Driving value through partnerships in a time of COVID-19
“As in the domestic sphere, in business we have a collective synergy to solve problems in unique ways.” I watched a video recently that struck a chord.
“As in the domestic sphere, in business we have a collective synergy to solve problems in unique ways.”
I watched a video recently that struck a chord. It was a woman talking to her future self. Four months into the future she was coming back to give herself some sage advice. Without telling her the specifics (stopping the butterfly effect), she advised how best to chart the next 4 months. It was hilarious if not painful; cringing in our understanding of life pre-COVID. Oh, the memory of our innocence.
So, I wanted to look at where we would be in 4 months; from that point of re-entry – when that happens – to work and life. Yes, I know – whatever that may look like.
I believe, or at least hope, that the future is about working in strong teams; whether that team is your own or a collaboration. Rising from ‘The Lockdown’ we’ll transition from staying at home to social distancing to checking on our neighbours. We need to take the same approach in business. As in the domestic sphere, in business we have a collective synergy to solve problems in unique ways. After all we have seen this time and again over the last few months.
In rolling quickly to solutions – be it working from home, or hosting meetings on Zoom, or even understanding that the old ways are going and may be gone by the time we get back to ‘normal’.
So, Synergy. What is real synergy for us – for you? For us, it’s finding people to work with who add something valuable to what you do; something you don’t already do but see it from a different perspective. It might be in the same market or different and from that you formulate a partnership. A COVID-style working platform (i.e. a linking, joining platform) to identify the value you have and how you are stronger together on an opportunity.
“If we can take nothing else from this plague, in my humble view we need better ways of working.”
We have that with two key companies we work with. One, aptly named Aperto One. They work in media with Advertisers and Agencies to drive, among other things, better ways of working. Perfect for the frame that we find ourselves. If we can take nothing else from this plague, in my humble view we need better ways of working. (This has been personally and professionally my focus for over 15 years.) Their CEO, Scott, believes in technology and also of rapid, discovery and better ways of working. It’s a great fit!
Together we’ve been investigating moving from the outdated FTE pricing model and antiqued scoping methods to looking at deliverables based pricing (or DBS as we call it – Deliverable Based Scoping). This is about aligning the scope on things – not roles and people. The focus is on the activities or assets that media teams need or deploy. Roles and hours, especially in the current market, can’t have ROI’s but activities or assets do. This is the power. It allows you to change a plan with clarity and communicate faster – all things that in the rapidly changing environment of today is key. And even more so in the next few months when the ‘shock’ fades to become the new normal.
Everyone is now talking about the thing the team will produce – the mechanism and the value. Not how they cut the team by 80% to match the declining sales.
With Scott and his team, we have been modelling this for media. Scott has a black belt with his team at Aperto One on media and agency performance and driving better collaboration and success – for both agencies and advertisers. Back to my core point in this post. It seems like the perfect partnership for us … on many levels.
Personally, my background has been launching enterprise level tools to challenge better ways of working; to allow us to all progress to better business, better relationships and more wins. Together! We at The Virtú Group have a pedigree of doing this in creative and marketing realm but not media – Aperto One – a Ying for our unknown Yang.
“…we’ve started drilling into how using a deliverable-based model for scoping will benefit both the agency and the advertiser…”
As partners we’ve started drilling into how using a deliverable-based model for scoping will benefit the agency and the advertiser – and quite frankly the benefits are compelling. Especially as it works best when agency and advertiser work collaboratively – in partnership. The benefits we both see are:
- Control and clarity
- Full transparency and accountability
- Improved ways of working and efficiency
- Better understanding of value
- Enhanced commercial flexibility
So, I urge you in these challenging times to be bold. Grab partnerships and drive them to the industry players you respect and would like to work with. We saw the value pre-COVID but now, with the rapidly changing environment, it is more critical than ever.
For more on this, check out our Zoom webinar,“Game plan: 3 ways you can quickly transform the value your Agency delivers TODAY”, on Tuesday 9th June.
Please email us at hello@scopebetter.com if you’d love to come along.
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