Why do business with IMRE ?

I went into three sales meetings this week and was asked the same question three times!

“Why do business with Imre?”

I think I gave some waffle as I had to think on my feet, on reflection, I should have pointed to the following.

• Mike, Przemek and I all come from customer support backgrounds. Client support is something that we take very seriously. Mike and Marcin are currently bashing the tin on our new  ticketing support system.
• We have high client retention. Most clients have been with us for at least 3 or 4 years.  In a recent survey of 60 clients only 2 would not score us a 4 or 5. Even with these clients we put in 110%. As they say, you cant win them all.
• Doing the right thing for us is all about getting the right strategy in place for the client. White elephants are just the wrong way to go. Getting it right means coming up with the  goods that make sense. And how do we do this? We follow best practice and agile development methods whilst getting down to the essential client objectives.
• We have a decent portfolio of work, client types and industry sectors. Essentially, we are credible players in  our market.

Not convinced? Watch this youtube video clip to find out more.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuJzQKw6xD0

A big thank you to Iain Chalmers from the Holst Group for being such a great client and for going out of his way to make this video in support of Imre.

Follow up to “How hard can thinking be?”

Iain Chalmers of The Holst Group commented on our post and stated:

If you think that we are losing the economic battle to these countries now, just wait until they start to think better¦

This dialogue happened before I ran into an old teacher friend who pointed out a youtube video along similar lines.

Alternatively see the video clip here: Shift Happens

The news is great that at grass roots level teachers have woken up to this and are motivating our kids to wake up. BUT what about Gordon? Cameron? Education Education and Education? What is going on? We as small businesses are now dependant on the future capital of our youth. What are the schools churning out? and what are our leaders upto? Quoting the video clip: “China has more gifted and talented students than we have students.”

Someone needs to put creativity back into Education, Education Education!

Thinking, how hard can it be?

The great thing about having a client like The Holstgroup is that we get to pick up on some great ideas. This latest post has an interview with Edward De Bono.

If you are an academic or a politician you just have to argue hard enough to convince people that you are right. If you are in business you can be right but the bottom line is the ultimate test. Brilliant! So obvious. But what are we all doing? How much time do we actually think? Pay tax man, find customers, invoice customer, pay salaries and so it goes on and on. When do we actually stop and take time out to think?

Most small business owners struggle, most start ups are bust within two years. Why? Is it because we lack energy, market, customers, cash or is it a simple matter of not thinking? As Edward seems to claim the education system sets us up to fail.

All very interesting. Time to start thinking with the market about to turn, the bottom line calls for it!!