How do we best mark the passing of time? With laughter lines, with love, with loss? With the counting of inches and pounds, the aggregation of experiences, relationships and belongings? With the milestones and trophies, with the big, the small, the remembered and the long forgotten? Is it about the results or the journey? The time passed or the time still to come?
This year we are celebrating five years of Vestedās launch in London and as I paused and looked back to look forward, so many memories sprung to mind. Some to always treasure, some very definitely best left behind, and so many that are still part of our journey today.
In just five years, weāve grown from an idea and ideal being built from a windowless room in the depths of January, to the CIPRās Specialist Consultancy of the Year. Weāve leapfrogged from start up to mid-sized agency, graduated into the PRWeek Top 150 and are delivering award-winning work for an awe inspiring client roster of the worldās best financial brands and best financial services leaders and teams.
And while the energy occasionally wavers, the founding principles and values of this organisation continue to act as our beacon and bellwether every day. Working with the best clients delivering the best work; embracing the challenges of true partnership over the ease of transactional delivery; finding, nurturing and growing the best talent. And going for growth, not because we believe the biggest is best, but because we believe the market has shifted and the industry is ready for building the future of finance and that we can stand up and play our role in making that happen.
Our team of incredible employee entrepreneurs (to steal a phrase from a client) are always striving for better, for evolution – for greater impact, greater creativity, greater results. Delivered with care, with challenge and with pragmatic realism, together. And that together isnāt just about a team operating together from a London base (although that in itself is a magical thing to experience). The together is also international, through a dogmatic belief that different locations donāt have to drive siloes; the together is through having found other leaders around the world who believe the same; and that together is through partnership, with our clients and network who come together to deliver as one.
As one client said to me recently, āYouāre building something really successful with Vested UK and itās great to be part of the journey.ā So in thinking about what to celebrate, Iāll take the journey and the partnership every time and look forward to many years of Vested magic moments to come.