Andrew's Journey
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After graduating from the University of York in 1983 with a degree in English and Related Literature, Andrew worked as Brand Manager for Cadbury before moving to Guiness as Marketing Manager and then to United Biscuits as Head of Innovation. In 1996, Andrew co-founded Brand Genetics, halving his salary but, he says, “doubling my happiness and self-fulfilment; largely by being in control of my own destiny.”
Brand Genetics
The company launched in 1996 proclaiming “All marketing is Darwinian”, using the principles of evolutionary genetics to guide their approach to innovation. Understanding people – the DNA of what makes individuals unique – remains at the heart of their human-first insight and innovation work today. They use a ‘human-first’ approach to insight and innovation to help clients understand what people will want next.
While the company’s principles remain the same as they did in 1996, today’s innovators face new challenges and require new solutions, so they continue to break new ground. Despite being an established business, tackling global projects for major corporations, the company maintains its start-up mentality, with a willingness to challenge innovation inertia.
Company growth hasn’t been without its challenges, Andrew says that “maintaining our "human-first" persona and identity as we have grown has been a challenge which was overcome by defining our company culture, and recruiting "culture add" (as versus "culture fit") people.”
Andrew says that his business role models are “small and creative start-ups, with a people-focused company culture.”
