When I wake up, I think about the day ahead and how I can challenge clients to swim against a tide of complication and simplify things. I encourage them to think differently, ignore previous methodologies and traditional, gray offerings and come up with something new.
I once presented to a consumer goods company. We didn’t use Excel or present business cases. We showed them a year’s work in a three-minute video. That’s me: a storyteller who goes for the simple and concise. I write flash fiction in my spare time and admire other writers of short stories who know how and when to kill a plot at the right point. It’s these skills I bring to my work every day.
I hold brainstorming sessions to find the big picture and bring design thinking to client projects. This allows us to articulate what we want to achieve. And I often use metaphors to make the story more understandable for clients. Metaphors act like thieves of non-necessary words in a song, leaving us with the tune, something that your audience’s open to listen to.
Another big part of my day-to-day role as a Managing Director is resourcing projects. I want people who can follow me at pace, but not people who are just like me. It’s about getting a mix: analytical people, drivers, those who are expressive. It’s sort of being the conductor of a brilliant orchestra.
