However this time I thought I would put down a few personal words about my experience working within the Company. There are obviously a great many advantages of working for a forward leaning SME Company like Inzpire. Being in the Times Top 100 Small Companies to Work for in both 2015 and 2016 is an obvious indicator that we are doing something right. Benefits such as uncapped leave; real empowerment and being able to continue working with people who share the same military ethos are all great aspects of the job. But the greatest indicator I think is from friends and ex-colleagues who continually tell us all what a great company reputation we are building.
I've been part of other companies in the past and even lucky enough to run my own for a while so it really made me wonder why Inzpire seems to be so different. For me it comes down to support, not the kind of support we give our customers (which has to be exceptional of course) but the support we give each other. For example, I knew that my time in the Royal Air Force had equipped me with an array of valuable personal skills and qualifications that I was confident that many companies would find useful. What I was completely unprepared for was the level of commercial knowledge that was required to be successful outside of the Armed Forces.
Six years after leaving the Royal Air Force I finally feel I'm making some headway in understanding some of the commercial aspects that underpin everything we do. Whilst much of this knowledge I learnt the hard way while running my own company, the more important lessons of being able to lean on others and not have that seen as a sign of weakness, or when asked a question, having the strength to admit that you haven’t got a clue (as it was the first time someone asked me about EBITDA) I have certainly gained at Inzpire. Bringing in highly professional and credible people into a company is obviously a good start but having the structure that nurtures the sharing of information, wisdom of crowds, and collaborative working is, from my perspective, the key ingredients.
