What were you doing on the 28th May 1985?

Business as usual for John Woodberry, Andy Cassie and CIB

“It will never last, they’ll be back” said our former bosses, “it’s not our type of business opportunity” said Mr Whybrew, Barclays Bank, Great Portland Street as he turned us down for banking (he certainly is somebody we would love to meet again and punch).

Many of you were only just born then, but on 28th May 1985 spurred on by these rebuffs, well stimuli actually, CIB was brought kicking and screaming into the world by two greenhorns. We set off down the road to instant prosperity in a small bit of a portacabin at the bottom of a garden near the river Mole in Hampton Court, rented from our good friends at AD Communications. Glory days.

Starting between the Bradford City fire disaster and Hyssel (it wasn’t the greatest of years), most people had big hair (now only a few of us have hair), Margaret Thatcher was on the throne, Kevin Keegan still had a permed barnet, and the economy was down the toilet (no change there then - ed)

Our worldly business possessions were a typewriter (manual), a desk, a drawing board, a phone with an ansaphone (racey stuff), a coffee machine (a killer by the afternoon) and a cheeseplant, the technical complexity of a fax and a computer were still a year away. Now if any of you think you have it tough now, well think again. One car between two of us and I walked to work and it was bloody cold that summer.

So a little historical perspective, what else started up for the first time in 1985. We find ourselves uneasy bedfellows with the following:

Virgin Airlines
Direct Line Insurance
EastEnders
Lily Allen
The Discovery Channel
Live Aid
Tommy Hilfiger brand
Dulux Weathershield

And what toe tappers were we grooving to at that time – frankly it was pretty shocking – No 1 on that day was Paul Hardcastle 19 – remember it, probably not, Madonna had her first hit with Into the Groove, the spectres of Chris de Burgh and Europe stalked the charts, I had just returned from my very first Simply Red gig, the Clash were finishing….how could we go on. But we did through thin and thinner.

Now, they say what comes around goes around and 25 years later we find ourselves about 12 miles upstream on the Mole in new offices right next to Leatherhead Bridge, much richer for the experience but still desperately seeking prosperity.

Things have changed - 25 years ago, social media was going down the pub, twittering was purely for the birds, web was directly linked to arachnids, mobile phones were carried around on trolleys along with your Filofax, a Mac was something you wore and Megabyte was Molesey’s answer to Little Chef, and a lunch was most definitely a lunch. Look at it now.

In the intervening period CIB has been located in 6 different offices, have employed over 150 different people with tenures of between 16 years and 16 minutes, serviced well over 500 clients, several of whom are still going and most but not all who paid us. We have hung in through two recessions with our dignity in tact, continued to maintain a sense of humour if not dress sense sometimes under the most trying of circumstances – now is that success?

So are we better off and have we enjoyed ourselves – in fact do we still enjoy ourselves and what have we learnt in that time?

Well that the client isn’t always right, cost is always a problem, supporting crap football teams tends to make you a better person, madness in most of its forms help you to get ahead at CIB and never trust a space man.

Don’t forget we couldn’t have achieved this little landmark without you whom we have given sweat and blood for, or our many and varied staff during this 25 years before the mast.

So as the sun goes over the yard arm once again – we say thanks to all of our clients and staff past and present, our families for the occasional grumpy moment and never forget – the cheque’s in the cat.

So here’s to the next 25, we’ll drink to that