The Innovation Diaries

I bumped into a couple of guys from Clear last week. I met them at a leaving party for Caroline Clark, who is leaving Sara Lee after 20 years. Anyway, I spent most of the evening talking to Jonathan and Steven from Clear. I wasn’t planning on liking them, being the competition etc. But I did. I found them very honest and good fun to be around. We talked a lot about the deal they have just signed with M & C Saatchi, which they say is working really well. We talked a lot about the ups and downs of growing a company, and found we have loads in common. We talked about the fact that they had tried to hire Atif before we got our hands on him. The really interesting thing is that we had loads to tell each other and lots of mutual respect.

When I left I arranged a cricket match against them. It’s going to be on July 3rd, starting at around 4pm. 25 overs a side and then lots of beer afterwards. That’s where the real competition begins.