As a customer, do you ever wonder what goes on behind the scenes at Sage? What’s in the pipeline and what does Sage prioritise?

We caught up with Sage CEO of UK and Ireland, Brendan Flattery to chat about running a business in today’s climate, how Sage plans for the future and how he sees customer engagement as being central to the business.

What do you think the biggest challenge that small businesses face at the moment?

Differentiation: so many businesses do similar things. If your competitors can do what you do, how do you stand out from the crowd?

I think the evolving expectations and behaviours of the customer is something that challenges all businesses.  Customers rightly expect more than ever before and small businesses need to find ways of continuing to add value to their customer base or risk losing them to the competition.

What one piece of advice would you give to small businesses?

Wow, one piece of advice. That’s difficult as there are so many pieces of great advice. I think the best advice for a small business today is the old adage that you should ‘work on your business, not in your business’.

Remember what you’re are trying to achieve but make sure you continue to drive the business forward and keep a careful eye on the fuel that makes your business run - things like: cash flow, making good investment decisions etc. I think this is where Sage can really help our customers by providing insights into your business which allows you to make better decisions.

The Budget is upon us. What change do you think would have the biggest impact for UK businesses?

I think red tape is a real challenge to businesses. Many small businesses don’t have specialists in areas such as HR - the more legislation, regulation and compliance is added, the more costly and more time-consuming it is.

Anything that can be done to remove and reduce that burden is good news for business. It’s always a question of finding the right balance because the rights of employees need to be protected but wherever there is the option to reduce the burden of red tape, the Government should take that opportunity.

How confident are you that the Government will make that change?

[Laughing] Every Government and every Budget says exactly the same thing - that they’re all about reducing red tape. History tells us that they’re probably not as strong on delivering on that as you hope they would be. But I think the desire from small businesses to see that happen is very clear.

It will be interesting to see how the Government react and respond to that, especially as markets are beginning to pick up and confidence is returning. It’s more important than ever to liberate businesses to take advantage of the opportunities.

You have experience of running your own small business. How do you think that influences your work at Sage?

Running your own business gives you a lot of experiences, some good and some challenging. One thing that I learned was the importance of building strong relationships and that’s something we try to do at Sage.

One example of building relationships was with Sage One. It was a new proposition and we engaged with businesses to find out about their pain points. We continue the engagement today to build the offering, which seems to be working as we’re gaining real market share.

I see Sage as a partner to all our 800,000 customers in the UKI and we strive to be reliable, trusted and to deliver timely and innovative support to them. I understand that Sage is a critical part of people’s businesses and my experience pushes me to make sure we don’t let them down.

So how does Sage get that customer feedback?

I could go on forever about this, because there’s so many different ways we engage with customers and prospects. We do everything from focus groups and market research through to engagement on products and new propositions, through to conferences and events.

And now, with social media, digital is playing a greater part than ever before. The Sage Community is a great way for us to engage with customers.

This is something that is truly important to us and I always encourage customers to speak with us. I think as a business that we’re open to taking customer feedback.

I don’t think we would have achieved the improvements in customer experience we’ve seen over the last three years if we weren’t open to taking feedback. A large proportion of what we’ve done has come directly from the feedback we’ve had.

For you personally, how do you keep up to date with what happens on the ground?

All sorts of ways to be honest. I talk to customers on a regular basis. It’s important that I don’t lose touch.

The people I work with make me aware of particular things have happened. And one of the great ways that I find out about things is through the Sage Celebrates awards, which is about rewarding the amazing things people have done within the business.

When I do business briefings or when I’m travelling, people just naturally wander up and tell me amazing stories. I’m never short of ways of finding out and it’s great that people take the time to do that.

And one of the best ways I find out about stories is at the Christmas party. As the evening goes on, people are far more willing to come and share their stories. There’s a watershed moment after about 10pm when I get inundated by people saying, “I’ve always wanted to tell you…”

So when you’re not at a Christmas party, what does a typical day look like?

I don’t have one, to be honest. The five roles I have (CEO of UKI, managing Sage One globally, member of the European Exec, small business leader for Europe and customer experience for Europe) means I spend on average 50% of my time travelling. I have to get out there and visit our businesses.

Virtually every day is different. The big positive about my role is the variety. The challenge actually comes when those roles all have deadlines at the same time.

Prioritisation is key. I have to decide on a daily basis what is going to be done and equally what I’m not going to do. I simply don’t have capacity so I rely on the people in the business for what they do for me and with me. I’m fortunate to have great people.

My day often ends with a nice glass of Saint Emilion.

What are the three most pivotal moments in your career that helped you get where you are?

It’s very difficult to pick just three things. However, what I have regarded as being crucially important are:

• Firstly, the people I’ve worked with. I’ve had the opportunity to work for some fantastically inspirational leaders, who have taught me so much. Most of the people I have worked with have been entrepreneurs and I’ve worked with some wonderfully skilled and committed people.
• Secondly, I believe the experiences you get really shape you as an individual – good and challenging things – and there have been lots of situations I’ve learnt from over the years.
• Finally I think we all need some good fortune – just being in the right place at the right time. If I look back and think, “did I plan everything?”, the answer is no. Situations arise and having people around who are supportive of you as an individual is important.

Looking to the future, there’s a lot of changes coming with new technology. As a business, how does Sage keep up to date?

We see technology as an enabler to address the challenges that businesses face. We engage with customers and prospects and we use market research to identify trends. So we have a great array of information in our business, which we use to decide how we’re going to address those particular opportunities and challenges for our customers.

One of our key principles is providing our customers with choice while remaining at the leading end of the market that we operate in.

What are you most excited about for the future?

From a business perspective, the great thing about running a business is what you can do with the opportunities and challenges which are presented to you.

I see the markets, competitor landscape and our customers’ needs changing and evolving -  more so than they ever have done. For me personally, I look forward to making sure we move our business forward in a way that is compelling for our customers and sees our business go from strength to strength.

On a personal level, I hope Everton finish in the top four this year so I can go and see some European matches. Although the chances of that happening are relatively modest, to say the least.

And what can customers expect to see?

I’m really excited about the future for our customers. We have many projects under way to continue to add value to the customer base. Whether customers are on Sage 50, Payroll or Sage One, you can expect to see new and creative initiatives designed to continue to add value. Things like: liberating your data from the desktop and making you more mobile, more ways of connecting with your important partners such as your accountant.

All of these initiatives continue to drive our customer experience programme, which means that our customers can expect to get even more from Sage than before.