A great introduction

Business & Innovation Magazine loves it when we introduce businesses who may never have considered working together.

them why they come to work, it’s likely they’ll say because of the community focus. It’s important to keep good staff, and put them in the right roles, because in our industry it’s difficult to get skilled people.”

This sense of employee purpose resonated with James Axtell, Chairman at Symm & Co. “Part of how we maintain our passion is drawing on our legacy and there is a real sense of our forebears – and not just my family. We have fathers working with sons and grandchildren, and there is pride in their craft. Many of our staff could get a job working for bigger homebuilders, but they like working on our unique and historic buildings.”

Symm & Co recently undertook a visions process for the business. “Once we peeled back the onion, we discovered what matters to everyone, from those working on site to senior managers, was care. Care for the client, for each other and for the fabric of the structures they work on.

“Plenty of people can build a house but if you find someone who connects at that level, it’s inspiring for us and our clients. We will never be the cheapest, and we will often be the most expensive because of our investment in staff and apprentices so we can all deliver the highest quality, but it’s this investment that sets us apart.”

But even strong businesses have challenges. Symm is widely respected for the quality

During the round table debate, Tagore highlighted his difficulties including somewhere to plant 500 juniper trees to provide a key ingredient for his TOAD gin, as well as helping with carbon offsetting. “I have planted 60 juniper trees but we need more space.

“There is a protected species called the Chiltern Juniper which I would like to plant.”

Liz Nicholson’s eyes lit up. “We can help.” of what it does, but that doesn’t mean it should stay as it is. James said: “We need to explore new technologies, adapt our teams to take best advantage of their skills and decide how to augment the expertise we already have in the business.”

For James, it’s about trying to retain what the company excels at and encouraging more sophisticated ways of delivering it. “Rigorous financial controls will be critical, but it’s also about driving that passion. Our managing director is studying art history as he’s passionate about the subject and it boost his knowledge and appreciation of the projects we work on regularly.”

Tim’s challenge at Zap&Go isn’t just securing continued investment. “We are looking at producing billions of batteries. We are getting small amounts of carbon to work with but finding the quantities we need to scale up is really difficult and we are looking all over the world.”