In this special Christmas episode of the Data Migration Podcast by binary10, James and Steve have a chat with Andi and take a reflective journey through the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future - binary10 style!

From the resilience built during the COVID years to the exciting growth and team moments of today, and finally looking ahead to innovation, new services, and continued success in 2026, this episode is a warm, thoughtful, and often humorous reflection on what it really means to grow a people-first consultancy.

It’s a celebration of lessons learned, teamwork, wellbeing, and ambition with a festive twist and plenty of light-hearted moments along the way.

In this episode, we cover:

• Lessons from the Ghost of Christmas Past

• How remote working reshaped binary10

• Highlights from the Ghost of Christmas Present

• Team events, the Walk for Good challenge, and client successes

• Why team culture, social connection, and wellbeing remain central to binary10’s values

• Celebrating project wins and learning from what went right and what went wrong

• Looking ahead to the Ghost of Christmas Future with innovation, new services, and continuous improvement.

• What success in 2026 looks like for binary10

EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION:

Disclaimer: This transcript was generated by an AI tool that did its best, but it's never met different British accents it could fully decode. Expect a few funny mistakes. Enjoy!

[00:00] - Andi J

Ho, ho, ho, and a warm welcome to the binary10 Data Migration Podcast. I am joined today, as always, by our Chief Operating Officer, who is in Lapland, Steve Smales. How are you doing, Steve?

[00:14] - Steve S

I'm doing well, Andy. Yeah, sorry for the, might be delay in the speech, because obviously I'm a long way away. Yeah, it's very cold here as well, so you might see me shivering a bit. And also the camera might be a bit low-res as well, so the internet's not that great in the North Pole.

[00:21] - Andi J

And we're also joined by our Chief Executive, James Blake. Jamie, how are you?

[00:34] - James B

Well, ho, ho, ho to yourself. I am very well in the festive season, really looking forward to a well-earned break for myself, but also for the rest of the team. And we've got a hell of a lot to do next year. So it's a good time of year to just reflect and, yeah, just cosy on into those festivities. So looking forward to it. And also thinking about upping Steve's salary as well, because we've got to get him to turn his heating on. So yeah. Got to help him out. Yeah.

[01:05] - Andi J

Cold up north. Cold up north. You're in Guildford. That's not anywhere near the north.

[01:08] - Steve S

Ruined the illusion.

[01:09] - Andi J

Sorry, sorry. Guildford in the North Pole. Sorry, Guildford in the North Pole. I do apologise. For this Christmas special, what we wanted to do was just to look at the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future for Binary10. wish all our clients and customers and listeners to the podcast a Merry Christmas while we're here as well. So let's start with the ghost of Christmas past. Jamie, let you start. What is the ghost of Christmas past for you? What was the best thing from 2025?

[01:42] - James B

Well, when you said ghost, I thought I'd actually start with maybe a bit of a bit of a negative story. And I was thinking about probably a ghost for a lot of people is um is obviously you know Quite a few years ago, we went through COVID, didn't we? And it resonates with me, that story, because I remember we were sort of three years into our new consultancy. Things were going fantastic. We were running six, seven projects. It was great. And then so sad for the country, for the world. Everyone sort of had to take a step back. And I just remember the day it happened. Not only everyone terrified and being really worried about what was going to happen, but actually just, you know, all of a sudden getting a phone call from just... one after the other from all our clients, you know, ever so sorry, but we're stopping, we're pausing this, haven't you almost couldn't believe it, you know? And it always when you said the ghost, I thought about that. I thought, you know, whilst that was such a sad and challenging time, actually, the resilience it built in us, you know, you know, we that's the positive we took from it, right? We didn't stop, we didn't, we could have easily just given up because it was so, so difficult. And I just remember Steve, you know, I mean, you would always continue to talk about that moment, right, about how, oh, God, yeah, you know, we went from, you know, heroes to literally zeros, you know, as I'm sure lots of people did. But, you know, we built some great resilience there to come out of that.

[03:03] - Steve S

Yeah, and I think it's a very good point. It did affect everyone. I think from our point of view, just trying to start that business from scratch and getting it to such a good point so early on and then just seeing it all disappear and happen. pretty much having to start from scratch. We did get one client out of those back, but a lot of those projects were canned and didn't come back again, which is understandable. And so it was a bit of a kick in the teeth, but like you say, we've shown that resilience. We've fought back and grown bigger than we were before that point. So it's, you know, I think a horrible experience for pretty much everyone around the world, wasn't it? But, you know, at least from our point of view, we have managed to fight back.

[03:44] - Andi J

I think it really made you focus. on business fundamentals, didn't it, when COVID happened? Because you had to really focus on what was essential for the business and what was good to have, what was nice to have, and kind of what spun out from there. And I know you've done a couple of episodes of kind of business startup podcasts as well as part of this series last year. What other lessons did you learn then that you might want to share with the listeners?

[04:07] - James B

The reality was, you know, for me, it's different for everyone, but actually in those first sort of six to eight weeks, business wasn't priority I'm afraid you know it was family first and foremost it was friends it was just trying to relate to this new world and that's why I think it did make it difficult to continue the business you know like you know at pace you know we had to make sure that we were grounded that we were sorted that we were safe and then from that point on you know it was about reaching back out to people you know trying to trying to do other things that we wouldn't normally do you know we were offering services you know at reduced rates even some extra work that we have bolt on just to help you know our partners and our clients actually get back on their feet and get moving again on some of these programs that they need to do and of course the obvious one a bit like what we're doing now we had to adapt very quickly and get really good at working from home you know and actually working online and collaborating and getting used to this new ways of working which obviously we're still doing today and the whole world's changed as a part of it but um But yeah, it was a challenging time indeed. Yeah. But like I said, we have to look back on these things in a positive way. You know, we appreciate it. Very difficult at the time, you know, lots of sad stories, but, you know, we all have to learn from it and we all have to, you know, move forward. And we've definitely done that. So yeah, proud of all the team that helped us do it.

[05:25] - Andi J

And any podcast highlights from you, Steve, for the ghost of Christmas past?

[05:30] - Steve S

Yeah, I suppose I was just going to say that, about Jamie's point, you know, COVID did change the way we work with all the remote working and everything. and Obviously, we used to be on client sites and now the vast majority of our work is remote. But we still do get together at various points and myself and Jamie particularly get together quite regularly. And out of that came the podcasts. And that's been brilliant. And that's been really good to see them progress. And we've actually started to get work through our podcast now, which is really good. So, yeah, I quite enjoyed the series about the starting of business. I quite enjoyed that. although the bulk of the the podcast we've done have been around data migration and we'll start to do more later on on other areas that we do around data quality and integrations but I think yeah I quite enjoyed the stuff about you know the start in the business and how we progress that through the years.

[06:20] - Andi J

So let's move forward in time when if you listen carefully you can hear the chains of the ghost of Christmas present just entering the chat there they come so Steve the ghost of Christmas present from the sort of, you know... Last month, this, where we are now, maybe up to Christmas and just after, what is it that's kind of stood out for you?

[06:40] - Steve S

Been really, really busy, which is good. We've had a couple of new projects kick off, so that's very exciting. You know, we're getting more advanced in terms of internal projects that we're working on we're going to carry on through into next year. So that's got some really exciting stuff to announce at various points during the new year. I think the most important thing, though, is the Binary 10 Christmas party, which is always an event, and we've got that planned for London this Saturday. We'll be going to the Oxo Tower Brasserie and then on to the Old Vic to watch A Christmas Carol, funny enough, where I think it's something to do with three spirits from past, present and future. I'd do something along those lines, I think. Andy, you might have heard of it.

[07:20] - Andi J

Were the three spirits vodka, gin and brandy? Well, I'm hoping so. I know it. I know it well. I know it well. But yeah, look, I think the social calendar that you put together, both professionally and socially, I want to say that. So we have team get-togethers four times a year, which is really important when everyone's working remotely to come together to Reading and get to know each other, get to share what we're doing. It's superb that we do those. But also the social aspect is really important to keep that team cohesion. So look, for me, for one of the team, you know, sort of a hat off to you for... Santa hat off if I was wearing one for putting those together and what about you Jamie for uh your ghost of Christmas present

[08:03] - James B

yeah I mean I might sort of skip back a couple of months but sort of in the recent past and it's just to sort of resonate a bit more on what you've talked about there yes you know absolutely coming together and doing these events on a quarterly basis I mean we did one recently um in Reading and we put on a bit of a treasure hunt you know totally separate from business but an opportunity for a bit of a you know competition within the team but also to go out and try and, you know, beat this treasure trail in in Reading and what was fantastic is that we've got you know a lot of people on the team that you know probably prefer to be in the pub or would like to go and have a drink but come I think it's about 5 30 in the evening and we've still got like 12 of us you know all just walking around in the dark trying to finish this treasure trail because we were so determined to get there and actually we we did we got back in the pub at six o'clock and we were like yes we've got the answer we got the answer unfortunately we were all completely wrong So, you know, whilst we braved it right to the end, it turned out that that was quite a tricky treasure hunt. And we just missed it at the last second, which was a shame. But, you know, what a team performance. And I just love that. You know, it's great to just see everyone, you know, really getting into it, really taking part. And then just and then finally, just to add one more was the, you know, we did the Walk for Good challenge, you know, and that's something that I really enjoy, you know, actually doing something for charity, something that we can all, you know. get together on and obviously your good self got involved as well and you know just the things that you learn about certain individuals that seem to walk once around the planet every day and do more steps than you know I think I do in a whole year to other individuals that looked as if they didn't get out of their bedroom for the whole day and you know we're all different and we all live life in a different way and it was but it was just great that you know everyone contributed to that and we raised god I think it was just under a thousand pounds for charity so that was um that was one that I really enjoyed and that's that's leading on to I'm sure we'll talk about the future, but that's on our list now. That is something we're going to do regularly because of all the benefits that it brought.

[09:59] - Andi J

I think for me, the bit about the last team day that was really fantastic was the lunch bit where everyone brought a snack that kind of reflected where they were from. So we've got team members from the very south coast all the way up to Durham, which is almost as far north as where Steve is now in the North Pole. We've also got team members from India, Brazil, Poland, different places around the world. and everyone brought something that reflected where they lived or where they were from. So we had this great diverse selection of food from Korean snacks to Brazilian sweets and Indian desserts and just cheese and onion crisps from Northern Ireland. Just different things which was a really lovely way of putting everyone together. So I thought that was fantastic when we did that.

[10:41] - James B

No, it was brilliant and there was one other thing to mention. So this is, I'm sorry everyone, I want to go back to work but something amazing happened actually in this last month. So one of our higher education customers that we've just delivered for on a big program, data migration, we, I won't go through the whole story of it, but it's been very successful towards the end. But we actually did a lessons learned recently, you know, classic lessons learned that you do at the end of the project. And actually, we spent half the time learning about how on earth we managed to deliver, you know, in the last sort of 8-12 weeks when And everyone was up against it. And it looked... forever in a day that we were going to have to extend the program by another three months in order to achieve everything. Somehow, you know, and this isn't just Binary10, this is our partner organisations as well, the whole team came together, lots of long, you know, long hours, hard work, focused work, you know, just a management team that was just keeping everyone focused and, you know, supporting them as best they can. And we actually spent a good, you know, like I said, half the lessons learned, a good half an hour just recording about things that went well. And that was the first time, again, you think about this, don't you? You think, yeah, why don't we do this all the time? Like every lesson learned is always about, oh, well, that didn't work out well. That wasn't a good thing to do. But yeah, and believe me, the team were half an hour. They were like, oh, wasn't that good when, you know, the manager pulled us in and did that planning session for an hour and got us focused? And wasn't that good when we got together and did that hackathon? I was just like, this is brilliant. And we just take, we've taken so much out of that that we are going to bleed into, you know, all our... All our programs going forward and and so that was a that was a nice little nugget for me just that how lessons learned can be about the good lessons you know as well as uh the constructive negative ones.

[12:25] - Andi J

So Steve, for the ghost of Christmas yet to come as we move over to the final spirit of this particular podcast um i want you to put yourself December 2026 in your little igloo in north pole as i'm sure you will be again next year and i want you to look back and reflect on what a year Binary Tent had for 2026. What sort of things are you hoping you will see in that 12 months?

[12:50] - Steve S

I suppose the main thing is the continuation of success in terms of delivering for our clients. We want to start offering new services, which we will start announcing in the new year. So I think we want to expand in terms of what we do, but also just keep that success, but also at the same time, keep that sort of feel that we've got. within the company we've sort of built up over the years you know we all get along as a group you know people in the social events we always enjoy them i mean james spoke earlier about the walk for good and i think certainly next year hopefully we'll be looking back on a great sort of weekend away we actually want to get everyone away and do a proper walk together which would be great for sort of you know just team building not not maybe doing you know assault courses or anything like that but just just a you know a nice sort of day away we actually start walking up mountains but you know enjoying it and but also raising some money for charity while we're doing it um so i think the yeah it's i suppose it's growing the business but maintaining the success and but still that that feeling that we've got that you know we all get along together that you know we. Have fun while we're doing it i think that's going to be the main thing.

[13:59] - Andi J

And the same question to you Jamie what would you say is the you know the ghost of Christmas yet to come what would you reflect on in december 2026.

[14:05] - James B

We're definitely doing more than 10,000 steps in a day. I just don't understand why my phone doesn't ever seem to show any more than that when I swear I've been absolutely hammering it around, walking my dog all over. So that's a personal goal for me, having partaken in these things. I'm sure there'll be an opportunity for us to do that. But yeah, just building on what Steve said there, really, I think one of the things that we've talked about is innovation. So, you know, myself and Steve over a number of years have got fantastic methodologies, fantastic tool sets, and they work and they deliver, you know, but they work at a certain pace and in collaboration with, you know, with partners and other work streams. But how can we do better again? I'd love to be able to look back at the end of next year and actually see how, you know, we've saved organizations further cost. We've been able to do things more efficiently and quicker. And we're going to do that by some of the innovation, you know, activities that we've got set for next year so That's a real key one for me, you know, not just about, you know, building services and continuing to deliver good projects. No, absolutely. We want to do that. But let's even do it better. Let's prove that we can actually improve and, you know, you know, innovate to that to that sort of top level, which, you know, it just, you know, we've got to continue to do that. Right. It's so easy to just get stuck in the moment and just stuck in what we're good at. We've just got to continually do better. That's going to be the main thing for me, I think, you know, hopefully that we reflect and that we've gone above and beyond again and delivered even better for our clients. So, yeah, some more good stories. That'd be great.

[15:38] - Steve S

Yeah, I think continuous improvement is something we're very conscious of.

[15:42] - Andi J

Well, look, we've got to the end of the ghost of Christmas past, present and future. I have a memory. Maybe this is just from being from a Caribbean family. Is Bob Marley not involved in the story of A Christmas Carol as well? That's Jacob Marley. Bob Cratchit and Jacob Marley but I'm sure in my household when we were kids it was Bob Marley who was involved but. I believe most of three little birds then it would be. There you go but I believe at the end of every podcast I'm going to shut up because there's an ending to every show and there's no point ruining it with me talking so I'll say thank you and goodbye but Jamie, Steve, over to you to finish the show.

[16:19] - James B

No thanks, thanks I'd much appreciate it, I mean I think of Bill Murray, actually, when I think of these ghosts, but that's the Scrooge movie. That's definitely my one. But firstly, it was just, you know, what a year, you know, podcasts only started this year. Fantastic. You know, so many successes again with our clients looking to build upon it, but also just really build upon our people first value. And, you know, we've got lots of fantastic, you know, incentives and other things coming up for our people, for the people within our client organizations. and super looking forward to delivering them but no just a just a big thank you as well to everybody to everybody that's associated with binary10 you know friends family colleagues you know wishing you um all the best Christmas and a happy new year and can't wait to get cracking again in the future.

[17:00] - Steve S

Yeah, I'll echo that, and I think the only other thing I just need to say is see you next time, Jamie.

[17:05] - Steve S

see you next time, Steve.