I’m Raluca Apostol, the Operations Director of STOICA – a advertising and marketing company serving to tech shoppers develop their companies. In Might 2025, I traveled to Aberdeen, Scotland, to study an awesome deal about operations, advertising and marketing, and working an company from the wonderful friends at Fifth Ring. That is the way it went.

I began my very own company in 2018, following my layoff from my earlier job. I didn’t know rather a lot about working an company, however I knew I wished to do higher than I had once I was a freelancer for six months earlier than working out of shoppers.

So, I created a finances, a plan, and the work. And once I didn’t know what was subsequent, I attempted to show to others for assist. 

My first try was with a PR company. We have been each engaged on a consumer; my company was accountable for lead nurturing, and I had little interest in ever going into PR (I hate it with a ardour – sorry, not sorry 🙂 ). 

I requested their proprietor, ‘How did you develop the workforce?’ Did you tackle extra shoppers than you would deal with, or recruit after which develop the consumer base?’

And their reply? 

Effectively, yeah, it was a choice to be made based mostly on the timing of the expansion. 

Mainly, nothing. 

I didn’t get it. We’re not in direct competitors, I’m not asking for delicate data, so why wouldn’t you share?

Quick ahead 7 years, and right here I’m, penning this from the Aberdeen workplaces of Fifth Ring, who so kindly accepted me into the Change Program facilitated by BBN to study extra about what they do and take that again to my STOICA workforce.

What’s BBN

BBN is a world group of B2B advertising and marketing businesses. The businesses from the community have workplaces in 68 areas throughout 28 international locations, with over 1,250 B2B advertising and marketing specialists mixed.

BBN is really a group, within the sense that the businesses collaborating in it share frequent values, high quality requirements, and confirmed methodologies. We’ve common catch-ups, shared assets, and occasions the place we meet one another. Moreover, we try to assist each other enhance and develop.

One of many applications out there to BBN company members is the Change Program. This helps folks go to an company signed up in this system and work facet by facet with their workforce. 

Regardless that Fifth Ring was not signed up on the most recent Change Program, having met Sarah Grey, their Regional Director for Europe, on the BBN Academy occasion (I did say we’re actually a group) and later exploring their profile, I made a decision they are going to be an awesome match for what I wished to study.

The placement of the 2024 BBN Academy, the place I met Sarah Grey

Fifth Ring – B2B advertising and marketing specialists for over 30 years

Fifth Ring, a part of the BBN group, is a advertising and marketing company with workplaces in 3 international locations: Aberdeen (Scotland), Singapore, and Houston, USA. They’ve been lively for over 30 years and have a number of shoppers within the B2B area.

My standards for choosing an company to go for my trade have been:

  • Worldwide presence, ideally with workplaces in additional than 1 nation (I wished to learn the way that’s managed, since we’re trying to develop outdoors Romania at STOICA)
  • Have an Operations Director (since I wished to share insights with somebody in a task just like my very own)
  • Be bigger than 15 folks (I wished to discover the challenges in a much bigger company, so we will begin getting ready for them as STOICA is rising)
  • Have a bodily workplace the place folks will communicate (principally) English (since studying isn’t solely accomplished in one-on-one conversations, but in addition in listening to conversations within the workplace).

Since Fifth Ring not solely checked all objects, but in addition Sarah and her workforce have been open to me doing this trade, regardless of not being in this system (and so accommodating, however extra on that later), it was a accomplished deal. 

I traveled to Aberdeen and spent 10 days on the Fifth Ring HQ there.

The learnings

For 10 days, I returned to working in an workplace (at STOICA, our workforce works remotely, primarily, together with me). I had an allotted desk, which was near Michelle, Fifth Ring’s Visitors Supervisor, with whom I had rather a lot in frequent, given our shared work. 

Throughout lately, I continued engaged on STOICA duties, however I’ve tried to restrict the variety of calls, to have extra time to be current (and actively hear) to any workplace chats. 

On high of that, Sarah has helped arrange conferences with a variety of related folks from Fifth Ring (and I’ve even had some volunteers to have these conferences, which was so good of them), together with:

  • Ian, the co-founder and Enterprise Growth Director, with whom I talked about gross sales and decisions made in rising the enterprise
  • Jen, the Managing Director, with whom I talked about managing the company, the tradition, and getting the fitting folks on board
  • Sarah, the Regional Director for Europe, with whom I talked about workforce construction and enterprise targets
  • Andy, the de facto Operations Director, with whom I talked about processes & programs
  • Steve, the Group Director of Technique, with whom I talked concerning the traits of fine technique folks and mixing technique for the company with technique for shoppers
  • Michelle, the Visitors Supervisor, with whom I talked about useful resource allocation and the professionals & cons of working with freelancers
  • Alan, the Inventive Director, with whom I talked about getting creatives to be…extra artistic
  • Debbie & Todd, the Regional Administrators of Asia & Americas, with whom I talked about managing the native groups & advertising and marketing efforts
  • Jen, the Advertising and marketing Supervisor, with whom I talked about worldwide advertising and marketing technique and how you can monitor whether or not your advertising and marketing is working

Moreover, I attended group conferences and took lunch breaks with the workforce. If there’s a extra immersive option to get entangled in one other company, I’m but to seek out it.

Maaaaassive due to Sarah for serving to and supporting me all through this course of whereas additionally doing her day-to-day position – you’re a celebrity!

What’s subsequent?

To say that this trade has been invaluable is an understatement. I used to be capable of deep dive into completely different areas of a enterprise just like ours and see how all of them join. I might additionally ask questions that is likely to be arduous to seek out solutions for (see the start of the article) – so I used to be very fortunate to seek out at Fifth Ring a workforce of those that have been past pleasant and useful, open and prepared to share their pains and wins.

(Un)happily for my STOICA workforce, I’ve come again with a load of concepts to implement ourselves. 

Clearly, that was the plan all alongside, and I’ve tried to have a look at issues that make sense for our particular profile, setup, and goal sectors, and so on. 

Watch this area, issues are taking place!

“Having Raluca with us as a part of the BBN Change Programme was a reminder of what makes shared studying so highly effective. She introduced contemporary perspective, good questions, and a real curiosity that challenged us in the very best method. From strategic discussions to day-to-day operations, it was clear she wasn’t simply right here to look at, however to have interaction. We gained as a lot as we gave, and it was an actual pleasure to have her as a part of the workforce, even when only for ten days.”

– Sarah Grey.


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