Julian manages a young advertising agency in a provincial town in Austria. Together with his partners, he made a name for himself with a modern, but still affordable implementation approach. Some say, Julian is a free thinker as he doesn’t like to mince his words. But this is not an issue, as his success speaks for itself. Julian enjoys it to be free and independent. In large agencies, he would be required to hide his tattoos and stick to the agency lingo. So he is what he is – a character.

Last week, Julian’s agency won a large contract. The task is to work out the whole marketing presence for a regional start-up. This start-up is specialised on producing and selling jams and sweets made of local fruit. The product range not only includes classics like cherry jam, but also dried wild strawberries, woodruff fruit gum and more.

This shouldn’t be much of a challenge for an experienced guy like Julian. In next to no time, he comes up with a concept for logos, colours, product names, pictures and everything that goes along with a project like this. But Julian overlooked a small, yet crucial point of the contract. The idea is to sell the products in an own local store not far away and in a mobile pop-up store. And guess who is not only responsible to design and develop these stores, but also to build them? Of course it’s Julian and his agency!

Unfortunately, Julian isn’t very well versed in interior fitout, tools and stuff – but luckily, he has the right idea at the right time. He also consults a Project Business Partner. He remembers that this Project Business Partner states on his webpage that “Your problem is our project”. Julian snatches his phone and calls Michaela List-Ebner – one of the founders of the Project Business Partner – and tells her about his problem. mi soon is on fire for this challenge. They agree to meet the next day at Julian’s place to talk about the details.

Next morning: Julian already sips his second cup of coffee when b&mi arrive in their 20-year-old Audi TT – a bit of nostalgia comes with it. A couple in blue jeans, wearing a black top and black Converse, gets out of the car, their eyes hidden behind dark sunglasses. Look like twins, Julian thinks, but they seem to get along well. Stickers with handprints of their two kids at the back windows of the TT bring in a splash of colour and show Julian that b&mi have humour.

Julian provides everyone with coffee, and then they get started. First, Julian tells about his issue. b&mi nod sympathetically and take notes – b on his iPad, mi prefers pen and paper. From time to time, they exchange a glance as if they were communicating telepathically – Julian has a good feeling about this. With every sentence, the project takes shape and Julian’s worries vanish.

After 50 minutes, b&mi begin to speak. They sum up the project’s targets, draw up a timeline and make a first cost estimate. Soon, also the partner companies that take part in the implementation are fixed, and first technical details have been worked out as well.

This is how a problem became a project.