A Day in the life of Mike Hope-Milne

Name: Mike Hope-Milne

Job Title: Enterprise Director

What keeps you busy all day: Spinning an ever-increasing number of plates.

What keeps you awake at night: I normally sleep very well, unless I get the seed of an idea in my head late in the day. My mind won’t leave it alone until it has worked it through to all possible conclusions…which can often be just before the alarm goes off at half six.

Describe your working day: Every day is completely different. A large part of my remit is to develop new revenue streams and revenue-generating opportunities for our clients. The never-ending search for new ideas brings me in contact with a huge variety of different people, takes me into new territories and every path opens up yet more new opportunities to follow. It can mean being constantly pulled in different directions, but I wouldn’t change it for the world.

What’s your busiest time of day: 9am – 5:30. The working day goes by at the rate of knots, often meaning that I do not have the chance to put a dent in my to-do list. I usually get in an hour early and stay an hour later to catch up on the important things that need doing.

What brands accounts have you worked on: I have worked both on the agency side of our business, as well as the media owner side. During my career, I have probably been involved with the marketing of most national brands in the UK in one way or another.

Best Day at Work: Today has not been a bad day. After a couple of months of hard graft and negotiation, we have had approval from a blue-chip advertiser to work on a huge 3-D project that will be a global first. Taking on the responsibility to deliver a project that has never been done before is both exciting and terrifying. There is no better feeling than the butterflies that come before and the sense of achievement that comes afterwards.

Worst Day at work: I can honestly not think of a particular day that would class as my worst day at work. The worst job however, is if necessity means having to make good talented people redundant. As unpleasant as this is, I am pleased to say that when this has had to happen, the people concerned have always gone on to bigger and better things. Luckily this is not something we’ve had to tackle at Pearl & Dean.

One thing you have achieved that has made your boss sit up and take notice: Runner-up in the annual Tractor Jousting Championship, Askov, Denmark 2007.

Ambitions: Have fun and make money. On a business level, it is to continue opening advertiser’s eyes to the infinite number of ways in which they can reach out to our very valuable and hard-to-get audiences, and in turn see our revenues continue to grow. On a personal level, I want to see our team continue to develop and reach their full potential.

Advice to rising stars: Never just follow the money, follow your passions and the money will follow.

Quote from the boss: Mike combines creativity, keen business acumen, a nose for a great idea and calmness into the personification of professionalism. Having said that, he’s not perfect, as his taste in shoes is awful.