Rob Stokes on Quirk, Google and Web 2.0

Welcome to Let’s Talk. This is the first interview of many more to come on my blog.

The aim here of Let’s Talk is to provide a fun yet insightful interview platform for readers and industry leaders alike.

The very first interview is with Rob Stokes the Group CEO of Quirk.

What exactly do you do Rob?

My title at Quirk is Group CEO. What does this really mean? At the end of the day I think it’s about growth. Sometimes that means strategy, sometimes it means business development and unfortunately sometimes it means putting out fires. I wouldn’t say I’m your classic CEO though – I don’t even have an office!

Are you a global citizen or made in SA?

I’m a global citizen who was very proudly made in SA.

What is your favourite can’t-live-without-it gadget?

Um… top3…

My laptop as without it I am lost – pretty much 24/7/365. I’m not very trendy though as it’s not a Mac, it’s the HP 8710W. It may be ugly, but it’ll give those Mac fanboys a smack down when it comes to functionality and performance (this is a constant argument for me in the QuirkStation).
The HDMI connection between my laptop and TV – makes life much easier if you want to go laptop to TV.
My snazzy new digital scale for precisely measuring my more esoteric muesli ingredients.

Is web 2.0 going to burst like its late sister, web 1.0?

My grumpy old man answer is that Web 2.0 never existed in the first place and the term only breeds misunderstanding amongst the average user. A potential client called me the other day to make sure we build our databases in AJAX because it’s Web 2.0 compliant…

Bubble? In any emerging sector company valuations are always going to be speculative because despite all our postulating, no one really knows where this is all going. This current tech market is not any different. Some will fall short, some will impress, but I don’t see evidence of a bubble which will result in an industry wide burst.

Are you nervous at all about giving your information to Google?

Currently no, because for some strange reason I do trust them. Maybe this is to do with the fact that every Googler I have ever met from across the world is always a really decent, genuine, honest person (or at least seems to be). But one should be concerned about their growing monopoly powers and more importantly these powers falling into the wrong hands (and there are plenty of wrong hands for them to fall or be taken into – if they haven’t already). A monopoly, natural or otherwise, is never a good thing for anyone except the monopoly themselves. Competition is healthy and should be encouraged. That said, I can’t see any decent challengers on the horizon.

On to more specific stuff, here come the testers.

Quirk has a fantastic reputation in its niche; did you always plan on becoming a global company with offices in London?

(Fantastic reputation – thanks Nic.) London is great, and a fast growing part of our business, but it’s certainly not what I would consider “global”. We have much bigger plans. London is about learning lessons and forcing us to think globally as an agency whilst creating a platform for expansion. The international market is more technically sophisticated and our international clients have the budget for really exciting and innovative campaigns. As most of our production happens in South Africa, our local clients get the benefit of working with a team which has a great deal of global experience.

I can honestly say that 10 years ago, I didn’t really plan anything long term. It was just another crazy business idea of mine and a way to make some cash while at university. Of course the tech industry is exciting so I got sucked in and the fun never stopped. Within a couple of years we knew it could be more serious and we in turn got more serious about it.

Quirk’s vision:

“Where are we going? (Our Vision)

We won’t rest until we are world leaders in the provision of eMarketing products and services. We will achieve this through passion, dedication, innovation and unsurpassed levels of customer service.”

How do you think this is coming along? More specifically the “World Leaders” part?

Wow, I haven’t read that in ages! If I may say so myself, I write a pretty good vision statement (I’m such a Business Science student)

I wrote that back in the beginning and despite everything changing in between, I think our mission remains exactly the same.

Are we world leaders yet? No, I don’t think we are so we won’t be resting just yet. I think we are very good at what we do and getting better every day, but there are still so many great companies that I still admire and strive to emulate. It is also not easy competing globally in the agency space with the resources of a South African company – those Pounds aren’t cheap!

We’re up for the challenge though and I think with some hard work and big ideas we will get there. Thankfully we’re all having a really good time in the process so despite starting on a whim, I’m now in this for the long haul.

Has Quirk ever made a seriously large mistake with a client and lived to regret it?

Hehe, cool question.

A mistake large enough to live to regret it? Not one that I can think of, but gosh we have made a lot of mistakes over the years – there have been a number of occasions when I’ve wished we could suck tens of thousands of emails back into the server ;)

I think everyone makes mistakes though, it’s how you handle them that counts. When we mess up, I like to think we’re not afraid to admit fault where it’s ours and do good until the client is happy. We also try to act like a small agency and not a large faceless corporation. Our clients know that even if I haven’t spoken to them personally in ages, they can call me up if they have a problem and I will personally do my best to fix it.

Of course you can never please everyone…

I am interested to know what you do other than Quirk. I’ve yet to meet a person in this industry with one job.

Other than eMarketing, my passions in life are muesli, fishing, cricket, and teaching. The muesli passion is a long standing one, and is about to be exposed to the world; standing in a river with a fly rod in one hand and a beer in the other is sublime; cricket is just a fabulous game; and teaching is what I will do once I’ve made just enough money to retire and be a house husband. In fact without telling too much, I do have a long term plan to combine the whole lot into one big social development project,… give me 20 years to get that one right though J

Rob, thanks for chatting to me and for helping me introduce Let’s Talk to the blogosphere.

Hey thanks for the opportunity Nic! Some interesting questions, I look forward to hearing the answers from your other victims!