The holy grail of agency acquisition
Under what circumstances would Neil and I sell our pride and joy, Aurora Healthcare Communications? We have sometimes debated this after 17 years of running the business, and in theory, it required five key factors to be in place:
- The ability to still grow our business to provide the breadth of expertise our clients need in a fast-changing healthcare landscape
- The opportunity to add new services and specialties to meet these client needs
- Ensuring our staff have a great experience, greater opportunities and the same great culture
- The prospect of still being involved in the strategic direction of the business
- Ideally, partner with friends who we like and trust.
The first four are promised by everybody that approaches you to acquire your business; the fifth is what makes those a certainty. And this is why we said ‘Yes’ to our long-time friend and colleague, Jonathan Wilson, owner of Spectrum in the US, when he asked us to join him in his quest to provide first-class service and capabilities to healthcare clients globally.
Together we can now provide the full range of agency services to clients on both sides of the Atlantic, and through our 15-year-long working relationship as Global Health Marketing & Communications (GHMC) partners, we know we work well together and can call on our other partners worldwide to provide knowledge on the ground in 60 key markets.
We will be growing, adding new capabilities, and bringing in new expertise to the London office. We will be expanding how we can support our clients. Neil and I will remain in the business with the same leadership led by MD Chris Bath, and the whole team will see positive changes and new opportunities with a continuing focus on the award-winning impact culture we have created. And we will be doing all this in partnership with friends with whom there is mutual trust and respect and who have a proven track record of building a unique and brilliant full-service consultancy. We can’t wait to build the same in the UK, continuing to shape healthcare communications practices into the future.
Today Spectrum and Aurora come together as GHMC Companies, each still offering the independent consultancy experience our clients know and love, with founders in the business and quality top of mind. It doesn’t get better than that, does it?
Keep watching to see how we continue to help our clients improve more lives and prove it. Or better yet, experience Aurora for yourself.
