Last week, at Firstcom’s UK headquarters in Bolton, several teambuilding and strategy sessions were held for the senior leadership team. This was the first time members of the Board and the European management team had been together in the same room since the Covid pandemic.

Getting the team together for the three days was important according to Firstcom’s CEO, Christian Bleakley, who explained:

“Last week was all about our different country managers working more collaboratively. However, this was not just about work, it was about developing a culture that drives success though improved teamwork. The gathering was intended to provide an opportunity to have fun and to enable team members to get to know each other on both a personal and professional level. It was a busy three days, but we absolutely achieved everything we wanted and more.”

Firstcom’s business has grown significantly since Christian was appointed Group CEO in 2020 with a number of organisational changes and acquisitions. The sessions over three days presented an opportunity to review company performance and focus on a plan for the remainder of the year and beyond.  CTO Craig Robinson outlined the recent improvements to our unified communications platform, Universe, mapping out key future development plans.

Christian also arranged for the team to benefit from insights of external parties. There were presentations from Firstcom’s key investor, Oakfield Capital Partners, as well as telecoms experts from KPMG who discussed developments in the industry and crucially where Firstcom’s strengths lie relative to its competitors.  The teams discussed their respective businesses and plans for the year ahead.   

Outside the meetings a number of social and sporting activities were held. The Swedish Head of Operations, Shariar Zadeh outperformed his UK colleagues in the bootcamp challenge and Sweden also took out the laurels in the racquet sport, Padel, where Shariar and Swedish MD Pontus Blom demonstrated how the game should be played! 

UK Managing Director, Ewan Kearney said “it was a privilege to host our European colleagues from Denmark, Sweden and Germany over the past few days.  Understanding how they run their businesses, what products they use and how they look after their customers was invaluable, as was getting to know everyone on a personal level.”