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Chapter 10 - Friends Reunited
www.friendsreunited.co.uk
The idea behind Friends Reunited was concocted back in July
1999 by Steve Pankhurst. His wife Julie was pregnant at the
time. Some women crave honey and marmite sandwiches. Julie
was curious about what her old school friends were up to. Did
they all have families of their own? Did they still live in the same
area? Were they married, divorced, still alive?
At the same time Steve was looking at original ideas to develop
for the internet along with his business partner, Jason.
They realised that the internet was an ideal media to get back in
touch with old friends. The rest is internet history.
Your name: Michael Murphy
Company name: Friends Reunited
Website URLs:
www.friendsreunited.co.uk
www.genesreunited.co.uk
www.friendsreuniteddating.co.uk
www.friendsreunitedjobs.co.uk
www.friendsreunitedconnections.co.uk
Your company / website vision statement / goal:
At Friends Reunited we don’t believe in fancy mission statements
or over-detailed strategy plans; from experience these can be
restricting or simply left in a draw and instead of offering direction
can actually cloud vision. In this fast paced Internet Age,
potentially lucrative deals can be wrongly dismissed if they are
not deemed to ‘fit’ with the company’s long-term goals; it is absolutely
essential to stay flexible and be receptive to new ideas.
We’ll continue to focus on delivering simple websites, giving the
members what they want, while constantly looking for new ways
of connecting people through the internet.
What you sell / services you offer (brief description of your company):
We operate five websites that help people find people online all
under the umbrella brand of Friends Reunited. They range from
the core reunion service, where members can find old friends
from all stages of their life, through to family tree building, dating,
job search and social networking.
Have you always wanted to run your own business? What were some of your
previous jobs / companies?
Absolutely…At the age of 23, I attempted my first MBO, when
as Group Advertisement Manager of a division of Westminster
Press (part of Pearson Plc) I approached the chief executive with
my plans to reshape The Mercury, Deptford. The takeover
proposition was turned down, but I was promoted the youngest
ever General Manager and transformed an inherited £375,000
loss into £3,000 profit in his first six months in the role.
I progressed through the Pearson Group to become Chief
Operating Officer for the Financial Times newspaper.
After the potential for an MBO of FT Business fell through, I
started actively looking for acquisition opportunities and
successfully achieved a management buy-in of Friends Reunited.
While the danger was that the service was
a one-hit wonder, I
saw
more than just a reunion site, recognising the huge potential
to grow revenues with a highly scaleable system and a brand
synonymous with ‘’making connections’’, past, present and
future.
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