I joined Sketchin almost ten years ago. It has been the most exciting ride in my career. Many things have happened during these years, but the common trait has been change. Every single year something has dramatically changed.
We are now approaching that point where we will need to consider the following year. Strategy, positioning, sales strategy, and budget are some of the things we are starting to evaluate these days.
The last few years have been challenging.
The acquisition from Business Integration Partners, the pandemic, and the war, to name a few things, have highly impacted our business.
It requires plenty of capabilities to survive, thrive, and keep our culture intact. This is not an easy goal to achieve.
I see the design ecosystem changing. All of the most prominent design studios have been acquired over time, and we have also been acquired. There is a vast difference between our acquisition and most of the others. We have been able to maintain our independence.
Most of the other big studios have not. They are now part of an extensive ecosystem where design is just a tiny part, often sacrificed to favor the big picture of the company they belong to. This isn’t good.
At the very same time, I see a lot of boutique studios flourishing. This is good.
And then there is Sketchin, who continues to be a strange beast. We are not as big (yet) as the most famous studios, but we are growing.
I think we are going to face some significant changes shortly, even if I am not yet able to see clearly what is going to happen. It is like being on a narrow path surrounded by fog. The fog is slowly clearing, but I can’t yet see the final destination.
It is exciting and scary at the same time.
I am approaching my tenth anniversary in Sketchin. This is my longest tenure in a company. Usually, I get bored quickly. This is not happening in Sketchin. The constant changes we have faced over the years have made this job incredibly exciting, and I think the best is yet to come if we can adapt to changes as fast as we have done in the past.
We are big now, and we need to be able to steer at the same speed we had in the past. The company’s kinetic energy is much larger now than in the past. Our decisions take a little longer to show their effects, requiring much more attention than before. I think this is my biggest challenge for the next year: making the right decisions without impacting the company’s speed and wellness.