Banking on first success: establishing and evolving a practice

Is the evolution of a practice strategic or one big risky and opportunistic adventure? Most practices have to navigate a series of thresholds as they grow and develop. Some are practical – starting up, taking on a first employee, creating systems – and others more ephemeral, to do with reputation and identity – how to arrive, stay relevant, survive succession. Intrigued by the varying success practices have in negotiating these moments, Emma Keyte and I have interviewed nearly fifty practices over the past 18 months, to discover how taking full advantage of each turning point can help to set a practice’s trajectory towards the next.

We wrote up this research as a series of articles for the RIBA Journal which were illustrated by our friends at McCloy + Muchemwa. The first of these was on emergence – who and what defines a practice’s emergence? Do you need to arrive and if so, how can you take full advantage?

Read the full piece here