“Will it make the boat go faster?”

This week saw the joint company kick off of Foundation IT and Foundation SP. Some great presentations from people within both businesses; we ended up getting an update on what happened (and importantly) why it happened in 2012 and what’s in store for 2013.

We were also joined by an Olympic athlete in Ben Hunt-Davis (on Twitter as @OlympianBen). He is a gold medal winner in the 2000 Olympics in the men’s Coxed 8’s and is one of the best speakers I have come across. I have been privileged enough to see him present a few times now, twice last year and his ability to inspire, motivate and enthuse an audience is incredibly impressive. His book and the motto that his crew lived by in the run up to the 2000 Olympics is “Will it make the boat go faster?” It seems that this has become a catch phrase for both our businesses to use as we look to make sure that we do things better, faster, more efficiently and to the benefit of our clients.

One of the things I’ve been trying to establish in the past couple of weeks is my goals for 2013. It’s been difficult as 2012 has seen a marked change in the way I approach my day to day activities and the way I go about building relationships with our clients. You obviously want to achieve growth and develop but an inherent fear of failure can sometimes stymie your ability to be confident about the goals you set down.

Then I remembered a topic from one of Ben’s presentations last year. “The 10 minute rule”. As a concept, it’s pretty simple. Even if there is something you desperately don’t want to do, give it a go for ten minutes and you end up with two results:

1. You realise you don’t need to do it or;
2. You realise you can do it and get on with it.

My goals are set out for 2013 now. I won’t go into too much detail but one of the most important for me is to get my clients to introduce me to more of their colleagues, friends and people they do business with as I know that we will fully endorse the recommendation they’ve given us.

Whether your goals for 2013 are personal or professional and if you’re not sure you can do them, try it for ten minutes, you’ll soon realise if they are worth doing. Good luck for the year ahead, I look forward to working with you all.

Author: Dan Parsons, Client Manager
Dan is responsible for business development and client management. He has been working in the IT industry for nearly ten years, delivering solutions that help clients to benefit from the data centre and end user computing. In particular, Dan is passionate about helping companies in the education, charity and government sectors.