CEO Blog: Reflecting on 2023 and what’s in store for 2024
What were your highlights for 2023?
For Fourteen IP, like everyone in and connected to the hospitality industry, the last few years have been challenging and after the pandemic, we have seen many changes and had to adapt. We spent much of 2022 working internally and with customers on new products and services to help serve these new needs and the last 3 months of 2022 saw a real uplift in business, this has continued through 2023, so much so that 2023 has been our biggest and best year ever. Seeing all that hard work and innovation payoff is a real highlight, our sales grew over 40% in 2023 it was a real team effort and something we are very proud of.
Fourteen IP is a global business with customers in approaching two dozen countries, we operate in a market that has high standards, and overcoming some of the challenges in meeting our customers’ requirements, is something we take great pride in. In 2022 we decided to start from scratch on our customer experience (CX) across the whole company, looking at every single interaction we have with our customers and seeing how we could improve. This project involves everyone but is run by Abigail Gillin our Support Coordinator, in 2023 we started to see some benefits of the work we have all been involved in which is fantastic, not just to see the improvement in how we engage with our customers, but also how the entire Fourteen IP family has joined in to help us improve.
What trends are you expecting in 2024?
I think there will be two, firstly the PSTN switch off is coming for many countries including USA, Canada, UK, and some other EU countries by the end of 2025, meaning analogue phone services and ISDN/PRI/T1 services will be ceasing. This will necessitate a move to IP for those hotels that have not already done so, we have designed solutions for hotels across all of these countries to help them move to IP easily and with a solution that has been designed for hospitality, at a price point we know works for our customers.
The other will of course be AI.
The last two years have seen many hotels and groups start their AI journey in different ways and in some cases stall, whilst they worked out what their plans would be, what the risks are and how they mitigate them, how best to manage the advantages and cost savings AI can bring. I believe we are starting to come to the end of that phase now and we have seen hoteliers encouraged by one another to start their AI journey as soon as possible.
We have been fortunate to be involved in this for several years now and Evolution Virtual Agent (“EVA”) has proven to be a huge help to the hotels and resorts it is deployed in. We have seen the journey from EVA to EVA 2 and EVA 2.3 as we are today with EVA 3 which has generative AI capabilities, becoming available in just a few weeks. The changes are coming thick and fast and we can see the huge benefits to business in general and some real benefits from hotels.
What are your plans for 2024 and how does Fourteen IP look now compared to when you first started?
2024 is a big year for us. We expect it to be our biggest ever year and it’s also the year we celebrate our 13th birthday and start our Fourteenth year. A fourteenth year is not normally a big celebration but for obvious reasons, it is for us, and we intend to make the most of it building up to April 14th 2024, so starting on Valentine’s Day our WeAre14 campaign will begin with 14 events for our team across the world, and wherever we can, their families too.
When Vicki, Kevin, Alan and I started Fourteen IP thirteen years ago there were just the four of us, there were quite quickly six and then eight, but that was it for a good while. We planned to be UK-based and perhaps do some work in Europe. That plan lasted about 3 months.
This year there will be well over 100 of us, we are operating in around two dozen countries, we are a global carrier, and have a very significant business across the USA and Canada. A huge number of things are very different, however most of us who were there at the start are still here, we still run the 14Way and we focus on innovation and customer service which has served us very well.
Although some things are very different, I am delighted to say that we still have the same values and principles and although growing fast and recruiting can be a challenge, we do, in the main, retain the people that join us and I think that is something to be very proud of.
How do you foster a culture of innovation and collaboration in the company, and what are some examples of how it has paid off?
We are blessed with an amazing team and from day one we have had people who are great listeners and great innovators. Listening to our customers and their challenges as well as to each other. The Fourteen Way has been in place since there were just 4 of us and is our vision, values, and culture as a business and we encourage core values of family, innovation, passion and communication. Our colleagues vote for one another in these categories each month with awards each month and annual awards at the end of the year.
Examples of this are large and small and they all matter, it could be a small change to a process, the naming of a new product or service, or the invention of a new service. Solutions such as EV Connect, EV Lite, EV Select, and others were all created within this environment and these products and services have had a huge positive impact on Fourteen IP and our customers.
One of the things we have always done is innovate both with new products and services for our customers and also internally to try and make sure we can do things better. Innovation is at the heart of who we are and 2024 will be no different with numerous new products and services being developed by our team as well as internal projects too.
How do you balance your work and personal life, and what are your interests that you enjoy outside of work?
I don’t think I can balance it! I am sure if you asked my wife, Victoria, she would tell you that there is not enough balance.
I enjoy going to football matches locally which means heading to both Blackpool and Fleetwood and we like to attend shows, living on the Fylde Coast we are lucky to have a good number of local theatres which means we get to attend lots of shows.
