A new start…

On my new journey to work, I keep seeing an ad for a drink that proclaims “don’t act your age; defy it”.  I wonder if it is aimed at me, (though it might be that I am not in the desired target market). I am certainly not defying my age. I am revelling in it, and the new opportunities that I am facing. A fresh start, with the experience I have accumulated one way or another over my years in this business, gives me energy and a platform for the future.

I’m travelling into London now on the Northern Underground line from the same tube station that I travelled from on my way home from school. Many many things have changed. The Northern line, with all its quirks, has not changed at all. And the tube stop is so identical that I keep having a sense that if I look hard I will see my teenage self jump on the train, loaded with books and Latin homework.

So much is different. This is true for all of us, of course, as the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus put it: “No man can step in the same river twice”, both because the river moves on, and because we all change, too.  

If you are wondering whether to make a change, my answer is go with your gut instinct. Plans and lists of pros and cons get you so far. Following your gut is crucial. The important questions to know about are not to do with status or even the role. The ambition of the business, and the culture of the leadership team are the things that matter. With the help of LinkedIn you can get a sense of both. Don’t be fooled, of course, by posts written by a team of virtual or real assistants. Look for statements from the heart, about business preferably, as that is where you will be, rather than about family, pets or charity walks. 

After 34 years at one organisation, albeit where the agency changed, and my role grew and evolved, I have gone through sensory overload in the first few weeks. The sense of belonging in a new agency however could not be stronger – I have been made very welcome, helped certainly by knowing some key people already (great to be back working with Steve Allan), but equally due to the warmth and acceptance from my new colleagues.

I have a lot to learn in my new job. As I am endlessly curious this is not a chore, but exciting, and a stretch outside of my previous comfort zone. But what are we here for at all if not to learn, grow, and develop?

In media, in advertising, the old certainties are being dismantled daily. Not by opinion formers (although there is some of that), and not by new platforms with an ambitious growth budget (although that is true too). By people, by audiences, by new truths, new heuristics, and new provable data and evidence fast overtaking the old and familiar. People are defying stereotypes. Brands will thrive that do the same. Not by throwing out the old trusted playbooks, but by adapting, experimenting, and updating them. 

The chief economist at Allianz, and president of Queens College, Cambridge, Mohamed Abdullah El-Erian said recently: “Rules built for yesterday can inadvertently get in the way of growth”.  

Norms of yesterday are the shifting sands of today. I might have changed jobs for a fresh start, but we are all facing a time of change.