Directing an ‘all-star-cast’ at LOVEFiLM

How corporate director Simon Calver has come to shine in the entrepreneurial lead role on the LOVEFiLM set.

Having learnt his trade in leadership roles at such corporate giants as Dell and Pepsi, Simon Calver is now successfully applying those skills as Chief Executive at direct films business, LOVEFiLM.

In the last five years LOVEFiLM has developed a direct-to-consumer business model that comprises 65,000 movie titles and attracts over a million rentals a week. With the current austere market climate where “staying in” is the new “going out”, this is proving a recession-beating model

“Our driver for success is this that we have a very strong consumer proposition that offers great value against other competing views. You’re not signed into a long contract as you are with cable and satellite companies, it is significantly cheaper than high street rental, and there are no late fees. So the consumer value proposition stacks up, which is equally important and in the current market conditions,” says Calver

With his background in sales and marketing at Dell and Pepsi, Calver understands that LOVEFiLM’s success will be underpinned by building and maintaining an attractive consumer proposition. For LOVEFiLM this is based on the range of its product set i.e. its 65,000 film titles, and the convenience of being able to download films online or having something delivered though the letterbox.

“That strong consumer proposition is why we have been successful and it’s something we should never forget for the future. We have a strong relationship with those customers because they see us as a good and trusted brand to work with. Every customer experience has to be great. It has to be that way because there are no contracts. People have the ability to walk away, so literally, every transaction is vital for us.” 

Calver believes that his experience in the corporate world provided the solid foundation necessary to build success in LOVEFiLM’s challenging, entrepreneurial atmosphere, where the total number of employees is just 430. Indeed, Calver maintains that many large-company employees harbour an aspiration to work as an entrepreneur.

“I think if they’re honest, most corporate people would say at sometime they’ve wondered what it would be like being in an entrepreneurial environment. The reality is it’s incredibly tough. The reason is that in a smaller business, you don’t necessarily have the same quality of people around you as you do in large corporate. So one of my goals is always to raise the quality of people and we have a really great team around us that has enabled us to be successful.

“The key thing when I’m recruiting people is that I always look for people who’ve worked in large corporates and who know what ‘good’ looks like. Large companies offer great training experiences, they give them the opportunity to try things and even be able to make mistakes and learn from the mistakes. When I’m hiring for the business, I always look for real, tangible results, people who have delivered and can quantify their delivery. We are an analytical business - most online businesses are like that – so I want people who have demonstrated that they can operate well in a team and are ambitious for their business ahead of being ambitious for themselves. If you are successful in building the business, function, department you work in, you will ultimately be successful. 

“There’s a huge satisfaction you can get as a Chief Executive of a business in being able to pull the different levers and think about culture, retention, recruitment as well as the operational elements in running the business, all that is a huge learning. But I don’t think I’d have been successful if I hadn’t had some of that corporate foundation. We’re now doing a million rentals a week and that requires maniacal focus on getting the supply chain right, managing the distribution and logistics. A company like Dell was great experience for that.”

Calver is strong on core values, and believes following them is a key tenet behind LOVEFiLM’s success.

“Being a new business, and wanting to attract new talent, I think you have to be clear about what you stand for. I think we have a set of values that really works for us. We are in the entertainment business and that’s what it's about. The values we put in place are about being innovative and about having a passion for the business, being famous for the right stuff, loving our customers and being an all star cast. And we constantly reward and recognise people against that value set. Twice a year we do a staff survey online to measure what people think about their job or the management, or how the company works, and if there are gaps or issues, then we take action and we move quickly. If you think the culture isn’t quite right, then you make a change and you move on. That sort of immediacy of response is a very exciting environment in which to work.”

Calver says those working in senior functions within corporations, aspiring to be a Chief Executive should ensure they get as broad a range of experience as possible in order to prepare themselves for the challenges of leading a company.

“When I was a Marketer in Unilever, I actually did my finance qualification while I was still in marketing. Why did I do that? Because I liked business and I wanted to know who kept the score for business as well as how to build a brand. So I would say get experience, because as a CEO, you don’t know where there could be potential fires in the business that you have to put out, and you don’t know what are the strength and weaknesses of the team you have. People say their goal is to be a CEO, but actually, their goal should be to become a successful CEO and to do that means you have to think about what skills you need to collect in order to be successful when you’re there. Even though I’m now in my mid-40s, I never want to stop learning. You need to constantly stretch and challenge yourself.”

CV: Simon Calver

Simon Calver is chief executive of LOVEFiLM International, Europe¹s largest online DVD rental service which merged with Video Island in April 2006 – prior to the merger Calver had been CEO of Video Island since July 2005. Calver has held senior management positions at Riverdeep, Dell, Pepsi and Unilever, where he gained a wealth of relevant experience. He was General Manager and VP of Dell’s UK and Ireland Home and Small Business operations. Before that he was International VP of Sales Operations for PepsiCola, and General Manager and VP of PepsiCola UK where he launched Pepsi Max, Pepsi Blue and development of the Pepsi Music activity.