Difficult decisions and how you make them

Difficult decisions and how you make them

Greig Holbrook - Oban Digital

Claire Hopkins - Ideal 

Nick Fettiplace - Jellyfish Agency

Facillitated by Miranda Birch

Miranda Birch facilitates the Brighton Summit panel discussion on difficult decisions and how to make them.

Greig Hopkins explains that your gut instinct isn't always right...sometimes you have to plan!

If you're getting advice or support from other people then do it with the right ones. Employ good people that like each other. Think of being on a transatlantic flight with them, if you can't spend that amount of time with someone then you should question how well you might be working together.  

If you can get both hemispheres of the brain working well then that's great but generally, it's the right hand side of the brain that you need to quieten down! Greig works with his brother; they're pretty different which works. 

Miranda asked whether working with family members helps or hinders. 

Claire Hopkins from tech company Ideal, works with her husband. She describes having a business as rather like being pregnant and having a baby! You don't think about what's next. With a small baby you don't think "what sort of 8 yr old will I have? You deal with the present and have no concept of what the future might hold". Claire says she's naturally quite risk averse despite making some gut decisions. However, without taking the plunge with big decisions, a company can't grow. 

Claire said that she started doing everything at the company at first, the HR, the marketing, the whole shebang. She now feels that she was being arrogant. It's important to remember that another expert isn't just an overhead, other people can do it better and they're a true benefit to the company as a whole. 

Nick Fettiplace of Jellyfish talks about his experience of moving into London (the Shard no less) and the impact that that's had on the company's perception of itself.  It's liberating and adds value to the company's self-worth. Nick's first office was his Mum's dining room table, then a rabbit hutch (his words, not mine) but his rule of thumb was "if everything goes wrong, am I still ok?". So, early on, he was making safe decisions. Having said that, as the company has grown, he's made bigger and riskier decisions. He describes being in a fast moving industry so it's important to have expertise at hand, quickly. 

Miranda adds that peers and informal networking can really help with decision making. Audience members joined in the discussion and suggested using a business coach to help with tricky decisions. However, Greig points out that external advisors can get it wrong, make sure you're listening to the right people. 

In conclusion, when making difficult decisions it seems that following your gut instinct works as long as that gut feeling is backed up with a plan and a network of reliable people to offer expertise in areas that aren't your forte. 

Live blogging by Ellie Dobing - Flaming Nora Media and RadioReverb

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