Past Featured Chairmen

There are some people who are born to be entrepreneurs. At the age of just seven, when most boys still dream of being train drivers or astronauts, Steve Purdham was working at his first job - selling bundles of kindling wood from his bicycle in the small Durham village of Spennymoor. (It all went well until his supplier - the man with thestick-cutting machine - was caught by Customs and Excise for dodging his VAT.)

Even the story of how Purdham got into computers in the first place belies a go-get 'em attitude that few have. At the age of 15 he was working in a petrol station when a car pulled in with a sticker on it of the then world-ranking British computer company ICL.

Purdham got into conversation and from there it was a short step until he found himself at ICL offices in Manchester with a degree in computing from Teeside Polytechnic sponsored by his new employer.

Learning his trade over the next three years, Purdham quickly discovered two things: firstly he was better at selling than he was as a systems person; and secondly life in large enterprises was not for him.

'In small companies you are involved in the whole multitude of things. In large organisations you tend to be very niche. That was nothing like as exciting.' It was not long before Purdham ended up in a small north western computer company, JSB where 'I was involved in everything. Sales, support, making the coffee. Everything.'

But when he was asked to become marketing director, Purdham nearly walked out of the door.

'You have to understand that in those early days of the computer industry, marketing was not where you wanted to be at all. Sales people were the superstars. Marketing was seen as being fit only for failed salesmen.

'But having slept on the idea I said I would consider it and found out about a strategic marketing course that would explain what marketing was really about. To say it changed my life is no exaggeration. It opened my eyes to the real driving force in business - marketing. Marketing was the key to everything.

'You could have a great product but lousy marketing and you would get nowhere. You can look around today and see lousy products but with great marketing - just look at Microsoft (he states with tongue clearly in cheek) - but if you get great products and great marketing, well then you are unstoppable.'

Reinvigorated, and now a director at JSB, Purdham and a colleague, Rob Barrow, turned their attention to driving the company forward.

'We were doing well, JSB was a £5m company, but it wasn't going anywhere.

Purdham and Barrow looked around at what was happening. 'There were two hot sectors - the internet and biotechnology. Well neither of us knew anything about the latter, but we did know about the internet.' And that was how SurfControl was born.

SurfControl was one of the first tools designed to protect corporate users from the seedier side of the internet.

Understanding the power of marketing, Purdham realised there was no way he could build a global company based in the admittedly pleasant surroundings of Congelton. They had to build a 'US' company. 'America was where the customers were, it was where the business was.

I remember going to see the Co-op in Manchester in 1998. They had one computer connected to the internet. And that was in a locked office.'

As for the products, Purdham took a leaf out of Microsoft's books.

'The key initially, is to win mind share, rather than market share. We got ourselves the best reputation in the press, in market analysis, with competitors and with customers.'

As for the internet hype, Purdham, perhaps with the years of experience dating back to those days on his bicycle, was not seduced onto the rocks by the siren voices who claimed that the internet had 'changed the fundamental laws of business'. 'Our high point was just before the bubble burst when, on February 14th, 2000 our market cap was put at £1 billion - that was bigger than Manchester United.'

And showing the truth of that old adage about when in a gold rush, don't prospect for gold, but sell shovels, when the dotcom bubble burst in 2000, Purdham survived - and in fact prospered. 'We had a company that made real things, which real people bought for real money that you could put in the bank.' Having taken the company from nothing to a $100m organisation, Purdham realised that to get to the next stage would take someone else. He brought in a new CEO, Pat Sueltz, and let her re-invigorate the company. He remained at the company in a non-exec role until last year when US rival Websense bought the company for a reputed over $400m.

Purdham was quickly snapped up by VCs looking for experienced executives and organisations keen to make the most of his drive, contacts and business acumen.

A number of select non-exec appointments followed, including chairman of an email security company Identum, spun out of Bristol University, as well as a non-exec role on the Manchester Technology Fund.

With his years of experience on both sides of the Atlantic, Purdham is exceptionally well placed to understand what makes a good company. His passion for marketing is undiminished but so is his appreciation of the importance of leadership and management.

His message is, characteristically, straightforward. Good management is about having the right people in the right jobs. Like so many CEOs and chairmen, Purdham is passionate about building and maintaining the right team. But he also recognises that as a company's needs change over time, so too must its board. And he is a great believer in small is good.

'When you are starting up, you need a small flexible and dynamic board. But the skills and expertise a start up needs is completely different to the needs of a $10m company, and this is different to a $100m company and so on. As the company grows, so you must keep your board and company fresh, bring in people with the right skills, and let some others go on to other things.

'One thing that British companies tend not to be good at is succession planning. So just as the board changes, so too you may well need to think about changing your CEO and even your chairman as the company grows. This is something that few companies like to think about.' And Purdham is one to put his money where his mouth is. He back in the hot seat, this time driving a company involved in one of his life passions - music (he had once been a DJ). Teamed up with former Genesis band member Peter Gabriel, he plans to turn the chaos that the music industry finds itself in to his advantage. Once again you feel he is back to doing what he does best, what he learned in Spennymoor. Giving your customers what they want, when they want it, in the way that they want it.

Ben Rooney is a freelance business journalist. Ben can be contacted at ben@benrooney.com