Confessions of an MD - FAIR's 8 year anniversary, a bittersweet year!

Another year, another milestone! 8 years since I started FAIR, with the vision to run an employee first oriented consulting business driven by our values, uncompromising in quality and thinking outside the box with innovation, whilst bringing back the trust in consulting.

This year is without a doubt, the proudest year of my tenure as the captain of the SS FAIR Consulting Group ship. I'll come to why a bit later.

The year 2020 began with a lot of anticipation and excitement. We had just re-organised ourselves on the back of a great year, for further growth. New logo and branding, completely revamped our HR & Recruitment process, recognising that that is one of the most important functions in any professional services company. Our business was thriving with great customer projects and happy customers being our best sales and marketing.

BOOM - COVID hit and just like everyone else, the sense of panic, uncertainties and despair is still very vivid in my head as we went into lockdown. Initially, I was one of the ones who took everything a bit lightly. But thanks to my tremendous team, I was quickly aligned on the severity, seriousness and impact this would have. Pipeline calls became cashflow calls. Recruitment calls became COVID safe calls. Jobkeeper, Jobseeker, lockdown laws (per state), our offshore team in Karachi, projects getting pulled........my head was about to explode!! (My heart is beating faster just as I'm thinking about this again).

This was going to be a test of a lifetime, a test of our patience, leadership, integrity, friendship, relationship, our mental health and more......

I'm normally a very passionate/emotional person (as people around me would know), but I rarely panic. While I can get stressed about things, I've most of the times had the ability to see things from an outside-in perspective and make the decisions required and follow through. This time around was different. The stakes were so high from the impact of the wrong decisions, that I felt completely paralysed. Breathe Mehrab, breathe....I found myself thinking during many sleepless nights. After spending a bit of time getting my sanity back (with the support of the love my life Sara) I was reminded of the rock, pebbles and sand story 1

• Big rocks - health and safety of the team
• Pebbles - business continuity
• Sand - everything else

This really helped me focus. I removed most other "distractions" from the calendar and within a week, we had a health and safety plan of attack and a business continuity plan. I knew I had to make some decisions which were going to be the proof to the pudding on what type of business we want to be. I remembered one of my all-time favourite speeches from Simon Sinek "Why good leaders make you feel safe" 2 especially the part about Bob Chapman: "It's better we all suffer a little, than any of us should have to suffer a lot".

I remember when we introduced our measures to the team, my gut was turning around. What if the team don't agree with the approach, what if it won't work? But this is where we are different. This is when hiring for values and attitude pays off. The voluntary uptake on the measures was overwhelmingly accepted and not only was I relieved, but I was also inspired and motivated to captain this ship out of the worst storm it's ever faced. (To my entire team, from consultants, to back office, in Australia and abroad, you came together like the family we are! FAIR is nothing without you guys).

With the employees aligned, the next mission was working with our customers. As a professional services company, your cashflow and continuous revenue streams are your bloodlines. Too many of those streams getting clogged up will give your entire business a seizure. One by one, checking in with each customer on the impact on their business and their measures. I was upfront about our situation and the challenges we were facing. You often hear about bonds being built going through hardship together, and I was amazed by how this pandemic brought us closer to many of our customers. (To our dear customers, you know who you are..... I'm forever grateful and in debt to your support. Whilst you could have taken the easier path, you decided not to and worked with us to navigate things together. From the bottom of my heart, thank you!).

I mentioned this was my proudest year during my 8 year tenure at FAIR, and there are many things to be proud of. But in the end, it always comes down to the simplest of things. The people you have around you! I'm proud of the FAIR family, I'm proud of seeing people acting selflessly when it matters. I'm proud of myself for refusing to make anyone redundant sticking to my values and keeping faith that it will be all right when it looked at the darkest.

Whilst FAIR has been able to reasonably navigate this pandemic, my heart goes out to all people who are having it tough. On a daily basis, I can read on this and other social platforms around the hardship people are facing.

Last year, our 7 year anniversary was celebrated by sending cupcakes to our employees, customers and partners. At FAIR, we have a simple business model:

FAIR - to our Employees, Customers, Partners and the Community

This year, our 8-year anniversary celebration was all about doing our little part of giving back to the community. FAIR's anniversary video

Specifically, this year have been very challenging for people's mental health. Whilst we have been able to take drastic measures to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus, the impact on peoples mental health and the projected casualties is still widely debated.

The FAIR Consulting Group team has set up a Movember page and we are raising funds to this cause. Cupcakes are turned into donations and FAIR as a company have pledged to match any amount raised by the team. Getting a small donation from you would really be the icing on the cake for our "Movember cupcakes" aka donations. Please donate to our Movember fundraiser!

Whilst we are still recovering from the setbacks, we are seeing the light in the tunnel. But looking at the future, without reflecting in the rear mirror and learning from it, would be an opportunity wasted.

Here are my top 3 learnings:

• Invest in your values over your short term profits. If you get your values right, your profit will come over time.
• Listen to your team, you are the captain and accountable for the tough decisions, but you are not the expert in everything
• Help someone if you can, without expecting anything back. The universe works in mysterious ways

As we start our 9th year at FAIR, I'm very optimistic that we have got many things right. I genuinely believe we are building a consulting company that has found a good balance between looking after the employees, delivering value to the customers and be a trusted partner, whilst also caring for the community.

On that note and as a relatively unknown company (compared to the big ones), without big marketing and sales budgets, we do rely most of our work to come from word of mouth and recommendations. During these business conditions, it's really hard to engage with new people, so a warm introduction and recommendation would go a long way! If you would consider this, please send me a message!

Thank you all for your support in our 8-year journey!!

Onwards and upwards!

References

(1) Rock, pebbles and sand story

(2) Why good leaders make you feel safe