SME Magazine SPRING 2017 | Page 12

THE BIG INTERVIEW
www . instantoffices . com / en / gb / office-space / london
▲ had acquired my business and I continued working for him .
“ You must do everything you can to understand your customers . Leadership is one thing , but being a good listener and paying attention to what is going on in front of you is another thing entirely . The user experience on our broking platform is of significant importance to us , of course , but our overarching goal is to ensure an absolute understanding of all of our customers , from a business start-up through to a large corporate requiring a managed space solution or one of our operator clients . Intelligent analysis of our data gives us a genuine advantage in a rapidly growing market . This insight has allowed us to launch new products to the market ; increase Instant ’ s global footprint , and expand our role as the global , flexible workspace specialist .”
And how do you help SMEs specifically ? “ Our online procurement platform www . instantoffices . com lists more than 9,000 workspaces around the world of varying sizes from one man co-working deals to 500 desk requirements ,” says Rodber . “ Hundreds of thousands of SMEs visit the site to find office space and speak to our consultants who can advise them of the best requirement for their business . For many SMEs , traditional office space hinders their growth by tying them to long leases that are completely impractical if they need to relocate for any reason . Flexible workspace is not a tie that binds , but an agile approach that facilitates growth and helps these companies attract and retain the best staff by finding the right location for their firm , at the right time . ”
Looking to the future , Rodber is clear where his ambitions lie . “ Since I joined three years ago , Instant has achieved 30 % compound growth rates and evolved from what was once a predominantly UK platform into a global services business with significant operations in the key markets of EMEA , the Americas and Asia Pac . The rapid growth of the UK and EMEA businesses and the market potential for further expansion elsewhere around the world leads me to conclude that we can maintain that rate of growth , and , I hope , exceed it in many places . We now have an excellent international team in place and while I am proud about our accomplishments so far , we have nowhere near reached our potential as yet . ”
I often ask people I interview to sum up their business approach in three words and Rodber ’ s are about the best I ’ ve heard . “ Listen , learn , lead ,” he says . Excellent advice , whatever job or position you hold .
But we couldn ’ t finish the interview without going back to rugby . So , Tim , can this current England team under Eddie Jones win the world cup in 2019 ? “ They have come a long way in a short period of time and there has obviously been a massive culture change . If they continue their current rate of progress then , yes , I see no reason why not . ”
12 SME www . smeweb . com