Mandrill Television
Chris Wise started his company, Mandrill Television, 10 years ago at home with one telephone and a borrowed computer. It is now a successful independent production company producing large volumes of formatted factual documentary series and lifestyle feature formats for UK-based cable and satellite channels. Key customers are Discovery (Health, Home & Leisure, Wings, Europe) and UKTV Channels (Style, Horizons, Food, Bright Ideas) and
"When I started I had no business experience, no investors and no senior partners to share the adventure with. All I had was an unshakable belief that, if my programs were ok, then as if by magic, the company would build itself around me! Being a part of the BGO scheme has meant a major change of mindset for me. I used to tell people things like 'TV is not like any other business' or 'My business is nothing but me and a string of commissions'. But this experience has forced me to admit that my program making talents and passion for TV alone is no longer enough to grow the business. It was a bit of a shock but it's made me realise that I'm a business man and that's the way I have to approach things."
The company, based in York, was doing very well winning repeat commissions generating enough volume to invest substantially in their premises with new edit suites and new kit. But the 10 full time staff and many more freelancers were at full stretch and in such a busy environment Chris admits he could not see that further growth would be impossible in their current position.
"The shape and structure of management systems, as they were, that had evolved had actually been fashioned to meet the demands of commissioning editors and its difficult to see that when you're busy and working in it. Jude Bell, our BGO advisor, came in and at first I was really uncomfortable. It took me ages to admit that anything could be slightly wrong with the company I gave birth too and had complete control over for all that time. I was Head of Development, Managing Director, production manager, and financial director all rolled into one - no wonder I couldn't see what was stopping us growing! The discipline of regular meetings meant I was forced to step off the production treadmill and look at the business issues which, frankly, before I couldn't get my head round. The painful thing was that when things started to make sense it turned out the problem was me!"
Change has now become the catchphrase at Mandrill. It has undergone a restructuring with the appointment of a senior management team and for the first time has an extremely busy development department focusing on future projects. The company can now look forward to £1m worth of business lined up for next year, and projects in development with 3 new clients.
"This is an unprecedented position for us to be in. Unthinkable things are happening in the office - producers and directors I've never seen appear in the office. I now trust people to appoint them. And I go home and switch on the TV to some programmes we have made and I haven't seen a frame of them - that's still quite hard, but I know I have to trust people to make programmes as well as I would"
Mandrill also won funding from regional screen agency Screen Yorkshire for business investment, a success Chris attributes to the BGO scheme.
"Before I would have written a glorified programme pitch to apply for that money and probably missed out. Instead with the help of our BGO advisor we submitted an early draft of the business plan we had been working on and nailed it. The BGO scheme came at exactly the right time for my business. Without the scheme, I wouldn't have been forced to open up and trust others or take a long hard look at what the business was actually doing and what it actually needed. All the changes we are bringing in are already benefiting the business, the staff and the clients and it would not have happened without intervention from outside."
"When I started I had no business experience, no investors and no senior partners to share the adventure with. All I had was an unshakable belief that, if my programs were ok, then as if by magic, the company would build itself around me! Being a part of the BGO scheme has meant a major change of mindset for me. I used to tell people things like 'TV is not like any other business' or 'My business is nothing but me and a string of commissions'. But this experience has forced me to admit that my program making talents and passion for TV alone is no longer enough to grow the business. It was a bit of a shock but it's made me realise that I'm a business man and that's the way I have to approach things."
The company, based in York, was doing very well winning repeat commissions generating enough volume to invest substantially in their premises with new edit suites and new kit. But the 10 full time staff and many more freelancers were at full stretch and in such a busy environment Chris admits he could not see that further growth would be impossible in their current position.
"The shape and structure of management systems, as they were, that had evolved had actually been fashioned to meet the demands of commissioning editors and its difficult to see that when you're busy and working in it. Jude Bell, our BGO advisor, came in and at first I was really uncomfortable. It took me ages to admit that anything could be slightly wrong with the company I gave birth too and had complete control over for all that time. I was Head of Development, Managing Director, production manager, and financial director all rolled into one - no wonder I couldn't see what was stopping us growing! The discipline of regular meetings meant I was forced to step off the production treadmill and look at the business issues which, frankly, before I couldn't get my head round. The painful thing was that when things started to make sense it turned out the problem was me!"
Change has now become the catchphrase at Mandrill. It has undergone a restructuring with the appointment of a senior management team and for the first time has an extremely busy development department focusing on future projects. The company can now look forward to £1m worth of business lined up for next year, and projects in development with 3 new clients.
"This is an unprecedented position for us to be in. Unthinkable things are happening in the office - producers and directors I've never seen appear in the office. I now trust people to appoint them. And I go home and switch on the TV to some programmes we have made and I haven't seen a frame of them - that's still quite hard, but I know I have to trust people to make programmes as well as I would"
Mandrill also won funding from regional screen agency Screen Yorkshire for business investment, a success Chris attributes to the BGO scheme.
"Before I would have written a glorified programme pitch to apply for that money and probably missed out. Instead with the help of our BGO advisor we submitted an early draft of the business plan we had been working on and nailed it. The BGO scheme came at exactly the right time for my business. Without the scheme, I wouldn't have been forced to open up and trust others or take a long hard look at what the business was actually doing and what it actually needed. All the changes we are bringing in are already benefiting the business, the staff and the clients and it would not have happened without intervention from outside."