The key to Leyton’s success
William Garvey, 43, is a South-African born businessman. He set up the UK arm of Leyton, a French owned innovation funding consultancy, in 2009, having previously worked in Banking and Law. Leyton UK now has 300 employees across four offices and increased its revenues last year by 69% to £37.35m.
It is thanks to the innovation of British businesses that Leyton has grown so rapidly over the past few years in the UK. How would you characterise the UK’s approach to innovation?
I think that many British businesses aren’t aware of how innovative they actually are. Throughout the UK, there are thousands of pioneering SMEs in manufacturing, construction, engineering and agriculture, who are the supply chain which feeds into traditional big business. I’ve been staggered by the amount of small innovative businesses which are growing quickly and covering all sorts of different niches, a number of which are at the forefront of their respective industries globally.
How did you get involved in setting up a successful UK innovation funding business?
As a junior lawyer at Allen & Overy, I spent a lot of time carrying out transactions but wasn’t ever that close to why transactions were happening. I wanted to know more about the impact of decisions on both the company, its share price and its future decision making. Launching Leyton in the UK was a chance to get under the skin of clients and understand how their businesses operate both financially and creatively.
When Leyton UK launched, we offered a number of different services, but the one that proved most successful was R&D tax credits. For the first couple of years, we struggled to work out how to approach the market properly so our growth remained steady. It is in the last few years that we have really honed our sales approach and have grown from 55 employees in 2016 to over 300 today. Our rapid expansion in the UK reflects the increasing demand from companies to look for a specialist partner to help them to drive innovation and reach their full potential as a business.
How is Leyton different to other consultancies?
While we list the ‘Big 4’ among our competitors, Leyton takes a much more innovative approach towards the way clients are serviced, partnering with cutting-edge businesses to aid their evolution and growth.
We essentially industrialise high-end consultancy niches. We are not a traditional consultancy firm which charges a fee to do work. Instead, we identify services which we know will make our clients more efficient. Our work is quantifiable and we have built highly focused teams who are true experts in those niches.
With an average age of 27 within your workforce, what are the key areas which motivate such a young business?
Our young workforce are acutely aware of their day to day impact on the planet. I am keen to enable our people and to help them follow their passions; I think sustainability is a key driver for many of our employees when choosing a company to work for.
Sustainability is a message which fits really well with the goals of our business and is driven from within. When I was growing up, I wanted to be a vet and go to work in South Africa’s national parks preserving endangered species. With the work we do to support businesses which are paving the way for sustainable innovation, I feel like I am helping to support the sustainable advances of the future.
What’s great is that we are now at a size where we can afford to allocate more time and resources to take practical steps in this area. For example, earlier this year we ran a sustainable start-up challenge to help innovative and environmentally conscious businesses gain brand exposure. We had over 100 entries from start-ups around the world and selected five winning businesses who secured an exhibition booth at CES 2020, the largest and most influential technology event in the world. For Leyton, sustainability needs to be something that’s real for our business rather than just being spoken about. At the end of the day, our business is centred around financially supporting the UK’s most innovative businesses, and this goes hand-in-hand with sustainability and sustainable development.
What has been your greatest business lesson?
Nothing beats trying. You can analyse and theorise about what may or may not work, but nothing is better than going out there, speaking to clients, working out what they need and trying to deliver something that gives them value. I would also add that our business really is about people. Having good people and managers throughout the business who buy into our values and engage with and enable their teams to evolve and grow – providing both intellectual stimulation and financial rewards – makes such a difference. Without this, it is very difficult to maintain momentum.
For more information, contact Leyton on 020 7043 2300, contact@leyton.com or by visiting leyton.com