My Business Story
the business and do what’s right for customers. Things work best as a series of projects and permanent roles just get in the way.
Over the years we’ve worked hard at how our employees can get the most out of each other and partner best with our clients. In my view it all comes down to how we behave together; how we build each others’ ideas, how we give each other feedback and even how we argue. To help us with this we talk a lot about five things: Impact, Audacity, Love, Passion and Adventure.
These words headline
concepts that help us do our jobs better. So for instance, Audacity is all about the fact that innovators hate mediocrity.
It’s important that we all
we work with clients. Our growth has sprung from this foundation and it has served us well. So ten years ago, when a couple of long serving ?What If!’ers approached us with the idea of starting an office in New York we listened. Initially we were sceptical, I think we’d heard a lot about Brit companies not making it in the US but when the ?What If!’ers rebranded the front of their US proposal with a picture of cool Greenwich Village brownstone and the title ‘Your Club In New York’ Dave and I said yes immediately. Although we started the business in the UK, today our US business is larger and able to serve an enormous market.
Understanding our limits as people has helped Dave and I make ?What If! the success it is today, but it was also one of the hardest things to accept. We recognised that we were good starters but not necessarily the best finishers. Everyone tells you this about entrepreneurs but it’s different if you’re in the thick of it. In the early 2000’s we asked Sal Pajwani who had been with us for years to become the company CEO. He drove a period of rapid growth and just recently Sal, Dave and I asked Barrie Berg who heads our US office to lead the group. I truly believe that entrepreneurs have to lose the ego and do whatever it takes to grow
drive for an unimaginably outstanding result. These ‘values’ are the only real rules at work, they’re surprisingly hard edged and we include our clients in them as well.
Today ?What If! has offices in London, Manchester, Shanghai, Singapore, New York and any minute now in Sao Paulo. We’re busy translating our core products into digital offerings – an exciting project that’s opening up new markets to us. Nothing will ever feel as entrepreneurial as the early days but I’d like to think that by driving the business through values, cutting out hierarchy and constantly focusing on how we can better partner with our clients – it will keep us positive, audacious and valuable.
43 entrepreneurcountry
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58