Tuesday 9th December 2008, 15:01Long Lost FriendI got a lovely e-mail from an old friend recently in response to the Blog. Ted was one of a small handful of us in the first days of A4e who helped set up and launch our first piece of business. It was lovely to hear from him and he is claiming he is 72 now – can’t believe that, 65 max I reckon. He is one of many wonderful people who have helped A4e grow and transform over the years. A phrase I have repeated when talking about A4e's growth is that if destination and end points are how you work, then A4e probably isn’t the place for you. If the journey – and many stop off points along a journey – are what you enjoy, then come and join in. We have lots to do and we need many different skills. His lovely note reminded me of the contribution of many wonderful people – Linda, Heather, John, Steve, Paul, Gary, Peter, Yvonne, Graham and many more besides – whom I want to thank for their part in A4e’s development. And of course the many fabulous people who are still here, have recently joined and are taking A4e forward today.
I’ll send Ted an e-mail as well but it was a nice chance to thank a lot of people without whom, we couldn’t do what we do today. I also got a nice note from Leslie earlier in the year. She worked in the Benefits Agency and Employment Service across the transition to JCP and was a great challenge/asset to us in enhancing the way we work with the public sector at a more senior level – thinking about it, almost 10 years ago! I spend most of my time focused on where we’re going but I try never to forget where I came from and more importantly, the people who were part of that.
One of the challenges of growing companies is managing the transition as you move on. It can be difficult and painful sometimes and you need to learn and adapt as you go. I was using a football analogy to explain this same point recently – it’s about trying to build teams which blend new and existing talent. At each stage you can see – usually only looking back – each distinct era of the great people in the business at different times. Keeping the football analogy, it crossed my mind thinking about mixing up ‘players’ from over the last 18 years of so but that got a bit freaky. Would’ve been entertaining place to work mind!
Global business needs different skills, in the same way as larger business demands new skills and talents. We need to evolve - as a business and individuals – and that’s part of the on-going challenge. The current credit crisis and economic downturn will require new business responses. Some of the ‘old models’ of behaviour – particularly in the financial aspects of business – will need to change and adapt. Going to be an interesting next few years as we move along the next stage of this continuing journey.
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