Meet The Members: Tom Tapper Co-Founder of Nice And Serious

Nice And Serious is a creative agency with real purpose. Advertising has a remarkable power to create change, but in the current climate it’s often weaponised to create false needs and fake desires. Nice And Serious have their feet firmly on the ground. They know the world doesn’t need more of the same, it needs us to draw a line in the sand and back the people fixing things. Tom Tapper is co-founder of the brand creating campaigns that are designed to change minds, inspire hearts and stand out by striking a nerve.

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What is the Nice and Serious mission statement?

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To make creative work the world needs!

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Can you tell us a little more about your role within Nice and Serious?

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I’m the co-founder and CEO. I make the strategic decisions to ensure the business fulfils our purpose and mission. But I’m a creative at heart, so I still get involved with projects – this includes developing ideas and writing scripts. I think it’s important for leaders to stay connected with the craft of their organisation.

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Why are you passionate about this?

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Nice and Serious is the fusion of two of my biggest passions in life: creativity, and the climate crisis. It’s now been 13 years since we started the agency and I’m more passionate about what we do than I ever have been.

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Is it a realistic possibility that one day all businesses might be run like B Corps, might governments make it mandatory?

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I don’t think it’s a possibility, I think it’s an inevitability. I has to be - it’s only a matter of time.

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I think in the not-too-distant future we’ll look back and wonder why it was ever acceptable for business not to be sustainable. It’s strange to think that being a B Corp is seen as a radical ethical business decision. For me, it seems an obvious one.

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How have you adapted to the changes instigated by the COVID closures?

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COVID hit us hard initially. We had to furlough roughly 1/3 of our team for the first Summer. We dropped our office space, which helped us conserve vital funds. But towards the end of 2020 things picked up incredibly quickly and we ended up finishing the year breaking even (just), which I think is possibly one of our best achievements to date!

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It was an incredibly stressful year for everyone, in so many different ways. I don’t think any leader was prepared for it, we just had to feel our way through it intuitively. It was during those dark times that having such a clearly defined purpose really helped guide the difficult decisions we had to make, and I now think we’ve emerged stronger than ever. We worked entirely remotely for nearly 18 months, and we’ve now just taken a new flexible working space with X+Why.

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What advice would you give to other start-ups and businesses moving forwards?

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1. Clearly define your purpose. Make sure every decision aligns with it.
2. Don’t be distracted by what others / competitors are doing around you. Make decisions that intuitively feel right for you.
3. Keep an eye on your overheads. Assess what things really add value. Looking back, a very expensive, fixed office space, didn’t justify itself. It was a waste of money.
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What are your thoughts on the role of the Triple Bottom Line for the years to come, is purpose a luxury or a necessity in a recession?

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As a term, purpose has been bastardised. ANY business can have a purpose.

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The real question is does your business fulfil a purpose that meets a real human or environmental need. I believe those are the businesses that will last into the long term, and survive or rebound from shocks like COVID better.

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When it comes to business, it’s common for people to feel the need to decide between higher education and learning on the job, what has been the value of each?

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Both are equally important. Education is hugely valuable in giving you the time to discover yourself and learn critical thinking. But at some point you need to convert theory into practise … and a job does that.

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What motivates you?

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Imaginative ideas that respond to real work problems.

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What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned?

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Everyone is winging it.

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If you were to do it all again, is there anything that you would do differently?

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Too many things to list. But in general most of the bad decisions we’ve made in the past have been because we were chasing a vision of success that didn’t align with our business model or values.

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What’s the smallest change that’s given the biggest return?

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Promoting and growing people within the business instead of hiring in senior roles.

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How do you balance your life while remaining disciplined, what percentage of your time do you keep unscheduled?

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It’s an ongoing challenge. I try to carve out about an 1 hour for lunch and exercise and book it into the calendar. But in general I don’t manage my time as well as I should! I find tools like Slack can be a distraction to deep and productive work … I’m exploring ways to find a better balance.

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Do you think that entrepreneurial attributes are personality traits, or skills that can be developed?

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Personally, I think entrepreneurship is a personality trait (based on myself and the other entrepreneurs I know). But there are certainly aspects of it that can be developed…

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How has what you do, changed you as a person?

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Running a business has definitely grown my confidence … and my comfort with risk. But there are some really difficult decisions you have to make as an entrepreneur and sometimes that requires you to separate the part of you that wants to be friends with your colleagues or clients, and the part that knows a difficult decision might be necessary for the success of the business. That can be a difficult thing to reconcile.

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What is your vision for the future personally and professionally?

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Nice and Serious is my life’s work -  I can’t see myself doing anything else: it enables me to do what I love. For me, I want to keep growing the impact we create through our work. But I have no grand ambitions to scale and sell.

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Sometimes I feel like saying you run a ‘lifestyle’ business is a dirty word to entrepreneurs who tend to fantasise about scaling and exiting - but I want the business to be truly sustainable, to enable me to spend time with my family, and not have a burn out! I also want to look back on my work and feel pride in the impact we’ve created.

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Are there any books or blogs on your reading list?

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Creativity Inc. was a great book for anyone interested in creative leadership. I listen to a lot of podcasts like Outrage & Optimism, and Jon Richardson or the Futurenauts.

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What do you love most about x+why?

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The other people in the building with us - the unique community of like-minded and purpose-lead entrepreneurs is what makes the space!

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