Dare to invent the future: Reflections on 20 years of Firetail

In June, we marked Firetail’s 20th anniversary—a moment that invited both celebration and reflection. We had a small drinks party at the BFI to celebrate with the team, alumni, partners and friends.

This post is adapted from a short speech I gave. It shares some thoughts on why I started the business, what’s kept us going, and what it means to me to be able to work with people committed to long-term impact.

Also, we had some merch. Specifically, custom-made hats inspired by the Thomas Sankara quote I talk about in the speech.

We ordered some more, and we have a few left - if you want to get your hand on a very limited-edition, not to be repeated Firetail Anniversary cap - you can order yours here:

And if you’ve ever been part of Firetail’s journey—client, colleague, friend—thank you.

Reflecting on 20 years

I set Firetail up with three ambitions:

• To work with the best people I could,

• To work with people trying to make a difference in the world,

• For Firetail to be a place where people enjoyed coming to work.

Those ambitions, that I set in my twenties, I have more or less repeated every year for 20 years.

Initially, it was just me and the dog, and now it’s this incredibly talented team. But it’s been more or less the same plan the whole time. 

The importance of celebrating the long-term

Almost the only reason to celebrate an anniversary is to appreciate the people we have had the chance to work with. Firetail has been able to work on such interesting and important issues - from climate change to stem cell transplantation, from digital rights to drug and alcohol support, and all points in between.

A common feature of the people we’ve worked with, and the issues we’ve worked on, is a real, long term commitment to their work.

As a society — and among the organisations we work with — people get very excited about scale. Usually, scale means reach: share, size, coverage, visibility. speed.  How quickly we can get big?

We rarely think of scale in terms of duration, or in terms of endurance.

We don’t celebrate the quiet, long-term, deep commitment over decades that I have seen from the people we have worked alongside. We don’t celebrate endurance enough. 

That is impact at scale, too.

Everyone we invited to celebrate with us is a long term person. People driven by the right things, working on hard problems, in the right way.  We’ve been very lucky to work alongside these people.

Firetail Team and Alumni

There are no secrets to endurance. As a team, we’ve always done our best. We’ve always taken the work seriously, but not ourselves — and we kept showing up.

That third part of the business plan — being a good place to work — we’ve done our best. 

The trick, really, has been to hire great people — and it was special to see so many join us to celebrate. I’m so proud of the journeys people went on with us, and what they’ve gone on to do.

I bask in the reflected glory of everyone’s success.

We must dare to invent the future

As much as we celebrate the past, it’s important to look to the future.

Many of the organisations we work with are facing tough times. There’s a lot of difficult news out there. It’s really hard. At a time when it’s tempting to be negative, easy to feel overwhelmed or uncertain, we have to keep believing that the work we do matters.

Some people will have heard me talking recently about Thomas Sankara — the revolutionary leader of Burkina Faso in the 1980s. A fascinating character. Heroic, somewhat forgotten today.

He talked about change needing courage. The courage to turn your back on old formulas, the courage of nonconformity.  The courage to pursue what you think is right.

And he said — and it’s a phrase I love:

“We must dare to invent the future.”

It’s a great challenge. A reminder that the future is something within our power to build. 

It’s such a great quote that I put it on a hat for everyone to take home, to remind you that is your job. 

So to this group of people — all of you and the many who couldn’t join us — you are amazing. I’ve seen you achieve real change in the world. I will keep doing this as long as I still have the chance to work with you.

Thank you.