Earlier this year I wrote a blog post about the significance of 2013 – a year to embrace all things ‘new’ –new challenges, ideas, thinking and spaces, places and people. 2013 has been the year of change, fresh thinking and new beginnings for many people I know in business as well as for many of my friends.

For businesses it was a year to challenge traditional paradigms and business models, go-to- market strategies, market positioning and ways of doing business. We set our clients and other businesses to challenge the status quos in 2013 and also committed M&C to do the same.

As the end of year gets closer and as we get ready to officially celebrate with close family, friends, clients and colleagues our 5th birthday, I thought I would report on M&C’s scorecard against the challenge we set ourselves at the beginning of the year.

The fact that we selected a Bollywood theme for our birthday celebration says it all for what M&C stands for, what we have achieved over the last 5 years and what we want to do in the future. “Bollywood” brings colour, brightness, vibrancy, regeneration, enjoyment and happiness to the forefront of M&C as an organisation and what we promise and deliver our clients. We bring brands to life – sometimes breathing new life into them – we are about growth and expansion and market differentiation.

This year we have delivered on a number of things that I set out to achieve for M&C. We have embraced:
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• New places. We have gone regional this year by supporting our client Newport Consulting’s expansion into Asia which has seen us visit Singapore a number of times and build our networks in Asia and expand our regional experience.
• New people. We have welcomed Loi to our team. Loi is our graphic designer and brings to M&C fresh thinking, new ideas, new skills (videography and photography) and has in a short time become a very valued member of the team.
• New ideas. We have built on campaigns annually conducted for clients and elevated these to a new level. The Mining Business Outlook report is an example where we featured three new interviews with leaders such as John Morcshel, Chairman ANZ and Roy Green, Dean of UTS Business School. We secured more than 200 media mentions – a great result.
• New technology. We have embraced new platforms and digital marketing techniques that have really bought great value to our clients.
• New spaces. We have given our office a face lift to breathe new life into the office and to celebrate where we are at and the future of M&C
• New business models. We are launching a new business and have entered new joint-ventures as part of the future strategy for M&C as an organisation.

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Some say that once you have survived being in business for five years, you have a good and sustainable business. For people who know me well, I am not someone to stand still for very long or let the grass grow under my feet. As a person, I am all about expansion, growth and experience – and I expect that of M&C what we deliver our clients. As we look to the next 5 years for M&C, I want to spice things up – go to new heights and experience new things. Plans are well and truly underway for this so watch this space over the next couple of months.

As I was jotting down notes for the M&C video that shares our story, (to be released next month) these words came to mind to summarise what we are all about – passion, belief, resilience, determination and authenticity. We love what we do, we love our clients, I love my team. To think doing what I do every day inspires some people – most importantly my two daughter – makes me a very happy business woman, mother, sister and daughter as I come close to wrapping up the year.

M&C has delivered on our promises this year and we have met the challenge we set ourselves. It is time to celebrate, get ready and shine in 2014.

Gemma Manning x