In the business world, great ideas often come from a mix of know-how, experience, a bit of boldness and a lot of luck. smart/tasking is no different. Our founders, Gary Gamp, Paul Bibby and Niall Anderson, came together driven by a shared vision: to be catalysts for change in the business consulting landscape. Gary’s experience had shown that consulting often fell short when it came to translating ideas into real results. That’s when the concept of ‘out-tasking’ was born – combining consulting expertise with hands-on implementation.
Pull out quote Paul: “What inspired us to start smart/tasking was the opportunity to do something different; and to make a difference.”
Gary and Paul were initially introduced by their mutual accountant. They met over an ‘awful breakfast’ (Paul’s words) and immediately found that their thinking on so many things was aligned. Gary’s consulting background, paired with Paul’s recruitment and business experience, formed the ideal blend of skills needed to make Gary’s business idea a reality. Of their meeting, Paul said: “It was almost like a perfect match between Gary and I coming together, because I could do all the stuff he couldn’t, and he could do all the stuff I couldn’t.”
Then Niall joined the trio, bringing his expertise in sales and marketing, making the team even more formidable. Niall said, “From what I gathered, the duo lacked sales experience, and so I was asked to get involved to help bring that focus to the business, through my skills and connections.” Paul said of Niall, “He’s got some amazing sales and marketing skills and experience, and he brought an additional dimension to the business.”
Pull out quote Gary: “You know, the power of the three of us is pretty strong. We’re complementary in what we do.”
The name “smart/tasking” didn’t just happen by chance. During a piece of consulting work with a company, Gary introduced the term “smart/tasking” while redesigning their managed services. But when the company was acquired, his innovations fell away. Gary was determined to keep the name and ended up bidding £350 to secure the domain smarttasking.com, successfully making it the company’s identity. And from there it evolved as we grew, reflecting our mission to make processes smarter and more task focused.
Gary says: “We wanted to build a recurring revenue business and work with people we like. And we wanted to give a better service to customers by taking on the ownership of the outcome. Our purpose remains the same today.”
At Smart/tasking , we’ve always been outcome obsessed. We’ve always set out to do what we say, to work with people and customers we like; people who are like-minded in their approach.
We’ve had our fair share of challenges along the way, especially in explaining our unique value proposition and expanding our customer base. But we’ve persevered and are continuing to deliver real results for our customers.
Our journey has been filled with memorable moments, from helping clients out of crisis situations to strengthening partnerships worldwide. We’re proud sponsors of Farnham Rugby Club and are advocates for investing in young talent, as seen in our partnership with Henley Business School for our Apprenticeship Programme.
We take great pride in our ever-strengthening brand and growing presence on social media. Despite being a smaller player, we consistently punch above our weight, and our goal is to leave a lasting impression, both inside and outside of work. We care about our work, and that, coupled with being known as the ones who really do what we say we’ll do, sets us apart.
Pull out quote: Niall: “Our aim was to move from trusted consultants providing resources, to a tasking service with three pillars; smart/task, smart/hands and smart/consult.”
Despite our growth and the changes, we’ve seen in our business, one thing remains: the importance of our people. Our culture is important to us, and we strive to keep a (functional) family feel within our business. Our team is strong, everyone is awarded equal opportunities and employee autonomy is encouraged.
Smart/tasking‘s journey is ongoing. We’ve just taken on four new apprentices, we’re continuing working relationships with some of our founding clients, innovating with new technologies and onboarding new clients too. We have no doubt that there will be challenges ahead, but we’re looking forward to the next chapters of the Smart/tasking story.
As we continue to grow and evolve, we hope our story serves as an inspiration to other aspiring entrepreneurs and a reminder of what sets us apart in the world of consulting.
