NC Squared

Smoothing the transition to EO

Neil Crawford and Neal Criscuolo, founders of software company NC Squared, explain how JGA’s communication and engagement support set them up for EO success.

Meeting over a vol-au-vent

“Our business had grown organically over the years in response to the needs of the market and, as we were heading to our ten-year anniversary, we started pondering the next ten years and what we wanted to do. We’d got this far without a plan but didn’t want to bumble along for the next ten years. We’d had some interest from competitors and financial institutions which prompted us to think about how we would exit the business in future.

We’d also been thinking about how we could reward our employees and share the benefits of the business with them. After reading an article in The Guardian about employee-owned businesses, we thought that this could be something that might suit us and the team. We joined the Employee Ownership Association and went to a few regional meetings. That’s where we first met Jeremy Gadd, over a vol-au-vent in Bristol. Six months later, we hit the button on EO.”

We need some help with this

“We’d talked to other EO businesses and they’d suggested getting help for the people side of the transition and they recommended J Gadd Associates. We had the transaction side covered but not the people side and it felt like we should get some help to make sure it happened properly. We needed help to talk to our team about what EO would mean to them. Jeremy supported us with that announcement and the clarity of the message.

We worked with him before the transaction and, once it was done in May 2020, we committed to a project with him to deliver EO to employees. EO as a concept is open, so it’s confusing for people as to what it means in practice. Jeremy has given us the time and space to figure out what it means, and he is someone we trust. He has done this before and he knows what EO means. Things would have been very different if it had been just the two of us trying to deliver it.”

It’s all about the process

“Jeremy gave us the process, and that’s not to be underestimated. We spent time on making the announcement and being clear on what EO meant, trying to explains the whys and whats. There was the process of capturing the values of the company and sharing them with the team, then creating our principles. It has been much more steady. Without the process we would have struggled and got distracted by day-to-day business. And we would have had no basis or structure to deal with questions from the team.

Jeremy’s support through the steps of the process brought us clarity. He helped us to identify our guiding principles and he urged us not to rush and to give it deep thought. We’re now planning ahead in a more methodical way. We do not have a lot of formality in our business so it’s given us structure, which is good.”

We could not have done it ourselves

“We underestimated the amount of work involved in making our business employee-owned. That is a good reason for getting in a consultant to support with the process. There was a temptation to not use Jeremy’s skills but we could not have done it ourselves. It’s better to get that help from day one rather than wait for the change to fail and have to sort it out later.

You need someone external to enforce the changes, to mediate and to have an independent voice.

Jeremy has done a good job for us. He is professional, thoughtful and also easy to talk to. He is easy-going and understanding, but has a serious business mind with loads of EO experience. It was easy to trust him. As a small business you are a close-knit team, so it makes a real different to have that outside voice advising you.”

Summary

J Gadd Associates (JGA) began working formally with NC Squared in May 2020, having met the co-founders six months earlier to discuss the software company’s transition to an EO model. Jeremy supported NC Squared with communications presentations to the business, team transition and EO mentoring. JGA have gone on to further support NC Squared with their transition into Employee Ownership.

About NC Squared

NC Squared was founded in 2011 as a consultancy and launched Distribution Engine, a market-leading work assignment tool built on the Salesforce.com platform, in 2013. Its clients include PayPal and Slack. It now has a team of 18 people and became employee-owned in May 2020.

JGA roles: