Back to school for Allan Ross of First Independent Finance

EVER heard the story of a successful business outgrowing the people who set it up?

UK asset finance brokers First Independent Finance Ltd based in Ayrshire, Scotland had been doing well for six years, when one day managing director Allan Ross decided to interview himself for his own job.

Guess what - he got the thumbs-down! But he couldn’t sack himself, could he?

Now being asked to apply for your own job then getting a "don’t call us, we’ll call you" response from oneself can be a bit of an alarm signal.

The truth is that Allan was quite capable of dealing with his business in its current form. He had the entrepreneurial skills to get it established, and he knew enough about people, finance, even the market he operated in.

He was also a competent director, but if First Independent Finance were to achieve their ambitions, if the business was to continue to grow, Allan knew he needed to learn more about finance, marketing, strategy, managing people, information technology, operations management, data management, managing change, and the myriad other problems a modern business faces.

So it was back to school for Allan - but a rather special school: Strathclyde University Business school, where over a 3-year period a busy manager can learn or refine business skills on a part-time basis and graduate with a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree.

With the first two terms under his belt, how has it been for Allan?

"It was rather daunting going into a first year university class - the same university where my son is studying in his third year! - but as most of the students in the MBA are "mature", it was a welcoming environment where everyone was in the same boat and keen to help each other get through the course.

"Strathclyde focus on a high degree of the work being completed in groups and whilst on the one hand working in small teams over short periods of time can be difficult as everyone needs to get to know one another quickly and get a quality piece of work done in a short time frame, the discipline that working in groups brings helps one get through the course.

"First Independent Finance has already started to benefit from my doing the MBA. We are redefining our processes, looking at our competitive edge, using our data more effectively, and we have begun work on our strategy for the next five years. And I’ve only been on the course for six months," says Allan.

"It’s been challenging. But then if it was easy, everyone would do it and that would make it much more difficult to have a competitive edge."

And will he get that job the next time he interviews himself?

Time, and how he puts into practice what he learns on the MBA course will be two of the factors that decide that.

But in this month’s edition of the Business Insider magazine, who do we find on their annual list of Rising Stars 2006?

None other than First Independent Finance managing director Allan Ross. So he must be doing something right.

Allan Ross set up First Independent Finance in Stewarton in 1999.

Today his company employs 32 people from office premises in the town’s Dunlop Street, boasts an annual turnover of £60 million, and has become the largest general asset finance broker in the whole of the UK, with a team of 25 sales people from Inverness in the north to Kent in the south.
18 months ago they announced they had broken through the £100 million barrier, by advancing £100 million to their clients since they started the business in 1999.

Now they have hit the £200 million mark, customers numbers continue to grow, and this comes on the back of winning Scottish Enterprise Ayrshire's’s Best performing business employing 25-250 staff last year, and Best performing business under 25 staff the previous year.

It’s mainly down to the ongoing commitment and skill of the company’s staff, says managing director Allan Ross. "And that’s why Investors in People awarded us our 3-year renewal, proving that we have continued to value our commitment to the people who do the job of keeping our customers happy.

"Meeting our customers and getting to know them personally is key to building trust and genuinely helping them achieve their business ambitions. Attention to detail and high-speed modern communications mean that we can offer a personal service and stay ahead of the competition. Customers are treated like family, that’s why they come back time after time," says Allan.

He concludes: "We help businesses to find the best source of finance for large items of capital expenditure, whether it be a commercial vehicle, a computer system, printing equipment or a combine harvester."

-ends-

Issued on behalf of First Independent Finance Ltd by Fame Publicity Services.

Contacts:

Allan W Ross
Managing Director
First Independent Finance Ltd
22 Dunlop Street
Stewarton, Ayrshire
KA3 5AT

Telephone: 01560 482911
E-mail: allan.ross@f-i-f.co.uk
Web: www.f-i-f.co.uk

Murdoch MacDonald
Fame Publicity Services
10 Miller Road
AYR, Ayrshire
KA7 2AY

Telephone: 01292 281498
E-mail: famepublicity@aol.com
Web: www.famepublicity.co.uk