Insights

Every company will tell you their culture is special. And that’s the case now more than ever, with talented people in high demand and many questioning the direction of their career against the backdrop of Covid-19.

Infinity Works really is different though.

I’ve been reflecting on why that is, and what brought me here after more than 15 years with global brands such as Microsoft and AWS.

It boils down to this: Infinity Works’ culture has a strong drive to get things done, a passion for autonomy in decision making, and a focus on innovation, all built on trusting relationships between colleagues. It means we can collectively bring about change at speed and deliver tangible change for our customers, faster.

Because here’s the thing: why would we want to work so hard to find and hire the best people, only to constrain them unnecessarily?

It all means, once people start their careers at Infinity Works, they tend to stick around. 

Here are some reflections on the conversations I’m having with some of our longest serving and newer colleagues, as well as potential recruits.

The feel of a fast-growing scale-up business, backed by a global leader

Infinity Works has been around for more than eight years now, transforming in that time from a four-person start-up to a 600-strong group of digital experts with experience in supporting start-ups, scale-ups, and the household brands we’re all familiar with.

It’s a case study in innovation, transformation, and scaling – exactly the kinds of things we’re doing for our customers). Now, with the power of Accenture behind us, the sky’s the limit for this next chapter of growth and innovation.

Bringing pioneering projects to reality

Personally, I’m a fan of learning by doing. And that’s what our people are living in their day-to-day work.

We’re working with the leading brands of tomorrow – market disruptors, challenger businesses, and future FTSE-listed companies – which means our people are getting stuck into exciting, pioneering projects, at the forefront of technical development.

Now add variety and scale. From loyalty platforms to identity systems, national retailers to fintech start-ups – we’re working across a huge variety of projects, technologies, and industries. Every day there’s a new problem to solve, a new challenge to overcome.

Our focus on delivering results, starting with a walking skeleton and iterating rapidly, allows us to unlock the full potential of our teams and customers’ visions to generate value at pace.

The beauty of the flat hierarchy

I think most of us have worked in a company where we’re told “that’s not your job”, or “you’re too junior to suggest a new idea”.

But Infinity Works doesn’t operate like that. As leaders, we want everyone to have a voice. We expect to be challenged – in fact, we invite it – because there’s more than one way to solve a problem and we want to find the right answer together. It also means people at all levels have a degree of autonomy far beyond the norm. We don’t expect, and can’t afford, for our teams to ‘play in position’; we need people eager to contribute to our culture, our evolution, and the progress we’re making.

This mindset is a game-changer. It makes you feel like you’re part of something and it pushes you to be your best self. Not just on a job-by-job basis, but also in your day-to-day because we work as a collective, from the small seemingly inconsequential stuff through to the big, more strategic items – we really try to consult and make decisions together wherever it makes sense.

Let me give a real-world example: every month, we invite everyone to a session to help make Infinity Works better. And not just on the small things either – they helped rethink our entire pension scheme based on the needs and feedback of our people!

Excel and develop

In its simplest form, technical excellence means you excel at what you do, but at Infinity Works, what you do is unique to you. Our consultants have broad expertise and deep specialist knowledge. Everyone has a different skill set – they can code in different languages, they’ve worked in different sectors, and they’ve got different specialisms.

We don’t want people to be great at one toolset; we want them to understand the fundamentals, so they can turn their hand to any technology and find the right tools to overcome every challenge, across sectors, and across the whole project lifecycle.

At Infinity Works, there’s no set path for development: you decide where you want to specialise in and what qualifications you want to get, then work with an advocate (like a career coach) to make it happen and find projects that match what you want to learn. This could come in the form of training, certifications, or hands-on experience.

We also have a healthy budget for training courses, but a lot of it also comes down to learning from those around you. For instance, if you need help with a problem, our engineering practice leads and subject matter experts will be only too happy to support.

When it comes to hiring, great minds don’t think alike

People are everything at Infinity Works. We bring together experts with different skills, learnings, and perspectives. This diversity of outlook helps us understand our customers’ problems and conceive new possibilities that others can’t. It means that when our teams come together to collaborate, in any of our UK hubs, there’s a real buzz. But because we encourage cross-office collaboration, people also get to work alongside 600 of our brightest minds across the company.

We’re always looking for amazing people to join our team. Contact me if you’d like to learn more about our special culture and the career opportunities we can offer. One thing I can promise you if you join Infinity Works is that you’ll enjoy yourself delivering meaningful work, learn a lot from experts in their respective fields, and contribute to something valuable!