First Mile CEO: Don't forget the power of internal competition

We’re used to the idea of competition being a good idea when it exists between companies in open markets, to raise standards, drive innovation and keep prices low for customers. But have you considered the power of competition within companies?

Bruce Bratley, the founder and CEO of First Mile, believes it’s an important factor to consider when you design your product offering.

Bratley founded the waste management and recycling company First Mile in London in 2004. It helps more than 30,000 businesses around the UK with recycling solutions. Its clients include large firms like Pret, Caffè Nero, Netflix and Amazon, as well as small businesses, from clothes stores to restaurants.

It collects more than 65,000 tonnes of waste every year using zero and low-emission vehicles and electric cargo bikes, which it takes to recycling centres.

And one of the ways it drives up recycling rates from clients is by harnessing competition between employees within companies. It offers a digital dashboard where staff can check out internal league tables that show who is achieving the best recycling rates in the company.

“In a large office block we can see if the recycling is better from the executive suite floor or the customer services floor,” says Bratley.

Retail outlets with a presence around the UK can also enter competitions on a map to see which stores are performing best. “Managers in particular like it to motivate their staff,” says Bratley.

First Mile has been in operation for 20 years. In the early days, Bratley used to drive its single van between companies himself, helping with collections and trying to drum up new clients.

He originally scaled the business by persuading small businesses to sign up himself, face-to-face on the shop floor. These days he has a carefully assembled sales team where people have specialist roles, some looking after big clients, others persuading SMEs to join.

Last year, First Mile had revenues of more than £40m and it has enjoyed year-on-year growth of more than 20 per cent for the past five years, the company says.

Bratley studied environmental impact at PhD level at university before going into business. He says that if he had cared less about purpose and about improving recycling rates for the good of society, he could have grown the business to three times its current size.

But after two decades of growing the company, he remains as engaged and passionate as ever.