Founder and MD of Premier Events, Ben McCarthy, shares his thoughts on why momentum matters more than perfection.
From spending his £1,000 student overdraft to buy a mobile disco, to running a global events agency predicted to turnover £10 million this year, Ben McCarthy has seen firsthand how the speed of execution can make or break a business. As Managing Director of an award-winning full-service agency, we check in with Ben on how to grow faster, smarter, and stronger.
Keep the pipeline short
Great ideas are the heart of our industry, but whether it’s a new product, bold pitch, or daring acquisition, the real value lies in execution. Premier has worked hard to keep the distance between ‘idea’ and ‘action’ as short as possible.
This means stripping away unnecessary hoops, cutting down on 100-page pitch decks, and empowering the team to make bold decisions in real time. In practice, this looks like rapid sign-off structures, clear ownership, and seeking action – instead of debating every detail, launch, test, and adapt. The sooner your idea is live, the sooner you can gauge impact and adjust before competitors catch up.
Reward speed, not perfection
It’s tempting to wait until a plan feels flawless, but the reality of waiting is you risk missing the moment. Some of Premier’s biggest wins have come from moving at speed; these projects could have taken six months or longer if the team had waited for the perfect conditions. Instead, they gained first-mover advantage, winning clients and credibility that slower rivals never caught. This same principle can be applied on any scale. Speed helps you seize opportunities before they go stale and harness the creative energy of your team.
Fail fast, learn faster
Not every idea will work, and that’s fine! In fact, it’s essential. The faster you test an idea, the faster you’ll discover if it isn’t viable, saving you from investing months of effort and budget into something that’s going to fall flat.
Failure is one of the best teachers when approached with the right mindset. Over the years, Premier has had to accept that not every concept will land. But arriving at that realisation quickly has always saved more than it cost. Quick experiments lead to quick lessons and those lessons fuel better decisions in the long run.
Hesitation is a silent killer
The clearest example of hesitation has been social media. This is now a key lead generator for the business but the team was slow to put money behind it. While people across sectors were building engaged audiences and gaining brand equity online, Ben was still doing the social media in his spare time. By the time the team acted with intention and hired a dedicated social media manager, they had lost valuable months of learning and growing.
The lesson: hesitation is a silent killer. Every day you sit on an idea, you risk losing relevance or losing the idea altogether. In this industry – with shifting trends, a constant need for creativity, and clients demanding fresh thinking – speed is essential for staying relevant.
Build a team that thrives on action
Speed is both a leadership choice and a cultural one. To consistently execute fast, you need a team that thrives on action. Premier rewards initiative, celebrates progress, and treats mistakes as opportunities to learn. As a business owner, this means hiring for attitude as much as skill, creating a safe space for mistakes so teams feel comfortable experimenting without fear of blame, and sharing learnings openly. A culture of action spreads quickly. Once people see that progress is valued more than never getting things wrong, they become braver, more creative, and open to even the biggest ideas.
Make speed work for you
Speed isn’t enough if your project is lacking purpose, you’ll just waste energy.
The key is finding a balance between pace and direction. Ask yourself what your clear goal is, what can be simplified, and who’s responsible.
From humble beginnings in 2002 to delivering the company’s best year to date in 2025, the biggest constant has been Premier’s ability to move fast, learn quickly, and act decisively. Speed has helped the team win pitches, reinvent or expand the company’s services, and build things that others said couldn’t be done.
Ben’s adviceto other event profs and business owners: once you know where you’re heading, don’t wait for conditions to be perfect to make the first move.
Surround yourself with people you trust to deliver at pace and keep the pipeline between idea and delivery as short as possible. So just start and start fast!
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