I’m on a plane for the first fashion trip of the year. First Florence for Pitti and then Milan for Men’s fashion week.
As the new year starts I wanted to look back at the old and understand what I’d learnt and what I wanted to take with me into 2018.
So what had I learnt, apart from how to grow my Instagram following and how to make choux buns after watching bake off?
I think the biggest theme was change and how to embrace it.
There was so much change in 2017… from within magazine land was the new Vogue, old editors leaving and magazines like Glamour going digital only. Creative Directors in a constant revolving door of studio changes. Political debacle – Brexit, sociopath as president, Middle East troubles, threats from North Korea.
Or closer to home.
The change within my company…
At the beginning of the year I spent the first few months trying to understand the changes, second guessing what would happen. Desperately, trying to predict the future. what was going to happen with traditional PR, would PR even exist, how did we need to change, what did it all mean?
With the coming of Spring, I spent more time just going with the flow – talking and listening more – not jumping to any conclusions. Realising that nobody else knew what was happening either. BoF headlines in the morning on my way to work would proclaim the death of retail one day, the reinvention of the department store the next.
Image Credit: rollingstone.com
By the summer I realised that the most important thing was to be part of the change – that I need to embrace it. John F Kennedy said ‘Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.’
I decided as Gandhi said ‘to be the change that you wish to see in the world.’
I have been running Modus for nearly 30 years – in an industry that I love. An industry that has been challenging and fun, allowed me to work with so many incredible people and experience so much.
I wanted to change the company. To create a place that is setting the agenda for the future of communication, with a team of commitment highly skilled professionals, who have fun and work hard, producing excellent work for a portfolio of inspiring clients.
September saw the start of that reality, we welcomed the BPCM team into Heddon Street and gained offices in New York and Los Angeles – and started the next journey of change.
Its only been 12 weeks – but in that time so much has happened. Within our client base, the office space, the team, the image of the agency from outside and the reputation that we are building.
By the end of the year I realised that it was important to just embrace change to make friends with it. It’s a companion, a mate, who is great fun to be with. An unpredictable catalyst exciting, thrilling and rewarding at the same time. An important part of life.
So lets all change together and embrace the future.
Words by CEO Julian Vogel
