Each fortnight Creative Business News gives a prominent member of the region’s creative sector the chance to reflect on their career, their work and their ambitions by answering 10 questions about themselves. 
Name: Robert Craven
Job Title: Managing director, principal consultant, author
Current Company: The Directors’ Centre Ltd
Age: Wrong side of 40
My big break: I have had several. The latest is being taken in by Google Partners to run workshops and programs for owners of ambitious digital agencies across Europe. This has catapulted me to work with over 90 agencies in the last year across seven countries.
My first job: My very first job was selling sheets on Petticoat Lane when I was 15. I set up my own restaurant business when I was 21, recording studio when I was 22, then a marketing consultancy a few years after that.
My current role: I run the consultancy and coaching at The Directors’ Centre looking after digital agency owners.
My typical day: It doesn’t exist. I currently run business programs in London, Bucharest, and Brussels and spend up to half my week working with these agencies. The remainder of my time is delivering keynotes across Europe to audiences of digital agencies.
My proudest moment/project: That would be my granddaughter (did I say I was over 40?). In business, I am incredibly proud of my books Grow Your Digital Agency and Grow Your Service Firm. My proudest moment this year was seeing the benchmark results we’ve achieved with our clients. It was a big number.
My best piece of advice: To others: put up your prices. To me: put up your prices.
My ambition (that I haven’t yet achieved): To play with the Rolling Stones (not very likely now), stay healthy and laugh more.
My favourite creative work/campaign (that I haven’t worked on): I am full of admiration for Seth Godin’s writing, blog and projects and early Apple TV ads like Think Different (‘Here’s to the crazy ones’).
My predictions for the creative sector: Beware of uberisation… beware of AI (check out Albert if you run a digital agency – it/he already gets better ROI than a human). We all need to figure out how to compete (against a backdrop of crashing prices) and the answer will be in your service and the customer experience you provide… You cannot compete on price: that is a mug’s game.
My inspiration: My family.
