Rolling In The Deep: A Retrospective
It’s June 2011 and you can’t walk into any bar or workplace without “Rolling in the Deep” from Adele playing on the radio. Obama is in the White House celebrating after catching Osama Bin Ladin. Andy Murray is getting closer and closer to a grand slam win but Wimbledon this year belongs to Djokovic. All over the UK, it feels like everyone is obsessed with trying (and mostly failing) to secure tickets for the London Olympics.
In a corner of a Devon spare bedroom that month, I started HRA Global. It was a simple enough vision – take the best elements from all the agencies I had ever worked with and build the best FMCG consultancy in Europe. One that, when I was client side, I would have hired over and over. Our vision, mission and values were pretty simple – we aimed to combine professional and effective market research with insight led FMCG consultancy delivered through a friendly, personal approach.
We’ve stayed true to that mission for a decade now, continuing to grow, driven by that original ethos, and I am pleased to say we have forged deep and lasting relationships with clients, partners and team members. We’ve never forgotten that it’s people who drive our success. A huge thank you to all our clients – since the start we’ve helped over 120 companies from over 30 countries succeed in the UK.
I firmly believe that if you want to know what it’s like to work with someone, take a look at their values. As for us, we have four key values. These define who we are, how we work and what we believe in. They are the essence of how we work with our clients, our trusted partners and each other.
- We think differently (Fresh).
- We tell you how it is (Authentic).
- We always deliver (Trusted).
- We find solutions (Curious).
So that’s what it’s going to be like working with us. Based on a decade of feedback and recommendations from clients, we know that is what it feels like working with us.
We do our best to lead by example, but stay away from preaching. We genuinely feel that it is our responsibility to be socially and environmentally committed and our upcoming BCORP certification is a major step down that road. We encourage and support our clients to work out what that means for their business and increasingly work on projects to help them move towards it.
It’s pretty humbling to be ten years into a business and to think of all the clients who have trusted us with their strategy, their research, their products and their UK launches.
I love working on all the projects. I’ve felt like I have kicked every ball, made every tackle and the time has absolutely flown by. So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for sharing your problems, opportunities and challenges with us. Ultimately, helping clients succeed is what HRA Global is all about.
So, after a brief pause to reflect – it’s upwards and onwards into the next decade. We have some exciting changes to unveil and I’m already looking forward to what the next set of client briefs will look like!
Enjoy the summer!
Hamish
