In Praise of 33

Not exactly breaking news but last month - ThirtyThree (rec ad agency/comms/rec marketing agency)- sold for loads of money an undisclosed sum to Capita. So congrats to the owners but I thought I would just state a few things I learnt from working there for a couple of years in early 2000s,knowing the owners quite well and as part of the wider industry over the last decade, and they are:

1. You can run a successful highly profitable business while simultaneously treating your staff, suppliers and clients with warmth, respect and honour. I had witnessed some successful businesses who treated staff appallingly, or overcharge clients or beat up suppliers - but it does not have to be that way.

2. You can grow and not lose your sense of identity. Now this point is more as an observer - but they maintained reputation of being creative, innovative and interesting as much as a 120 person company as a 20 person company.

3. Making money is vital but you can have a laugh along the way too. Despite what some of our more serious industry colleagues think - we are not curing cancer or saving the planet - we are creating/delivering campaigns for staff /employees/companies and that is really, really important but.....not that important


I like to think we have implemented much of this here at OME but let me know if you think I am wrong!