To nurture a passion for growth
In the latest in a series on financing small companies, Fergal Byrne meets the entrepreneurs behind Future ForestsAlexander Schwedeler, who is 40, is a senior fund manager with Triodos Venture Capital which manages a ￡25m private equity fund that invests in organic businesses, renewable energy such as wind and solar photovoltaic, and a wide range of green projects and businesses.
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When I first met Dan Morrell in 2001, I found his energy, passion and belief in Future Forests remarkable. Dan already had the support of stars and musicians such as the Rolling Stones, Sting and Dido and I felt they had the right kind of approach to bring climate change into the public eye in a fresh way. I also felt that the company was well positioned in the carbon-offset market, which I knew was going to be huge.
Of course, we had some questions at the time. Is this business idea too early for the markets? How can we establish standard procedures and standardise the product? But I felt that there was a good team around Dan. I thought that Jonathan Shopley, the new chief executive, who had a consultancy background, would be a great person to translate Dan's vision into terms that businesses would understand. And Sue Welland brought a wealth of marketing experience.
Having Zouk Ventures on board as lead investor helped us in terms of due diligence; and we needed to have a local co-investor, as we are not based in London.
At the beginning, there was a very ambitious business plan. Within about six months, however, it became apparent that the company was not meeting its forecasts. In part, this was because the market was not evolving as fast as we had expected. I argued strongly that the company needed to change its focus from revenue growth to profits. Here we had a slightly different perspective from some other board members, who always had an initial public offering exit for the business in mind. I knew that anything to do with cost-cutting would be anathema to Dan, who was passionate about growing the company. We had some intense discussions about cutting the company's cost base. Coming from a Dutch background, I was always somewhat amazed at the costs and salaries being paid in London generally. Moreover, I wanted to make sure that the salaries for Future Forests were in line withthe company's stage ofdevelopment.
Dan and I have had different views with respect to the growth of the business: Dan is a visionary with lots of ideas, a pioneer with a passion who is always looking forward to big deals on the horizon. I, on the other hand, tend to have a more cautious and conservative demeanour and I have been keen that we focus on building steady growth through lots of smaller, local deals.
But we have always managed to work things out in a sensible and reasoned manner to find the middle way. We have a very good and open relationship.
As I am not UK-based, most of our dialogue takes place at board level, and the arrival of Tom Delfgaauw, a seasoned executive, as chairman, has really helped not only the operation of the board but also the development of a balanced decision-making process. With the board, we have also been able to help Dan evolve a new role in the business: focusing on what was undoubtedly his greatest talent building the brand, rather than getting tied up in operational issues. Future Forests has established itself as a market leader in the voluntary climate change market and we are now seeing the benefits of pursuing our strategy of matching a few large deals with several smaller ones and building a stable base of private customers. Future Forests is ideally placed to take advantage of the future development of this vitally important and increasingly large marketplace.
给创业激情添把火
现年40岁的亚历山大?施韦德勒(Alexander Schwedeler)是Triodos 创业投资公司(Triodos Venture Capital)的高级基金管理人，该公司管理着2500万英镑私人股权基金，投资范围包括有机产品企业、风和太阳能等再生能源以及各种绿色项目和企业。
我第一次见到丹?莫雷尔(Dan Morrell)是在2001年，当时觉得他的精力、热情和对未来森林公司的信念都不同凡响。当时丹已经获得一些明星和音乐家的支持，如滚石乐队、斯汀和蒂朵，我感觉他们能以新鲜而又适当的方式让公众关注气候变化。我也认为该公司已准备就绪，会在发展空间巨大的碳减量市场上有所作为。
创业人
未来森林公司（Future Forests）的创办人丹?莫雷尔（Dan Morrell）今年38岁。在创办这家公司之前，他曾任职于音乐和广告行业。
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当然，我们当时也有一些疑问。对于市场来说，这个商业概念是否为时过早？如何才能建立起标准程序并实行产品标准化？但我感觉丹的周围有一个很好的团队。我认为：新任首席执行官乔纳森?肖普勒(Jonathan Shopley)有咨询服务背景，要使丹的看法为企业所能理解，他是极佳人选。而苏?韦兰(Sue Welland)则带来丰富的市场营销经验。
左克创业投资公司(Zouk Ventures)作为主要投资者加盟，这在投资评估方面对我们有所帮助；由于公司总部不在伦敦，我们还需要一个当地共同投资人。
一开始，商业计划雄心勃勃。然而，大约在六个月之内，公司显然没有达到所预期的目标。部分原因在于市场发展不及我们期望的那么快。我强烈主张公司需要将注意力从收入增长率转移到利润上来。在这一点上，我们与一些其他董事会成员略有分歧，他们心中总是把首次公开发行股票当作企业的出路。我知道丹憎恶任何有关削减成本的想法，他满腔热情要将公司发展壮大。我们就削减公司成本基础进行了激烈的讨论。因为我来自荷兰，我对伦敦的成本与薪酬之高总是感到惊奇。此外，我想确定未来森林公司的薪水与公司发展阶段相一致。
丹和我对企业成长有着不同的看法：丹是一个有很多主意的幻想家、一个充满热情的先锋，始终期盼着能做成大交易。而我却本性更加谨慎保守，我一直渴望公司能够注重众多的当地小交易，从而寻求稳步发展。
但是我们总能采取折中办法、明智而又缜密地将事情办成。我们之间的关系很好，也很坦诚。
由于我不在英国，我们之间大多数对话都在董事会层次进行。老练的高层行政官汤姆?德尔弗加乌(Tom Delfgaauw)出任董事长，不仅真正有助于董事会的运作，而且还有助于形成均衡的决策过程。通过董事会，我们还帮助丹逐步担当新的商业角色：着重发挥他在品牌创建方面的最大才能，而不是陷于业务经营事务不得脱身。未来森林公司已确定在志愿气候变化市场（voluntary climate change market）中的领先地位，公司一贯坚持的策略是：同步发展大交易和小交易、建立稳定的个人客户群，目前这一策略正见成效。未来森林公司定位极佳，必能充分利用这一重要又巨大市场的未来发展前景。
