Wed built up our revenues to over 1m, had a staff of ten people and a respectable client list. We were going ok. I took my husband to the Awards dinner and we both cried with laughter at Jo Brands outrageous wit. Not that we all dont think those things. She just says them in public.
I was (rightly) beaten to the award by the talented Fru Hazlitt who had just been made CEO of Virgin Radio and whose career was far more glamorous than mine. Cest la vie. Its the taking part that matters they say.
Now the first First Women Summit is happening ten years on it’s caused me to reflect on whats changed. And what hasnt.
Whats changed Everything. Digital has taken over the world. I can remember when we started Omobono (named after the patron saint of business as we focus on communications for business brands) we thought we perhaps should have a website. Not having anything else to say (no clients just a philosophy about what good business communication looks like) we started what was in effect a blog. A diary account of what it was like setting up our own business from day one on the proverbial kitchen table. Actually it was in my basement.
Our first employee was my dog. He was fired after a short while as he failed in his responsibilities which were simply to adorn the room and provide us with something to play with in between sucking the end of our pencils and throwing darts. He thought his responsibility was to bark when we werent actively playing ball with him, so we parted company.
15 years later Omobono employs nearly 70 people, with offices in Cambridge, Bristol, London and Chicago. We advise some of the biggest and best businesses on the planet on how to use digital to connect with their audiences customers, staff and future talent.
But I think Id still be beaten to the prize by Fru Hazlitt. Why Because much of business is unsung, particularly in the space we work in. In 2001 when we did the math , as the Americans say, we discovered that over half the UK economy was driven by businesses doing business with other businesses. Most of those are not household names.
Most of those wouldnt impress your friends if you were down the pub. In the advertising and communications industry it’s the consumer brands that get the glory. Say you are working on Guinness or BMW and people nod. They can imagine that it might be fun. I used to do it and it was. Say you work for a real estate company or a manufacturer of food ingredients and their faces go a bit blank. You can almost hear the inner voice in their head wondering what they are meant to say now.
But the simple fact is that over half the economy is still driven by businesses doing business with other businesses. Most of the biggest consumer companies in the world have huge business to business arms who make money and effectively make the consumer world go round. Without the distribution companies that take consumer goods to the retail outlets that sell them; without the real estate companies who buy, sell and manage the spaces in which they are sold; without the suppliers who provide the ingredients that go into the products that are sold; without the branding and marketing companies who create the look and feel of the product and tell people where they are there would be no consumer sales.
This applies to absolutely every industry, even the most glamorous, like fashion. Remember Meryl Streeps rant about the colour cerulean in The Devil Wears Prada Its essentially an homage to business to business. What Ann Hathaway dismisses as stuff actually reveals her lack of understanding of the whole industry. Its a joy to watch.
Anyway, digital has taken over the world and weve all had to adopt our behaviours to match. ten years ago at The First Women Awards there wasnt a single Tweet (Twitter wasnt founded until 2006). None of us would have been able to Instagram a picture of our dinner to our friends (Instagram launched in 2010). I didnt get a LinkedIn profile until May 2007.
All of these things now feel like second nature, both in our private lives and in business. And Im not one of the Luddites who think this isnt a good thing. We know more and share more than ever before, including the bad stuff.
What hasnt changed Were still talking about Board and candidate quotas. Women are still paid less than men for directly comparable jobs. Women still pick up the majority of household chores, child care and care for elderly relatives as well as work. Weve got it all but at the same time havent.
What do I want to change The attitude of girls to business. Or the attitude of the people who advise girls on careers. To quote a recent communication from my daughters school Can you help Request for Careers Experience Contacts. Particular demand for placements in Law, Engineering, Journalism, Medicine, Banking and Finance. It seems to me that careers advice only focuses on the professions and not at all on the idea that they might go into business for themselves. The professions are seen as an end in themselves and not as a route to becoming an entrepreneur (which is so much better as a term than self employed ).
Girls still think of businessmen when they think of business. Of grey haired men in grey suits. Business women are sharp suited, high heeled and dashing to a meeting carrying a briefcase. Theres no sense of what it might actually involve to work for someone who manages buildings, designs packaging or develops new products.
None of those are particularly glamorous, but they do make the world, or at least the economy go round. Business can be satisfying, productive and fun. We need to make women who run unglamorous businesses be as likely to win an award as someone who runs a global media company. Sorry Fru.
Francesca Brosan is chairman and co-founder of Omobono Limited, the digital agency for business brands.
