What do you currently do?
I’m MD of Brand Potential. We specialise in creating Accelerator brands by unlocking and maximising potential. Whether it’s for a change in direction or a change in ownership, we provide creative insight, strategies and delivery to help a brand accelerate with confidence.
What is your inspiration in business?
Seeing tangible results from the work we do. Lots of consultancies provide great strategy and inputs, but we aim to help our clients make a real difference to our business. That means sticking with them right through to helping to get their ideas to market. We always think that if we can help our client to get promoted, we’ve done a good job!
Who do you admire?
There’s no one particular person as I admire different qualities in different people, but I certainly admire the tenacity and commitment in anyone who sets out on the road of starting and building their own business, especially when going through that difficult growth period of moving from start-up to established.
Looking back, are there things you would have done differently?
Yes and most of them can be traced straight back to not following my gut instinct. I think that if you work in any industry long enough, all that experience builds up into a powerful inner sat nav that we often ignore because we get side-tracked by the rational arguments. I’ve never regretted following my instinct, but I have regretted not following it!
What defines your way of doing business?
We have three driving values at Brand Potential. They are Delivery, Drive and Truth and our view is that the cultural mindset of how we do business is far more important than the functional skillset. I hope they are the way I do business.
What advice would you give to someone just starting out?
Don’t be afraid of being a generalist. Gaining specialist experience is important, but all too often can leave you trapped into a narrow silo that is then very difficult to break out of. Also, work hard, be positive, get stuck in!
Paul Jones
Harvard alumni and former New York Times journalist. Editor of Business Matters for over 15 years, the UKs largest business magazine. I am also head of Capital Business Media's automotive division working for clients such as Red Bull Racing, Honda, Aston Martin and Infiniti.
