Once Bernard gets on a roll with an idea, he just won’t let it go. I’m talking about his whole Charles and the Chocolate Shop thing. I haven’t actually read the book or seen the movie, so maybe I’m missing something that would convince me that it’s a good idea. But at the end of the day, we’re a cloud accounting software company. It’s not about fun-filled wonder and dreams coming true. It’s about low-barrier accounting solutions, primarily for sole traders in the allied health industry.
Bernard has always been the more whimsical contributor to our partnership. To be fair, his lighthearted perspective has been an unexpected boon for business, enabling us to tap into a niche customer base of people who are sceptical of the bigger names in our field. That’s why I can’t just come out and say no, we’re not doing this, but I also can’t accept this as the premise of our office design plan. Melbourne will go nuts for it, Bernard reckons, but I’m not convinced our investors will.
They know our company is hip, young, disruptive and all that, but they still expect a certain degree of decorum, and on some level it’s my job to keep Bernard’s whimsy in check. We balance each other out. Bernard can be a bit like a seven year-old on a sugar rush at a birthday party, and I can be a bit like the parent that insists on only serving crudites at kids’ parties in order to avoid such situations. Both influences have their pros and cons.
Maybe we need to sit down with a professional about the office fitout. High end Melbourne offices are often somewhat creative spaces, and there’s room for a bit of imagination. It’s just a matter of not taking things too literally, which Bernard has a tendency to do. He’s a bit of an ‘all or nothing’ type.