This week marks 5 years since Pippa and Alice joined Eski.

I am so happy that they have chosen to give us 5 years of great work and during that time they have given me a couple of valuable lessons that I thought were worth sharing.

Pippa shows that we should create roles for great people way beyond what they were originally hired to do.

I first met Pippa when she did a stint of post-graduate work experience when Eski was part of the Ludo Studio Group. Back then she was considering options around creative marketing or human resources. Soon she earned a full-time role as an account manager and when I left to take Eski in a new direction she built upon her skills and experience.

In the meantime, Eski was growing and having heard from former colleagues how she had excelled in three years, I approached her to re-join forces as manager on a new division our company called “Stuff of Greatness.”

The new division didn’t really fit our bigger picture, but Pippa really did! The better opportunity for us all was to keep doing what we do best. We agreed that she was everything we needed for our new role as Head of Projects, working across everything that Eski does.

Today, Pippa is growing into a role of Head of Agency. Not what she was hired for, but 5 years on, it feels like this is absolutely the right thing to be doing.

Alice shows how when great people learn the ropes inside and out you can trust them to sail the ship.

Aged eighteen, Alice asked us if she could drop by to learn about our sector and what we did. Around that time, we had been considering taking on an apprentice and she had a compelling case for why the best candidate had already unwittingly walked through the door!

From day one, Alice played a key supporting role on Eski’s flagship project “Not In Our Community” helping to make sure we had the right approach to communicating with young people. She has done a bit of everything. She has learned about the issues, created high quality content, managed ads, produced films, mentored young ambassadors, and poured through heaps of data to demonstrate reach and impact.

Today, we are working through a transition for Alice to become the project lead on a major campaign and take it to a whole new level to help thousands of young people across our areas.

5 years on a few things have come full circle. Alice’s increased responsibilities include mentoring our new apprentice, Lucy. Pippa is taking on more roles to run the business, thus combining HR and marketing.

When you are running a small business, you set a course worthwhile heading towards without really knowing how you will get there. If you are lucky, you will have the right crew for an exciting voyage of discovery. I think it’s pretty cool.