by Dorit Erzmoneit | Mai 28, 2021
Our near-shoring experience has taught us to be more deliberate and collaborate with efficiency
A recent study by econsultancy outlined that many marketers believe collaboration will suffer most in a distributed work environment.
Working from home can throw up challenges but transforming the work environment offers also opportunities to strengthen collaboration and structure and to bounce new thinking around.
Remote Working to foster better quality ideas?
In order to create new thinking, competing views have to be celebrated and debated. Remote working offers just the right environment for this.
Often brainstorming sessions only collect a fraction of the ideas people want to share. Usually two people do more than 50% of the talking. People want to be polite and not talk over each other, thus some good and original ideas will never be heard, and the group will most likely be influenced by an idea presented early on and the discussion will follow a certain course.
Mix it up!
To avoid that only a few ideas are looked at, it helps to explore ideas in several smaller groups rather than one big group. The reason being, if a collective identity emerges and the group moves towards the median (something to be avoided), it is easier to mix groups up again.
When collaborating remotely, team members have to be more intentional while sharing information. Also, every group member is made more easily accountable as everybody has to participate.
Another advantage is the time you have to think on your own between group sessions. Pondering a challenge needs breathing space. If a group gets stuck, it is easier for people to reflect on their own, so that the creative juices can work in the background and people can reflect subconsciously about the problem.
Getting back together as a group after a 1-2-day break will reduce the barriers to discussions that were previously stuck. It will also be much easier to restate an issue, or to break it down into more manageable parts and move forward with fresh minds and thinking.
Online dating the team
A collection of very varied ideas is much easier to structure when everybody has to participate in generating ideas.
The so called “nominal group technique” is said to outperform interactive groups in brainstorming and this lends itself to perfectly remote working groups.
In its simplest form, everyone’s opinion is taken into account as opposed to traditional voting, where only the largest group is considered. Each idea is collected along with a short explanation. Duplicates are then eliminated from the list and the ranking of the suggestions can begin.
Each group member must give their reasoning for the ranking which, in turn facilitates discussion and helps to identify areas of common ground as well as the exploration of various ideas that might be combined.
Idea collection without video conferences or calls?
Remote group work in short intense bursts is ideal. Working (and thinking) individually and then coming together as a group will get rid of a lot of useless chatter and distraction.
Methods to collect and evolve ideas:
- “Cyber-storming”*:
You share a database. Each team member can write their ideas without judgement and keep focus without being sidetracked or interrupted by side discussions.
- “Idea-voting”:
If you used “cyber-storming” to create a list of ideas, then you can move on to the nominal group technique process. Depending on the outcome, selected ideas can be split among group members to be further evolved. Each advanced idea can then be explained to the rest of the group. You can vote again to narrow down which path to take and to work on further.
- “Online dates”:
Like a date, you split the group into pairs and give them allotted time to discuss the issue at hand via a private chat (e.g. Skype). The pairs switch and “date” another member of the group. This is an interesting way to expand on ideas and to collect often unexpected outcomes.
Conclusion
Our brain works best when we are curious and not afraid of silly ideas. If we overcome the notion that we have to sit opposite each other to collaborate, we have the chance, geographically and departmentally to access more knowledge, e.g. brains from colleagues we normally do not tap into. Seemingly unrelated elements can be connected, and the outcome might surprise positively.
Key to success while collaborating online is discipline and the appetite to experiment. Discipline might sound counter intuitive when thinking of generating ideas, but a lot of face to face brainstorming sessions are not efficient because of the lack of structure and time to think individually. All these obstacles are instantly removed through remote working.
The source of great ideas is difficult to forecast and testing what works best is part of learning. Keeping an open mind and accepting the crazy ideas will bring opportunities to take steps to innovate.
*(coined by Leigh Thompson, Kellogg University)
by Dorit Erzmoneit | Mai 28, 2021
No matter if a company is growing, or cutting cost, there is nothing more important than providing quality and consistent output to customers. To guarantee the best of service and streamline operations the discussion of insourcing versus outsourcing is a valid one and many factors have to be taken into consideration.
There are however a few, general aspects which can be used as a rule of thumb:
What should stay inhouse?
Consider your technology standards. Up-to-date technology is critical. Projects can be outdated very quickly if you don’t know what current technology to use. Especially in this field, rapid changes disrupt industries.
If you have a task at hand that is hard or costly to outsource and requires extra management resources think twice. You do not want to undermanage such projects.
Furthermore, all functions, tasks, or operations that provide fundamental competitive advantage need to stay inhouse as well as employee development. The future of your company are your people therefore the development lies with you.
All supporting services, directly relating to your core or supporting certain capabilities can and should be outsourced.
Time spent on non-essentials means giving up growth
Many times, tasks are put off since they consume a lot of time and teams would rather focus on the growth of the business. Every minute a business spends on something that it could outsource it is losing time and capacity on the core business goals employees should focus on.
Expertise, Flexibility and Cost = Competitive Advantage
From marketing teams this means that many jobs can be outsourced to help empower these teams with the ability to redirect scarce resources from business-as-usual activities towards higher value-added, strategic initiatives and long-term business development that drive enablement. The key 3 reason are:
- Expertise – A remote talent pool with diverse skill sets, breadth of experience up-to-date know-how which can work on tasks with focus, efficiency, and speed.
- Flexibility – Quick access to resources and a wide range of services. Flexibility to up- or down scale. It also guarantees continuity, since outsource partners make sure that the work will get done regardless of vacation time or nonattendance.
- Cost – A skilled workforce in other nearshore locations can operate more cost efficient as labor and rental cost might be lower. You can use the scale and know-how of a larger organization.
Outsourcing is a Strategy
No matter if your team grows or you are under pressure to cut cost, it is worth to integrate outsourcing into your strategy to continuously improve results for your customers. There are many different ways how you can set-up workflows and teams.
Focus on what makes you better than the competition and on your people. Outsourcing your supporting work can give you the opportunity to innovate, grow and strengthen your competitive advantage.
by Patrick Ide | Mai 28, 2021
Pressure on pricing, the rising cost of regulatory developments and the need to continually invest in technology challenge business leaders to find new ways to drive efficiencies and cut excess cost. As Head of Marketing, near-sourcing offers strong opportunity to proactively respond to these demands.
Marketing has always been under budget pressure. Whenever the bottom line slumps, the marketing budget is one of the first to be scrutinized under the microscope. Activities that have been painstakingly developed and aligned with stakeholders find themselves put on the shelf from one day to the next, teams are forced to re-focus and managers challenged to motivate their troops. Not a piece of cake!
Ever-present cost pressure
Cost pressure is becoming ever-present, driven by digital marketing methodologies that offer performance transparency and with it, cost efficiency. In mature industries, the notion of right-sizing the plan, budget and team is an ongoing exercise with cost optimization and the search for efficiency being a constant goal. This is all good as long as expectations amongst key stakeholders are in balance with the pressure to manage costs. Too often, we see teams that are struggling under the competing demands of heightened expectations on both sides of the equation!
From experience, we have found that the best way to manage this is to be proactive. After all, as a CMO, it is surely better to decide how you want to adjust your plans rather than having this dictated to you by someone else who cares only for the end number. And the best way to do this is to begin adjusting your cost base before you are asked to and to actively promote this cost consciousness loud and clear to all your key stakeholders. By doing this you construct an effective argument in protection of your highly efficient operation.
Leveraging the benefits of near-sourcing
One strategy that you can turn to is near-sourcing: Out-sourcing tasks to a managed service provider situated in a near-shore location. This is not new, it is heavily used across many business functions including IT, HR and finance to name but a few. In marketing however, it is not so widespread, and the barriers to implementation are less and less relevant or even defendable.
Below are a few examples of how CMOs can exploit near-sourcing:
- Shift already outsourced work from local suppliers or agencies to a near-source managed service provider to trim excess costs.
- Use open positions to reallocate tasks and transfer work to near-shore managed services to build organisational flexibility and focus headcount on core tasks.
- Assess the type of work (e.g. layouting, web publishing, desk research, social media admin and monitoring) that can be undertaken by a managed service partner and set up a step-by-step deployment.
Taking control of the discussion
By examining the opportunities of near-sourcing, and implementing the best fit solutions, you are in control of the shape of your marketing operations. Also, by proactively showing that you are conscious and taking deliberate steps to address the cost side of your activity, you build a strong argument against internal cost hawks. You take control of the discussion about the future shape and setup of your team and its operations.
by Patrick Ide | Mai 28, 2021
The workload of asset management marketing teams has never been higher and yet resources and budgets are at best stagnating as cost-income ratios tighten: Increased regulatory requirements, demands from sales teams across multiple locations in different languages, maintenance of sales materials and presentations, publishing newsletters, maintaining web pages… Use near-sourcing to help manage the execution of ‘business as usual’ activities and balance the workload of your teams.
Marketing teams across asset management, including the big ones, are caught in a double trap between resource tightening and the rapid expansion of digital tools. On top of that, marketing assets are requiring higher levels of aftercare and constant renewal to remain relevant.
Catering to international demands with less resources
Add to this the daily business of newsletter production, updating your shelf of standardised sales presentations, beautifying presentations, laying out invitations and emails, strategy updates, producing infographics, updating web pages… the list of work never gets shorter while team resources are often struggling to expand at the same pace or may even be reduced. Combine that with the extra dimension of catering to the fragmented demands of international sales teams in a variety of locations and the pressures become all but manageable.
In simple terms, the right solution is to establish a service centre in a low-cost location. Having built such a centre of excellence in Poland, I can vouch for the benefits and efficiencies that this can bring. In real terms however, except for large organizations that already have an offshoring strategy, such projects are time draining, complex and lack critical mass in order to be a realistic solution for most marketing teams.
Tap into a near-sourcing talent pool!
Marketing near-sourcing, however, is a more viable option for many marketing teams and provides a means to tap into a talent pool that, until now, has been difficult for marketing leaders to access. Near-sourcing is a new form of marketing services that combines traditional services such as desk-top publishing, layouting, design, presentation services, web publishing and design, social media management and so on, all provided from a low-cost location that offer the skills, professionalism and quality equal to those available on the ‘home’ market at considerable cost savings. After-all, why pay €65-85 an hour or more for a freelancer or internal staff member to do desk top publishing when you can get the same service for €45?
Balancing act: skills versus task complexity
Near-shoring helps to balance the equation between skills and complexity of task and the cost of labour: focus high cost and high skilled team members on high value-added tasks, while lower skilled tasks can be managed by adequately skilled team members in a low-cost location. Or, transfer work from external service providers based in high-cost locations to a near-shore provider with the same skills but significantly lower costs.
Put simply, it’s all about allocating the right work to the right skills-set in the right location at the right price, all while increasing the motivation of your team by focusing them on work that really has a high value impact on the business.
by Patrick Ide | Mai 28, 2021
One of the key preoccupations of any CMO or Head of Marketing is ‘have I got the right people focused on the right things, am I really using my people to best effect?’. Marketing near-sourcing can help to answer this question by providing a means to tap into a talent pool that, until now, has been difficult for marketing leaders to access.
The workload imposed on marketing teams across the asset management industry has never been higher and this, at a time when resource levels are stagnating or declining. In all but the best resourced teams, we see employees stretched thinly, trying to fulfil both the execution and maintenance of existing marketing collaterals and the development of strategic initiatives that will help ensure the profitable growth of the business. Now more than ever, it is critical to be sure that your resources are focused on the right work and are doing it the right way.
From personal experience, we know that it is quite easy to skim over this simple question, as a negative response is often to open a can of worms. However,we would argue that it is likely to be critical to the future success of your team, and to really come to a balanced point of view, you need to reflect objectively on the following 5 questions:
- What are the right skills and experience needed to undertake a specific task?
- Do I have enough of that skill and experience to meet the demands of the business?
- If not, am I allocating over- or under-skilled team members to cover the need?
- If they didn’t have to do that work, would I prefer them to work on other tasks?
- If they did, would this add greater value to the firm?
Marketing near-sourcing is a viable solution for many marketing teams facing these issues and provides a means to tap into a talent pool that, until now, has been difficult for marketing leaders to access. The comparatively low cost of these services opens the opportunity to exploit near-sourcing as a strategic option allowing managers to consider outsourcing often-repetitive, executional work that until now, has been executed inhouse or with relatively high-cost outsource partners in the home-market. Tasks such as desk-top publishing, layouting, design, presentation beautification, updating web pages, social media execution and monitoring and so on, can be deployed to a near-source partner in a low-cost location that offers the skills, professionalism and quality equal to those available on the ‘home’ market and at a highly economic cost.
In here’s the crux: deploying executional tasks to be managed by right-skilled team members in a low-cost location allows you to free up the time of home based, highly skilled and experienced resources, to focus more time and effort on strategic initiatives and activities that will help drive the growth and prosperity of your firm.
Put simply, it’s about allocating the right work to the right skills-set in the right location at the right price, while increasing the motivation of your team by focusing them on work that really has a high value impact on the business.
by Patrick Ide | Mai 28, 2021
The workload of asset and wealth management marketing teams has never been higher and yet resources and budgets are often stagnating as cost-income ratios tighten: Increased regulatory requirements, demands from sales teams across multiple locations in different languages, maintenance of sales materials and presentations, publishing newsletters, maintaining web pages… Near-sourcing can be used as a strategy to help manage the execution of ‘business as usual’ activities and balance the workload of your teams.
Marketing teams across the asset and wealth management industries, including the big ones, are caught in a double trap between resource tightening and the rapid expansion of digital tools. On top of that, marketing assets are requiring higher levels of aftercare and constant renewal to remain relevant.
Catering to international demands with less resources
Add to this the daily business of newsletter production, updating your shelf of standardised sales presentations, beautifying presentations, laying out invitations and emails, strategy updates, producing infographics, updating web pages… the list of work never gets shorter while team resources are often struggling to expand at the same pace or may even be reduced. Combine that with the extra dimension of catering to the fragmented demands of international sales teams in a variety of locations and the pressures become all but un-manageable.
In simple terms, the right solution is to establish a service centre in a low-cost location. Having built such a centre of excellence in Poland, we can vouch for the benefits and efficiencies that this can bring. In real terms however, except for large organizations that already have an offshoring strategy, such projects can be time consuming, complex and lack critical mass in order to be a realistic solution for most small- to mid-sized marketing teams.
Tap into a near-shore talent pool
Marketing near-shoring with a specialized partner, however, is a more viable option for many marketing teams and provides a means to tap into a talent pool that, until now, has been difficult for marketing leaders to access. Near-shoring is a new form of marketing services that combines traditional services such as desk-top publishing, layouting, design, presentation services, web publishing and design, social media management and so on, all provided from a low-cost location that offer the skills, professionalism and quality equal to those available on the ‘home’ market at considerable cost savings. After-all, why pay €65-€85 an hour or more for a freelancer or internal staff member to do desk top publishing when you can get the same service for €45?
Balancing act: skills versus task complexity
Near-shoring helps to balance the equation between skills and complexity of task and the cost of labour: focus high cost and high skilled team members on high value-added tasks, while lower skilled tasks can be managed by adequately skilled team members in a low-cost location. Or, transfer work from external service providers based in high-cost locations to a near-shore provider with the same skills but significantly lower costs.
Put simply, it’s all about allocating the right work to the right skills-set in the right location at the right price, all while increasing the motivation of your team by focusing them on work that really has a high value impact on the business.
