Don’t create a role for yourself that no-one can possibly fulfil

GDR Creative Intelligence is a business specialising in brands, retail and experiences. We analyse how innovation affects sectors across the globe, and advise blue chip clients like Tesco, Waitrose, Pandora and the BBC on how they should prepare for the future.

I arrived at the forerunner to GDR in 1997 as an assistant, when it was just one person sweethearting creative agencies together with clients for project pitches.

After two years, I became a partner. Then, four years in, I bought the company.

As our CEO, I focus on professional public speaking at global conferences and client events, usually giving the futurist perspective on everything from the stores and cities of the future, to e-commerce trends and the implications of ‘the metaverse’ for brands. This is the main way the company gets exposure, which naturally feeds into our consultative services.

Alongside the events, I head up business development, leveraging my 24 years of contacts to keep in touch with clients and former clients, who often take us with them when they move on.

I also spend a lot of time reading – you can’t get off the wheel, as the pace of change is at warp speed these days, so I read lots of industry news, tech innovation stories and so on to maintain my knowledge.

Throughout our journey there have been highs, like getting mobbed with praise after a presentation, or conducting a zinging brainstorm with colleagues, but also lots of challenging lows. Sometimes a whole year would go by without a ‘good day’. Showing up regardless, and deploying self-hypnosis helped to get me through.

Throughout all the ups-and-downs,I’ve learned that it’s ok not to be good at everything.

The trick is finding the right people to do things you’re bad at.

You can’t do it all – the stress of trying to do everything will manifest as a frozen shoulder, or a bad back. Business owners will – and should – put up with greater personal sacrifice than employees, but that doesn’t mean you should construct a long-term role for yourself that no human can possibly fulfil.

So, the best advice I can give is utterly simple: pay whatever you can scrape together to get the best people.

Be tough and excise those who don’t perform – or who make you and everyone else miserable. Essentially: keep the radiators, remove the drains. Trust them, invest in them, respect them.

Having made every single mistake in the book over the last 24 years, I’m close to luxuriating in doing the bits I like, and am good at. There lies true self-actualisation. Business wise, we’re going from strength to strength, with brilliant people doing everything better than I ever could have. In the process, we’ve created a perfectly formed independent boutique consultancy.

For knowledge workers in the innovation industry, the holy grail is to have interesting, varied and challenging work; to be surrounded by people you like and learn from, and to have a work-life balance. We’re scarily close to all those things – though I’m touching wood as I say that, because as we all know, things can change overnight. This year, at least, things are good.