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Holos Change helps businesses innovate and lead for the future. We chatted to Neil Crofts, co-founder, about disruptors, authentic leadership and more
Goal
Region
Industry
The Challenge
Their client lost financial backing for an early payment scheme, meaning it would take months for Holos Change to get paid.
The Solution
Fast funding from Kriya to bridge the unforeseen cash flow shortfall.
How Holos Change used invoice finance to deal with changing payment terms
What does success look like in business and leadership? Neil Crofts, Co-founder of Holos Change is an expert. This global consultancy that he set up alongside Mark Thomspon works with some of the world’s largest companies to help them answer exactly that question.
Their faculty of over 150 independent consultants and experts in diverse fields organise workshops to help clients innovate and lead for the future, now. We recently chatted to Neil and Tessa, Brand Director of Holos Change, to hear more about the world of tomorrow that they’re helping to shape.
Nomadic expertise
Holos Change is not a typical business. They have no employees and were working remotely before the majority of us got a taste of it. The faculty (as Holos calls it) was brought together initially when BP formed a group of independent consultants to help with their leadership development over a decade ago. They’re seasoned experts and innovators from every field, from psychologists and former marines to actors and comedians. It’s this diversity that’s part of the beauty of Holos Change. Each workshop can be perfectly tailored to the client by drawing on so many different backgrounds and opinions.
One oil spill later and a programme for Barclays together later, Neil and Mark knew they didn’t want to lose the collective expertise these innovators brought together. “We realised that we wanted to keep the band together”, he told us. And so, Holos Change was born. They’ve grown 100% year on year since then – until COVID-19 has kicked things into overdrive. Between 2021 and 2022, Holos Change will grow an impressive 300%. Neil explained that “for companies, the pandemic has crystalised the need to change their cultures”. And who better to turn to than a group whose clients refer to as ‘The Elite’?
Post-conventional business
Working as Head of Strategy at tech media company Razorfish during the dot-com boom opened Neil’s eyes to huge possibilities. “Disruption is what we specialise in,” Neil told us, listing digital as well as carbon footprints, an ageing population, space and the pandemic as key phenomena. There’s a lot for businesses to think about if they want long-term success.
A conventional company is one that focuses and survives on reliability. Those that push boundaries and pursue disruption are what Neil describes as post-conventional. “Post-conventional organisations prioritise change,” Neil told us. He gives Apple as the ultimate example because they constantly disrupt their own products, as well as industries like music. It’s exactly that kind of company that Holos Change’s clients want to be.
Understanding and improving leadership
“Leadership is horribly misunderstood in society,” Neil explained. “Boss style leadership is when you prioritise loyalty over competence. You’re focusing on short-term success.” Their goal in their client work is to educate people about what great leadership looks like. When you understand and adopt authentic leadership, it means sustained success for everyone. “The idea of one person being the leader is flawed,” said Neil.
The team took their insights and advice and created Holocon, a conference for leadership development professionals. This year, their fully virtual version represented one of their greatest successes so far. Guests could attend workshops and listen to speakers from all over the world, picking and choosing the most relevant and watching in their own time. Neil and the team were so pleased with how it turned out that next year will be staying virtual.
Dealing with changing payment terms
Although Holos Change doesn’t have rent to pay or regular wages to cover, there are still cash flow challenges that hold them up. Neil is extremely proud of the faculty (which is made up purely of contractors) and pays them within 24 hours of receiving payment from the client.
A lot of clients have fairly normal 30-day payment terms however some insist on 60-days or more. A few months ago, Holos Change had completed work for a client that was using an early payment scheme. In theory, this would have allowed them to pay Holos Change within 8 days in exchange for a small fee. Unfortunately, the client unexpectedly lost financial backing for the scheme, so overnight Neil found out they’d have to make the faculty wait months to receive their money.
That particular project involved a large number of their faculty, so it was really important to Neil that he found a quick solution. That’s where we stepped in. After a quick search on the Barclays website, Neil saw that Kriya could offer him fast funding to bridge the unforeseen cash flow shortfall. And better yet, it was delivered through the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), so they wouldn’t have to pay interest or fees for twelve months.
What struck a chord with Neil was a shared ethos between Holos Change and Kriya. “From Kriya, I got more of an impression that there was some kind of humanity behind it, some kind of purpose,” Neil explained. “The team has always been responsive and sorted stuff out whenever I’ve needed it.”
Delivering sustained success
As Holos Change expands and shares their insights with more businesses across the world, Neil wants to know they can support their current way of working. An invoice finance facility offers Holos Change peace of mind and is a quick and easy way of releasing cash when they need it.
“We expect our B2B revenues to double as a result of providing Kriya’s flexible payment terms to our trade and business buyers.” Stuart Zissman, Head of Financial Services
Halfords is the UK’s leading provider of motoring and cycling services and products. Its customers shop across over 1,750 fixed and mobile locations including, Halfords stores and garages, as well as its website, halfords.com.
Today, around a quarter of Halfords turnover is business-to-business. They sell to organisations of all sizes including SME businesses, garages, and workshops, offering discounts on automotive parts and tools with their Trade Card, as well as directly to larger commercial and government customers that buy in bulk.
However, like many well-established enterprises, Halfords found its future growth was challenged by the legacy processes of its past. Find out how they’ve teamed up with Kriya to remove the friction from their B2B commerce.
Halford's challenges
“The exam question” says Halfords’ Head of Financial Services, Stuart Zissman, “was how do we make selling to business and trade buyers less labour-intensive?” Having already overseen a successful consumer finance proposition at Halfords, it was clear to Zissman that their B2B offering had potential to grow by introducing a simple and effective credit solution.
1. B2B buyers expect payments terms
“All successful B2B propositions have some sort of financial support” Zissman explains. Whether large or small, Halfords’ business buyers want to be invoiced on payment terms. This is especially beneficial for garages and workshops, which thrive on efficient working capital cycles, allowing them to source parts upfront and defer payment until they have received compensation for their services.
Halfords recognised the opportunity to enhance their offerings by providing scalable trade credit, which was previously untapped. As Zissman says, "offering payments completes the circle."
2. Manual, unscalable processes were holding back growth
Halfords' hands-on approach to B2B processes presented an opportunity for greater scalability and growth. Wholesale orders, managed via account managers, involved manual quotes and purchase orders, which added complexity.
“We’d like to say yes to every single customer that wants to order from us,” says Head of Trade Card, Chris Millan. However, processing these detailed orders for existing buyers took time, limiting the retailer's ability to proactively attract new business and expand their account base.
What Halfords sought was a way to make their B2B offering more accessible and achieve a better economy of scale.
“We work with sole traders, business customers and government entities. Kriya is the only supplier that could support all three.” Chris Millan, Head of Trade Card
The search for a solution
Recognising the need for change, Halfords set out to find a way to modernise its B2B offering. With Kriya's 12-year track record and willingness to collaborate on a solution for their unique requirements struck a chord with Halfords.
A solution for all B2B buyers
Halfords has a diverse buyer base and needed B2B payment terms that could be offered to limited companies, government entities and sole traders.
Multichannel
With trade customers already purchasing online and in-store, Halfords needed a solution to offer payment terms holistically across their sales channels.
Risk expertise
With their focus on Motoring and Cycling, Halfords sought a partner with strong expertise in finance and payments, including robust credit and fraud detection capabilities, to help onboard their buyers.
“We are experts in motoring and cycling, and to ensure exceptional service for our customers, we decided to partner with Kriya, specialists in B2B payments and lending decisions.” Stuart Zissman, Head of Financial Services
The B2B vision
Halfords partnered with Kriya to transform their B2B offering. By integrating Kriya PayLater with their Trade Card, the retailer is combining trade discounts for B2B buyers with the ability to pay on account for online and in-store orders.
Adopting an eCommerce-first model has a number of advantages. Firstly, providing online buyers with highly-demanded payment terms expands the businesses they can sell to. Secondly, much of their offline business can be shifted to a self-serve, online checkout. Not only does this provide a smoother buyer experience, it also frees up the Halfords team to focus on the customers where their expertise has the most impact.
The near-infinite scalability of the Kriya solution means Halfords can not only improve their overall B2B customer proposition and experience, but they can also see financial benefits through the partnership too.
“Offering trade credit through payments makes it much slicker. It’s something buyers are familiar with from the consumer world.”Chris Millan, Head of Trade Card
Wholesale change
Halfords have kicked off their payments transformation with their wholesale offering.
Business buyers come to the Halfords wholesale team to place bulk orders and request custom details, such as branded bikes and accessories. Before Kriya, this fully offline sales channel required multiple teams and processes to transact each order. This process led to delays and hampered conversion, such as inventory becoming unavailable during the order, or customers purchasing elsewhere.
By streamlining the entire wholesale workflow into Kriya Merchant Portal, Halfords now have a single, automated flow for processing orders.
Wholesale buyers are first onboarded into Merchant Portal. This screens for credit and fraud risk, directly providing their sales team an instant spending limit decision for the buyer. Orders can then be placed on payment terms and invoices are automatically generated for the buyer. Additionally, Kriya assists with credit control by managing payment collections too.
“We needed a way forward that was less hands-on because the whole process was very, very manual.” Chris Millan, Head of Trade Card
How it works
1
The buyer places a wholesale order with Halfords
2
Halfords onboard the buyer into Kriya’s Merchant Portal
3
Payment terms selected and purchase complete. The buyer pays at the end of the following month.
Partnering for growth
Reflecting on the journey so far with Kriya, Zissman says “It’s that personal touch and relationship that makes the difference to the product we’re building together.” For Zissman, it's not simply outsourcing the expertise to a third party. “It’s more like we’re onboarding Kriya into Halfords and by extension they’ve become part of our team”.
There’s a busy roadmap ahead for Halfords and Kriya, with plans to bring the whole multichannel offering to market by the autumn of 2024.
We're very excited about this development,” says Millan. “Introducing payment terms to our Trade offering eliminates barriers that previously slowed us down and unlocks opportunities with a vast number of businesses we haven't historically engaged with.”
B2B Payments to boost your growth
To learn more about our payments and digital trade credit solutions book a call with us today.
“From Kriya, I got more of an impression that there was some kind of humanity behind it, some kind of purpose.”
Neil Crofts
Co-founder
|
Holos Change
Challenge
Their client lost financial backing for an early payment scheme, meaning it would take months for Holos Change to get paid.
Solution
Fast funding from Kriya to bridge the unforeseen cash flow shortfall.
How Holos Change used invoice finance to deal with changing payment terms
What does success look like in business and leadership? Neil Crofts, Co-founder of Holos Change is an expert. This global consultancy that he set up alongside Mark Thomspon works with some of the world’s largest companies to help them answer exactly that question.
Their faculty of over 150 independent consultants and experts in diverse fields organise workshops to help clients innovate and lead for the future, now. We recently chatted to Neil and Tessa, Brand Director of Holos Change, to hear more about the world of tomorrow that they’re helping to shape.
Nomadic expertise
Holos Change is not a typical business. They have no employees and were working remotely before the majority of us got a taste of it. The faculty (as Holos calls it) was brought together initially when BP formed a group of independent consultants to help with their leadership development over a decade ago. They’re seasoned experts and innovators from every field, from psychologists and former marines to actors and comedians. It’s this diversity that’s part of the beauty of Holos Change. Each workshop can be perfectly tailored to the client by drawing on so many different backgrounds and opinions.
One oil spill later and a programme for Barclays together later, Neil and Mark knew they didn’t want to lose the collective expertise these innovators brought together. “We realised that we wanted to keep the band together”, he told us. And so, Holos Change was born. They’ve grown 100% year on year since then – until COVID-19 has kicked things into overdrive. Between 2021 and 2022, Holos Change will grow an impressive 300%. Neil explained that “for companies, the pandemic has crystalised the need to change their cultures”. And who better to turn to than a group whose clients refer to as ‘The Elite’?
Post-conventional business
Working as Head of Strategy at tech media company Razorfish during the dot-com boom opened Neil’s eyes to huge possibilities. “Disruption is what we specialise in,” Neil told us, listing digital as well as carbon footprints, an ageing population, space and the pandemic as key phenomena. There’s a lot for businesses to think about if they want long-term success.
A conventional company is one that focuses and survives on reliability. Those that push boundaries and pursue disruption are what Neil describes as post-conventional. “Post-conventional organisations prioritise change,” Neil told us. He gives Apple as the ultimate example because they constantly disrupt their own products, as well as industries like music. It’s exactly that kind of company that Holos Change’s clients want to be.
Understanding and improving leadership
“Leadership is horribly misunderstood in society,” Neil explained. “Boss style leadership is when you prioritise loyalty over competence. You’re focusing on short-term success.” Their goal in their client work is to educate people about what great leadership looks like. When you understand and adopt authentic leadership, it means sustained success for everyone. “The idea of one person being the leader is flawed,” said Neil.
The team took their insights and advice and created Holocon, a conference for leadership development professionals. This year, their fully virtual version represented one of their greatest successes so far. Guests could attend workshops and listen to speakers from all over the world, picking and choosing the most relevant and watching in their own time. Neil and the team were so pleased with how it turned out that next year will be staying virtual.
Dealing with changing payment terms
Although Holos Change doesn’t have rent to pay or regular wages to cover, there are still cash flow challenges that hold them up. Neil is extremely proud of the faculty (which is made up purely of contractors) and pays them within 24 hours of receiving payment from the client.
A lot of clients have fairly normal 30-day payment terms however some insist on 60-days or more. A few months ago, Holos Change had completed work for a client that was using an early payment scheme. In theory, this would have allowed them to pay Holos Change within 8 days in exchange for a small fee. Unfortunately, the client unexpectedly lost financial backing for the scheme, so overnight Neil found out they’d have to make the faculty wait months to receive their money.
That particular project involved a large number of their faculty, so it was really important to Neil that he found a quick solution. That’s where we stepped in. After a quick search on the Barclays website, Neil saw that Kriya could offer him fast funding to bridge the unforeseen cash flow shortfall. And better yet, it was delivered through the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), so they wouldn’t have to pay interest or fees for twelve months.
What struck a chord with Neil was a shared ethos between Holos Change and Kriya. “From Kriya, I got more of an impression that there was some kind of humanity behind it, some kind of purpose,” Neil explained. “The team has always been responsive and sorted stuff out whenever I’ve needed it.”
Delivering sustained success
As Holos Change expands and shares their insights with more businesses across the world, Neil wants to know they can support their current way of working. An invoice finance facility offers Holos Change peace of mind and is a quick and easy way of releasing cash when they need it.
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