Is having fun at work fun really the secret of a successful business?
When Adam Padmore left mainstream employment for a better work-life balance he unwittingly laid the foundations for an incredible success story, and changed the course of his own career forever.
Dear reader,
Welcome to Monday’s edition of The Raikes Journal.
Today we lead with a profile of a Gloucestershire business leader who stepped away from mainstream employment for a better work-life balance and found the essence of the vision he had chimed with both his customers and others.
He’s been trying to bottle is ever since, with some considerable success along the way.
We talk to Adam Padmore, the founder of engineering and environmental consultants Rappor, about the secret of a successful business, and about a certain Gloucestershire leadership development firm he’s turned to to help him embed that magic culture into the DNA of his company.
Courtesy of James Geary of Randall & Payne we also take a look at what the Chancellor might have up her sleeve next month when she steps up to deliver a hugely anticipated Budget 2025.
And there is our pick of the stories from Carmelo Garcia, the BBC’s local government reporter - which we are fortunate enough to be approved by his employers to use here on The Raikes Journal. Have I mentioned this is the only indepenedent website allowed to use the copy?
Have a great week.
Best regards,
Andrew Merrell (editor).
What is likely to happen in the 2025 Budget? James Geary of Randall & Payne gives you his predictions
The 2025 Budget will take place on 26 November, considerably later than originally envisaged, suggesting that more time was needed to pull together plans and proposals. There is little doubt, therefore, that we can expect a Budget packed with changes and possibly a few surprises.
It will comes on the back of another low-growth year, although the economy has remained stubbornly just short of an official recession.
We are seeing a lot of optimism from the business community about prospects for the economy. However, it is clear that the Government badly needs to either raise taxes, cut costs, or more likely a combination of both.
As ever, there has been a considerable amount of speculation in the past few weeks, and we have pulled together the main areas where we could see changes.
Read Geary’s full article here.
Your briefing notes…
🧩 Defining moment’ approaches for Gloucestershire’s future amid division: Gloucestershire is approaching a “defining moment” in its history as options for how local government is set up in the county will be put forward to ministers next month. It is likely that three options on how a council shake-up could unfold will be submitted to the Government. Gloucestershire County Council along with the six district authorities have worked together to come up with two proposals for how local government could be organised in the future. The final proposals must be submitted to the Government by November 28.
🏢 Borough chiefs given confidential update on Municipal Offices sale: The sale of Cheltenham’s landmark Municipal Offices continues with news breaking that Borough chiefs have been given a confidential update last night. The council put the grade II*-listed town centre building on the market in September last year with a preferred bid announced in May. The council has entered into an exclusivity agreement with Almiranta Capital, the group behind the bid who aim to convert the 68,290 sq ft Promenade building into a luxury destination for locals and travellers alike.
🏗️ Decision on major plans for 1,100 homes, new school and GP surgery in Cheltenham: ‘Extremely critical’ plans for Cheltenham which include building 1,100 homes, a school, GP surgery and community centre on the outskirts of the spa town have been given the go-ahead. The scheme will see the redevelopment of almost 170 acres of greenfield land near Springbank (North East of Cheltenham). The Brighton STM Developments Ltd and Midlands Land Portfolio Ltd plans for the land south of Old Gloucester Road is part of the strategic West Cheltenham development and will provide £5m in financial contribution towards improvements of junction 10 of the M5.
Featured upcoming event…
The Property Forum sets up shop on Thursday 6 November to look at the planning landscape and the impact of reforms around local and national housing targets. This event is sponsored by solicitors Willans LLP, chartered surveyors and planning consultants Evans Jones and business space specialist The Site. Tickets are £33.22 and the event is due to take place from 9am to 11.30am on Thursday 6 November at The Site, 24 Chosen View Road Cheltenham GL51 9LT.
We’ve flagged this one before, but The Raikes Journal is sponsoring one of the awards! On Thursday 27 November the great and the good of Gloucester and beyond will gather at the city’s Guildhall to applaud the shortlisted and the winners of this year’s The Believe in Gloucester Awards. The event, staged by Gloucester BID and sponsored by Gloucester Quays and WSP Solicitors, celebrates the businesses, organisations and individuals who help make the city such a great place to live and work. Find out more here.
Gloucestershire B Local has sent out an open invitation to a special Christmas event this December at Gloucester Brewery. The event, which will be part social, from 4pm to 7pm, will begin with a collective action workshop run by Forum for the Future’s executive director and chief acceleration officer, Dr Sally Uren OBE (1-4pm). It will also be a celebration of B Lab UK’s tenth anniversary - the organisation that promotes the B Corp movement. Due to take place on Friday 5 December 1pm to 7pm.
*The Raikes Journal is the only independent news outlet in Gloucestershire approved to use the copy of the BBC local government reporting service.
* It is a digital magazine and community interest company whose supporters believe, like us, that journalism about Gloucestershire is worth keeping alive. Everything you read here - original stories about our county - is made possible by our incredible Founding Partners: QuoLux, Willans LLP, Gloucestershire College, Merrell People and Randall & Payne; our sponsors, Founding Members and wonderful paying subscribers.
If you upgrade to paid you’ll be part of this CIC too. We’re dedicated to championing the county, its businesses, charities, education and training providers, and to creating an even stronger community. And you’ll be able to see past the paywalls often put on our 2cnd and 3rd email editions of the week, that lock our archive and our Top 100 Businesses in Gloucestershire series. You’ll be able to comment on our stories too.
Usually you can sign up to support The Raikes Journal and make what we do possible (real journalism about Gloucestershire) for just £2.30 a week - or £1.80 a week if two or more people sign up at once. Or you can go all in and become one of our Founding Partners or Founding Members!
Is work being fun really the secret of a successful business?
When Adam Padmore left mainstream employment for a better work-life balance he unwittingly laid the foundations for an incredible success story - and changed the course of his own career forever.
By Andrew Merrell.
“Do good, have fun and the money will come,” said Sir Richard Branson. Adam Padmore might not have heard the phrase when he started his business 10-plus years ago, but it certainly has a bearing on his story.
The 40-year-old father of four is unusual. On one hand, yes, he’s like many of us; he entered a profession and then, after a few years, began thinking about how his working life could be better, about what approach he would take if he was in charge.
But what makes him unusual is he didn’t just think about it; he did it. He left a good job and began working for himself.
His idea was simple - that if he enjoyed his work more he would be more energised and his passion for what he did would shine through, clients would be happy and they would come back for more.
“It was idealistic and not much of a plan really,” he said, downplaying the idea there was any grand vision or how important his own talent was to that early success.
But clients did indeed come. They did like what he did and how he did it, and they did come back for more.
Before he knew it he was employing staff and, completely unexpectedly, he was running a growing business - and discovering an entrepreneurial streak he didn’t know existed.
Something in the essence of that early idea, which was all about creating something for himself, turned out to be what others wanted too, and he’s been keen to keep that front and centre ever since.
He called that business Cotswolds Transport Planning, renaming it Rappor three years ago to reflect an ambition to become one of the UK’s leading engineering and environmental consultancies to the property, development and construction industries.
Today Padmore is the managing director of a firm of engineering and environmental consultants and almost 90 staff across nine offices - in Cheltenham, Bristol, Birmingham, Cambridge, Bedford, Exeter, Hereford, London and Manchester.
Sector analytics website, IBISWorld, says the UK’s environmental consulting market is worth an estimated £2.6 billion, employs 27,784 staff and is made up of more than 7,000 companies.
What’s interesting is that although the industry recorded record revenue growth immediately before the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s been in a downward trend since 2021.
And yet Rappor has continued to grow, outstripping that sector’s average annual growth of 1.9 per cent.
“We expect to continue to grow organically. We’re in a good position to capitalise,” said Padmore.
He believes that key to that trajectory is managing to continue to work into the DNA of the business those ideas around work culture that inadvertently gave birth to the whole journey way back in 2014.
The catalyst that’s enabled him to do that, and continues to do so, is another Gloucestershire firm - leadership development specialists QuoLux. More of which below.
How does Padmore sum up what Rappor does?
“We predominantly work for developers and their consultant teams looking to submit planning applications, technical approvals and supporting them with the follow up once sites become occupied.
“Our role in the process is to identify and understand all the pertinent environmental constraints around development and then to mitigate them and make sure the clients’ development achieves its goals, to make sure the outcomes are good, and to make sure councils are achieving all targets too,” he said, much happier distilling what Rappor is about than bigging up his own achievements.
For all the success, and my attempts to put him on a pedestal those achievements, he refuses to take credit.
“I don’t think I have any business acumen to tell you the truth,” he replies.
“But I have learned a lot.
“I was lucky to get some really good people in early on, and they have been very important.
“They have helped immensely, but I think for my part I have been quite consistent for 10 years.
“Without doubt I have made many errors. I’ve learned through trial and error,” he said.
He’s also learned through hard work. Lots of it.
Padmore has a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Geography (BSc Hons), a Master of Science degree in Environmental Management (Sustainable Travel) (MSc) and a Master of Science degree in Transport Planning (MSc).
But it is the leadership development journey he embarked on through Gloucestershire-based QuoLux that seems most transformational and helped him turn that learning into meaningful action, and which he now sends other staff on too.
Padmore has put himself through QuoLux’s entire programme (LEAD™, GOLD™ and GAIN™), a journey that ends with a Master’s in business.
“Twenty-six members of the team are now on QuoLux programmes. I am a big believer in the importance of leadership, and I continue to challenge myself to be better at it always,” he said.
A list of businesses that have also embraced the Innsworth-headquartered development specialists reads like a rollcall of the most dynamic and fastest-growing small, medium businesses in the region and beyond.
QuoLux’s premise is simple; investment in leadership and staff generally is woeful across the UK, yet the rewards are clear. The figures back it up.
Businesses whose leaders complete the LEAD™ program alone experience significant growth, with an average increase of 42 per cent in annual sales, 19 per cent in employment, 197 per cent in profitability over 12 months and a 47 per cent increase in productivity.
Rappor is also an Investor in People Wellbeing Gold accredited.
When we met for this interview, in the firm’s new office space in the Pressworks building, 7-9 Ambrose St, Cheltenham, it was summertime still.
I was there to interview Padmore, to hear about his journey first hand, but as soon as I stepped into the building he was keener to show me plans he has for the offices, and enthusiastically whisks me downstairs to the first floor for a quick guided tour.
It’s probably the clearest sight we get of why getting the culture and working environment right – and all that means - is so important to him.
“Here will be a gym and fitness space,” he said, pointing, as we dip into one of the rooms, “and here will be a breakout space” - he waves his arm in the general direction of a sizeable area you can imagine will be perfect for just that.
It’s hybrid working, and staff can come and go as they please, but upstairs in the rather stylish studio, which would not be out of place in Bristol or London, most of the desks are full.
Why this emphasis on staff wellbeing?
We’re back to Sir Richard Branson.
“Sir Richard Branson once said something like this, ‘I’m not here to take care of clients, I’m here to take care of the staff. If I do that the staff can take even better care of the clients’,” said Padmore.
“I think it’s about getting the right staff and looking after them and investing in them, giving them challenging work and helping them thrive.
“There are a lot of other professionals that do what we do. The difference is how we do it. We want to collaborate with other businesses and want them to be great.
“And importantly, we are very good at what we do too. That’s the bottom line, and it’s why people come back to us. I think people buy from people.”
What he’s saying, and all that investment in leadership underlines, is it’s not all about making a ‘nice environment to work in’, it’s about creating a dynamic, purpose-led environment too.
So did Sir Richard Branson really get it right when he said “a business has to be involving, it has to be fun. Do good, have fun and the money will come”?
For Padmore, it’s more nuanced.
“I think there is a misconception that a business has to be fun and that’s enough. It’s not just about fun.
“It is also about respect, wellbeing, security, about all the individuals who make up the business feeling comfortable and able to do their best.
“I have seen some companies post on social media about having pizzas together on a Friday. That’s nice, but on its own that’s not good enough.”
“Historically London and the cities are the starting point for many people in our profession. But those might be companies without purpose.
“We are interested not just in the right culture but in good quality, challenging work and doing that exceptionally well.
“We’re interested in the environment, in doing what we can for our communities, in being part of life here in Cheltenham, in making a positive difference.”