Daniel Woodham

I’m the founder and Managing Director of Chrome, although my role is shifting towards that of CEO as the business grows. Ultimately, the buck stops with me. I’m responsible for the overall direction and performance of the business: strategy, growth, financial performance and making sure we have the right people in the right positions.

My role today is less about running every part of the business and more about deciding where we’re going, building the team to get us there and making sure we actually deliver it. I still get involved in things I probably shouldn’t, but I’m working on that.

Before Chrome, I owned a gym and worked in sales before moving into telecoms in 2012. I founded Chrome in 2014. In the early days I did pretty much everything: sales, customers, suppliers, problems, installations and even making the tea.

As the business has grown, my role has changed completely. Today I spend much more of my time on strategy, growth, acquisitions, financial performance and developing the people around me. The aim is to build a business that doesn’t need me involved in every decision, although I’m probably still guilty of having an opinion on most of them.

This feels like a trick question where I’m supposed to say my children, which obviously I am, but I’ll keep this one about work.

Building Chrome from nothing is the obvious one. Starting a business is relatively easy. Building one that’s still growing more than 12 years later is the difficult bit.

The second is the recognition we’ve received for our people and culture. We’ve won awards including The Sunday Times Best Places to Work 2024 and several industry awards. Revenue and profit matter. We’re a business, not a charity. But having a company where good people want to work and build careers is something I’m equally proud of.

Probably making plenty of mistakes. Building a business teaches you very quickly that putting off difficult decisions rarely makes them easier. I’ve also learned that complicated plans normally become complicated problems.

That’s influenced how I lead today. Keep things simple, be clear about what’s expected, give people responsibility and hold people accountable for the result. I don’t expect people to get everything right. I certainly haven’t. But I do expect people to care and learn quickly when they get something wrong.

There are lots of people I’ve worked with over the years who have progressed into senior roles. Some are still with Chrome, and others have moved on and gone into senior management and even directorship roles elsewhere.

I’ve always believed in giving people opportunities and responsibility, sometimes before they think they’re ready for it. If someone has the right attitude and ability, I’ll back them and give them the chance to prove themselves.

Not everyone is going to stay at Chrome forever. If someone leaves us better than when they joined and goes on to achieve something bigger in their career, I take a lot of pride in that too.

Keep things simple and do what we say we’re going to do.

Telecoms hasn’t always had the best reputation. Complicated contracts, poor communication and providers suddenly becoming very interested in you when your renewal is due.

I wanted Chrome to build real long-term relationships with customers. Understand their business, give them good advice and be there after the contract has been signed. As we’ve expanded into IT and cyber security, that hasn’t changed. Technology changes. The basics of looking after customers don’t.

Our culture, standards and personality. I want Chrome to become a much bigger business, but I don’t want us to start behaving like a big corporate. Customers should still feel important and our people should still feel like they can make a difference.

We’re working towards becoming the number one chosen provider of business IT, cyber security and telecoms for small and medium-sized businesses across the UK. That means continuing to grow organically, making the right acquisitions, developing our IT and cyber security offering and investing in good people.

I want Chrome to be bigger, more profitable and better every year, just without becoming boring in the process.

The gym, cycling, walking and spending time with my family. I also play padel, although I’d describe my relationship with it as love-hate. I love it when I’m winning and question why I ever started playing when I’m not.

I’m competitive, so “relaxing hobby” probably isn’t the best description for most things I choose to do.