Richard Reed, one of the three founding partners from Innocent Drinks, gave a very interesting and amusing review of the eleven years since its formation while away on a snowboarding holiday. Turnover has grown from nothing to over £110 million. Part of their approach was through ignorance and part was with very thorough thought. Anyway, their findings boiled down to these five ideas:
1 Know thy Purpose
If you don’t no one else will and you will waste a lot of time and money
2 It’s about People
Pick the best you can, treat them well and hang on to the good ones
3 Make money and…
Well, any company is more than money so care for its ethos too
4 Take care of the details
Get the big things right but also the details too as they really make the difference
5 Open up, listen up
Listen to your clients and tell them what is going on.
Each was well illustrated with pictures and anecdotes showing Innocents to be the very serious company it is as well as having a sense of humour. An example is their AGM which they open up to customers and where they help the company choose new flavours which are then launched in the autumn. Oh by the way, they call it ‘A Grown up Meeting’!
