Ambition A.M. meets Ajaz Ahmed’s to learn how his never-ending quest for success led him to his globally recognised digital design agency AKQA
“I felt like I won the lottery,” Ajaz Ahmed says, smiling as he tells me about the day he found his love for business deep within an old skip full of stationery waste.
The entrepreneur was just 12 years old when he stumbled upon what he saw as a “gold mine” behind the Ashton-Tate offices while on his routine early morning paper round.
Little did he know, the urge to clean up and sell some old floppy disks behind what was then the third-largest software company in the world would lead him to embark on his own entrepreneurial career just nine years later.
Ahmed, now 55, founded the London-based digital design agency AKQA in 1994 with a mission to help design and innovate within all the new and exciting technologies being pioneered at the time.
Since its debut, during a time when he says the internet revolution was just beginning, AKQA has become a globally recognised brand with over 5,000 employees, working with high-profile clients which include more than half the Fortune 500 top 20 companies.
Turns out, the power of simply asking a question out of curiosity might just bring you more than a yes or no answer.
Harnessing your ambitions
For Ahmed, the simple curiosity of what could be found within what Ashton-Tate saw as rubbish led him on a never-ending quest for success.
“I completed my paper around, went home, put my school uniform on, went to school, came back, and then I knocked on the door of the company and I said, excuse me, can I go through your skip?” he says.
With that came a whole new opportunity, he says, because it led him to a game-changing tour of the building and an even more fond view of what a major software firm could offer someone at the early start of their career.
Over the next three years, Ahmed spent his time carefully drafting letters of interest to the firm’s management on an ambitious hunt for his first-ever internship, which he managed to secure at the age of 15.
“The managing director of the company did something incredible for me [and] he said ‘you can work in every department…you’re going to start with finance, then you go to sales, then you go to operations, logistics, marketing, all of the different departments at training’,” he says.
“Imagine being a 15-year-old kid [and] being exposed to these geniuses that are creating the unicorns of that time and at the cutting edge of software.”
Navigating change
Ahmed has no doubt seen a great deal of change when it comes to the growth of AKQA.
The brand caught the attention of investors early on, with professional services firm Accenture investing $71m (£54m) into the agency in 2001 prior to its merger with three other agencies.
In 2012, it transitioned into becoming an autonomous subsidiary of what is now the world’s largest advertising company, WPP, after attracting the attention of Sir Martin Sorrell – in a deal that valued the company at $540m (£426m) – and then merged with Grey Group in 2020, bringing its global reach even further.
However, despite decades worth of technological change and more company milestones than he can count, Ahmed’s role as founder and chief executive has remained the same – and he seems to be in it for the long haul.
“I love the fact I still get to work with the clients directly [and] I love the fact I still get to work with the teams directly,” Ahmed says, with a smile.
“I wouldn’t change anything… It’s been an extraordinary journey,” he adds.
Never miss out on what is in front of you
After just one year of studying business at Bath University, Ahmed dropped out to pursue a career in entrepreneurship at the age of 21.
I can’t help but question, however, why someone would up and leave their studies in a field that they love at a university they arguably say is one of the best in the country.
Turns out, after discovering the internet, the decision to hit the ground running on his own didn’t even form a debate.
“I didn’t want to miss out on the internet revolution in the same way that if I was a kid today, I wouldn’t want to miss out on the AI revolution,” Ahmed says.
The golden opportunity in front of entrepreneurs now, he says, is going to be found within AI, climate tech, and healthcare next.
“They all have the potential to improve the quality of life significantly…
“What could be more important than improving the quality of life not just for humans, but all the species that we share this planet with?” Ahmed says.
“I think there’s so many reasons to be hopeful about the new generation and also British entrepreneurs.”
CV
Name: Ajaz Ahmed
Company: AKQA
Founded: 1994
Staff: Over 5,000
Title: Founder and CEO
Age: 51
Born: Taplow, Buckinghamshire
Lives: West London
Studied: University of Bath
Motto: Strenuis Ardua Cedunt (Difficulties Yield To Diligence) from my school
Favourite book: Misunderstood by Florence Montgomery and Narcissus and Goldmund by Hermann Hesse
Best piece of advice: The purpose of life is to create life and help life thrive