Memo from the MD

(L-R), Kath, Jonathan Austin, Imer, Rowan and Rachel

The nature of the media means that bad news generally gets greater exposure than good news.  That was certainly my experience of being a news journo; it was evident in all the media outlets I worked with (despite my best efforts to create a balanced, good news/bad news paper and website)   Good news, though, is always harder to share without sounding self-congratulatory and, well, a bit smug.   

But we do have some good news to share and rather than write a post that carefully treads the balance between being happy, showing off and just being self gratifying, I thought the best way to share this was simply to show an email I received this morning from Kath Pooley our European MD at Bite.  

From:Kath Pooley
Sent: 02 March 2010 08:35
To:Allofbite
Subject: Best Company? You bet…

Hello ‘all-of-Bite’,

Greetings from sunny(ish) London. I trust all is well around the world.   We have got some fabulously good news to share which I believe is a great sign of things to come and a reflection of efforts around the world to consistently evolve and improve our culture and approach.

Yesterday, it was announced that Bite is the 7^thbest small company to work for in the UK. Helloooooo….

Just as background, this is an award in conjunction with The Sunday Times, so pretty damn prestigious thank you very much! Obviously not EVERY company enters, but this year 1,086 companies applied for ‘star status’ and to be in the top 100 league table. Only 50 organisations, including us, received the full three stars. Lexis, our sister agency, came 10^th and Text 100 was also in the top 60, so good news for Next Fifteen all round.

The article, which appeared in Sunday’s paper, highlights our training, focus on digital and the opportunities presented by our meritocratic approach. Every member of the Bite team submitted a confidential survey and I promise we didn’t pay any of them a penny…

I actually think this is a reflection of both the direction we’re headed as a company as well as the progress we’ve made. We’ve consciously tried to get everyone involved in shaping the culture, the benefits and our overall approach to client relationships of late. There’s also been a lot of investment across the board – time and money – at every level. There’s lots still to do, I’m sure everyone here would agree, but I’ve always said we have an absolutely brilliant team and we are in a great place to drive the agency forward onto bigger and better things.

There are two people who we need to thank for this award in particular – Imer and Rowan – our marvellous HR team. Often the unsung heroes, they are constantly looking for ways to improve our benefits and HR process, absolutely have the backs of our team, and went through the most gruelling interview process ever to ensure the CEO of Best Companies believed everything we’d said!They are led by our global head of HR, Rachel Gilley, who drives initiatives like this like you’ve never seen before! Well done to them – a great achievement and this will significantly ease the recruitment process – we’ve already seen a three-fold increase in the number of in-bound CVs.

That’s enough about us now. Watch this space – I believe we’re doing some really exciting things, not just in London, but in Europe as a whole. Do ask if you have any questions – or want to chat about what on earth we do and what our plans are in EMEA!

Over and out.

Kath