We’re celebrating our birthday and already looking forward to what the future holds. It’s also the perfect opportunity for us to look back at what we’ve learned over the last eight years.
1. Plan for success
By December 2006, after two years in business, we had outgrown our “pay by the month” office and knew the time had come to commit to a permanent address. We fell in love with 37 Point Pleasant immediately – it was light, open plan, next to the river and a park, and opposite a great local pub – the Cat’s Back. But the office had room for over 30 desks and there were only six of us!! Our first lesson was to believe in our future and that one day we’d need a big space. It all worked out! Two years later we knocked through to the adjoining office to create a suite of meeting and “invention” rooms, jam-packed with equipment and stimulus to support ideas generation.
2. Be authentic
We nailed our values before we even came up with a company name, before we found our first office or approached our first client. Curiosity, confidence and collaboration are at the heart of Just:: and guide how we operate every day. These values guide our interactions with clients, suppliers and stakeholders and are built into our professional development programme.
3. Ask questions more than you give answers
Many consultants believe their value is based on their ability to provide solutions. Faced with the same questions, most will come up with the same answers – some are more articulate than others, some can answer quicker than others, but we can all provide an answer. The key to good consultancy is isolating the problem that needs solving. In our first two years we were lucky to have many pitch opportunities and quickly realised our ability to win was based on asking the right questions, not simply responding to the brief. At the beginning of 2007 we launched Just:: Invent, a roadmap of tools and techniques to help all Justees interrogate the challenges our clients are facing and design novel ways of addressing them.
4. Have big ears
At the beginning of 2008 we sent all our clients boxes containing a pair of over-sized rubber ears with an invitation to meet for an hour. Rather than using the time to tell them about our latest hires or award-winning campaigns, we asked each a few critical questions about the issues keeping them up at night. We then spent time discussing solutions or defining actions to help. Today we’re still using the same principles, with a culture of continuous feedback, annual all-staff focus groups and a commitment to listening for our Justees, and regular Just:: Healthcheck processes for our clients.
5. Celebrate the magic
Because there are always challenges and mountains to climb, it can be easy to forget to celebrate the wins – whether it’s a new biz pitch, a successful client event, a great new hire or someone’s promotion. When we won our first global pitch we bought a new clock and set it at the clients’ time zone. When we won our first industry award we bought an interactive piece of art for the office. We celebrate the arrival of every new Justee with a welcome lunch. We take the time as a team, and with our clients, to recognise and reward our achievements – it helps fuel our passion for the work, which people tell us is infectious!
6. Care at least as much as your client
In our experience, clients are looking for strategic partners who have deep insight into their business. Deliverables and outcomes are important, but so is the journey. We believe in creating a distinct and consistent experience for clients so that the journey is as enriching and fun as celebrating what we achieve together.
7. Seek stimulus
In a competitive and heavily-regulated environment, it’s important we’re dynamic, proactive and look outside for stimulus to challenge the status quo and provoke new ideas. Designing media, public affairs or medical education campaigns that really stand out involves thinking differently and not a reliance on the “tried and trusted”. Just:: Invent and Just:: Experience (our approach to effective client relations) are designed to prompt all Justees to be true pathfinders.
8. Keep an eye on the future and be bold
We’re celebrating our 8th birthday with a fortune-telling theme and encourage you to have a go with our interactive Magic 8 Ball. The lesson is simple: don’t be afraid to predict the future for your business, embrace it, ask big questions and play with the answers… even if this takes you in an unchartered or unexpected direction.
Emma and Jennie
Co-Founders of Just::