“The distribution of Octopus Money Coaching to the world should, and is, through employers.”
There may well be further developments in the coaching and advice space to come.
The chief executive of one of Octopus Group's vectors, Octopus Investments, has previously not ruled out buying adviser firms as part of its expansion plans in the future.
Ruth Handcock told FTAdviser there were no limits when it came to expanding the firm’s offering.
“I get excited about more and more ways you can help people get more out of their money and reduce the stress they feel in managing their money,” she said.
Octopus Group
Octopus Group was set up in 2000 by Rogerson, with fellow co-founders Chrisopher Hulatt and Guy Myles, who left in 2014.
Initially it was a fund management company, with Rogerson bringing the knowledge of a few years spent at Mercury Asset Management.
“I found it boring,” Rogerson said of his time there. He left aged 24 and set up Octopus.
Octopus is known for its 'disruptor' nature, and so far has six divisions which cover investment management, venture capital, property lending, renewable energy generation and investment into healthcare and fintech.
Chief antibody
Rogerson has retained more control over the company than most founder-CEOs.
He interviewed every single potential hire until the company had around 400 employees, which he said took up about 70 per cent of his time.
“Our strongest culture was when we had 30 people, because we were all based in one room,” he said.
Rogerson sees himself as “chief antibody”, ensuring the company does not experience too great a cultural decline, which he acknowledges gets tougher as the firm expands.
The theme of people and personalities crops up across Rogerson’s comments on more than one venture in the business.
He credits the success of Octopus Energy’s ‘Kraken’ platform, which aims to improve the efficiency and customer service of energy suppliers by automating a lot of the energy supply chain, on the people running it.
“The reason Kracken has been so successful is half due to the technology, and half due to the culture [in the company],” he said.
Hire the correct people is therefore the advice Rogerson would give to any small business owners looking to expand their company.
“The most important thing to get right is who you hire…we hear people say this all the time, but very few actually put it into practice.”
Another important part of the company is its share ownership structure.
Octopus Group is a private company, owned in part by its employees, and Rogerson has no plans to take it public.
The wide ownership is important to the success of start-ups and SMEs, he said, as without that you do not get the same work ethic in staff, nor do they feel the same sense of purpose or level of accountability as they would if they were personally invested in the business.
