Some partnerships work…and they work for a long time. One of the most powerful examples in my own career has been my many years working with John Hunt and Reg Lascaris, the founders of advertising agency TBWA Hunt Lascaris.

I arrived there after leaving Radio 702, drawn by a simple question: How do they keep winning? The agency had started around the same time as 702, and like 702 in its early years, it was unstoppable. Hunt Lascaris started out of the boot of Reg’s car with no money and a big vision. From the get-go, the awards started pouring in. I originally intended to do academic research there on managing creative people. I never left.

What I found wasn’t a formula – it was a partnership. John and Reg are very different people. John was the creative force and guardian of culture – deeply instinctive, values-led, and quietly obsessive about standards. Reg was more externally focused – clients, positioning, relationships, momentum. Neither dominated the other. Neither tried to be the brand on their own. What struck me, despite the intensity and early success, there was very little posturing. And that made all the difference.

The agency was often described as a “sweatshop”. People worked incredibly hard. The pace was brutal, and yet there was always a queue outside the door. Creatives wanted to work there. They wanted to be a “Hunts Person”, as they were described. That said it all. Awards followed culture – not the other way around.

It’s true that the environment wasn’t always gentle, and turnover was often high. Strong cultures aren’t always soft ones. But the centre held. The values were deeply rooted and didn’t swing wildly with each management change. The garden was tended not only by those in visible leadership, but by long-standing operational and administrative team members who quietly held continuity while other plants came and went. Also, my value wasn’t tied to status or payroll level, yet I always felt respected and trusted. My role wasn’t to manage egos – it was to grow people. That doesn’t happen by accident – that’s cultural literacy.

When I was asked to return to 702 as MD on a contract, my farewell present from Hunt Lascaris was an authentic bronze slave bangle with a message: “We’re setting you free but you’ll always be with us.” They were right. I was back after my contract ended. And I’m still there, in different ways now, decades later.

When Hunt Lascaris turned 40, they held a big celebration showcasing decades of their iconic work (fitting for one of the  most awarded ad agencies in the world). But what really had the most impact here wasn’t the trophies. They took out a full-page advert in the Sunday Times – not to promote themselves, but as an open invitation to everyone who had ever worked there to come to the party. There was no hierarchy and no filtering.  If you’d been part of the journey at any point and in any capacity you were welcome.

That one gesture captured the culture better than any values statement ever could. People came and went, the pace may have been intense and turnover high, but no one was erased. Contribution was remembered and belonging didn’t expire. That’s the difference.

Looking back now, I understand why John and Reg’s partnership endured when so many others fracture. Containment was shared, not carried by one person. There was ego but it wasn’t placed on a pedestal. There was brilliance but it wasn’t personalised. The work was the brand – and the work spoke for itself. They succeeded not because they tolerated dysfunction, but because they contained it. They built a culture robust enough to absorb intensity without splintering.  

After a lifetime of working with exceptionally talented people, an over-arching truth prevails: Brilliance doesn’t need to be rescued, and it can’t be managed into submission. It needs to be held.

When the frame is strong enough to contain the fire without being consumed by it, people grow, partnerships mature, and the work outlives the individuals.