Member Article

Behind the Business with London Executive

Adam Harvey is founder and managing director of London Executive, executive chauffer driven personalised car hire in London. He takes Bdaily behind the business.

What key challenges has your company recently faced?

When the recession struck, the private hire industry was hit hard. Some clients were scared by the media into not spending money. London Executive’s turnover dropped by approximately 30%, which was very worrying. However the company worked hard and went on to win 3 of the biggest contracts that we’ve ever had. This helped get business back up and running. This fighting spirit, enabled the business to grow the brand into something much bigger than it ever was, prior to the recession.

What is your biggest achievement over the past 12 months?

From 2010, our growth forecast year on year has been about 20%. We are the only company in London to have a premium quality fleet at prices comparable with the corporate minicab market, with a huge emphasis on technology.

London Executive is now the Capital’s market leader with more than 460 cars operating over 3500 accounts.

The company now offers an international door to door chauffeur service and a courier business.

As a business we have to keep thinking of new ways to raise standards, which may be found in technology or in investing in staff development. It’s a very competitive business, but there isn’t much quality or consistency out there. That’s our edge. It’s why we think the potential for growth is huge too.

What is your biggest focus for the coming year?

We are currently preparing to roll out a brand new self-service kiosk concept that will allow hotel and restaurant guests to book a car, pay by card and have it waiting for them within 15 minutes, anywhere in the city. This truly represents a revolution in bringing personal chauffeur service standards to everyone at an affordable price. The car that arrives to collect you will be a top of the range Mercedes.

We embrace modern technology so we can provide our clients with an executive service that is quick, reliable and cost effective. By passing these technologies on to our clients, we hope they will benefit from them too. Within 2 years we hope to have fully converted our fleet to Mercedes’ Eclass Hybrids.

The company plans to expand beyond the road, and its driving force can be summed up in one word: technology. Using years’ worth of knowledge and expertise the company has developed a unique car bookings management software system called “Genesis” - easily the most advanced in the industry. This online interface is white labelled for London’s corporate organisations, who use it to store personal preference details which enables in-house corporate travel bookers to work more efficiently than the competition. Genesis will become the industry standard for London’s big business world, but London Executive still isn’t resting on its laurels.

London Executive cars will incorporate complimentary wifi, water, newspapers and a carefully vetted driver who can find his way around London’s busy motorways. We also hope to integrate a 15 minute pick up time pledge anywhere in the City, West End and surrounds.

If you had to choose 1 top piece of advice for someone just starting out in business, or is currently operating within your industry sector, what would it be?

Put your clients first - we achieve this through adopting the best of breed in technology, training our drivers to be true ambassadors of the brand and implementing processes that make us more cost effective and efficient.

Can you share with us your view of the current landscape of business, in your region or generally, and where your organisation sits within it?

The industry is changing rapidly, we’ve seen the whole green issue playing a big role - the importance of reducing your carbon footprint has meant adopting types of vehicles that support this. We used the Mercedes BlueTec and E300 Hybrid models for this reason - not compromising on quality or eco credentials

There is a calibre of client who still values quality (both in terms of service and style/type of car). Many businesses in this arena are struggling to survive when they do not apply fundamental business principles - i.e. profitability is key - it requires businesses to find better ways of reducing their own overheads without compromising on service.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Graham Vincent .