coming alongside
The Studio
coming alongside
The Studio
A quiet thought on getting ahead of the conversation, between the two of us.
I have had the pleasure of getting to know you for almost a year now. As you wish the very best for me, I feel the same for you and for the Studio.
This is a simple invitation. Let me come alongside you and the company at this unique time, as your partner and your companion through it. It would give me immense pride and honour to do so.
Met with openness and care, a season like this becomes one of the times the Studio grows the most. You go through it together, in conversation, with encouragement, and with one shared vision to move towards. I would be glad to walk it with you.
From Ho
You started this some years ago, and today it is a teenager.
You grew it from a handful of people into a house of well over a hundred, and it grew for the right reasons. Like any teenager, it is spirited, a little harder to keep your arms around than it once was, and still entirely yours. You are its father, and a great deal of you is in it. That is the lens I bring to this, and it is the reason the next part matters.
There is a live conversation with your largest single account, and the tone has shifted. The reasons behind that shift are still becoming clear, and the range of possible outcomes is still wide. Your leadership and account teams are giving it their full attention, as they should. This is a real storm, and it is not one the teenager can shy away from: he must face it.
My instinct is to stay ahead of the storm, before a conclusion is drawn. To be still, calm and composed while it passes. I will be your partner and your companion in it.
The response to the storm is a conscious choice.
A young adult knows a moment like this too, something it did not cause and cannot command. Manage what needs to be managed, and control what can be controlled.
What sits fully in the company's hands is how it steadies its people, and how it chooses to respond. That response is where a company, like a person, grows up.
The storm comes from the outside. The growing up happens on the inside, in how you meet it together.
People read a room long before anyone speaks. Your teams are sharp, and reading tone and timing is their craft. In a company of well over a hundred people across several cities, a change in mood travels fast, and it travels with or without a name on it. The good thing you can do for them is to be the first voice they hear. When the story comes from you, it stays true, it stays calm, and it points everyone in the same direction.
In a house built on an idea, trust and respect: the founding father gets to set the note the room tunes to.
Distraction and worry travel into the quality of the work and the mood of the room, and clients feel it as much as colleagues do. Keeping your eyes on the craft, and trusting and supporting the people whose job it is to handle and manage the situation, is what holds both steady.
Speaking openly, before every answer is in, takes courage, and it is what confirms the founding father as trustworthy. People see that honesty clearly, and they hold onto it.
Steadiness at the top steadies everyone else. When people see you calm and open, they mirror it, and the honesty you show is reciprocated with loyalty. They stay close to the work and to you, and they are the most valuable thing the company has.
The first move is simple, and it is yours to make.
You bring people together and you speak plainly, honest about the shape of things and thoughtful about how much to share. You let them know the leadership and account teams are giving this their best. You ask them for the one thing they can give back, which is focus, and pride in the work, while this plays out. Then you open the door to questions and to good ideas, and you leave it open.
The words themselves, we shape together before you stand up. They belong in the room, and not on a page like this one.
The value sits in the rhythm, more than in the single moment.
A short, steady line of updates keeps everyone informed as things move, so the room hears news from you before it hears it anywhere else. That habit carries a company well through an uncertain patch and out the far side, and it is the quiet backbone of a place where people feel treated as adults.
Handled well, this same openness becomes a stepping stone to something larger, a renewed way of listening to your people, carried alongside you by a small, trusted few. That is a longer road for another day. For now, speaking first is enough.
I would sit beside you for this. My role here is close and quiet.
I help you shape what to say and how much to say. I am a steady second pair of eyes, before the room and after it. I help you set up the simple rhythm that keeps people informed as things move. I lead from behind, and I hand the confidence back to you. This first piece, I would simply do, as your running mate.
