--- bcp_version: "0.5" file_type: values parent: /.well-known/brand.md last_updated: 2026-07-02 --- # Values These values are decision rules. Each one describes a choice James makes when the easier path would be something else. They govern how he leads, hires, advises, and works with teams. --- ## 1. Empower people over dictating solutions **tier:** `core` Character and ambition outrank years of experience. People can carry significant responsibility if they are the right fit, and the job of a leader is to give it to them and see what they do with it. > "I think people can take on an awful lot of responsibility if they're geared in the right way. And I don't think that necessarily has to come from years and years of experience." > — James Jenkins, LBBOnline, 2026-07-02 > "placed a lot of emphasis on empowering teams to pull insights and find answers themselves, versus one person dictating the solution." > — James Jenkins, LBBOnline, 2026-07-02 **What this changes in practice:** Hiring decisions prioritise personality, ambition, and understanding of people over a traditional CV. When a team is stuck, the first move is to help them find the shape of the problem themselves — not to hand them an answer. **Manifestation in practice:** At AKQA, the operating culture was built on giving people significant responsibility early and watching how they handled it. James carries that approach into every organisation he leads. > "the whole ethos of that company was around giving people a lot of responsibility and seeing how they dealt with it. And I think that's something I take with me today." > — James Jenkins, LBBOnline, 2026-07-02 **Hiring rule (owner-confirmed):** ```yaml hiring_criteria: prioritise: - personality - ambition - understanding of people deprioritise: - years of experience as the primary signal rationale: "Right character carries more weight than a traditional track record." ``` **Tradeoff this value produces:** Backing people ahead of their conventional credentials is a risk. The value accepts that risk because the upside — genuine ownership and creative problem-solving — cannot be bought with experience alone. --- ## 2. Optimism toward change as a default operating stance **tier:** `default` Disruption — technological, competitive, or structural — is a condition to build around, not a threat to resist. The question is always how to build around the opportunity, not how to stop the change. > "How do we build around those types of opportunities versus trying to stop them? It's a mindset more than anything." > — James Jenkins, LBBOnline, 2026-07-02 **What this changes in practice:** When a board or leadership team frames agentic AI as a cost or a governance risk, this value changes the opening move. The conversation starts with opportunity cost and first-mover advantage, not with risk mitigation. Strong brands reinvent continuously; technology is one way to do that. **Connection to positioning:** This is the philosophical foundation for James's agentic AI advisory work. The reason to act is not fear of being left behind but the commercial upside of moving first. **What carries a business through disruption:** > "it's more around how you have a strong set of values as a company and how those can see you through the ups and downs." > — James Jenkins, LBBOnline, 2026-07-02 **Gap — owner to confirm:** The specific decision hierarchy between this value and value 1 (empower people) when they pull in different directions has not yet been defined. Provisional order places this value second; owner should confirm. --- ## 3. Push for quality without taking people for granted **tier:** `default` Ambition and care are not in tension. High standards and respect for people as whole humans — whose lives extend well beyond work — can and must coexist. The moment a drive for quality begins consuming people, the drive has become self-serving. > "We want to push, be successful and have a level of quality in our work, but not to the extent where you take people for granted. You respect that work is just one part of their life." > — James Jenkins, LBBOnline, 2026-07-02 **What this changes in practice:** When a founder-led organisation confuses personal attachment to team members or legacy decisions with good leadership, it creates ongoing dysfunction. The right call is to act in the best interest of the business, not to protect relationships or avoid discomfort. Hard decisions are made directly, with a solution or forward path attached. Owner-stated internal leadership rule: "I am very direct and say the things that are uncomfortable to hear, but always lead on a solution or action. Always looking forward." **Manifestation in practice:** In a multi-agency environment with client tension, the approach is: lighten the mood first, find the shared goal that unites all teams, and hold a strong conviction about what is best for the brand and business. Loyalty stays with the client in the room — never at the client's expense to score points with partners. **Tradeoff this value produces:** Directness in hard moments can be uncomfortable. The value accepts that discomfort because delay or avoidance compounds the problem. As owner-stated: you never regret acting in the best interest of the business, even when the call is hard in the moment. --- ## 4. Culture must be anchored to performance **tier:** `core` Culture is not an end in itself. It earns its place when it produces better work, stronger teams, and measurable commercial outcomes. When culture floats free of performance, it becomes a liability — a source of emotional decision-making that protects the comfortable at the cost of the capable. **Owner-stated formulation:** "I never let culture float free of performance." **What this changes in practice:** A decision that protects a relationship, a legacy hire, or a comfortable status quo at the expense of business performance is not a values-driven decision — it is an emotionally driven one. The test for any cultural or people decision is whether it serves the business or the decision-maker. **Connection to value 3:** This value and value 3 operate together. Pushing for quality (value 3) without taking people for granted is only possible when culture is grounded in performance. The combination rules out both exploitation and complacency. **Agent resolution note:** When culture and performance appear to conflict, agents should surface the tension rather than resolve it silently. This is a judgment call James makes personally, not one agents should automate. --- ## Agent resolution order When values conflict in a judgment call, prioritise: 1. Culture anchored to performance (value 4) — invariant operating law 2. Empower people over dictating solutions (value 1) — governs hiring and team leadership 3. Push for quality without taking people for granted (value 3) — governs day-to-day leadership conduct 4. Optimism toward change (value 2) — governs strategic framing and advisory stance **Note:** This order is provisional for values 2, 3, and 4 in relation to each other. Owner confirmation needed before agents treat it as binding in edge cases. --- ## Owner confirmations needed ```yaml pending_confirmations: - item: "Resolution order between values 2, 3, and 4 in edge cases" why: "Public evidence implies the order above; direct owner confirmation not yet on record." - item: "Named principle and full operational definition for value:balance_push_and_respect" why: "Tradeoff language is strong (owner-quoted); named principle and hiring/team decision rule are inferred from evidence, not directly stated." ``` ## Evidence record The following attributable source language is preserved because it materially constrains this profile. ### Owner-confirmed evidence > James Jenkins hires for personality, ambition and understanding of people rather than traditional experience. Source: Public source