25 years and still going…

Anyone that knows me might be surprised to see me blogging. In fact, both Ana and I are much happier writing for a client than for ourselves. But we thought we’d make 25 years an exception. I was asked to reflect on the last 25 years, what our biggest achievement has been and what is our ‘secret sauce’.

The answer is simple. Our biggest achievement has been to build an agency that we love working at. The ‘secret sauce’ is People. We are an eclectic bunch, from different backgrounds and with different interests, but a no b/s approach probably defines us.

A quarter of the team have been with us for more than 10 years, another quarter for 5+ years. I think that’s pretty remarkable in the PR world.

The best thing about owning and running an agency is being able to shape it to work for us. For example, although we can’t pick and choose clients, we are able to close the door on those that don’t buy into our values or don’t want to listen to our advice. Equally, as the team’s lives have changed, we been able to shape the world of work for them, by enabling remote working or flexi hours. As someone noted at our recent 25th birthday party, we were doing remote working well before COVID was a thing. None of these things are extraordinary but put together they make us somewhere where people want to work. When I talk to others inside and outside of the PR industry, I realise how rare that is. So, I genuinely feel lucky and proud!

It's not just the team that are still with us that make me proud, but also those that have left. Nearly everyone that has left Spark has left on good terms. Many still pop in for drinks, others send us referrals and some occasionally call asking for advice or help. It’s lovely to hear so many of these ex-colleagues talk about how much the training and skills they developed at Spark influenced their careers.

A huge thanks to everyone that has supported us over the last 25 years. It was lovely to see so many of you come along to our party last week. The drinks flowed and so did the stories. Looking forward to the next party already!