Over the last decade [Yes! We’ve just turned 10] whenever we interact with a new client, the first question we’ve faced is ‘Why is a Work Culture firm called Never Grow Up?’ Our answer, till date, remains this ‘As we grow older, we add layers to ourselves based on our experiences and tend to forget the things that made us awesome. The same applies to companies as well. That’s been our quest. To help organizations peel off some of those layers and reach their core when it comes to their greatest asset. Their people, that is’
Being a work culture consultancy, we are not an agency that will merely give you what you ask for. From day one, we have vowed to tell our clients what will work best for them. Even if it means telling them that we are not the right agency for them. This philosophy, among many other guidelines has shown us the light in our journey.
We could go on, speak of our struggles and more, but we’d rather share 10 things you probably did not know about us.
- Yes! We are a work culture firm that is legally called Never Grow Up® and started operations on 01 Jan 2010. For the first 3 odd years, we did not have a full time team. Instead our founders bootstrapped their way building the company through collaborations and partnerships. This was the time when quitting your job to take a leap of faith was not considered cool. P.s. The initial team still works with us.
- We’ve been thrown-out of more coffee shops than you can imagine. Primarily because we almost became like furniture and our usage of Free wi-fi was hurting their bottom-line. We’ve returned the favor by remaining ‘gold members’ for the last few years.
- If you drop by our office, you can see the first Internet dongle and company credit card glued to our walls. We’ve never tracked attendance and probably never will. Only because we trust the team we work with.
- We don’t celebrate festivals at work [for a reason] and our ‘Accounts Payment Stamp’ has a Darth Vader approving the payment.
- Often, people laugh at our ideas, then end up implementing them because it makes sense. In fact, in our first year of operations, we actually met someone who burst out laughing in a client meeting and was at it for 2 minutes!
- We got our first client 6 months into our business but we spent the first 24 months of our existence, experimenting with our business model. This also meant that our founder went broke [twice]! That has not stopped us from experimenting.
- While today we have nine services, have been featured in publications across the world, won numerous awards and have gone International, our first workshop was attended by 4 people. [3 friends and one paid customer]
- We’ve innovated to create a ‘patented’ tech product HQ, crafted India’s first Return on Engagement Calculator and are the creators of UnPluggd.
- No one in the history of our company has ever been fired for making a mistake. Our philosophy is that we are OK with mistakes as long as ‘you make new ones’. Also, no leave application has ever been denied. Ever. Like ever!
- We don’t hire based on pedigree. Instead, we pick diverse team members based on attitude and a simple five point checklist. We strictly avoid brilliant qualified jerks.
There is more! We’ve catered to random client requests and dealt with crazy crisis management. From a month-long campaign or a diversity initiative, from picking up the pieces to creating something new, every client journey has been an amazing ride!
Our learning and expertise has come by trial and error – even before we got hooked to the world of tech and analytics. Our success is defined by the relationship that we’ve established with our clients that makes them keep coming back for something more and something different. Awards are simply a by-product of what we do because we know that our true strength lies in our people. Even the folks who’ve had to part ways for some reason. Just like our journey, there is potential for this blog to never end. But you need to stop reading and we need to get back to doing some awesome work. Here’s to us #Turning10!
