With the speed of change across the creative industries moving at a faster pace than ever before, the need for companies to stay ahead of the curve is vital.
In reality, it’s a double-edged sword situation. We are by no means in a short supply of talent, with more graduates, school leavers and professionals from all walks of business moving towards a career in the industry – accounting for more than 1.7 million jobs in the UK today.
Though with this growth in mind, it raises the question of how businesses are nurturing their teams. To ensure growth, it’s essential that they establish internal systems and processes which enable the development and nurturing of existing and future talent beyond their job specification.
We’ve seen this as part of business strategies for some time, especially for a large number of big organisations. For instance, it’s been commonplace predominantly across the pond, as we’ve seen ‘behind-the-scenes’ at global giants such as Google, Facebook and Microsoft.
In his attempt to nurture talent, Steve Jobs famously completely overhauled the Pixar offices to improve collaboration – bringing together designers and computer technicians – that were once separated by different buildings. This developed into a much wider strategy to build creativity, with the introduction of a single cavernous office to let creativity and collaboration flow.
It’s a trend that is slowly but surely migrating across the UK. Mind Candy; for example, have embraced their inner child with the design, feel and facilities on offer at its Capital-based HQ, as a means to ensure creativity is always at the forefront of its team’s working day.
Lessons and inspiration
Granted, companies like these have a little more money to play with than the majority of us. Though there’s a lesson to be learnt, and inspiration to be drawn, from their approaches to giving their talent the right environment and facilities to grow.
For us, our R&D investment – which we call Rawnet Labs – was especially designed with the team, our clients, and the future of the industry in mind. It’s where we foster innovation to build products and technologies that will help marketers, and advance the state of digital.
I’m a firm believer that that the best way to develop as a company and create fresh ways of thinking for the benefit of our clients is to isolate projects where failure is embraced until a solution is found.
It carries psychological advantages too. By creating a space which allows designers, developers, and project managers to take a step away from their desks can help them to see potential challenges and obstacles in a new light. It’s also a space that we’re able to invite our clients in to, guide them through the process and thinking of their campaigns, and let them see the ideas come to life themselves.
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