AKQA founder, Ajaz Ahmed: I have a duty now to WPP and Sir Martin Since then, the agency has consistently generated double-digit growth - revenue now stands at $230m (£147m) - won more awards than any of its digital competitors and attracted clients such as Nike, Heineken and Microsoft. The deal - in which WPP will scoop up the 80pc stake previously held by private equity firm General Atlantic as well as some of the management's share of the remaining 20pc - values the company at $540m. The business has been able to thrive, Ahmed says, because of its adherence to some simple, enduring principles: that doing good work will lead to further opportunities and that the production and proliferation of advertising that fails to make a worthwhile contribution to people's lives is tantamount to pollution.But, he adds, AKQA is also in tune with the requirements of a new era. "Clients want more digital focus than ever before," he says. Agencies that have a traditional heritage aren't able to deliver that because their DNA was built in the past, in the time of old media. Our clients are looking for a new generation that understands how their audience is connected. The audience has migrated to digital, and so now the interface is the brand. That's where the journey starts. Ahmed talks about the fruits of AKQA's labours as "franchises, not campaigns," and says that the firm's focus is on "business transformation" and "billion-dollar ideas" rather than simply creating adverts. In a world where people can tune out from more traditional forms of marketing at will, the real return on investment comes from projects that prompt "engagement." He points to a recent piece of work that AKQA has produced for one of its major clients - the Nike Training Club app. "It has democratised the idea of personal training," he says. And, since its launch, it has logged 95m minutes of training for less than the cost of an average 30-second TV ad. As well as apps, AKQA's work spans the social web, gaming and e-commerce. "The glue that binds it all together is software," says Ahmed. He's also keen to stress that creativity and professionalism are crucial ingredients, too. The market always rewards the most innovative company in the sector as long as it has operational excellence. And the two things are not mutually exclusive. Look at Apple - it's the most valuable company in the world. Although AKQA has 1,160 employees spread across eight offices around the world (London, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Shanghai and three in the US), the next step, and the main incentive for the deal with WPP, is expansion into more international markets. It's about being in the geographies that our clients want us to be in - Brazil, Japan, they want us to have more resources in China and to have a base in India. No one is more sophisticated with emerging economies and the 'Next 11" [that group of countries just below the BRICS] than WPP." Ahmed admits that AKQA, which derives its name from his initials, courted many potential suitors. But in the end, he says, WPP was the clear choice. When we're talking with Martin and his team, we're talking entrepreneur to entrepreneur. Because of that, we see eye to eye. In other holding companies, they're very much managers. Some of the CEOs are ready to check out, whereas Martin's more driven than he's ever been. We find that motivating. There have been some murmurs from within the industry that Sir Martin's demands for growth - he has said that AKQA might increase its $230m revenue as much as fivefold - could rob the company of the very independence that has defined its approach so far. As you might expect, Ahmed disagrees. "If we don't make this work, we've only got ourselves to blame," he says. It really is as simple as that. When the top level of management moves around - that's what makes [a business's] culture unsettled, because the values that were permeating the organisation suddenly change. Because we're committed, the culture is only going to be enhanced. Although he ducks the question when asked whether he is obliged to stay on under the terms of the deal, Ahmed says that he has no plans to go anywhere. But what about having a boss for the first time in his adult professional life, won't that be a change of pace? People think that, but since I was 21, I have had a boss. In fact, multiple bosses. I have a duty of care to the work, the clients, the employees; all those stakeholders. I have a duty now to WPP and to Martin. I've got an additional stakeholder. "Ajaz is highly creative, highly entrepreneurial," says Sir Martin, when I speak to him over the phone. He built the business from scratch - as we have [with WPP] - and he's very passionate about AKQA as a brand. Perhaps the 39-year-old Ahmed reminds him of a younger version of himself? "That's for others to assess," he says. But that's part of the chemistry. We've got there in different ways. Ahmed traces the genesis of his career back to his childhood in Maidenhead, Berkshire, where his parents, who were both born in the Punjab region of India, worked locally - his father at a Beechams factory and his mother at a hospital launderette. His paper round - which his father roped him into when Ahmed was 12 - saw him make deliveries to the UK headquarters of Ashton-Tate, then the third-largest software company in the world. Inspired by the building, which he still describes as "an architectural gem," Ahmed wrote a total of 11 letters to the company. When he was 15 he received a reply from Ashton-Tate's UK managing director offering the chance to do work experience during his school holidays. He returned regularly throughout his teens and eventually used the company's software to write a financial system to improve the way it dealt with purchase orders. Ocean Software, a UK computer games specialist, and Apple also had offices in the Thames Valley, and Ahmed worked for them, too. He credits the two Silicon Valley companies and their British counterpart with shaping his optimistic attitude towards business. But when Ashton-Tate went to the wall following the launch of its bug-riddled dBASE IV product in 1988, he took on board some more sobering lessons as well. I learnt so much from this company and saw its extraordinary decline, even though its destiny had been in its own hands. Seeing what happened to a company that I genuinely loved - it makes you a bit paranoid. "And don't forget," he adds, "AKQA has been through the dotcom crash and two recessions." He has been convinced, he says, that continual reinvention is needed to keep the company relevant, and the move to join forces with WPP is the third major shake-up, or "power-up," in the company's history. Today Ahmed lives in Notting Hill, although "I always just say 'west London,"" he says... Notting Hill sounds a bit pretentious, but it wasn't like that when I moved here 10 years ago. He had just returned from Nike's headquarters in Portland, Oregon, the day before our interview and would fly out to Amsterdam the following morning. His schedule is "very busy," he says, but it does help that he's usually able to rise with the lark. My eyes open at five o'clock and you feel like you have to get up and get started because you can't be on the back foot. The days you regret are the ones when you don't see the sun rise. He uses his rare downtime to relax by swimming or watching films, and mentions that he can't wait to see the third instalment of Christopher Nolan's hugely successful Batman franchise, The Dark Knight Rises. Pointing out that the director uses a number of the same actors in his other films, Ahmed can't resist drawing a comparison to his own business philosophy. We talk about enduring for decades with the same culture and values, and that sense of team collaboration, and you can actually look to Hollywood for inspiration. Although you've got to reinvent to remain relevant, and although you have to inject a sense of relentless modernity into everything you do, you need to have a sense of stability as well - I think Chris Nolan does that. I'm such a massive fan of his. Happy to chat about non-business matters, Ahmed describes his marital status (with tongue firmly in cheek) as "single... and ready to mingle." He goes on to report that not so long ago he had been under the misapprehension that Elle Macpherson might have been in line to one day become his wife. "Unfortunately," he says, laughing, "she just saw me as the IT help desk." Despite this minor personal setback, Ahmed remains characteristically positive about the future. His predictions for the industry? Advancements that will allow technology and biology to converge more intelligently and, of course, continued growth for AKQA. "The canvas is ours to paint, to create the organisation that we want to create," he says. I'm not even 40, and by then a lot of people haven't even set up their own business. I feel like I'm just getting started. Ajaz Ahmed CV Education Read business studies at University of Bath, dropped out in 1994 Career Worked at Ashton-Tate, Ocean Software and Apple from 15, was offered a job by Apple at 19. Set up AKQA with creative director James Hilton in 1994 Not a lot of people know that... he once thought Elle Macpherson might be his future wife, but "she just thought of me as the IT help desk."