I had lunch with Rich and Dave today. I’m writing about it, because lunch is probably the first thing I’m going to forget. Rich and Dave are from Missing Link (one could even make a case for them being the ‘missing link‘). They’re just 2 parts of the team that buzz around their ‘space’, doing what they do, but more importantly and pertinent to this post, creating an environment that ensures that every one of your senses is engaged at one point or another during the time you spend in their domain.
It starts with the bathroom you enter through to get to reception (I kid you not). You’re then accosted (in an extremely friendly manner) by Andre who bombards you with offers for coffee, cappuccino, coke, whatever. It’s the MTV playing on multiple TV’s in the ‘public space’ while you watch a row of creatives doing their thing on their notebooks (all Apple for those who care). It’s the electric shock lie detector and race challenge on the tables, along with the ‘roller ball’ car and the sumo wrestler electronic games. It’s Rich’s office done in a ‘bedroom’ theme with double bed. And Dave’s with an undertaker thing going on with coffin to boot. It’s the graffiti on the walls, the 2 Segways and the motor powered skateboards. It’s the black limo with red flames and tinted windows with the sticker that says, ‘wanna be porn stars in transit’ that transported us to lunch. It’s the energy, the passion and the vibe that’s going on as clients meet and interact with each other in between checking up on how their project is getting on while drinking another coffee expertly created by Andre.

Point is this… not everyone is going to like these guys. They break the mold, er mould all over the place. But what they succeed in doing, and in doing damn well, is giving you an experience you’re probably not going to find anywhere else on the planet. It’s no wonder they’re both good at what they do and successful in doing it. And it’s more than just talent and skill.
At lunch I suggested that while books like Good to Great and Built to Last (I mention these because they’re the flavour of the month at the moment for many companies) are fantastically written with sound research and hugely amazing thoughts, they’re largely about yesterday’s successful companies. The challenge is to find the books that are being written about tomorrow’s yet to be successful companies. That’s where you want to be learning. Google might be one of them? Missing Link might be one of them? Dare I say TomorrowToday.biz might be one of them? Problem is that you can’t know until it’s too late.
But today I caught a glimpse of something very different. I got to touch it, smell it, hear it and even taste it. And I can tell you this for free. If a few companies in the world got ‘infected’ with just a little of what Missing Link has to offer, we’d probably have a lot more healthy people, even if you aren’t an aspiring porn star.