
LAUNCHING:
Laura Giffard
Photo: ©-Michael-Wharley-2018-2
01.
What is your professional title, purpose or passion?
Founder & Strategist of Perq Studio, an integrated creative agency. A strength of mine is identifying good ideas, so my purpose is to inspire my clients and my team to develop their strengths to deliver their best work.
03.
What did you want to do when you were a child and what changed?
I used to want to be a criminologist or a beautician. I don’t feel much has changed though I’m still concerned with behaviours, mindsets and aesthetics!
05.
What's the best career advice you've ever been given?
To empower those around you and demonstrate your trust through delegation. Offering people ownership and accountability within their role gets the best out of them. They won’t do things exactly the way that you would, but they’ll probably get it about 60% of the way there and then you can finesse it. It’s about “good enough” being enough in itself!
07.
What is the best thing about your current working environment?
The freedom, the people and the creativity. Owning my own business means that I can choose to only work with clients that we get on well with and we believe in, and the Perq Studio team – Nikki, Louise and I – complement each other to offer the perfect blend of strategy, design and implementation.
09.
Where do you see yourself in five years' time?
More of the same! We’re already excited to come to work and innovate for clients spanning from infant startups to international household brands. While I’d like to see the business expand, it’s important to me that we maintain the energy and vision that we have today and don’t grow in an unwieldy way.
11.
Tell us more about a charitable organisation or project you think is great.
I’m a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Marketors so naturally I’m drawn to the work they do to raise the profile of marketing in the City as well as the amazing outreach work they do, providing expertise for free to charities. I also love Mike’s Table. It’s a supper club with a difference – where one paid ticket funds someone referred by their charity partners to enjoy a restaurant experience for free. They are amazing!
13.
What drives you?
Perq Studio is fuelled by my passion for helping clients succeed through beautiful, clear communications – nothing is more motivational than happy clients!
15.
Any final comments?
We are always looking for ambitious, enthusiastic and entrepreneurial people to join our team. If this sounds like you, drop us a line with what you can bring to Perq Studio that sets you apart from anyone else.
02.
What does a normal day look like for you?
The morning routine is very consistent – I drop my daughter off at nursery (soon to be school!) before coming to the office with my dog, Betty Blue, and we begin with a team catch up. From there, it’s anyone’s guess what the day may include. Strategy spanning customer research, brand positioning or working on a customer journey are all likely, as are brainstorming and reviewing creative, new business meetings and all the tasks that go along with owning your own business such as finance and HR.
04.
What have you achieved that you feel most proud of?
Perq Studio, hands down! Starting your own business is a leap of faith, but I believed that I could create a company with a stand-out creative offer. And when a client testimonial referred to us as “aa creative powerhouse with boutique service”, I knew that I was onto something.
06.
Tell us about a a woman who inspires you
Sheryl Sandberg – not just because of the business lessons in her book Lean In, though those really did inspire me, but also because of the rawness and authenticity she showed in relation to the loss of her husband and how the bereavement shaped her. I also love Cindy Gallop whose tagline on LinkedIn is “I like to blow shit up. I am the Michael Bay of business”. She’s unapologetically herself and stands up for women in business.
08.
What was your biggest failure?
Not having confidence in my own abilities held me back at the start, making the business financially volatile. A combination of self-reflection and getting the right people in place helped me to build the confidence to recover.
10.
What do you like most about yourself?
My ability to acknowledge and learn from mistakes, my skill of spotting opportunities and my empathy to meaningfully connect with people.
12.
How can we make the world more inclusive and accepting?
Stop being so self-centred. People tend to make so many assumptions about each other, but if we stop to appreciate different perspectives, we will understand each other better and then be more inclusive. It’s easier said than done and easy to forget if we don’t make a conscious effort to understand one another more.
14.
What skills have been key to your journey so far?
Adaptability, quick thinking and the skill set honed during my MBA in Entrepreneurship which underpins my approach to finance, people and brand strategy.