Sourcing talent. It can be an industrial-strength challenge for any rapidly-growing business and particularly so in the software development sector. As a company you want to provide the best service to your customers and to do that you need to attract the most talented people available. But in economies where demand for software skills is high, coders tend to be in short supply and – depending on experience – command premium salaries.
So what do you do? One approach is to set up shop in a cluster such as London's Tech City area which is a magnet for those with software and IT skills. You'll still have to compete for talent with hundreds of other companies but at least the skills you need will be available. Or you can take advantage of the simple fact that coders don't have to be in the same room – or even the same country – as each other to work effectively. A software engineer or web developer based in India or Hungary can work just as productively as someone sitting three desks away in an office in East London. So you recruit internationally and create the the kind of “distributed company” that is increasingly common in the age of the network.
But the question for any entrepreneur who sees the workplace as as a physical location, complete with desks, PCs, and coffee machine, is whether the distributed company model really works. Can you effectively manage a company in which the the workforce is not anchored to any one placeMatt Drozdzynski, founder of Cambridge-registered web software company Pilot believes the answer to that question is a resounding 'yes.' And as he's sees it, it's not just about having the ability to recruit talent from the biggest possible
Crossing Borders
Drozdzynski began writing software at the age of 14 and within three years he was working professionally. Based in his home country of Poland he nonetheless secured coding work with a number of Berlin-based web startups and in one case was appointed as an interim CTO. It was first taste of working across borders and as he recalls finding work outside his own country was not difficult. “I was a Ruby on Rails developer,” he says. “At that time it was quite new and there weren't many people who were familiar with it, so Ruby on Rails skills were in demand.”
In his late teens, Drozdzynski moved to England to study at Cambridge University, where he set up Pilot, initially with just two or three employees. This was when the “distributed company” model began to take shape. Drozdzynski interviewed employees by e-mail and hired without the need for any face-to-face contact. The first two hires were from Poland and Greece. Over the next three years, the founder split his time between running the company and getting a computer sciences degree. “My intention in going to Cambridge was to meet people and access the networks rather than to necessarily get a good degree,” he says. As such, he felt more than comfortable spending time on Pilot.
Since completing his degree, Drozdzynski has focused on building the company. In addition to startups such as Germany's Klara and Boston's Wellframe, pilot has secured major name clients, including Lonely Planet Guides and McMillan Publishing. Over the last three years the payroll has grown from 10 people to 65, mostly on payroll rather than contractors. As in the early days, he doesn't require staff to work locally in the Cambridge area.
He acknowledges the key advantage of access to talent. “We want to create great products for our customers and to that we provide them with great talent,” he says. Recruiting from a distributed pool of talent makes that easier.
Recorded Memory
But while the distributed company model throws up certain HR and management challenges as the payroll gets bigger, Drozdzynski is keen to point up the advantages. He cites corporate memory as an example.
“Because people are working in different locations, much of the communication is by e-mail or instant messaging,” he says. “That means all that communication is searchable. The knowledge is there.” This contrasts with a 'traditional company where much of the communication – including on important issues such a – is conducted face-to-face over coffee, at desks and in meeting rooms. Vital information is stored in the heads of staff and it can be forgotten or lost when they leave.
An End To Them And Us
Perhaps less tangibly, Drozdzynski says the distributed model mitigates them “them and us” effect of having a meeting with clients characterised by representatives of Pilot lined up on one side of the table and the client's people on the other. Instead, developers contribute through conferencing facilities. “Even if people are working in the same room, I separate them for meetings. They go into different rooms for conferencing.
The Hazards
Drozdzynski warns that the distributed model only really works if you do it wholeheartedly. Having a handful of people working from home or in remote locations while the majority staff are centrally based is divisive. The real discussions happen at HQ and those working remotely feel left out of the loop.
Looking to the future, Drozdzynski's aim is to continue provide “great products” for customers but in addition to web development he sees education – demonstrating to clients how they can get the most out of their online assets – as increasingly important. In common with many entrepreneurs, he sees absenting himself from certain aspects of the business and letting others take over as the biggest personal challenge. In the meantime he remains committed to the distributed company model.
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