The digital landscape claims another local business. Are you ready?

Businesses are still not fully aware of the external digital landscapes.

This week started with saddened news, that the Oldham Evening Chronicle has gone into administration. The question is were they aware of the changes in the digital media landscape?

This is a huge loss to the local town of Oldham as the news and media business has played such a big part in the growth and heritage of the local town over the past 163 years.

The Oldham Chronicle tweeted the news 6 days ago, and the town reacted to the sad news, along with local MP Jim McMahon, adding a personal saddened goodbye message.

Read the full artcile here, published by the Manchester Evening News.

The Oldham Chronicle was one of our Business customers at MID Communications and have been for several years, it is never easy to see this happen to businesses and it is even tougher when you have worked with the business.

We would like to take this opportunity to wish all the staff the very best for the future and we hope we can support some of them in sourcing new employment during these difficult times.

How does this digital landscape happen?

It is always difficult to fully understand why a business has failed, however, in my opinion, a major reason to consider is that they ignored and delayed to adapt to the changes in the digital and media landscape.

We live in a fast paced life now with our mobile devices and this means that print has declined over the past several years. As we become more impatient we want the information on our devices when we want, instantly. Living this fast-paced world with access to the internet from almost anywhere has seen a huge decline both in news paper form and in many other forms, like leaflets and magazines. This is due to the fact we become more and more impatient as human beings, we want the information on our devices and we want it when we want, at an instant click or tap.

It’s a change that can affect so many businesses, not just media and news. If your business is ignoring the external landscape changes and you are not being made aware of landscape changes, you are going to struggle. Is your business adapting to it’s environment and also it’s customers and audience.

Collaborate with your audience, tell your own stories.

In today’s world of online, digital and social media, we are now empowering more people to become food critics, news reporters, and many other roles, due to mobile device’s. For example, having the ability to stream live footage from anywhere has become huge now.

Is your business adapting to the environment and to your customers and audience needs? You need to collaborate with your audience in today’s world of digital and social media.

We are now empowering more people to become a multi-expert, such as food critics, news reporters, customer service critics, and so many other roles, all due to mobile device’s linked with our ability to have an opinion with our need to want and share.

Look at the current tragedy of the Manchester Bombing, it was a cruel evening for Manchester but, we, the great British public, became reporters, and emergency services supporters, and many other roles as we shared our videos and images with the press, the police and many other sources like social media.

This plays a huge part in today’s digital world and shows how fast news can be reported, and how messages can be pushed out, whether they are good or bad messages and stories.

This is one example of how huge digital changes and evolvement play a part in today’s digital world, that demonstrates how fast news is being reported when business and people collaborate. Messages are pushed out, whether they are good or bad.

Is your business digitally ready?

A person can express themselves and showcase many parts of their own and other peoples lifes on social media or other channels.
This emphasizes the need to embrace both Digital and social media along with other sources, to ensure you are not getting left behind.

This example is one of a few, where I feel The Oldham Chronicle may not have seen the impact of digital media coming down the business influences channel. When they saw the changes it was too late to try and catch the rest.
No app, not enough social media presence and they didn’t work with the power of local reporters and news reporters, we the general public to catch the news fast enough and report it back to the massess with quick succession.

In our business, I am watching and working on how 5G has been coming down the line, for a number of years. How will it affect us but, more importantly, how will affect you, the customer?

Pride, Passion & Persistence – Are you nurturing your talent?

Pride, Passion & Persistence creates Talent

Over the last couple of months, I have been planning how we explore the talent in our business and who is ready for the next steps in their career, to become ready to help MID Communications move and grow to the next level.

After a great meeting with my leadership team, we decided that some of the current Senior leaders could play both a bigger and different role in our business. We started with a replacement of John Harvey, who is currently regional sales manager.
John applied to move to take ownership of the Operations channel, which is a very exciting opportunity that I could not say no to. This move created a new opportunity for an Area Sales Manager role.

We advertised the role, and in the applications came! This was amazing to see the confidence of our current store leaders.

We interviewed 3 amazing leaders, and what I can say from this experience is how amazing they all were. I know all 3 MID Comm’ers very well as they have all worked for the business for at least 3 years, moving into bigger stores and doing a great job in every store they have been involved in.

They have always shown great leadership skills, driving our key store leader’s, People Profit, and Proposition.

The interviews blew us away!

Each candidate was amazing. They were very creative, inspirational, well thought out, and had captured amazing new ideas, that encapsulated our core values, our culture, our direction, and our attitude.

We were expecting great but what we got was pure excellence. They were so good that we agreed to make 2 role’s for 2 of them, Jamie Houghton and Daniel Toft.

The 3rd candidate Lee Todman, I have agreed to put together a development plan, and some separate mentor sessions with myself over the next 12 months, that will help us both and the business.

I was so proud of them, to see how they have grown and developed within our business. It’s so exciting to think of the new opportunities, for our business over the next few months and for our 4 new rolled team members.

They have all been supporting and mentoring other managers and leaders over the past couple of months, this has really helped them realize how great they are, how much they actually know and how much they have grown/learnt.

My Lessons & Takeaways

How often do you temperature check your leaders in an interview format to really see how much they have grown?
How often do you get managers/leaders coaching other managers and leaders at the same level? Get them doing SWOTs on each other and creating action plans for each other – collaboration is amazing when done right!
Not all promotions have to be upwards in your business people can move sideways, and add more value in another part of your business.
Keep your business fresh and exciting to keep people engaged. My personal view that I learned a long time ago is, people in a role for 3-5 years can become frustrated, maybe even bored, uninspired, unmotivated, and some could even get complacent. I have adapted this theory over the last 18 months due to our amazing millennial generation, to 2-3 years.
Finally, always be looking at your business and ask have you got the right people, in the right roles, reaching their full potential. If not make sure you address this FAST, as this can have a damaging effect on your business. As a leader, it is vital you always ask and challenge your team on this, at any level. This has really helped me make some tougher decisions over the last 12 months as we have freshened our business up.

A great week and I cannot wait to see the team this Sunday as we celebrate as a business community at our Summer Ball, at hotel Football.

I hope this helps you and adds some value for you or your business.

Danny Simpson New CEO For MID Communications Ltd

Manchester-based telecommunications provider MID Communications Limited has announced the appointment of Danny Simpson as their new Chief Executive Officer.

Danny Simpson, who lives in Rochdale, took up the newly-created role from April 1 after being part of MID Communications for almost eight years.
Danny started his career as a Regional Sales Manager, before being promoted to Sales Director in 2011.

During this time he has achieved incredible growth within the company, increasing the business from the original five stores and 43 employees with a £4 million turnover to a company today which is on target to achieve a turnover of £20 million next financial year.

Danny said: “I am honoured and privileged to have been given the opportunity to move to the role of CEO.

“I have enjoyed working and growing the business and I love to see our amazing people grow and move forward within the company.

“It is so rewarding to be a part of a fun, passionate and ambitious business that’s very customer centric, while remaining persistent in everything we set out to achieve. We have developed a business plan with some exciting growth opportunities for MID Communications over the coming years.

“We want to launch the MID Group soon as we gear up to expand and diversify. I am fortunate to have an energetic and focused workforce who deliver amazing results every day and I am proud of all our team.

“Seven Years ago I created the mission statement ‘build a leading franchise that is people and customer centric’. This is still at the core of our decisions now and will remain as we go forward.

“I love what I do and love the people I do it with. Work doesn’t feel like work. I want to continue to build this culture as we continue to grow.”

MID Communications is an independent franchise of Telefonica UK which is a Manchester based O2 franchise, with 15 O2 Stores across Manchester, Cheshire, Merseyside and the Fylde Coast, in addition to a Manchester-based call centre.

It is one of the largest independent O2 franchises in the North West and employs over 160 people.
MID Communications was established in 2006 by directors Andrew and Ian Murray. The brothers were responsible for recruiting Danny to their management team in 2009.

Compliments For Danny Simpson

Managing Director Andrew Murray said: “Danny has made a massive contribution to our business since he joined us in 2009 as a Regional Sales Manager.

“We quickly recognised his talent and commitment which was why we invited him to join the board as Sales Director in 2011.

“His drive, passion and enthusiasm have enabled the business to grow and, thanks to his vision and leadership, both the company and staff have developed over recent years to put the business in the strong position it is in today. The decision to promote Danny to CEO greater reflects his key central role in the continuing growth and development of the business.”

Mr Murray added: “I know Danny wants to keep the business growing and competing as it continues to be a great place to work and strives to become an employer of choice.”

Mark Boyle, HSBC Corporate Relationship Director for Greater Manchester, said: “We have had the pleasure to work closely with Danny to organise a funding package that supported the expansion of the business.

“Danny has a clear vision for the direction of MID Communications and we look forward to working with him in the future and watching as the business continues to flourish.”

The Second Half of 2016, The Company Grew By An Additional Six Stores And 50 Employees.

MID Communications has also recently acquired new head office premises as it relocates to Stake Hill Estate Rochdale. This has doubled its office space to over 6,000 square feet.

For further information, contact Press@midcommunications.com or www.midcommunications.com

or call 0161 683 5771.

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