Winter 2018Interview with Richard Tang

The Founder & Chairman of Zen Internet explains his people before profit philosophy

Were you born and raised locally in Rochdale?

I was born and brought up in Shawclough and went to school in Rochdale. I left Rochdale when I was 18, after A levels, to go to Salford University.

How and why did you start Zen Internet?

Even at primary school I had an ambition to start my own business and it was something that stuck with me. After I graduated, I worked in Kingston on Thames for a while and then went travelling. I always knew when I came back that this was my chance now to make my dream a reality.

You are known for your people first philosophy; where did that come from and how have you maintained it as the business has grown?

It has always been a part of me, and as I have grown up with the business and seen more of the world, I have increasingly seen the damage that our society’s focus on money brings. We have created a capitalist system that puts money first.

The financial crisis of 2008 is a good example of extreme short-term behaviour by the banks. It nearly brought down the entire world’s financial system, so you look at that and think there has got to be something wrong with that.

Within Zen I have switched that round and I have said the purpose of being for this company is threefold, our most fundamental long-term objectives are happy staff, happy customers, happy suppliers.

We exist as an organisation to focus on those three objectives. The purpose of the business is not to make as much money as we possibly can no matter what the consequences.

The purpose is happy staff, happy customers, happy suppliers.

I have created a kind of bubble within Zen where the values are different to other big organisations, it means a lot to me personally and, actually, the irony of it is, a people-focussed organisation in the long term can be financially really successful.

If you focus on people and you have got a workforce that is engaged and happy, you have got customers that are satisfied and loyal and referring their friends.

In the short term you make less money but in the long term you make more money.

We have grown every single year for 23 years, we are profitable, we are investing for the future and if I look around us there are not many organisations like Zen left doing that.

It is obviously something you are very proud of as well.

Yes, it means a lot to me because I think we have a responsibility to future generations to set up a society that looks after the well-being of future generations.

The current system is too short term, it is too money focussed.

There is a lot in the press about that, acknowledgment that that is the reality of it and the environment today is not sustainable.

It is current news that climate change is wiping out species across the planet; it is causing chaos with the weather and all the scientists are saying that we need to do more than we are doing.

As of today, we have not got the commitment to actually do that and my belief is that a big part of the problem is we have created a system where we can talk a lot about improving the environment but we have still got a system where hitting those short-term monetary targets is more important than saving the environment.

Links to local charities fits in with your people first philosophy. Is that something you have always done?

We have always done bits and pieces with the local community and in more recent years it has been much more focussed. We have a social and charities committee within Zen and every year we ask the workforce for nominations for a local charity that we can support for that year and then we have a vote. The one with most votes wins, and Rochdale Children’s Moorland Home won the vote this year.

How important is it for you to be based in Rochdale?

I am committed to staying in Rochdale forever. I think Rochdale is a great place, it has been a great place for us to grow the business.

We have a great building here that we are going to stay in for the long term. There is no reason for us to move.

I think over time it is likely that we will open satellite offices, but in terms of our HQ and our base we are committed to staying in Rochdale.