NDA has launched a series called “My Biggest Deal” talking to commercial leads about the biggest deal in their career to date. Not necessarily in monetary terms but one having a seismic impact on them and their career. Next up is the illustrious Mary Keane-Dawson, Bima Chair, NED and board advisor.
You wanna know something? When NDA asked me to participate in this series, I immediately said yes, and then I had the weirdest experience. When I reflected on who, what, where and when was my biggest deal, I found myself floundering as to which metric should I use to define and justify the descriptor ‘ BIGGEST DEAL’?
Is it My Biggest Confidence-Building Deal? That would have to be winning the Ford customer retention business, and my little content agency becoming their first new independent supplier in 20 years…and I was only 26 years old at the time…..
Is it My Biggest Financial Deal? Selling SPAFAX to WPP in 1999, alongside my colleague Niall McBain was pretty game-changing….suddenly we moved from the suburbs of AIM, to the top flight Global PLC-dom of WPP, and it was a truly rocket-fuelled trip in corporate politics, large expense accounts and very fast cars…
Or is it My Biggest Soul-Destroying Deal? Now that was a BIGGIE. That’s the one where they promised me the autonomy, the budgets and the freedom to recreate a household brand, but then tried to steal my soul and fuck-up my reputation when I fought back…but I cannot speak of this, as there’s the NDA hanging over my head…
Nah, none of these is My Biggest Deal, for that my friends, peers and clients, that deal is yet to land.
And when it does, I truly hope I get asked back to write a column about it.
