Tony Lewis is CEO of Vision One Research, a Liverpool-based research firm.
Most CEOs will tell you that no two days are ever quite the same, and it’s just one of the reasons Lewis relishes the challenge that the role brings.
It’s certainly a “rollercoaster”, he says, and some weeks may bring more bumps than thrills, but a recent week in his life was “one to remember”.
From helping clients shape their future strategies, developing new ways to listen to what customers are telling brands, and juggling numerous meetings, his days are often fuelled by a passion for bringing insights for clients, along with the occasional ‘overpriced’ coffee. Here, Lewis shares what he got up to during a recent week in his busy life…
Monday – Client brand ideation session
After travelling down on Sunday evening, Monday kicked off with a full-day brand ideation session in Horsham with a forward-thinking and customer-focused housing association.
The co-creation workshop brought together customers and the management team to explore how the client could better support their tenants and refine its five-year corporate strategy. Bringing everyone together allows the group to see the issues with more of a 360-degree perspective and avoids building solutions on costly assumptions. Tony facilitated the session, encouraging open dialogue and ensuring every voice was heard.
The result? Some genuinely powerful insights. As one staff member put it: “This is the most I have learned about the business since I started at the company two years ago.” Moments like this are why Tony loves what he does, and what keeps him focused on the less inspiring days!
Tuesday – Digging deeper with depth interviews
Yet another coffee shop created a useful away-from-home office, as Tuesday was all about depth interviews and meeting customers to hear their stories. Tony believes these depths are essential for gaining a genuine understanding of the client’s customers. These one-to-one conversations are a vital part of Vision One’s research process, allowing organisations to understand their audiences on a deeper level.
Tony thrives on the detail, teasing out the nuanced opinions and stories that numbers alone don’t reveal, looking for the seemingly unimportant anecdotes that can have strategy-changing significance.
Wednesday – The road to Wembley
Wednesday kicked off a little quieter, working from home while staying with family in the Cotswolds. A chance to write some proposals and review reports. But by the evening, Tony was all dressed up and heading down to Wembley for a black-tie event, The Business Book Awards 2025.
He had been nominated as a finalist for his first and only book to date, Brand Momentum, which distils much of his 25+ years of specialist research knowledge and experience but with a twist.
The book focuses on how brands succeed and introduces a completely new way of measuring brand health and assessing longer-term potential. The book has undoubtedly been “a labour of love” – taking so much longer to write and publish than anticipated! Like everything worth doing, it brought a lot of grind and a load of learning along the way. To his great surprise, Tony won the Best Business Book for Sales and Marketing. A wonderful, if unexpected moment, that becomes another one of those little beacons to keep you going and make the long days worthwhile.
Thursday – Writing, meetings and heading North
Thursday was another work from home day, though not without its challenges. Between team meetings, fixing website issues and writing the feature piece for The Times about his award before the deadline, Tony was juggling multiple hats.
By evening, he was finally heading back north to his home in the Lake District, ready for some fresh air after a whirlwind few days and clocking up over a thousand miles in the car.
Friday – Catching up
With the weekend in sight and after the daily team focus meeting, Tony began his Friday by opening his laptop to face the mountain of emails that had built up over the week. It felt like an impossible task, but with focus and determination, he worked through them, clearing the clutter and setting himself up for the days ahead. The rest of the day was lighter. It was filled with a mix of internal catch-ups and client meetings, giving him space to reflect on what had been an extraordinary week.
As the afternoon drew to a close, Tony shut his laptop and paused to take it all in, this time with a large glass of red! Not every week is filled with such positive surprises – or so much travel in these post-COVID days – but every bit of what you do while you’re waiting for them goes into making those moments. So, cheers to the week ahead, which will probably bring a few problems and mistakes along with loads of good ideas, and a lot more coffee!
Learn more about Tony’s book Brand Momentum here.
