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Technology and why brilliant people make a difference by Antony Cook

Triad Chief Technology Officer Antony Cook talks about Triad’s culture, its people and some fundamentals including going the extra mile. 

A lot of companies claim that their company’s culture is unique, but I would argue that the Triad culture is genuinely unique. The origins of our unique culture are simple. 

We started from a small base of permanent consultants and scaled that up. To be able to do that, we consciously looked for consultants with certain types of characteristics, because it was these qualities that made them stand out. We look for consultants who are astute, credible, inspiring and knowledgeable. If they have these four qualities, then we know that they have got what it takes to be brilliant. And that’s important because brilliant people are what sets us apart. 

Brilliant people

We are not a business that has invested heavily in our brand. We don’t think that pouring money into brand marketing is a smart move. Instead, we prefer to invest in our people. And it seems to pay; most of our new opportunities come through reputation and word of mouth. Our excellent customer service can only exist if we have brilliant people operating for and with our clients. We go out of our way to attract the very best talent. We want them to feel stretched and stimulated and to look upon work at Triad as the opportunity to play the best games of their lives. 

We find that brilliant people look for a challenging and rewarding career; an opportunity to develop professionally and personally. It is important to me that everyone knows what is expected of them, whilst also being comforted by the fact that they have the freedom to explore new areas in which to develop.

We want all our staff to be ambassadors for Triad as a business, and Triad as an employer. This is fundamental to our mission to become the UK’s favourite technology consultancy by 2025.

The Triad technology community of practice

When you have got a group of specialists in technology who are very keen to share what they have learned, then it is really quite helpful to create a culture where anybody can share, and anybody can learn. One way that we put that into practice is through our technology community of practice. We invite people from all over the business to demonstrate what they have learned on a monthly basis. So, whether that is a new language, a new framework, a new concept, or a new design pattern, it all helps to get people excited about the things that they are learning and to keep current and engaged with technology.

We are one team

At Triad, we don’t differentiate between ‘our team’ and the ‘client’s team’ when we are on a project. We often work in mixed teams including multi-supplier teams and everyone at Triad is encouraged to talk openly about the challenges and to share the successes as ‘one team’, keeping everyone up to date on a daily basis. What that means for new staff, is that they are in the thick of it from the start, but with support, mechanisms to ensure that they feel comfortable within the project environment. What it means for our clients is that they maintain the awareness necessary to be able to steer the project, spotting early opportunities to realise benefit and being able to share in the success as it happens.

The Triad ‘extra’ 

Something which I have always liked about Triad is the internal mantra that we want to leave the client with something extra at the end of the project. So, we are not simply focussed on delivering what the client has brought us in to do, but we go the extra mile, the added value if you like. And we define what that extra is going to be at the start of the project, and it is really important to the project team that this ‘extra mile’ is delivered by the project end. That could just be us leaving the client better equipped to deliver agile projects or methods, but the main thing is that we are going to leave you with a valuable “something extra” at the end of that delivery.

We are constantly looking for talented new consultants. If you are interested in working for Triad or have a question for us, then please get in touch.