Lessons In Business. #Keepmoving
Ironically I’m posting this lesson about ‘keeping moving’ 30,000 feet in the air as I travel to Darwin on a newer plane where I can access WiFi - I find it amazing! Anyway onto the lesson …
I left Uni in the early nineties. Computers were emerging, not everyone owned one, far from it! There were communal computer rooms and you had to line up and wait for one to become free. I certainly didn’t own one!
I was offered my first job as Marketing Manager at Adelaide Bank in the Insurance Division. I had a computer in my office, part of my role was managing the JM Insurance outlets in the shopping centres around SA and the call centre (onsite, in the building on King William Street) so I needed a computer to analyse data and report to management.
When presenting to the board, I used a projector and placed clear sheets (that had been printed with content) on the glass plate - generally containing a selection of graphs and data that I had analysed using a calculator! As I reflect, the pure simplicity astounds me.
Not much technology changed for the first 5-years after leaving Uni. I moved from the bank to take up a position with Procter and Gamble which meant a lot of travel. There were no mobile phones, so you had to phone the office to get messages and then - return calls on a public phone.
I then moved to Safcol, where faxes were essential - the trading of seafood around the globe is big business. Safcol was acquired by Thai owners, and eventually, fax machines had their own room, called The “Fax Room”. There was also a Telex machine (but that technology was fading out).
There were no maternity leave entitlements in 1996 so becoming pregnant for the second time, and with Safcol getting ready to move out to Elizabeth, I decided to resign and start a small consulting practice. I purchased a computer and registered for an email address, which bamboozled quite a few people, including the Head of IT at Safcol who didn’t know what an email was, no one did. But David Dennis managed to set me up using dial-up Internet, I can still hear the dial-up now.
One of my first clients was a USA client - Microcrisp, a microwave baking paper that crisped pastry. Revolutionary. I still have the TV commercial on a VHS tape but I won’t torture you!
By 2000 technology started to move swiftly. The worldwide web ‘www’ launched - ah! if only I knew then what I know now.
Some businesses were quick to adopt and developed websites - others waited to see if the fad became the norm. Then Facebook launched and well, as they say, the rest is history.
I look back today and in the early ’90s a few other people started agencies at the same time as Feeney Marketing, including Fuller and Hughes PR.
As a young mum of two, my business ebbed and flowed. I knew I couldn’t own the world but I could own my world. Then surprise, along came baby number three! So I watched the others grow, content with my work-life balance... but I kept moving.
Today we celebrate 25 years and what I do know is the world is faster. We do more in a given day now than most people did in a week in 1992.
I’m grateful that I kept moving. I may have started as a consultancy business but today we are a team of seven highly specialised strategists, marketers, creatives and graphic designers.
Having been in business before digital, I’ve seen enormous change and one thing I do know is you can't standstill. It’s essential that you strategically adopt new technologies, upskill yourself, research trends, keep the conversations going, connect and network, employ great people with the right skills because if you don’t keep moving, you might never catch up.
So remember - #keep moving.