Contact James Houston Managing Director

James Houston

Managing Director

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BA (Hons) Business Studies, Dip Mgt

My role at Jones and Palmer is about surrounding myself with people who are passionate and engaged in shaping our business to deliver sustainable benefits to our clients.

I’m fortunate to have a dynamic team focussed on delivering a strategy that optimises the 'message', 'impression' and 'medium' for all of our clients' corporate reporting. Currently working with 155 plcs, including 12 FTSE250 companies - Jones and Palmer are now delivering a major project every other working day – so we must be getting something right!

As we get closer to our clients and get ‘under the skin’ of their business, it allows us to improve our understanding of their issues, refine and challenge their message, inform and update them on best practice, and only then translate that into a creative solution.

The most rewarding part of my job is discussing projects with the team, or attending presentations, where I can see our passion projected into a mixed-media, creative solution that hits the spot for our customer. You can get a flavour for what I mean by looking at some of the comments left by our clients.

The personal development of our core team is essential to sustain the improvements in Jones and Palmer. I believe this is essential at all levels in the organisation, hence I have just got to the end of my MBA journey myself (awaiting results!), which has already benefitted the strategic direction of our business, and introduced some interesting models that have benefitted our clients work.

Outside of Jones and Palmer my love of rugby union has definitely fed my appreciation of ‘high performance teams’; although my highlight of representing Warwickshire and the West Midlands school boys seems a long time ago! My boots have been hung up for some time, but they haven’t been thrown away yet (much to the concern of my wife).

I enjoy golf, and cycling, when I get the chance. I am married to a fantastically supportive wife, and have a 5 year old daughter, who gives my life a great perspective! The other family members are a 'serial killer' cat called Smudge, who has destroyed most of the birds and rodents in the village, but now prefers to bring victims in alive, as it causes greater impact and 2 rabbits (Hip and Hop), who spend most of their day squaring up to the cat!