This is a question I come across daily, and I’m not going to lie, it’s a question I enjoy answering and one I can answer easily with facts and figures. For example, our iXBRL team, have tagged ESEF reports for over 50% of the main-market listed companies who have submitted to the National Storage Mechanism year to date. They apply over 1,000,000 tags on an annual basis. Their customer satisfaction rating on our support tickets is 100%. Impressive, no? But you may be surprised to know that this is not the answer I give when asked “Why ARKK?”. Bizarre, I know.
I joined ARKK nearly 6 years ago, and I still wake up in the morning looking forward to go to work. That’s not because our team hits amazing targets, or because we are the market leaders in many of our solutions. It’s because of the people I work with. I started with ARKK as the iXBRL Team Manager and a few years ago, during a recruitment phase, I asked the team why they chose ARKK. Part of me expected them to say it was because of the Friday beers, or the relaxed vibe in the office with music playing, or the flexibility to go to the gym during the day. Although these were mentioned (and are absolutely awesome if i say so myself), they were not the main reasons. The overwhelming response was that the team loved the culture of working together. When there is a deadline to meet, everyone stays late to support each other; our CEO comes over to have a coffee and a chat with the team to see how they are getting on; during busier periods, other teams help out where possible, even if that just meant getting the coffees in. We are always in it together.
The culture at ARKK is unique to anywhere I have previously worked. We win together. Everyone works collaboratively, towards the same goal. This is true not just internally but also with our external partnerships. A client recently sent me an email to say thank you and said; "We greatly appreciate the collaborative way that you worked with us", and this is my answer to the question, "Why ARKK?". Working with ARKK, be that as an employee or as a client is a partnership, and we pride ourselves on that.