Sweet Sixteenth: A reflection on growth, independence, and what comes next
BB7 celebrates another corporate anniversary, and turning sixteen resonates with me on many levels. It symbolises a coming of age: gaining independence, and moving from adolescence to maturity. That feels particularly apt for us.
Our story began sixteen years ago with a clear purpose and an entrepreneurial spirit. Since then, our operational bandwidth has grown significantly. The depth and breadth of capability has expanded dramatically, and we’ve strengthened our financial independence. Having been backed by BGF (Growth funding for ambitious businesses) in 2019, successfully delivered on our investment agreement and now graduated to a new level of investment with a new European partner with global reach.
We’re debt free, secure, and well-positioned for the future and now backed by the very entrepreneurial CERTANIA. Over the last 5 years we have received lots of input from our partners, and a community of globally recognised advisory firms which has helped us enormously. We remain a practice based business, not a business based practice, but I make no apology for our commerciality. Its important for a business to be commercially aware because understanding market trends, client needs, and the broader economic environment enables better decisions that drive profitability, sustainability, and competitive advantage. This entrepreneurial mindset can create opportunity and serve our clients better and our people.
Independence isn’t about standing alone. It’s about having the freedom to make the right decisions. True independence is being able to act decisively, guided by professional ethics, long-term purpose and CERTANIA enables exactly that. More importantly, we’ve done this together through the commitment, creativity and care of our people. Sixteen years on, as we commence our 16th anniversary year, it feels pretty sweet.
Founded on Seven Principles
When I started BB7, I wanted to build a world-class consulting team grounded in seven uncompromising principles:
- To put people first
- To serve our clients well
- To challenge accepted wisdom
- To push boundaries without compromising safety
- To always be a challenger firm
- To get big, but stay beautiful
- To be an outstanding employer
Our values have evolved (now four instead of seven), but the core remains the same. With our B Corp certification and Outstanding Best Companies rating, we’ve earned strong external validation that we’re delivering on those principles, and we intend to keep doing so. At sixteen, we have the opportunity to amplify this culture further. We’ve gained strategic independence through strength and there’s still so much more to do.
Moving Fire Forward
From the beginning, I wanted BB7 to be a challenger firm, a practice-based business, not a business-based practice. That’s why we’ve invested heavily in our Professional Advisory Board, Technical Networks, Learning Lounge, and Research, Development & Innovation Group, all aligned to our digital roadmap. I’m especially proud of our latest initiative an industry leading Legal, Risk & Insurance team of legal executives and underwriters, a unique capability and set of services that will continue to evolve and embrace technology in the years ahead.
But we’re not here just to practice; that’s not enough. We must contribute to the betterment of the profession itself. Advancing fire engineering (or any discipline) depends on a symbiotic relationship between professional bodies, individual professionals, and organisations like ours with a leadership responsibility. A moral obligation to contribute something back.
When that relationship thrives, it creates a virtuous cycle:
- The professional body inspires excellence.
- The individual professional upholds it.
- The professional service firm, amplifies it!
Together, we advance not just the profession, but the built environment and society itself.
At every new BB7 hire’s “CEO Welcome” session, I remind them that our first duty as professionals is to the public good. In the coming years, our profession must now shape a future where fire engineering is proactive, principled, and valued by society. We are custodians of safety, stewards of resilience, and enablers of sustainable design, and here BB7 we are determined to play our part, to move fire forward and take the profession somewhere better.
Artificial Intelligence will reshape professions
As Darwin taught us, it’s not the strongest that survive, it’s those most adaptable to change. AI is reshaping the engineering profession. As firms explore how to gain efficiencies and enhance their services through AI, those with scale are investing heavily to redefine how engineering is delivered. A structural digital shift is underway, one that will transform not only how work is done, how we train the next generation, but also what it means to be an engineer.
Thirty six months ago, I didn’t know what ChatGPT was, and yet in another 36 months time it’s clear that much of the desk based work will be delivered through technology. AI should be used to augment the output of professional people not replace them. Graduate vacancies are already starting to decline in many fields and if we no longer need entry level professionals then what does that mean for a sustainable tax system? We should be thinking about labour enhancement, not labour displacement. We know when people are unemployed for a long period of time they become unemployable. So what does that mean for social cohesion?
As Darwin taught us, it’s not the strongest that survive, it’s those most adaptable to change.
There will be winners, but sadly, more losers. As we position BB7 for our 20th year, we’re determined to be among the winners: embracing AI not as a threat, not just for efficiency but as an opportunity to reimagine how we deliver insight, value, and impact for our clients and how we nurture the careers of tomorrows future engineers. Learning itself is best done slowly and young professionals will need consulting skills as well as technical skills and it takes time to develop personal and the professional range of a world class consultant.
Complex challenges don’t sit neatly within one discipline
I started my construction career as an apprentice carpenter at sixteen then became a Building Control Surveyor. Those early years first in a joiner shop, then site fixing in hindsight were such a valuable experience prior to Building Control. My undergraduate degree was in Building Surveying before becoming a Chartered Surveyor. My postgraduate degree was in Building Engineering before becoming a Chartered Engineer and gaining an MBA. An MBA is like doing 36 GSCE’s in a single year, not deep academic rigour like an MSc in Engineering but broad and incredibly valuable. I’ve sampled and skill stacked in my professional life too, largely due to interest in Building Standards, Fire Design, Engineering Assurance, Risk Management but also Business Continuity, Resilience, Security Consulting, then Facades. No professional can be omnicompetent, but unwavering specialisation can be limiting. The breadth of these interests and fascinations has indeed been helpful. There is always a bigger picture and it helps to think strategically.
The drive to specialise can limit innovation, systems and professions. If all you have is a hammer, then all you see is nails. If fire only talks to fire it becomes an echo chamber. One cannot be competent in every discipline, but one must acknowledge that if each specialism remains a system of parallels trenches, digging for the solution to a clients problem in their trench alone without ever looking up and over the top at another trench where the solution may be.
It takes time to develop personal and professional range, and now, more than three decades on, my gaze is still looking over the trench, toward the horizon, thinking about what comes next, how we can progress, innovate, and advance toward 2050 and all that we must achieve.
Interdisciplinary Consulting: A New Model
With CERTANIA’s incredible backing, we’re entering a new chapter one that’s more client-focused and impact-driven than ever. We’ve started building capability across the entire building and infrastructure lifecycle from concept and design through construction, operation, adaptation, and reuse. Testing, Inspection, Certification & Compliance (TICC) firms are already overlapping with Architectural, Engineering & Consulting (AEC) practices. Perhaps a new acronym is emerging: DE-TICC Design and Engineering joining the mix. Society is demanding stronger governance and better practice. In response, we’re working toward a safer, more secure, and thriving built environment, one where every building and piece of infrastructure protects people, restores ecosystems, and endures.
This aligns perfectly with CERTANIA’s vision: “Adding certainty to life.”
The world’s most complex problems won’t be solved by one discipline alone. We need a new level of thinking, that connects diverse expertise to create insight and impact.
I’ve never wanted BB7 to be a traditional multi-disciplinary “one-stop shop.” Those often stumble because human nature drives people back to their silos. Instead, we’re building the UK’s first true interdisciplinary model, integrating knowledge and perspective to deliver outcomes that are technically robust, commercially viable, and socially responsible.
Designing with Purpose, Building with Care
In the built environment, that means blending engineering, design, safety, sustainability, and social understanding the heart of our “Designing with Purpose, Building with Care” agenda.
With our new partners, we’re bringing together experts from fire, façades, building standards, sustainability, clerk of works, and insurance to create safer, more sustainable, and more resilient solutions as one integrated team. True independence isn’t sticking to your silo; it’s the freedom to make new connections and find new solutions across disciplines.
Looking Ahead
Sixteen years in, BB7 has moved beyond the early “existence” and “survival” phases of growth. The next challenge is to scale, as part of CERTANIA’s Buildings and Infrastructure Division without losing the entrepreneurial spirit that has fuelled our success so far. With CERTANIA’s support, our shift toward interdisciplinary client service will be transformative. It’s a strategic evolution that preserves our professional integrity in a changing knowledge economy and meets the enormous challenges facing the built environment.
As we move from our “Sweet Sixteen” toward our twentieth anniversary and 2030 vision, we’re not just scaling a business; we’re shaping a movement defined by purpose, professionalism, and progress. We’ve proven what’s possible when independence meets integrity, when capability is matched by care, and when ambition serves something greater than growth alone.
The next chapter will demand creativity, and collaboration on a scale we’ve never seen before, and that’s exactly what makes it so exciting.
It’s a great time to join BB7, it’s a great time to join CERTANIA Buildings and Infrastructure Division.
Celebrating Sixteen Years since Incorporation in 2009
As we mark our sixteenth year, BB7 stands stronger, smarter, and more independent than ever. We now have the power and resources of a European group, while maintaining full operational autonomy. This ensures decision-making independence in how we serve our markets and clients with a wide array of solution-focused interdisciplinary services.
The magic of collective intelligence is the key to unlocking interdisciplinarity. To those who share our vision, values, and entrepreneurial spirit: unlock your potential, reach out, and join us.
The opportunity ahead is exceptional. We’ve achieved something incredible together, and now, we intend to build something remarkable.
Ben Bradford BSc (Hons) MSc MBA PPCABE CEng FIFireE
Proud Founder of BB7, powered by CERTANIA
Chief Executive Officer, CERTANIA – Buildings & Infrastructure Division