The most important thing for us is always staying focused on the solution. Sometimes there are challenges for the industry like changes at retail. We have had some key players getting out of the licensing business, those are always challenges. One of the things that has helped us a great deal is to deal with challenges focusing on the solution. We ask, ‘Who do we have to be today to deal with the needs of the marketplace?’ We really focused attention on ‘How do we solve the problem? What is the solution that we can deliver to the marketplace?’ That spends less time on ‘Woe is me’ and immediately goes to ‘What is the thing we need to do to solve this?’
We have 12 people full-time.
Part of it goes back to the hiring process. One of the things I talked about earlier is really being clear about what is needed to not only have a job within our office but to grow within our office. What is important to me in interviewing is that people understand from day one what the attributes are for growth and success in our organisation. It is important that the people we bring on board have strong results orientation; there is no ifs or buts about that. It’s important that we hire people who are very team orientated as that is critical to being a great sales person. We also look for people who have a strong understanding of licensing and brand management. They have to be absolutely clear on the attributes they need to be successful. I never want anyone to be able to say ‘Oh I didn’t know you wanted that, I didn’t know those were the requirements’. So we make very clear that people know early on in the hiring process what we want. Those attributes are non-negotiable and they always deliver. If you hire people with those attributes you very rarely have issues.
There are a lot of important contracts and deals. I couldn’t single anything out, but what I would say is the way we go about managing our business ultimately, and finding partners comes back to character and integrity. We put a premium on partnerships and prioritise partnerships and relationships. One of the things is whatever we say we will do, we do. That will never be a bad thing for us as a business. Yes, it is about closing a deal, but we will never close a deal at the detriment of the partnership. Our best deals have come not necessarily from the initial deal but the deal that got started 10 years ago has grown and got renewed again and got bigger. If you put a premium on partnership then it informs everything you do. The long-term relationship is always going to be more important than any in and out deal.
Cara Waters is a former SmartCompany editor. Previously, Cara was a senior reporter for the Financial Times’ website and worked for The Sunday Times in London.
