All For One, One For All

The Opportunus team has been pondering the phrase ‘all for one, one for all’ after reading a blog post by one of the world’s leading creative branding agencies, a company at the forefront of our industry, considered as thought leaders and one that we have the utmost respect for. The article was written to communicate how they were changing the way they operate to establish a more collaborative model of creation and delivery. The essence was that they were making a shift away from the traditional Account Management role and were renaming this function to Program Management.

 

Their rationale…

 

“Because increasingly, our clients ask us to help them with big transformations – visionary and seismic shifts to their organisations that touch far more than just their marketing materials. And because of these types of requests, we don’t think of our work with them as ‘accounts’; instead, we build long-term creative partnerships with our clients to design programs that provide fundamental, systemic changes to all aspects of their businesses.

 

It seemed right to have a community of experts who not only build and nurture relationships but also deliver big, measurable impact to all facets of a business. It also seemed imperative to give that community a name that highlights the connected nature of what we do, the central role we play in helping our clients map out their futures while collaborating with our teams to deliver real progress right now.”

 

… made perfect sense.

 

It also got us thinking, primarily because it isn’t a particularly new idea and is in fact how we have always operated. For example, whilst my background is in Marketing and is very much focused on Strategy and delivery, in order to service our clients the most effective way and produce the best work for them, every member of the team contributes to each and every project. Over the years this has seen me wear many hats from Creative and Art Director to Project Manager and Copywriter. 

 

It simply doesn’t work for people to sit at their desks working on their ‘own project’ in ‘silos’. Inspiration and creativity comes from every walk of life and by bringing ideas together from unique perspectives. We have always found that this brings the best out of us as individuals and as a collective – ultimately achieving the best for our clients.

 

This doesn’t mean that it’s a free for all and we do what we like – each person in the team has a responsibility for a certain aspect of a project, otherwise where would the accountability lie? What we mean is that because we all come from different walks of life, like different things and have our own personalities each person has something to offer and an important perspective to consider within the creative process. When brought together these diverse perspectives add a great deal of value to what we do as a business and for our clients.

 

We have also been involved in some truly transformational projects that have resulted in an entirely new direction for businesses, not just in terms of brand strategy but also the core business strategy. This is where we stand out among many agencies in that we really get to the heart of the business and don’t just create marketing campaigns and materials, but really inform and advise on how they do business. We add a great deal of value to these businesses but it is only via partnerships with them that we are able to do so.

 

If the business was short-sighted and not interested in change or pushing the boundaries of their industry it wouldn’t work. However, in many cases they are, which is why they come to us in the first place. The partnerships we are able to forge with our clients allow us to build a better relationship with them along with a deeper understanding of their business, it’s challenges and how we can assist in transforming them.

 

Having had a chance to reflect, we realise that we really do embrace the collaborative partnership approach, both internally across our own teams but also externally by involving our clients in the process. Upon reflection of the article, it really got the team thinking that if one of the businesses we respect most within our industry is only just adopting this mindset, we are in fact innovator’s ourselves and have established an agency capable of servicing clients much better than we give ourselves credit for.

 

If you’d like to learn more about our culture and how we are set up to best service our clients, please get in touch.

 

+44 (0)1925 228000