I haven't
really grown the business,

I've never really looked at it
like that, what I have done,

is I've focused on people
and I have built people up.

And when the people
around you are built up,

you'll naturally have
a successfull business.

But the environment, it's absolutely key.

Most of us are like the rest of us.

I am very much like you,
you are very much like me

you wouldn't want me
to do something to you

you know, that you
wouldn't have done to yourself.

You know, I think that's universal.

But in business, if the bottom line

the most important thing
is the bottom line

and how much profit and money
have we extracted from this sector,

if that's what it is,
if that's the driving force,

then really it falls
into the personality ethic,

really it falls into, "How can we
manipulate people into getting things"?

But within the environment of my company,
I employ about 90 people,

I would say to my staff, OK,
here's the situation you've got

with a supplier or a customer,

If you were the supplier or the customer,
what would you want to happen to you?

And I empower my staff
to make those decisions.

And if the decision is,
"We've really messed up on this one, Kev

we should give them their money back,"

my staff are empowered to do that,
because that's the right thing.

So you can imagine my staff now,
they're not fish out of water,

they're not in an environment where
they think, "Oh, I am being forced,

I'm being pressured into making things
and doing what the boss says,

I feel awkward going back to this customer
or this supplier and saying,

they can't have this
or they can't have that."

Is it any little wonder that in the UK-
I believe it's worse in Serbia -

that the average person works
for a company for 18 months

and then they go off
trying to find something better?

In 14 years of running a company
and having 90 people work for me

I can only remember four people
leaving my employment.

It's because I give them that environment

where they feel
as if what they are doing is right.

I give them that environment
so they've got the ability to do to others

only what they would have done
to themselves.

And does that make my company stand out?

Absolutely.

Does it make my company very different
from the vast majority of the companies

in my same sector?

Absolutely.

And do you know
what my customers say, now?

Do you know what my tradesmen
that join us, say?

Do you know what our suppliers say?
Do you know what?

"I can't believe that in this day and age
there is still a company

that would have the ethics
that this company has.

And is it any wonder today
that even in recession in the UK

where companies haven't grown
for two years,

that I am growing
two and a half percent every month?

Is it a coincidence? Absolutely not.

Character ethic is so important.

Decide. Make a decision.

How you want to run your life,
how you want to run your business.

Is this based on character, integrity,
loyalty, friendship, gentleness

or are you going to change
and be a lemming

and do what all of the new companies
are doing in the world today?

And decide, no, I am going
to manipulate people,

I am going to use
Content Management Systems,

and I am going to use the software

to make out that my customer is important,

but really the bottom line
is how much money I make.

I'd suggest, please,
go for the character ethic.

Find out what your core values are.

If you don't know
what your core values are,

how can you possibly even achieve them?

How can you set targets?

How do you know if you have achieved
anything in life?

Go to that funeral.

Write those things down.

Build your expectations.

If you don't believe you can achieve
something, you will never act upon it.

It's so simple.

Most people have no expectations or,
if they have, it's really loose.

Really loose.

Someone might say, "Well I've started
a business a few weeks ago,

and my expectations
is that it would be successful",

or "that's what I am hoping for."

But really define
what your expectations are.

They are like a magnet.

Get fotographs of what
you want to achieve.

Put them on your walls,
in your living room,

in your business, in your toilette,

in your kitchen.

We are all visual people.

If you can see what you want to achieve,

what your expectation is,

and if you see that every day,
it's like a magnet, it will draw you.

And your actions will come from it.

And if you want something so bad,

never let it go
and you'll probably get it.

Feed that hunger as much
as you possibly can.

And create an environment
people want to operate in.

Put yourself in their shoes.

How would you want to be employed?

How would you want to be
a supplier or a customer?

Treat people the way you would want to.

If you catch this,
it will revolutionize your life.

It has taken me in six years,
from a 200,000 pound company,

to a 6.8 million company.

Thank you very much.

(Applause)