Is having fun at work fun really the secret of a successful business?
When Adam Padmore left mainstream employment for a better work-life balance he unwittingly laid the foundations for an incredible success story and changed the course of his own career forever.
This article first appeared in The Raikes Journal on 27th October 2025, after Andrew Merrell interviewed Adam to find out the answer.
“Do good, have fun and the money will come,” said Sir Richard Branson. Adam Padmore might not have heard the phrase when he started his business 10-plus years ago, but it certainly has a bearing on his story.
The 40-year-old father of four is unusual. On one hand, yes, he’s like many of us; he entered a profession and then, after a few years, began thinking about how his working life could be better, about what approach he would take if he was in charge.
But what makes him unusual is he didn’t just think about it; he did it. He left a good job and began working for himself.
His idea was simple - that if he enjoyed his work more, he would be more energised and his passion for what he did would shine through, clients would be happy, and they would come back for more.
“It was idealistic and not much of a plan really,” he said, downplaying the idea there was any grand vision or how important his own talent was to that early success.
But clients did indeed come. They did like what he did and how he did it, and they did come back for more.
Before he knew it he was employing staff and, completely unexpectedly, he was running a growing business - and discovering an entrepreneurial streak he didn’t know existed.
Something in the essence of that early idea, which was all about creating something for himself, turned out to be what others wanted too, and he’s been keen to keep that front and centre ever since.
He called that business Cotswolds Transport Planning, renaming it Rappor three years ago to reflect an ambition to become one of the UK’s leading engineering and environmental consultancies to the property, development and construction industries.
Today Padmore is the managing director of a firm of engineering and environmental consultants and almost 90 staff across nine offices - in Cheltenham, Bristol, Birmingham, Cambridge, Bedford, Exeter, Hereford, London and Manchester.
Sector analytics website, IBISWorld, says the UK’s environmental consulting market is worth an estimated £2.6 billion, employs 27,784 staff and is made up of more than 7,000 companies.
What’s interesting is that although the industry recorded record revenue growth immediately before the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s been in a downward trend since 2021.
And yet Rappor has continued to grow, outstripping that sector’s average annual growth of 1.9 per cent.
“We expect to continue to grow organically. We’re in a good position to capitalise,” said Padmore.
He believes that key to that trajectory is managing to continue to work into the DNA of the business those ideas around work culture that inadvertently gave birth to the whole journey way back in 2014.
The catalyst that’s enabled him to do that, and continues to do so, is another Gloucestershire firm - leadership development specialists QuoLux. More of which below.
How does Padmore sum up what Rappor does?
“We predominantly work for developers and their consultant teams looking to submit planning applications, technical approvals and supporting them with the follow up once sites become occupied.
“Our role in the process is to identify and understand all the pertinent environmental constraints around development and then to mitigate them and make sure the clients’ development achieves its goals, to make sure the outcomes are good, and to make sure councils are achieving all targets too,” he said, much happier distilling what Rappor is about than bigging up his own achievements.
For all the success, and my attempts to put him on a pedestal those achievements, he refuses to take credit.
“I don’t think I have any business acumen to tell you the truth,” he replies.
“But I have learned a lot.
“I was lucky to get some really good people in early on, and they have been very important.
“They have helped immensely, but I think for my part I have been quite consistent for 10 years.
“Without doubt I have made many errors. I’ve learned through trial and error,” he said.
He’s also learned through hard work. Lots of it.
Padmore has a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Geography (BSc Hons), a Master of Science degree in Environmental Management (Sustainable Travel) (MSc) and a Master of Science degree in Transport Planning (MSc).
But it is the leadership development journey he embarked on through Gloucestershire-based QuoLux that seems most transformational and helped him turn that learning into meaningful action, and which he now sends other staff on too.
Padmore has put himself through QuoLux’s entire programme (LEAD™, GOLD™ and GAIN™), a journey that ends with a Master’s in business.
“Twenty-six members of the team are now on QuoLux programmes. I am a big believer in the importance of leadership, and I continue to challenge myself to be better at it always,” he said.
A list of businesses that have also embraced the Innsworth-headquartered development specialists reads like a rollcall of the most dynamic and fastest-growing small, medium businesses in the region and beyond.
QuoLux’s premise is simple; investment in leadership and staff generally is woeful across the UK, yet the rewards are clear. The figures back it up.
Businesses whose leaders complete the LEAD™ programme alone experience significant growth, with an average increase of 42 per cent in annual sales, 19 per cent in employment, 197 per cent in profitability over 12 months and a 47 per cent increase in productivity.
Rappor is also an Investor in People Wellbeing Gold accredited.
When we met for this interview, in the firm’s new office space in the Pressworks building, 7-9 Ambrose St, Cheltenham, it was summertime still.
I was there to interview Padmore, to hear about his journey first hand, but as soon as I stepped into the building he was keener to show me plans he has for the offices, and enthusiastically whisks me downstairs to the first floor for a quick guided tour.
It’s probably the clearest sight we get of why getting the culture and working environment right – and all that means - is so important to him.
“Here will be a gym and fitness space,” he said, pointing, as we dip into one of the rooms, “and here will be a breakout space” - he waves his arm in the general direction of a sizeable area you can imagine will be perfect for just that.
It’s hybrid working, and staff can come and go as they please, but upstairs in the rather stylish studio, which would not be out of place in Bristol or London, most of the desks are full.
Why this emphasis on staff wellbeing?
We’re back to Sir Richard Branson.
“Sir Richard Branson once said something like this, ‘I’m not here to take care of clients, I’m here to take care of the staff. If I do that the staff can take even better care of the clients’,” said Padmore.
“I think it’s about getting the right staff and looking after them and investing in them, giving them challenging work and helping them thrive.
“There are a lot of other professionals that do what we do. The difference is how we do it. We want to collaborate with other businesses and want them to be great.
“And importantly, we are very good at what we do too. That’s the bottom line, and it’s why people come back to us. I think people buy from people.”
What he’s saying, and all that investment in leadership underlines, is it’s not all about making a ‘nice environment to work in’, it’s about creating a dynamic, purpose-led environment too.
So did Sir Richard Branson really get it right when he said “a business has to be involving, it has to be fun. Do good, have fun and the money will come”?
For Padmore, it’s more nuanced.
“I think there is a misconception that a business has to be fun and that’s enough. It’s not just about fun.
“It is also about respect, wellbeing, security, about all the individuals who make up the business feeling comfortable and able to do their best.
“I have seen some companies post on social media about having pizzas together on a Friday. That’s nice, but on its own that’s not good enough.”
“Historically London and the cities are the starting point for many people in our profession. But those might be companies without purpose.
“We are interested not just in the right culture but in good quality, challenging work and doing that exceptionally well.
“We’re interested in the environment, in doing what we can for our communities, in being part of life here in Cheltenham, in making a positive difference.”
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