Worthers

A Message from Lord Pickles and Lord Blunkett, followed by Worthers's best practice article

The ability to listen and learn from one another has always been vital in parliament, in business and in most aspects of daily life. But at this particular moment in time, as national and global events continue to reiterate, its uncommonly crucial that we forge new channels of communication and reinforce existing ones. The following article from Worthers is an attempt to do just that. We would welcome your thoughts on this or any other Parliamentary Review article.

The Rt Hon Lord David Blunkett, MP

The Rt Hon Lord Eric Pickles, MP

47WORTHERS |

BEST PRACTICE REPRESENTATIVE 2018

Pete Worthington, founder

Project team working through

a solution for a client

The UK technology industry has a reputation for innovation

and being forward thinking. But Pete Worthington,

founder of award-winning Bristol-based web development

company Worthers, believes that continued success must be

based on building strong, collaborative relationships – both

internally and externally.

You cannot neglect the human aspect of technology. As a web development

company, we deal in complex coding, intuitive design and robust data architecture.

But to me, that’s just what we

. Who we are, and how we relate to our clients, is

far more important.

In 2000, I led a team within a large corporate company where we saved several

million pounds by using web technology to connect people and deliver efficient

business applications. It was this that ignited my desire to work with businesses

and non-profit organisations to develop web-based solutions that would positively

impact people’s lives.

Worthers launched in 2004 to do just that. Since then, we’ve had the privilege

of working with organisations like the Church of England and international relief

charity Samaritan’s Purse, as well as many mission-led businesses.

Based in a converted barn near Bristol, where we work alongside creative

freelancers and other small companies, we’ve grown each year and are committed

to reinvesting profit into funding new initiatives, expanding our capability and

making the world a better place.

FACTS ABOUT

WORTHERS

»Headed by Pete Worthington

»Established in 2004

»Based in Tickenham, Bristol

»Services: Web-based software

development and hosting

»No. of employees: 9

»Main market: Charity, social

enterprise, mission-led

business

»Organisations worked with:

Church of England, Methodist

Church, The George Müller

Foundation, Samaritan’s Purse,

Wycliffe Hall College, The

Cotswold Perfumery

»www.worthers.com

Worthers

THE PARLIAMENTARY REVIEW

Highlighting best practice

48 | WORTHERS

Business through relationship

It’s easy to refer to the “client-supplier

relationship” without really looking at

that last word: “relationship”. For us,

it’s not enough to work on a project.

We want to journey alongside our

clients, working collaboratively to help

them achieve their objectives.

Sometimes this means challenging our

clients’ assumptions, or questioning

them about the specification they’ve

provided, and this takes trust. The

client must trust that we know what

we’re talking about and care about

the solution – that it isn’t just a

profit-making exercise. For new clients

who have a history of working with

suppliers in a certain way, it can take

time and patience to adjust.

But working collaboratively usually

results in us coming up with better

ideas together, or adding new

elements that hadn’t been thought of

before. It also means we stay flexible

as the project develops.

For example, we’ve been working

with over half of the Church of

England dioceses – each existing as

separate businesses – to develop a

key web application that enables

management of and communication

with their countless staff, volunteers

and contacts. Where the original brief

asked for a standardised approach

that could be used across all dioceses,

by working together we came up

with a system that standardised core

data and allowed each diocese to add

customised data to suit their needs.

Many would describe this approach

as “agile”, but it goes beyond that.

Our goal is to use the best tool for

the particular project and not get

focused on only one approach. You

simply cannot do that without building

rapport with the people you work

with. Whatever the job, for us it’s

people first and the project second.

That’s why we continue to invest

more in fostering relationships than

in mass-marketing techniques. Our

business is mainly grown through

referrals, motivating us to consistently

do our best. We also want to provide a

positive impact within the industry and

market. We are energised by working

on projects that benefit others, and

pursue relationships with clients whose

objectives and values fit our own.

Creating a relationship culture

Our relationship-centred approach

extends beyond our clients. One recent

project required us to develop an

interactive digital experience helping

school children explore life issues. The

solution needed to be installed into an

articulated lorry that would travel to

schools across the UK.

Open plan offices

encourages good

communication

We want to

journey

alongside our

clients,

working

collaboratively

to help them

achieve their

objectives

“

»EXTRA FACTS

»Developed project grants and funding software for one of the

largest non-profits in the UK

»Created an innovative digital platform helping over 15,000 young

people explore life issues

»Designed software to securely manage data and communications

of 130,000 volunteers and staff

»Developed a donation and payment system for a leading UK charity

handling 10,000+ transactions per day

»Built powerful application management software for an educational

college

»Developed a web-enabled production management system for a

factory

49WORTHERS |

BEST PRACTICE REPRESENTATIVE 2018

We realised this was an opportunity to

collaborate with other creative people

we had strong relationships with.

Assembling a team of writers, illustrators

and film-makers, we developed the

software platform and built the

hardware infrastructure around the low-

cost and durable Raspberry Pi computers.

But where “relationship” really begins is

within our own team. We’ve deliberately

developed a healthy culture of supporting

one another, asking for help, seeing

failure as a positive step towards learning,

not assigning individual blame and

fostering a sense of team responsibility.

Our open office environment naturally

supports good communication and

positive team dynamics.

Not only does all of this make for a

pleasant working environment, it’s

ultimately very efficient. Working

collectively results in us doing better-

quality work, because as the saying goes,

our whole is greater than the sum of

our parts. We have weekly training

sessions, and use a technique called

pair coding which allows developers

to work together, applying two sets of

skills and learning from each other.

The team knows that asking for help

is not a weakness. So often the work

culture around us means you can’t admit

to not having the answers – failure is

frowned upon or simply not tolerated, so

people pretend to be someone they’re

not, try and cover things up and blame

others for their mistakes. At Worthers,

we strive for excellence, but the reality

is every person on this team has had

moments when they have failed at

something, including myself.

A vision for the future

Going forwards, I genuinely believe that

to succeed, technology businesses will

have to deliver more than just innovation.

Buyers and decision makers are human

beings after all, as are programmers,

analysts and engineers. Unless we treat

and work with them as such, we will

lose out to organisations that do.

The term “relational” is already

widely used, but often as a marketing

technique to try and get business.

It is in reality investing in genuine

relationships that will set you apart. If

you don’t demonstrate this and follow

it through, it’s just a hollow word.

As human beings, we are designed to

work together. Technology is very good

at trying to individualise and separate

us. Even social media is a sort of

virtual, unreal representation of being

together. While it is a positive and

powerful force in the right context, if

you take the human aspect away from

technology, you lose something.

I think the 11 awards we’ve won over

the last eight years are testament to

the fact that relationship and success

are not mutually exclusive – quite the

opposite. I do not wish to suggest that

we are there yet. Like every business,

we are constantly learning and

improving. It’s an ongoing journey, but

we are committed to our approach.

Our hope is that in the future we will

be able to expand on this approach

by growing our collaborative

working space to enable more small

businesses, entrepreneurs and social

transformation visionaries to work

together within a supportive and

creative environment.

At Worthers,

we strive for

excellence, but

the reality is

every person on

this team has

had moments

when they have

failed at

something,

including

myself

“

The Worthers team

are friends as well as

colleagues

The Parliamentary Review Publication, in which this article originally appeared, contained the following foreword from the prime minister.

The Rt Hon Theresa May MP's Foreword For The Parliamentary Review

By The Rt Hon Theresa May MP

British politics provides ample material for analysis in the pages of The Parliamentary Review. For Her Majesty’s Government, our task in the year ahead is clear: to achieve the best Brexit deal for Britain and to carry on our work to build a more prosperous and united country – one that truly works for everyone.

The right Brexit deal will not be sufficient on its own to secure a more prosperous future for Britain. We also need to ensure that our economy is ready for what tomorrow will bring. Our Modern Industrial Strategy is our plan to do that. It means Government stepping up to secure the foundations of our productivity: providing an education system that delivers the skills our economy needs, improving school standards and transforming technical education; delivering infrastructure for growth; ensuring people have the homes they need in the places they want to live. It is all about taking action for the long-term that will pay dividends in the future.

But it also goes beyond that. Government, the private sector and academia working together as strategic partners achieve far more than we could separately. That is why we have set an ambitious goal of lifting UK public and private research and development investment to 2.4 per cent of GDP by 2027. It is why we are developing four Grand Challenges, the big drivers of social and economic change in the world today: harnessing artificial intelligence and the data revolution; leading in changes to the future of mobility; meeting the challenges of our ageing society; and driving ahead the revolution in clean growth. By focusing our efforts on making the most of these areas of enormous potential, we can develop new exports, grow new industries and create more good jobs in every part of our country.

Years of hard work and sacrifice from the British people have got our deficit down by over three quarters. We are building on this success by taking a balanced approach to public spending. We are continuing to deal with our debts, so that our economy can remain strong and we can protect people’s jobs, and at the same time we are investing in vital public services, like our NHS. We have set out plans to increase NHS funding annually by an average by 3.4 percent in real terms: that is £394 million a week more. In return, the NHS will produce a ten-year plan, led by doctors and nurses, to eliminate waste and improve patient care.

I believe that Britain can look to the future with confidence. We are leaving the EU and setting a new course for prosperity as a global trading nation. We have a Modern Industrial Strategy that is strengthening the foundations of our economy and helping us to seize the opportunities of the future. We are investing in the public services we all rely on and helping them to grow and improve. Building on our country’s great strengths – our world-class universities and researchers, our excellent services sector, our cutting edge manufacturers, our vibrant creative industries, our dedicated public servants – we can look towards a new decade that is ripe with possibility. The government I lead is doing all it can to make that brighter future a reality for everyone in our country.

British politics provides ample material for analysis in the pages of The Parliamentary Review

The Rt Hon Theresa May MP
Prime Minister