A little announcement from me

I made the decision recently to put my plans for a sabbatical on ice, so I’m afraid that the UK is stuck with me for the foreseeable future. Sorry if this disappoints anyone :)

When I first decided to take a sabbatical it was always on the basis that me going away for a year would not be to the detriment of NixonMcInnes. I’ve worked too hard for too long to see it suffer, and it wouldn’t be fair on those who were left in the business.

The original idea was that by me going away, Will would have a chance to develop further as the sole MD of the company instead of the role being split between us. At the same time, I would be getting a whole load of new experience from living and working overseas which I would be able to bring back to NM a year later.

The plan was to hire at least one new director who would bolster the board while it was a man down, and stay on for the long term. I would then re-join the team a year later.

So it all sounded good, and do-able at a very high level, but like so many things in business, the devil was in the detail and we hit a few blockages.

First of all, we underestimated the cost and complexity of hiring a new director. There would have been a six-month overlap period when the new director and I would both be working at the same time. When our finance manager, Lasy, showed us what the cost of this would be, it made a significant dent in our bottom line. There was also the issue of shares. We wanted a new director to have some shares in the company, but as anyone who has ever done this before will know, it’s complicated to work out an arrangement that’s attractive and fair to the new person, whilst still protecting the interests of the company and the other shareholders.

At the same time, Will and I were discussing how the arrangement would work between the two of us because everything up until then had been a straight 50/50 agreement, but me not being around for a year would obviously change this. We worked through 101 different options, thinking about how the rewards would be split, what our roles would be, whether the share ownership would change. But try as we might, in spite of it being a shining example of a principled negotiation, we were struggling to come up with a solution that worked for both of us.

All of this was happening at time when the company had recently rebranded and re-focused on social media. What the business needs most at this time is for the directors to be out there networking, marketing and talking to new clients. All of the discussions around a new director, and a deal between Will and I were becoming a big distraction from the task in hand.

So it made sense for me to shelve my traveling plans and get 100% stuck back into the business. I do feel disappointed to be missing out on the sabbatical, but the rest of the world will still be there when the time is right. And it feels good to re-commit to the business and to the amazing team that we have built – I know we have an exciting few years ahead of us.