Hive blog

The joys of busy times, means that we haven’t really been out on a big one in a while. Total shame. With this in mind everyone piled into Chez Scorer last night for a hefty feast of ribs, ’slaw and baked starch, followed by 150 brownies and ice cream.

This mammoth calorie intake  saw us up until 3.30 this morning, putting the world to rights (Helen),  talking complete nonsense (Wyndham) and teaching Punjabi (Jas) and Afrikaans (Sheralyn).

I woke this morning to find my brilliant sister, had cleared up all the mess and deposited what must have been a tonne of bones for the bin men. I have since had 2 requests for my secret  rib sauce recipe and now am considered a Levi Roots style Hivey Hivey Sauce range.

Needless to say the office is a little quieter than normal today.

Seth Godin has been described by many as one of the ultimate entrepreneurs for our Age.

Anyone who chomps through business books is bound to have read at least the first half of either  Permission Marketing, Tribes, All Marketers Are Liars, and Purple Cow. He is healthily intolerant of widgets, NPD, and patents, and lends a good deal of confidence to marketeers striving to achieve the ‘remarkable’.

First off, if you’re busy, close this and come back to it when you’ve got 5 minutes and a cup of tea.

It’s not work, and it’s not urgent, but it is important.

This is a request for your help, and it’s a story about luck.  Let’s start with the story, and some audience participation.  Think of a number.  Got one?  Is it even?  Yes?  Well done, you win. That’s luck – 50:50 chance.  It was odd?  Never mind, you lose, but hey it’s not life or death.  Or maybe it is….

That’s basically the situation I found myself in April 2005, at 26 years old.  In what I thought would be a routine post surgical check up, I was told the suspected haematoma that was removed had turned out to be a fist-sized soft tissue sarcoma – a very rare and very dangerous form of cancer.  Just when I thought I would be told I could go back to play squash, I actually found myself sat in front of oncologists telling me I needed chemotherapy and radiotherapy.   I ended up as a hospital in-patient for 3 or 4 days every 3 weeks for 6 cycles, followed by daily radiotherapy that lasted until the end of the year.

So where does the 50:50 come in?  Well, those are the 5 year survival odds for the advanced type of cancer that I faced, and 2200 people in the UK face similar odds each year.   Bone and soft tissue sarcomas are some of the rarest cancers that exist, and as such have relatively little research devoted to them.  I had the same chance as you picking an even number, or tossing a coin and guessing ‘heads’.  I survived.  A brief look at the Sarcoma Trust fundraising page on JustGiving will tell you many sufferers aren’t so lucky.

There’s really no way to express the gratitude I have for the team that helped me, from the very first orthopod who wouldn’t take the easy option; the surgeon whose impeccable technique removed the cancer that not so long ago would have meant amputation; the medical oncologist whose first visit on landing from holiday was to see his patient; the clinical oncologist whose radiotherapy plan spared enough thigh muscle to be able to walk to radiotherapy across London every day; the wonderful staff at the hospital where I was treated; to the friends, family, and my beautiful girlfriend, now wife, who were by my side the whole time.

Which brings me to the second part of the story.  This part of the story is the plea for your help.  Of course, my survival is not just about luck.  I had a team of spectacular doctors, nurses and just as importantly friends, family and all those other wonderful people that contribute to making someone sick well again.  Without the skills, knowledge, care and love of these people, there’s a very good chance this email would be coming from someone in my memory, not from me. The Sarcoma Trust is a charity that was set up in 2007 to provide information and support to patients and their carers about this rare disease, and to support research leading to better treatment and outcomes for Sarcoma patients.  Sarcoma makes up about 1% of cancers in the UK, and more research means better care and hopefully more people surviving.

That’s where you come in.

Surviving a serious illness affects many people in different ways – it has a tendency to add a little perspective to your life.  Not too long ago I’d have lost the leg.  Now I go by foot or cycle everywhere I can.  On Saturday 18^th of September, exactly 5 years from finishing radiotherapy I will cycle from Purley to Brighton.  That’s 80 km, not a bad stretch for anyone.  Now consider I had a large chunk of muscle taken out of my left thigh.  Sounds tough doesn’t it?  This is a plea not only for you to help improve the lives of patients with this terrible cancer, but very importantly, a plea that you’re going to make the pain of that ride worthwhile!  I’m aiming to raise at least £1500 for the Sarcoma Trust, and I need your help to do it.  And for those with a slightly evil streak – if you can double it – I’ll even take a shot at riding back the next day too.

So how about it?  It’ll take moments – just click here and give whatever you can afford.  Or Paypal me, send me cash, a cheque, postal order, even stamps!  Go on, it’ll make you feel warm and fuzzy inside, I promise.  Then send this on to anyone you think might be feeling generous, put it on Facebook, Twitter it, Blog it…whatever!

50:50 – that was my chance, let’s see if we can improve the odds for someone else.

Thank you

Toby – Cancer survivor.

PS – If you want to show support, and are free on Saturday 18^th September, come and have a beer with me afterwards in Brighton, but let me know you’re interested, and I’ll let you know where.

PPS – if there’s something a little bit wrong with you (like me), and you want to cycle it too – then the more the merrier!  Again, just let me know, and get your friends and family to sponsor us too!”

Prior to starting my work experience with Hive I took a look at their website,( in the hope that it would give me a better idea of what I was letting myself in for!). The cartoon characters and other blogs instantly portrayed the sort of friendly and exciting company that I knew I wanted to be involved with. Before looking on the website I (like many others before me) probably wondered what the hell Healthcare communications was all about, but after a browse of the site, I soon got the overall idea about the great communications work they produce for pharmaceutical companies.

My first Friday morning was soon upon me and I donned an outfit that for most companies out there would be frowned upon (jeans and t’s) but I soon learnt that their enthusiastic approach to dressing down was something that definitely added to the play hard, work hard ethos of Hive.

I had been told that I would be briefed over breakfast at the Wolseley, and that breakfast would be on them, a real treat for anyone, but especially for a broke student like myself. Over breakfast myself and two of the account executives (Clare and Claire) were given our brief: that there are not enough graduates, science graduates in particular, aware of Healthcare communications and in particular Hive. Our aim was therefore to find a way to educate and drive awareness of the industry amongst science graduates as well as about the attractions of an account executives role (the entry level position.)  Over the breakfast meeting we chatted about how the 2 Cla(i)res – both Oxbridge graduates – had got into the industry ; as well as other just general welcoming conversations, our favourite pass times and in particular about Tim’s recent  trout fishing adventure with one of the other directors (Tip : your passion for fishing would be a great topic to bring up in an interview if you want to impress them both!) After finally figuring out how to use the tea strainer (very embarrassing !) we began to look like we ate breakfast here all the time and set about brainstorming a few ideas. The rest of my time at Hive continued in this manner, a lot of good fun, but even more hard work .The energy levels I found within Hive were awesome and I think this shows in the great end products that they produce.

Back in the office I immediately felt fully integrated with the team. For the whole time I was there I didn’t feel like a newbie, but instead someone they were intent on treating as an equal. Whilst on work experience I was never once asked to make a cup of tea, or to do any filling.

Later that day Tim ran through all the stages of the Hive business, firstly so I would get a greater understanding of what was going on but also so that at the end of my time with Hive I would be able to see if I had covered all bases.

Over the next few days in the office I spent my time researching and re-grouping with Clair and Clare. We shared our findings and any ideas we had, before speaking to the creative and copy write teams, who, following our brief, produced two amazing advertising posters for us. Once we were happy with these we set about compiling and then practicing our presentation and this was when the nerves began to set in. After spending  so much time working on this project I didn’t want to let the other girls down, or make a complete idiot of myself in front of the board of directors! Thankfully, they all seemed very pleased with our work and they are currently in talks about the budget that might be set aside for our project.

One of the great things about my work experience at Hive, other than the people( who definitely don’t live up to the typical stereotype placed on some Oxbridge graduates) was that I was able to work on a project from start to finish. I witnessed all the stages within the process, and to see the final result was great. I suspect that there are not many other places where a work experience student would be able to tick off all the departments and work stages at the end of their time with a company.

During my time at Hive I discussed with the team just how hard it was to get the right balance for a person on work experience, in that both the person and the company benefited from them being there. I don’t know how they feel, but I definitely think I got the better deal, but that just seems to be the thing about Hive. Unlike places I’ve heard about from friends, Hive are willing to go that extra mile to make you feel at home, to help you out, and most importantly to provide you with excellent work experience that not only inspires you but educates you as well. So if any of you reading this are even slightly interested in this industry and in particular Hive I would strongly advise you to get in touch with them as soon as possible and sort out some time with them to experience for yourself just what they get up to!

Our management meeting occurred yesterday.  It’s a surprise location each time. Last month saw us climbing walls (Flickr), and this time it’s Jas’s turn to choose a location. We arrived for breakfast at Giraffe on the Southbank, and headed upstairs to Festival Hall.

It’s a vast concert space, open for anyone with no pressure from security or the like to move on – it’s like an urban village green (with free chunky Wi-Fi).  The expectation of architect and owners are that the building is ‘community useful’ not just for concert goers or customers. But the likes of us!? Bloody marvellous.

It’s a place that we got settled into pretty quickly once you have got through the weirdness of having a big meeting out in the open. Adam (Creative Director), Kate (Ebee Managing director), Sapna (Financial Guru) and the three of us directors, (Wyndham’s in Dorset) move around tables and chairs to form our boardroom for the day.  We sat there surrounded by digital nomads, elicit liaisons, disciplinary meetings and during lunch time balloon carrying kids, kids, kids.

Our management meetings are a big day for us. Sometimes we do an activity, more often than not just knuckle down and get through the agenda.  This follows a set format, with us taking about 2 hours discussing each of the individuals within our 28 person strong group. We cover each individual, making sure that each is OK, where we are with development, workload and how each of us can contribute to any aspects of the discussion. It’s our bread and butter.

Following this most important part comes coffee and culture. Always focusing on who we started out to be, the importance of ‘beapart’, where we stand against this and how we steer ourselves in the right direction.  Although we have always pretty good at turning away from things that aren’t us, it’s the grey areas that give us the most discussions, definitions of patient centricity and innovation being yesterday’s chat.

The most rapid sections of these meetings is new business.  July’s pitch reviews, new sources of revenues, organic growth expectations, and linked resource planning all being much more ‘quant’ that the other softer agenda elements.

As you can imagine for an agency that’s growing as steadily as we are, the operational discussions are always exciting ones. Departmentalisation, workflow, the ongoing recruitment of writers and the increased involvement of clients in creativity all form the post lunch hour.

Finally what has been a biggie in the past ‘Group direction and integration’ capped our day. Group business strategy tends to be ourlast agenda item – how do we work together, how do we make sure the group companies are catalytic and where to next all form regular conversations.

It was a great day – one that resulted in a late night text from one of us – saying how “solid it was looking”. It’s made more symbolic by the simple connection with the space we were in. this particular space is very close to our hearts.

Prior to us having an office,  the three of us sat in Festival Hall all the time as the central place for all 3 of us. Jas coming from down river, and Ian and I from the West and North respectively. Festival Hall was our first workspace, where our lay lines met.  Each of us sat at two side by side tables, planning Hive’s point of difference, operational plan, and other early day foundations. Midst operational planning I couldn’t help smile at Ian and Jas – it all seems a long while ago we jostling for our one laptop.

The requirements of agency employment force you sometimes to just get on and do it.

Yesterday saw a classic example of this. Needing a place to mock up some audio. Guillaume decided to build a quick recording studio for some stuff he’s working on.

Apparently it works. Anyone got any egg boxes?

It would seem to me that in most other walks of life you know what you’re getting. I go to the supermarket and come out with £50 worth of food – job done. Go to the pub and get three pints for £10.40 (country prices, not London). Even pay the council tax and know that one day that hole the size of a Roman Emperors ego, outside my house, will be fixed. But why, oh why, when it comes to advertising are we so slow off the mark when it comes to testing whether what we’ve produced has worked? It’s not just down to ads but ideas. That beautiful, carefully crafted idea that we try hard to sell to clients, would surely be easier to sell if we knew that what we had previously developed had in fact worked. I find it a bizarre conflict that us, as pharma agencies, work with some of the best research specialists in the world (clients) – phase 1, 2, 3 and 4 clinical trials, the money that gets poured into it and yet there seems to be little demand to test the agency and their ‘mettle’. Come on – have a go if you think you’re hard enough.

So, my thought for the day, or should that be week, year, infinity is link communication (and ideas) to business performance. Communications are paid for out of profit (or if you get it wrong, loss), so demand to know what has worked and what hasn’t. If nothing else, in today’s lean times it may just be easier to hang onto your budget if you can prove that past activity has benefited the brand.

I have another Hive University Strategy School tomorrow morning for the suits here.

It’s finding me panicking loads, trying to figure out whether we should cover a case study or revisit some old ground with a real life business. Alongside this – I am trying to get hold of an entrepreneur to come and present their business for discussion live by the troops.

As I was sifting through a pile of interesting (but academic) notes on previous sessions and I came across this – a Powerpoint written by a Mark Sniukas a consultant I really like. It’s strategy simplified (well almost) and well worth a quick glance. Kicks off with Costas Markides, Professor London Business School and his frank views on the state of modern strategic discipline.

Visit Presentation

In the Metro today a boy of 5, sweetly outraged of face, displays the object of his indignity: a letter from the NHS.

The letter informs his parents that, at 3 st 13 lb and 4ft tall, Bailey Russell is dangerously overweight.

Bailey’s size looks ‘normal’ to me, so I went to nhschoices.com to check out the child BMI calculator. Online, the NHS places Bailey in a healthy weight category (90^th centile).  There is no numerical reference range given for child BMI. However, further down the page, a colour chart places an arrow for Bailey firmly in the ‘overweight’ area.

Computers and humans do get confused, but Bailey’s mum is outraged. We don’t need this kind of thing in our judicious society, she says.

Should we blame the NHS for being too bolshy in the first place? Note that in 2005, the WHO put the obese population at 1.6 billion people. In 2015 – just ten years later – this is set to top 2.3 billion.

The science of weight is very tricky. Bailey’s story reveals a problem that no government health department in the world has managed to solve. Amid all the finger pointing, there is no proper system for measuring overweight.  We carry on using Body Mass Index even though we know that it often does not correlate with the amount of body fat and the risks to health.

Heart disease and diabetes are the world’s most expensive non-infectious diseases.  If we are going to make a difference, it has to be in finding better ways to measure the problem – methods adapted for different populations of adults and children.

As importantly, leaders need to admit to the public that the best experts in the world have trouble assessing overweight from the outside.This needn’t give people an excuse to ignore clinical norms in weight-related health risks. Rather, it should inspire us to do some independent thinking – asking ourselves if our bodies reflect the healthiest, happiest choices we can make.

So far this week has had its fair share of highlights – last night I was told by one of our clients that I should investigate a career in phone sex (nb. pre multiple espresso Martinis!). However, the stand alone winner is Jas’ epic fail at getting through a door. The added bonus being it has created one of my new favourite photos – as Ian points out, she must have been pulling off a pretty jaunty strut to leave such a special smear pattern.

Anyway, this got me thinking. Our director fails to get through one of our internal doors – hilarious, unexpected, hopefully a bit of a one off (for Jas’ sake); but how can we expect proper new bees to get through our door if they don’t even know it exists?

I fluked upon this industry, this agency, this career. At uni, doing a science degree, I was given 2 career options: Science (of the hard-core lab variety) or the City (of the hard-core bank variety). Neither of which appealled – I’m pretty sure flourescent pink jeans are frowned upon in both settings, whereas at Hive they get called ‘bastard strides’ and prompt Tim to put on some sunnies. Despite knowing there must be something in between, it was bloody difficult to discover and relied on an awful lot of luck.

“What a ridiculous situation!” Hive cries…how can we fix this problem? How can we help young guns find out we exists? As yet we don’t know. It’s a work in progress, some serious thinking is about to be done (thinking hats on). Any thoughts/ideas give us a shout (unfortunately no ipad bribe this time). We’ll fill you in on the the thinking and if you’re really lucky maybe you’ll get an invite to the solution.