Our adventure so far
How it began
“You should talk to Pam.” a mutual friend told Simon. “She’s mad about purpose but comes at it from the people and culture side.”
“You should talk to Simon.” he said to Pam. “He’s very purpose driven, like you, but focuses on brand and marketing.”
And so we talked. And talked. And talked.
That was in the summer of 2018. A lot has happened since then for both of us; professionally and personally. But our paths finally and firmly converged in the second half of 2020 when we made the decision that the time was right to join forces and form a partnership.
Today The Arena is our business. We started it because we believe business has more to offer the world than simply making money. In fact, we’re convinced that if we can find better ways to create things, sell things, work together and support each other we’ll be much healthier and happier people living in a much healthier and happier world.
Our own purpose is to create more conscious and purposeful ways of doing business. And as we are based in Scotland, one of only three countries in the world committed to creating a ‘wellbeing economy’, we are focusing most of our efforts in helping Scotland become a nation of purpose driven, wellbeing businesses.
Our goal is to help businesses become more purpose driven and wellbeing focused through insightful strategy, robust programmes and inspirational ideas. All delivered with with a caring and compassionate heart.
As you’ll see in our personal biogs below, Simon brings years of brand and marketing expertise as well as the experience of owning, managing and growing a small business. Whilst Pam brings years of expertise in leadership development, employee engagement and culture change as well as the experience of embedding purpose in one of the UK’s most recognised, purpose driven businesses.
Together we combine these areas of expertise and experience with passion and enthusiasm to support business leaders wanting to take a more soulful path to success.
We’re on an adventure to grow the type of business our children will be proud of. We’d love to help you grow yours.
Let’s grow with purpose.
Our background
Simon Farrell
Until recently I co-owned and managed one of the UK's most successful brand agencies. Over a 12 year period we won more creative and effectiveness awards than any other design agency in the UK. This helped us achieve our own purpose of becoming the only agency in the country to be in the top 10 of both the UK creative and UK effectiveness league tables at the same time.
During this period we grew profits 11 years out of 12. Won over £10m of new business. We weathered the financial crisis without making redundancies. We transformed a print business into a digital business. And established a fantastic team culture.
As a brand strategist, I've helped develop purpose-led brands such as The Co-operative Bank, British Council, People Make Glasgow, University of the Highlands and Islands and the Commonwealth Games. Always with one goal in mind; delivering purposeful ideas that make a real difference.
I am currently working with a handful of clients to deliver and implement purpose-driven strategies. My personal purpose is to “bring spirituality to a logical world.”
Pam Herries
Until recently I was working with one of the UK’s leading Management Consultancy firms. My main focus was helping organisations shape their culture and ignite a positive people experience through employee engagement and leadership development. And in doing so help create an excellent customer experience.
I’m a consultant and coach by profession. I am a connector of ideas and people as well as a communications professional with a masters in PR and degree in Education with psychology.
I have been privileged to have worked with amazing people in a variety of industry sectors as a management consultant, interim manager, senior leader as well as an associate director of a brand consultancy and owner of my own consultancy for 12 years. My experience includes working with John Lewis, Waitrose, BBC, ASOS, British Airways and Skype.
I am currently working with leaders who want to connect their people with purpose using an employee-centric approach which engages people authentically to create trust, resilience and energy. My personal purpose is to “Sow seeds of inspiration, feed passion and encourage growth in people to find fulfilment.”
Making a difference.
“A very big thank you for all the time and care you put into creating our purpose narrative and framework – all totally brilliant. You’ve captured our thoughts and ideas perfectly, sprinkled some magic and brought it all together in such a powerful, eloquent way. I think I speak for all of us when I say we are absolutely delighted!”
Emma - COO
Why are we called Today The Arena?
Coming up with a name for your brand or your business is a tricky affair. In fact, it’s probably the most problematic part of the whole brand development process. It has to be unique, memorable, easy to pronounce, meaningful and available as a URL. At the end of the day, the harsh reality is, it doesn’t really matter what your brand name is. It won’t be the reason your business dies or thrives. But we did give our name some thought and here is the inspiration behind it.
Today
This part of our name is inspired by the Sanskrit poem by Kaliadasa. It reminds us to keep our focus very much on the day at hand. To deal with what is directly in front of us. To not get drawn into future worries of past regrets. And to do the very best we can, one day at a time.
“Look to this day for it is life. The very life of life. In its brief course lie all the realities and verities of existence; the bliss of growth, the splendor of action, the glory of choice. For yesterday is but a dream and tomorrow is only a vision. But today, well lived, makes every yesterday a dream of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well, therefore, to this day.”
The Arena
This part comes from the famous speech given by Theodore Roosevelt in 1910. He was talking about the responsibilities we all have as citizens and warning us not to listen to the cynics who looked down on those trying to make the world a better place. And so it seems relevant to anyone trying to grow a business purposefully
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
