I was just about to leave London after a busy week when I got a call from a client letting me know he had been in discussions with one of his clients who was experiencing extreme difficulties with time driven challenges on a major project and they asked if I would attend their clients site straight away - it was 10.00 on a Friday night!

Naturally , I said “yes of course”, and decided to pop in. At the time I had no understanding of who this customer was or what to expect, but they were just about to launch a European flagship store in Regent Street.

On arrival there was a sense of despair, everyone at that point in time looked tired and beaten so I asked why they were so exhausted, it was because they had their official press launch scheduled for 3 days time and the store was still looking like a building site.

I was to later find out 3 other cleaning companies had already attended without success as they couldn't understand the vision as to what the Americans wanted to present to the European market.

I have to confess, I didn’t really get their product. To me I thought it was some kind of talking cigarette lighter, but that didn’t really matter, I didn’t need to focus on their product offering, I needed to focus on what we excel at.

Within minutes it had become clear to me that actions needed to be taken, and right away, if this job was going to stand any chance of getting done.

I saw the vast amount of work ahead, the sheer amount of glass and stainless steel that required specialised cleaning techniques.

The staircase on its own cost in excess of £1 million. They also had built an amazing stone floor that had come direct from Apple’s very own quarry based in Italy.

This was one big challenge that would take a lot of people a lot of hard work, besides the eye for detail and the specialist knowledge it would take a massive work ethic and a can do attitude of epic proportions.

Within minutes they gave us the go ahead and we took control of the situation. I proceeded to kick their whole exhausted team back to their hotels whilst I got to work.

Within 3 hours I had brought our whole team up from Hampshire to join me, little did they know they wouldn’t be leaving until they had put in 3 solid days and nights of hard work.

The following day, on return of their management team, they couldn’t believe their eyes, we almost had to pick them up off the floor, they couldn’t believe the transformation.

The power of this was immense, it gave the whole project a lift, everybody could see clearly again, and with everyone re-energised we transformed and developed new ways of working, even pioneering a unique method of cleaning stainless steel.

Needless to say, Apple met their deadlines, their official press launch of their European Flagship store went to plan and is well documented, it was Apple’s first store in the UK and Europe, and it was stunning.

The next phase was the public launch, the preparations for this were amazing (and exhaustive) for myself and my staff.

We were given an extra unique pressure that helped provide momentum throughout, there were members of the public queuing for the event outside, camping out in tents in anticipation of the main event, while inside the store all kinds of practice and dance where being carried out by the new Apple store team while we were steadily working away in the background ensuring everything was right for the main event.

The grand opening was amazing, 15,000 people had queued all the way around Hanover Square, the buzz was electrifying and we had ourselves one very satisfied new client.

Once the dust had literally settled we were then tasked with one more cleaning operation, the aftermath of cleaning up the streets of boxes etc where everyone had been camped out

This was the very beginning of a very special relationship with Apple and a great experience for both the team and myself.

It has resulted in many other grand openings throughout the UK, Europe and even extended to America, culminating in a personal privilege to bump into Steve Jobs in one of my visits to Cupertino.

If you look in the top image and are wondering what the poster behind me says, it's a famous quote attributed to Steve Jobs which has always influenced me and is particularly relevant to our first opportunity with Apple - especially "the ones who see things differently"