Mark Collin is chief growth officer at Apadmi, a digital product business headquartered in Manchester.
Following a period of growth and external investment, Apadmi recently bolstered its senior leadership team to support plans for further European expansion, with Mark Collin appointed in August as a key hire to drive the business forward.
Collin has a wealth of experience, previously working at high-end retail brands, large consultancies and specialist advertising agencies at the likes of Kin+Carta, Net-A-Porter and ThoughtWorks.
From lucky breaks to failures, Collin shares all the lessons he’s learnt across his life and career so far…
Which single daily habit or practice could you not do without?
‘Thinking time’! Whether it’s in the car, on the train or just a walk to set up the day, I really value thinking time. I’ve always been in growth businesses and everything runs at a fast pace. A little time to ‘go-slow’ helps, a lot.
What’s been your luckiest break?
I feel so fortunate and have had so many it’s really hard pick just one. Each is different as you move through your career. I’m a big believer in plans creating luck, having a plan and foresight puts you in the right place to have luck be a thing. I think a lot about where I want to be next. One I perhaps didn’t foresee was the opportunity to join Yoox-Net-A-Porter (Richemont) – a company I had worked with in consulting and had always imagined joining them. The approach came out of the blue and not from a source I expected. The timing was right, the opportunity was right and it happened. A bit of luck or coincidence, but still I’m a big believer things are meant to happen.
Going client side and having to do so many of the things I had done in consulting was a big but welcome challenge and a big highlight I look back on. I made so many great friends made and so many amazing achievements – testified by successful working software in production and delighting customers.
What’s your best failure?
This is a great way to frame failure. Every day there are mini fails, losses and set-backs. Bouncing back was something I learned very early in my career. When I joined Peninsula Business Services as a fresh faced post-grad, the job at hand was telesales. Make 100 cold calls a day – get four appointments for field sales reps. 96 knock backs every single day… failures…hopefully four or more successes.
The biggest failure though, was to misread the market at Cityspace. As a start-up creating out of home digital networks, I loved it, start up vibe, learning and building a great business, new products every day, launching, testing it was working, we were winning – government contracts, advertising contracts, big travel company contracts. Then the iPhone launched and everything we had built up ‘on-street’ was pretty much wiped out in a flash, the business model was done and dusted. Everything moved from ‘fixed digital’ in locations we had worked to secure straight in to the mobile device – as app experiences. So, a failure to anticipate in-coming tech was a hard one, but since then I’ve made sure to be aware of emerging tech and the impact on business models.
What is the best investment you’ve ever made, either financial or time?
Again so many, but I would have to highlight the investment and acquisition of Melon-Frakton during my time at Kin+Carta. It changed the business massively for the positive. Injection of new culture, optimism, thinking, talent and those guys probably don’t realise how much that meant. Working in the SE Europe region taught me a lot about coming out of really tough times and emerging with optimism, positive attitude – that I have seen before, but not quite like this. It’s well said culture eats strategy…..here culture ate everything and it was really infectious in the best way.
Which podcast or book would you recommend others to read and why?
I’m probably not the biggest reader, aside the the things I have to read to keep up to date. Maybe a bit old fashioned but I am still radio over podcast still – ha. My two latest reads were great though: Factfulness by Hans Rosling – I was probably paying too much attention to doom and gloom news. This book puts things into an overall perspective using facts to show how much life has really improved globally, for the most part, and why we should be optimistic. (Thanks David and Adam for that one.)
Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall – another good book to put things into perspective. We probably all have a good idea of how tribes, cultures, regions, continents became what they are today but understanding how much terrain, climate, deep natural ports and ‘supply-lines’ had such an impact is good to understand. Essentially there is a depth to culture that always connects us to ‘the land’. (Thanks Keeley Lee for that one.)
What one piece of advice would you give your 21-year-old self?
Connect yourself with as many wise people as possible. I was lucky to have wise people around, but also made it a point to learn from people who had seen it before. I always looked for an internal mentor and an external mentor. People who can give objective and personal feedback and advice. Invaluable.
Who or what has had the single biggest influence on your working life?
My late father-in-law Jim Pickup was a big deal on the North West business scene, but became a global giant from the humble beginnings of Preston Computer Centre. He was subject to a very aggressive takeover early on at Logitek, which nearly broke him. He went on to build and sell his next business to Alan Sugar and then created a number of really successful buy and build projects.
Early in my career when I felt a little lost, he was always there to guide me on my way – connections, advice, sometimes just a chat. We were about to launch the European arm of Infogain in 2008 when sadly he got cancer and was lost to us far to early and very quickly. Forever in my thoughts and I always think “what would Jim do”.
Tell us something about you that would surprise people.
I was asked for a fun fact to introduce myself when I started at Apadmi. I am actually 13% Scottish. Post ancestry DNA test, it confirmed what we knew about our family tree. To look at me, that might be a surprise!
If there was one thing you could change about your career, what would it be and why?
Only one, but that’s because family and home are so important. I’ve travelled the world extensively, work and leisure, but never lived in another country. I’ve had opportunities to move to the US, Switzerland and others. But home is where the heart is. I’ve loved every single part of a very fulfilling career. For that I am truly grateful.
What does success look like to you?
Kick-ass teams. That’s it. Whatever you are doing, wherever – the ‘who with’ is the biggest factor of success. If you can fire up a team with passion for a clear mission and have a lot of fun whilst doing it – success will (almost) always come! I’m excited to have joined the brilliant team at Apadmi this year – they are setting up their business and clients for success and growth, and I’m thrilled to be a part of it.
