LDC Top 50 2024
Andrew Humphrey
CEO
Kubus
Following a career spanning IBM, Phoenix IT Group and Teneo, Andrew Humphrey now heads up IT solutions and services firm Kubus, where he’s made it his mission to create an exceptional place to work.
In two years, he’s increased holiday allowance and pension contributions for staff, reduced their working hours, been accredited as a Living Wage Employer and turned the Gloucestershire HQ into a dog-friendly zone. “We’re professional but we have fun. If you treat employees properly, they’ll go the extra mile without being asked,” he says. “We’ve received an ‘Outstanding’ Best Companies rating for the past two years. I want to get us to ‘World Class’.”
I want to become dispensable to the business. I don’t feel threatened when team members are vying for my job; I actively encourage it.”
Q&A
What’s your personal ambition?
I want to become dispensable to the business so that my senior management team can step up to bigger roles. I don’t feel threatened when team members are vying for my job; I actively encourage it. Eventually I’d like to take on a non-executive, chairman or coaching role so I can help other businesses to thrive. My wife would kill me if I was at home full time!
What advice would you share with other entrepreneurs?
Network with peers who understand your industry but aren’t involved in the day-to-day running of your business. I go to quarterly events with our suppliers, such as Cisco and Juniper, and some of my best friends are the CEOs of competitive companies. I think it’s important to know your competitors, not to be scared of them.
How do you support diversity and inclusion?
Most of our rivals tend to recruit from within the industry but we purposefully try to employ people from outside the sector, either as apprenticeships or via our sales academy, which means we’re drawing from a more diverse pool of people. We also hire based on cultural fit rather than skills. More than 30% of our workforce is female and we want to close the gender gap in tech.
