Pet food maker Tails.com encourages its engineering staff to come up with ideas, from the useful to the bizarre, at its "hack days". The team are given a day to develop a novel concept, from something as standard as correcting issues with the company's work systems, to more whacky projects, such as finding out whether making musical instruments out of vegetables can make you better at your job.
One useful idea that came from these events was the introduction of Bagelbot, a channel on the communication app Slack, where people are randomly allocated members from around the organisation to have a coffee and a chat with.
Tails.com was born in 2014 because chief executive James Davidson believed the choice of pet food on offer was a dog's breakfast. The company delivers tailor-made nutrition for the nation's pooches. Different breeds have varying needs, as dogs are a diverse species, so one-size-fits-all pet food is a poor solution. Tails.com delivers eight million specially formulated meals each month, calculating portions according to an algorithm using breed, age, health, activity levels and flavour preferences, which are provided by the dog's owner.
The company, based in Richmond upon Thames, west London, consults vets and dog experts and uses local ingredients, which are sustainably produced wherever possible.
Every month, each employee can nominate two others for the Top Dog Awards and the winner gets a prize for living the company values.
