Ed Walker

As Business Development Director, I shape the company's business development strategy to identify the brands we’d like to work with and how to win them as clients. I’m lucky in that the business has a clearly defined vision and mission, which all of the team have a chance to inform. Translating this into the business development strategy and then acting on it is a privilege.

New client opportunities fascinate me, and I never know exactly where my day will take me. If the phone rings, it could be a global brand kicking off a digital transformation programme or a company concerned with conversion or engagement from its digital assets.

I work closely alongside our colleagues at Zensar, as many of the new opportunities we are asked to work on are end-to-end solutions. As these projects and programmes grow, so do the pitch processes and the complexity involved.

We have invested heavily in our pitching capability over the last few years. Once we receive an invitation, we always insist on meeting the client, as so much of our work comes from long-term relationships based on a mutual respect.

We work with lots of businesses by helping groups of stakeholders align behind a singular vision for the customer experience that they want to deploy. By turning the theoretical elements of the strategy into a tangible visionary Proof of Concept, we’ve given these clients something that can be evaluated by stakeholders and validated with customers.

One of the best parts of my job is that I get to work with everyone in the agency. Anyone from the partners to an intern can be involved in a new business opportunity and everyone is encouraged to have an opinion. Being evidence-driven, we like to test thinking early, even in a pitch.

I hold a MDes, in Transport Design from Coventry University. My main learning from this was the importance of research as part of the design process, an important grounding for my career at Foolproof. While I’m now not a car designer, my education has given me an appreciation and passion for problem solving, understanding a client brief and objectives and also how to empathise with the challenges our design team face. 

When I’m not at work, I have my hands full with two daughters, two step-sons and too many iPads. I always have plasters in my wallet, and a range of bikes, balls and other plastic tat littering my car. Oh, and I know all of the songs from Frozen word-for-word (lucky me).