Page 9 - Real Rochdale - Winter 2018

www.zeninternet.co.uk

RICHARD If you focus on people and you have got a been much more focussed. We have a

social and charities committee within
workforce that is engaged and happy, you have got
Zen and every year we ask the work-
customers that are satisfied and loyal and
TANG referring their friends. force for nominations for a local charity
that we can support for that year and
In the short term you make less money but in the
then we have a vote. The one with most
long term you make more money.
votes wins, and Rochdale Children’s
Moorland Home won the vote this year.
We have grown every single year for 23 years, we
are profitable, we are investing for the future and if How important is it for you to be
The FOUNDER & CHAIRMAN I look around us there are not many organisations based in Rochdale?

like Zen left doing that.
OF ZEN INTERNET It is obviously something you are very proud I am committed to staying in Rochdale
forever. I think Rochdale is a great place,
explains his people before of as well. it has been a great place for us to grow

profit philosophy Yes, it means a lot to me because I think we have the business.

a responsibility to future generations to set up a We have a great building here that we
society that looks after the well-being of are going to stay in for the long term.
Were you born and raised locally in Rochdale?
future generations. There is no reason for us to move.

I was born and brought up in Shawclough, went to The current system is too short term, it is too I think over time it is likely that we will
school in Rochdale. I left Rochdale when I was 18, money focussed. open satellite offices, but in terms of
after A levels, to go to Salford University.
our HQ and our base we are
There is a lot in the press about that, committed to staying in Rochdale.
How and why did you start Zen Internet?
Photo: Sam Kutereba-Wall acknowledgment that that is the reality of it and
Richard was interviewed by
Even at primary school I had an ambition to start the environment today is not sustainable. Real Rochdale editor, Claire Flett
my own business and it was something that stuck Within Zen I have switched that round and I have It is current news that climate change is wiping out
with me. After I graduated, I worked in Kingston on said the purpose of being for this company is three- species across the planet; it is causing chaos with
Thames for a while and then went travelling. fold, our most fundamental long-term objectives
I always knew when I came back that this was my are happy staff, happy customers, happy suppliers. the weather and all the scientists are saying that
we need to do more than we are doing.
chance now to make my dream a reality.
We exist as an organisation to focus on those three As of today, we have not got the commitment to
You are known for your people first philosophy; objectives. The purpose of the business is not to actually do that and my belief is that a big part of
where did that come from and how have you make as much money as we possibly can no matter
maintained it as the business has grown? what the consequences. the problem is we have created a system where
we can talk a lot about improving the environment
but we have still got a system where hitting those
It has always been a part of me, and as I have The purpose is happy staff, happy customers, short-term monetary targets is more important
grown up with the business and seen more of the happy suppliers. than saving the environment.
world, I have increasingly seen the damage that
our society’s focus on money brings. We have I have created a kind of bubble within Zen where Links to local charities fits in with your people
created a capitalist system that puts money first. the values are different to other big organisations, first philosophy. Is that something you have
The financial crisis of 2008 is a good example of it means a lot to me personally and, actually, the always done?
extreme short-term behaviour by the banks. It irony of it is, a people-focussed organisation in the
nearly brought down the entire world’s financial long term can be financially really successful.
system, so you look at that and think there has got We have always done bits and pieces with the
local community and in more recent years it has
to be something wrong with that.

REAL ROCHDALE - WINTER 2018 8 9 REAL ROCHDALE - WINTER 2018