Genoa Black in 2018

2018 is going to be a hugely important year for Genoa Black.

Now in our 5th year, we left being a start up a few years ago, but as all company owners know, there is a ‘no mans land’ of sorts between no longer being considered a start up, and the point when you would describe your company as ‘having established itself’.

This month (Jan 18) Genoa Black rebranded and repositioned itself. This is in recognition of the simple reality that we are not the company we were 5,4,3 or even 2 years ago.

Why is that ? Well since our launch in 2013, Genoa Black has delivered in excess of 950 pieces of strategic advice to clients, across 14 different market sectors, covering approximately 1445 products or services, which are sold into 62 countries across the 7 continents.

Genoa Black in 2018 is significantly more skilled in our ability to deliver ‘breakthrough’ advice simply due to the sheer volume of work we have delivered to-date and the depth of knowledge this has given us.

So in recognition of how we view ourselves and in response to where we see the opportunity and threats in the years ahead, we have put into practice the same strategic advice we give to our clients.

But our changes do not stop with just how we present ourselves to the market !.

Oct 17 saw Genoa Black push into London on the back of having captured Sarah Stein who for the past decade was the Head of Global Brand for Orange/EE. Sarah is tasked with building Genoa Black in the South of England as well as advising clients both existing and new who have global growth ambitions. This is a significant opportunity for both Sarah & Genoa Black.

February this year sees Allan Conry join Genoa Black from Scottish Development International, where for the past 5 years he has been advising companies on international expansion to North America. Allan is predominantly going to be driving our Oil & Gas advisory service, based both in Aberdeen & Edinburgh.

In April Gaynor our Client Services Director heads over to Houston USA with one of our clients to help drive their growth aspirations in this region.

Last year there were significant changes in the team at Genoa Black. The quality of clients we have and the quality of work we deliver, creates highly skilled team members that inevitably become attractive to other companies. With each team member we lose, as sad as it is to lose them, gives us an opportunity to source the exact replacement skills we need.

As a business there is inevitable pressure on our team to perform to the standards Genoa Black needs in terms of quality, accuracy and speed of delivery.

These three key qualities we demand from all team members.

The quid pro quo we offer back to our team is a bright future within a hugely ambitions company that is growing at 63% year on year and where company equity, company cars, performance bonuses and mystery trips to foreign countries are all offered.

At Genoa Black we approach what we do with an ethos of being an 'antidote to agency'.

We need a diverse, nimble, happy, motivated & skilled team to allow us to be that 'antidote' which also steers us well clear of the 'flowery bollocks' advice marketing and marketing agencies are renowned for giving clients.

Genoa Black – defiantly and definitely not an agency !

Our new website, brand and capabilities can be seen at www.genoablack.com

Alan - Co-Owner, Commercial Director.